ABC axes Match Game, Card Sharks, Dating Game

[Ccook]

Details here. Celebrity Family Feud, Press Your Luck and The $100,000 Pyramid are expected to return.

[JayC]

The Hustler is also gone.

[PatrickRox80]

I kind of expected ABC to bury Match Game, what with Alec being damaged goods by this point. Also not surprised with Celebrity Dating Game; some formats just don't work when the main focus is celebrities.

Too bad about Card Sharks; they had something going with that one. At least the perennials are coming back.

[vnisanian2001]

Don't even think replacing Baldwin with someone else would have been an option. It probably would only remind people of the tragedy.

[SeaBreeze341]

I think Match Game was on the chopping block even before the Baldwin saga

[Reloaden]

Not surprised honestly.

CardSharks dragged and Joel Mchale looked like he didn't want to be there. They took the fun and excitement from the Perry/Eubanks version and came up with this bore.

Match Game haven't produced any new shows since 2019. They had good celebrities but Alec wasn't the right choice for host.

The Hustler was a pretty good show. Craig was amazing on this show.

I am guessing Millionaire is done also.

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

Unfortunate for Card Sharks to go...I had just filled out an application for that recently.
 

[RJSchex]

At least one of the Card Sharks dealers found a new job...here on TPIR.

[Briguy]

Personally, I’m not so sad to see at least “Card Sharks” go. The few shows I did see simply dragged, as if some misguided attempt to “build suspense.”

To me, the show worked best as a fast-paced game. A full 2-of-3 game — questions and such — could be done in 10-15 minutes, and in less than 90 seconds in the Money Cards you might have thousands of dollars won. And then it started all over again.

Here, it seemed MC took 20 minutes to play, a lot of gab and “suspense” building, both totally unneeded.

Build suspense? Watch Jim Perry’s other show, “Sale Of the Century,” wherein if a champion was at a point where (s)he could play for the cash jackpot, they’d have the commercial break to consider the option to leave with their Winner’s Board prizes or risk it on the try at $50,000 (or before that, take the prize package or stay for the final game to add the cash jackpot). That was suspense well-executed.

I’d rather see late 1970s/1980s Card Sharks, if you ask me.

Brian

[EaglesWings4500]

Briguy


I agree with you 100 %.   Like the old saying goes "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I guess we will never see Card Sharks again.

I just hope when they bring back Tic Tac Dough and Pass Word they stick with  Wink's TTD and Burt's Password.

[imhomerjay]

Whether or not a revival is executed well on its own merits, by nature, things that have been canceled previously were broken. They wore out their welcome. Sometimes you can just about duplicate that with some minor tweaks, like Pyramid. It’s not always so neatly categorized.

If TTD does come back, why not go all the way back? Why just the Martindale version? They tweaked the original.

Then there’s the namesake show of this forum….

[gamesurf]

Tic Tac Dough is one of those shows that’s fun in reruns when you’re specifically looking for 30 minutes of a kitschy 80’s game show to play along with, but I can’t see it translating well to primetime at all without some big changes.

It’s trivia and Tic Tac Toe. What’s the hook? Why is that worth my time? What can I see that I haven’t seen a million times before?

Hollywood Squares has the jokes and the celebrities and the novelty of seeing nine people in a giant board. What can Tic Tac Dough do to make up for not having that? Bring back the “champ’s money at risk” rule from the 50’s?

[blozier2006]

It’s trivia and Tic Tac Toe. What’s the hook? Why is that worth my time? What can I see that I haven’t seen a million times before?

The big hook (for the 1978-1986 era), an era where Jeopardy! either wasn't on the air, or else limited its champions to a maximum of five wins, was that Tic Tac Dough had a "sky's the limit" rule, when pretty much no other show (save its sister show, The Joker's Wild) did.

[Reloaden]

Personally, I’m not so sad to see at least “Card Sharks” go. The few shows I did see simply dragged, as if some misguided attempt to “build suspense.”

To me, the show worked best as a fast-paced game. A full 2-of-3 game — questions and such — could be done in 10-15 minutes, and in less than 90 seconds in the Money Cards you might have thousands of dollars won. And then it started all over again.

Here, it seemed MC took 20 minutes to play, a lot of gab and “suspense” building, both totally unneeded.

Build suspense? Watch Jim Perry’s other show, “Sale Of the Century,” wherein if a champion was at a point where (s)he could play for the cash jackpot, they’d have the commercial break to consider the option to leave with their Winner’s Board prizes or risk it on the try at $50,000 (or before that, take the prize package or stay for the final game to add the cash jackpot). That was suspense well-executed.

I’d rather see late 1970s/1980s Card Sharks, if you ask me.

Brian

Some shows don't work as a hour long show, I do agree Card Sharks is a fast pace show. Between Card Sharks dragging and Joel Mchale looking like he rather be else where. I remember watching and was bored with the show. In a perfect world I would love to see Card Sharks paired with another Game Show in syndication.

 

[SeaBreeze341]

Similar to Match Game, Card Sharks was a show that straddled back in the day.  Coincidentally, Family Feud, PYL and Pyramid didn't.  For the most part.  Shows where the games carry on from one episode to another is a thing in the past.  I guess Millionaire is or was the exception, but when it comes to primetime, it's not ideal to have a gameshow like Card Sharks or TTD/TJW where actions starts mid-episode and finishes on the next one.  It doesn't matter if it's an hour show or two half-hour episodes.

To be fair, Match Game did have success with the PM version.  The way they altered the game was perfect.  With something like TTD/TJW in addition to Card Sharks, it's probably best left kept in the past.  I have ways in which the shows can work in a primetime format or even a half hour format where everything fits in one show, but the fact is Card Sharks was a failure.  Match Game was okay, but everything became stale.  I'll stick to Buzzr & YouTube for my fix in terms of those shows; what ABC has now for Fun & Games is fine