• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Game Show Revivals

There was a game show I believe on ABC in the 70s where the winner was givin' a key to a car and only one of 5 cars would start, and if the contestant didn't get it the first time, and won the next day they only have to pick between 4 cars and so on, what was the name of that game show?
I also remember Money Maze.
 
kenrayc said:
There was a game show I believe on ABC in the 70s where the winner was given a key to a car and only one of 5 cars would start, and if the contestant didn't get it the first time, and won the next day they only have to pick between 4 cars and so on, what was the name of that game show?
I also remember Money Maze.
Click to expand...

Nobody remembers these, I was like 12 when I stayed home from school sick, or during summer, they both must have been short lived, when I got from school it was Match Game 74- at 2:30 and Tattletales At 3PM.
 
umfan said:
I have a hard time understanding why either 'Joker's Wild' or 'Tic Tac Dough' would be considered 'slow'. I think a straight up revival of either show, with a host as good as Martindale was might have a chance, but good timeslots are hard to come by. Perhaps in daytime? I'd prefer 'Joker's' of the two.
Click to expand...
Slow, low key...low energy? Kind of take your pick a bit. Those, plus Bullseye and Play the Percentages (version 2) were all basically the same thing. Contestants taking turns answering relatively easy trivia for decent, though unspectacular, money. Plus very similar bonus games (the dragon, the devil, lightning...all more or less the same).

Certainly some modern shows have not been fast paced--Millionaire, the Wall--with the questions (Millionaire's clock period notwithstanding). But they had the big money aspect, and were designed to deliberately draw out drama from the pacing. A straight up revival of a Barry & Enright show (and I watched them all, faithfully, back in the day, so this comes from a fan), even adjusted for better payouts, lacks either the drama or comedy aspect that seem to work today.

Price and Deal have kinetic energy that's been amped up but still works. Feud only caught on in this incarnation when they brought in Steve Harvey and the risqué answers. Jeopardy is fast paced trivia. Wheel added some elements to speed things up over the years, and paces the show better. Millionaire plays on the tension of escalating money. In that environment, I don't see a faithful remake of Joker or Tic Tac Dough working (though the TBS reboot sounds intriguing).

And so true that time slots are hard to come by. Like finding a unicorn.
 
kenrayc said:
There was a game show I believe on ABC in the 70s where the winner was givin' a key to a car and only one of 5 cars would start, and if the contestant didn't get it the first time, and won the next day they only have to pick between 4 cars and so on, what was the name of that game show?
I also remember Money Maze.
Click to expand...

It was Split Second, and Tom Kennedy was the host. I always liked that bonus round. If the champion won for 5 days they got to choose the car they wanted. The late 80's version of Hollywood Squares also had a similar bonus round, and for a while the 2000's version had a bonus round where the contestant would pick from different keys to see which one would start the car.
 
LKellerIII said:
Their choice of AMC Gremlin or Ford Pinto? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Probably so in some cases, but I think they stayed with one brand for all the models. In any case with it being 70's cars, they were probably pretty bad! :p :rolleyes:

I think I remember seeing a blooper where the contestant picked what was probably the correct car but it sputtered and failed to start but they let them have it anyway. :rolleyes: I tried to find it on You Tube but haven't found it yet.
 
Last edited:
My favorite recent game show blooper -- not really a blooper but an unfortunate coincidence -- came on Wheel of Fortune when a contestant won an expenses-paid, including air fare, weekend getaway to Chicago. Problem was she lived in Evanston. Pat Sajak laughed and said, "We'll send a cab for you." At least she didn't make a nasty face at the prospect of having to spend a weekend in Chicago!
 
Canada had a really good show called 4 rooms (not long ago)
Not a bad idea...NBC or someone in the States should pick up on it.
Four rooms: http://www.cbc.ca/fourrooms/about/
(It might even be a low cost program too!)
 
Last edited:
CTListener said:
My favorite recent game show blooper -- not really a blooper but an unfortunate coincidence -- came on Wheel of Fortune when a contestant won an expenses-paid, including air fare, weekend getaway to Chicago. Problem was she lived in Evanston. Pat Sajak laughed and said, "We'll send a cab for you." At least she didn't make a nasty face at the prospect of having to spend a weekend in Chicago!
Click to expand...

I've posted this before, but once on Let's Make a Deal there was a couple from Hawaii won a trip to guess where - Hawaii! :eek: That would be like me winning a trip to Memphis or Nashville. :rolleyes:
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Beat Shazam sounds like it could be a modern riff on Name That Tune, so we'll see how that goes.
Click to expand...
Thanks to the DVR, I don't have to find out what it's like. I can fast forward to the list of songs, listen to the song, and learn what it is. Most of the ones I don't know don't make enough sense for this to be meaningful. I did know at least seven and I was surprised at some of the really old songs, some that I listen to on STANDARDS radio. And they had a whole category on Elton John so I knew all of them! But one thing I could never do is hear him tell October to play the songs EVERY SINGLE TIME!
 
Although not a technically a game show, how would a reboot of "You Bet Your Life" go and who could be the host? Discuss....
 
Fakeem said:
Although not a technically a game show, how would a reboot of "You Bet Your Life" go and who could be the host? Discuss....
Click to expand...

It's been tried, very badly, before. Buddy Hackett and Bill Cosby were miserable failures at it.

If you watch "You Bet Your Life" as a game show it was really three or four different games over its time. The only unifying thing was Groucho. People loved to see Groucho crack jokes with and about the contestants, and when the time to play the game came the show ground to a halt. The show was Groucho and nothing else.

It should never be tried again. If they want to try the concept of a comedian hosting a game show let them come up with a new concept and title.
 
pab said:
It's been tried, very badly, before. Buddy Hackett and Bill Cosby were miserable failures at it.

If you watch "You Bet Your Life" as a game show it was really three or four different games over its time. The only unifying thing was Groucho. People loved to see Groucho crack jokes with and about the contestants, and when the time to play the game came the show ground to a halt. The show was Groucho and nothing else.

It should never be tried again. If they want to try the concept of a comedian hosting a game show let them come up with a new concept and title.
Click to expand...


There was also a pilot of YBYL with Richard Dawson that apparently went nowhere.
 
I didn't think they introduced the families before "Family Feud". Is that new this season for this version?
 
Last edited:
vchimpanzee said:
Thanks to the DVR, I don't have to find out what it's like. I can fast forward to the list of songs, listen to the song, and learn what it is. Most of the ones I don't know don't make enough sense for this to be meaningful. I did know at least seven and I was surprised at some of the really old songs, some that I listen to on STANDARDS radio. And they had a whole category on Elton John so I knew all of them! But one thing I could never do is hear him tell October to play the songs EVERY SINGLE TIME!
Click to expand...
I hope they rerun the pilot of "Beat Shazam" again. I have discovered in the final round there is no multiple choice. You state the exact title of the song. I've been fast-forwarding until I see the lists to choose from (and he is almost always saying some version of "October, hit it!" so I can't escape that) and that gets my through the show fast. I know pretty much every song from the 80s or earlier, but there's almost nothing I know from after that.
 
pab said:
It's been tried, very badly, before. Buddy Hackett and Bill Cosby were miserable failures at it.

If you watch "You Bet Your Life" as a game show it was really three or four different games over its time. The only unifying thing was Groucho. People loved to see Groucho crack jokes with and about the contestants, and when the time to play the game came the show ground to a halt. The show was Groucho and nothing else.
Click to expand...

Yes - that's why the show was re-titled The Best of Groucho in rerun syndication during the 60s and 70s.
 
LKellerIII said:
Yes - that's why the show was re-titled The Best of Groucho in rerun syndication during the 60s and 70s.
Click to expand...
I knew it as "Groucho" before I knew it any other way. PBS stations in recent years may have gone back to the original.

When Bugs Bunny hosted it was "You Beat Your Wife". I didn't get the joke for years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom