Longer running game shows which remained un-tweaked.

[Casey]

I think Face the Music qualifies based on the 2 requirements.  It ran for a year and a half and never had a theme week or any tournaments of any kind.  The game play never changed during the entire run of the series.

[trainman]

The game play never changed during the entire run of the series.

And neither were the burned-out light bulbs.

[thomas_meighan]

Front Page Challenge went pretty much unchanged, format-wise, during its 38-year run (1957-95). But they did sometimes leave their Toronto base to tape shows in other Canadian cities.

Would the original Gambit qualify as relatively unchanged from start to finish?

[Ian Wallis]

We were also thinking Tom Kennedy's Split Second.  Neither of us could recall any tournaments or special weeks there.

There was a tournament of champions in early January 1974.

[BrandonFG]

With Gambit, the only thing I can think of would be special prizes in the bonus round. The Vegas version had a singles week, but I think the CBS version qualifies.

How about Celebrity Sweepstakes?

[JasonA1]

How about Celebrity Sweepstakes?

The big change was going from written answers to spoken answers, but they also added the "exacta" bonus during the run. In one such designated question an episode, each player made a side bet on how many stars would get the correct answer. Picking the right number won you a prize package worth thousands. Not sure offhand if that was nighttime exclusive or not.

-Jason

[Jimmy Owen]

How about Celebrity Sweepstakes?

The big change was going from written answers to spoken answers, but they also added the "exacta" bonus during the run. In one such designated question an episode, each player made a side bet on how many stars would get the correct answer. Picking the right number won you a prize package worth thousands. Not sure offhand if that was nighttime exclusive or not.

-Jason

Also going from three to two contestants.

[BrandonFG]

For some reason I thought the three contestants were only in the pilot...carry on.

[jimlangefan]

We were also thinking Tom Kennedy's Split Second.  Neither of us could recall any tournaments or special weeks there.

There was a tournament of champions in early January 1974.

Yes this is true.  I was sent an autographed script of a best of game show special that Monty Hall hosted for ABC back in 1975.  I'll have to go home and look, but I believe it was called "The Greatest American Game Show" or something along those lines.  But I do remember reading from the script that Split Second had an Invitational Tournament in 1974 and Joan Diaz was the winner of that tournament and made an appearance on the special.  I believe it was the same Joan Diaz who was a big winner during the first few weeks of the 1983-1984 season of Tic Tac Dough.

[Jay Temple]

Got into a coversation with a fellow game-show fan and the question came up as to what longer running game shows (at least 1 year) whose gameplay and format remained the same thought the entire run. This is defined as shows which:

1) Did not have any special celebrity, charity and/or theme weeks.
2) Did not have any special player tournaments or second chance weeks (unless they were brought back due to an error in gameplay)

<edited> Eliminated the 3rd clause of rule changes

We were hard pressed to come up with shows which fit the requirements.   The New Treasure Hunt was one.  Let's see how you fare?

Bill Cullen's Blockbusters, which is a pity because I always thought it would be cool to see John Hatten take on the McCarthys.

[MikeK]

Got into a coversation with a fellow game-show fan and the question came up as to what longer running game shows (at least 1 year) whose gameplay and format remained the same thought the entire run. This is defined as shows which:

1) Did not have any special celebrity, charity and/or theme weeks.
2) Did not have any special player tournaments or second chance weeks (unless they were brought back due to an error in gameplay)

<edited> Eliminated the 3rd clause of rule changes

We were hard pressed to come up with shows which fit the requirements.   The New Treasure Hunt was one.  Let's see how you fare?

Bill Cullen's Blockbusters, which is a pity because I always thought it would be cool to see John Hatten take on the McCarthys.

Wouldn't Blockbusters not fit because of players who won 10 games were later brought back when the cap was raised to 20 games, a second chance of sorts?

[Dbacksfan12]

Got into a coversation with a fellow game-show fan and the question came up as to what longer running game shows (at least 1 year) whose gameplay and format remained the same thought the entire run. This is defined as shows which:

1) Did not have any special celebrity, charity and/or theme weeks.
2) Did not have any special player tournaments or second chance weeks (unless they were brought back due to an error in gameplay)

<edited> Eliminated the 3rd clause of rule changes

We were hard pressed to come up with shows which fit the requirements.   The New Treasure Hunt was one.  Let's see how you fare?

Bill Cullen's Blockbusters, which is a pity because I always thought it would be cool to see John Hatten take on the McCarthys.

Wouldn't Blockbusters not fit because of players who won 10 games were later brought back when the cap was raised to 20 games, a second chance of sorts?

Blockbusters also had the double bonus round format in the beginning that was eliminated shortly thereafter.

[Jimmy Owen]

Why was Gold Rush changed to Gold Run, I wonder.

[aaron sica]

Why was Gold Rush changed to Gold Run, I wonder.

According to "Quizmaster: The Life and Times of Bill Cullen" (written by our own Adam Nedeff), the name was changed because Goodson-Todman learned that the term "Gold Rush" was copyrighted.

[TLEberle]

Blockbusters also had the double bonus round format in the beginning that was eliminated shortly thereafter.

I wonder if the contestants liked that more or less than what they changed it to, because I thought it was OK to allow more people to win some money, but I also get that you don't want to rock the boat and deviate from best-of-three that people understand.