"The Game Show Show" on ABC

[ironman00710]

Am surprised given how many game shows are talked about in OILF, nobody has brought this up, lol.

Just watched the first two episodes of "The Game Show Show" on Hulu the other day (started airing on ABC on 5/10/23). A 4-part television documentary about the history of iconic game shows, their hosts, the stories of how these shows came about or the people involved with the creation of them. While the episodes jump around quite a bit, they do put a focus on a few well-known shows, and includes recent interviews with all sorts of current and former gameshow hosts, models, producers, creators, etc.

The first episode focused primarily on Quiz Shows - the Twenty-One scandal in the 50's, Jeopardy, and Who Want's To Be A Millionaire? The second episode focused primarily on shows with Big Prizes and Cash - Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, Match Game, Family Feud, Let's Make a Deal, and Deal or No Deal. This is just naming a few, as a bunch of other shows from the Merv Griffin / Goodson-Todman days are also mentioned - some of which I had never even heard of till now! Learned a few new things I didn't about some of the well-known shows too.

Already looking forward to the next two episodes on the 24th and 30th of this month. Anyone else watching?

[therealcu2010]

I've been watching it, it's simply fascinating. Nice to see the genre finally get some love and attention it deserves.

Listening to Mark Goodson's comments regarding women on game shows, however, makes me lose that much more respect for him and Bob Barker both.

[SamJ93]

Listening to Mark Goodson's comments regarding women on game shows, however, makes me lose that much more respect for him and Bob Barker both.

I admittedly haven't heard said comments, but I can make an educated guess as to their nature, and I have to ask: are they really that much worse than the prevailing cultural norms of the time? I'm not saying Goodson was right to have those opinions, but it seems a bit unfair to judge a guy who was a product of the era he grew up in by the societal values of today, 30+ years after he died.

[Superballer]

And in many ways, the women of game shows have gotten a last laugh over the cultural norms of the past today, given how all of us now consider Vanna, Carol Merrill, Elaine Stewart, Summer Bartholomew, Betty White, and the others that have graced the screens--including of course the Dian-Janice-Holly triumvirate, even if it appears they all wanted to strangle each other much of the time once the cameras powered down--indispensable parts of the programs they were on, as indeed they were. 

[Flerbert419]

As far as the Price portion went, I appreciated the good coverage of the Bill Cullen days and that they touched on the Barker scandals to provide a full picture. I got a new forum signature out of an interview. I was surprised they went back to the Ted Slauson incident and that Drew added commentary on it.

There were some areas that they fell a bit short. I would have mentioned the evolution of the half hour era into the full hour with the introduction of the wheel. They might handle this in a future episode across all shows, but not mentioning the announcers through the years was a gap.

Finally, I thought they miscategorized the relationship between the show and models. They missed the early days with the "model chats" and that the viewers were able to connect strongly with them. Having Claudia Jordan speak for how things started was a mistake, it was only after the lawsuits that they were forced into silence and just there for decoration.

[NewsDirector3287]

I've been watching and enjoying the show as well.  It was good to see Bob Stewart get mentioned as Price's creator, and to see clips of him talking about it. I watched his Archive of American Television interview a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I wish they went into a bit more detail on Wheel's history, seeing as how they just skipped over the Chuck and Susan years and didn't mention or show them at all.  Wayne and Drew's explanations of their respective shows were great too, comparing them to going on a journey.  To me, outside of the first season, Wayne's LMAD has been good pretty much the whole time it's been on.

On the model issue, I wish that one of the current models like James or Rachel were interviewed to provide a contrast to what went on during Bob's last years with how it is today.  Overall, I'm enjoying it and I'm looking forward to the last two episodes.

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

about how the classic clips were sourced from YT uploads: its not the first time

that Millionaire retrospective near the time the news of the Kimmel reboot was catching on also did this (for at least the clips from the syndicated run)

[PatrickRox80]

Listening to Mark Goodson's comments regarding women on game shows, however, makes me lose that much more respect for him and Bob Barker both.

Betty White's reaction to that pretty much matched mine. It's not news in Barker's case, but to hear Goodson making those comments was really off-putting. Yes, the television audience was much different at the time, but there's no excuse for what he said.

[Game Girl]

Game show show. this is on episode 2. they did a nice price is right section here. it was a decent overview of both shows even if obviously rushed. they even bothered to cover the original version. The wheel of fortune was nice too. that was probably not the best clip of him doing his weather man job being there was little weather being discussed. I would say in discussion of pat being chosen. during lost and found i did think pat looks like a young version of Merv Griffin to the point of being slightly distracted and warranting a second watch on the DVR. A part of me wondered if it was even possibly a unconscious point in the decision making (in a I myself in him way.) but pure speculation on my point. some of the stuff was standard in the wheel of fortune one but it has a great amount of footage. I agree with NewsDirector3287 it would been cool to have more of the previous hosts.

the episode today went through weirdly enough or the game shows a lead me to the price is right. because if it was not for both deal or no deal (I even had one of the home games for that one with 'flashcard' cases.) and let's make a deal (my mom thought let's make a deal was deal or no deal when she turned it on when I was sick.) basically I probably would not have seen the price is right if not for deal or a no deal. (I honestly until Pluto's deal no deal channel confirm they were two separate shows and wondered why did the name two shows exactly the same, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.) Anyhow it was nice seeing all the scenes. The show was almost perfect episodes except the ending with Dragon's den us version. always good to hear from Adam nedeff. The woman segment is some thing I am going to avoid commenting on. i am just going to say I enjoyed Arlene Francis when they were showing her episodes on buzzer 1950s price is right, she definitely does not get the praise she deserves. (from what I can tell but maybe that is because of Betty's recent death).

I love how they also think 'the database' is a green numbered terminal background vintage computer looking things. it almost looks like the 90s Computer game price is right the early 90s game that is infamous.

about how the classic clips were sourced from YT uploads: its not the first time

that Millionaire retrospective near the time the news of the Kimmel reboot was catching on also did this (for at least the clips from the syndicated run)

biggest question of the night. why in the world did they have to use a logo thing from Game Show Network for one of the frames involving safe crackers. did they not have access to the episode from the vault because the rest of the episodes in this segment do not have TV logos (I mean these are not logos from first run broadcast or wiped episodes in this case, which I would understand the desperateness of using a logo broadcast broadcast). when I wrote this post 3 weeks ago (but got bogged down with Jeopardy masters delaying the post.) I gave benefit of the doubt on the possibility it was to show how long-lasting it was in that it had reruns in a way that will go over almost everyone's head. but this trend seems to continue in the future episode but thank goodness someone told them you are supposed to blur the logos.

[Sotc2022]

Just a bit much Barris, but a good series nevertheless