Best game shows of all time

It's glitzed-up Hangman. It's glitzed up well, but it's still Hangman.

 

There was a Canadian game show for kids called Just Like Mom. It was hosted by a guy named Fergie Oliver (if you watch old episodes now, he comes across a little sketchy) and the big prize at the end was a Norco Spitfire BMX. I loved that show.

Kids played with their moms. The dumb thing was, the big contest at the end, the kids made cookies without the moms being present. There were all sorts of weird ingredients. Then the moms had to guess which cookie their kid baked. I remember telling my mom that if we ever got on the show, I'd just load mine with ketchup. I wanted to rig the shit out of things.

Never got on, though. I ended up buying a Norco Spitfire. Not sure what the lesson is there.

 

My brother wanted one of those bikes too. I remember him saying he would have also rigged the bakeoff by using ketchup or mustard or some such condiment.

There are some episodes of that show where Fergie is really creepy. He used to get skewered for his homerism etc. ("Tony and Don, I was talking to Al Widmar around the batting cage today") during Jays games on CTV. Fergie's daughter is on the Shopping Channel after years on the Weather Network.

 

The two best players I ever saw in the Jeopardy! Celebrity Tournament were Carol Burnett and Cheech Marin. They took it seriously, had a wide range of knowledge and were quick on the buzzer.

 

Anybody remember Wolf Blitzer? He was absolutely horrendous.

 

Didn't SNL make fun of how bad he was?

 

I saw Anderson Cooper recently, and it was like he was trying to be dumb.

 

Mark McGrath on Rock N Roll Jeopardy about 15 years ago was the most dominant game show performance I've ever seen.

 

I used to nail all the answers on that show. The questions were so easy.

I still remember this one episode where the two kids were doing the obstacle course, and one of them, after doing his obstacle, spent a couple of seconds pulling up his pants before he grabbed the flag and handed it to his partner. Sure enough, they lost by a half-second. Even back then, I thought the kid was a screw-up.

Also one time, I was visiting relatives, and they had a Double Dare cast appearance in their local mall. The place was mobbed, and Marc Summers and Co. kept having to tell the kids to move back. The kids were acting like they were seeing the Beatles at Shea Stadium. We eventually left because it was so mobbed.

 

My kids and I tape the old $25,000 Pyramid and play it most nights. It's my favorite along with Jeopardy.

 

That's the first line that popped into my head when Meredith Viera became host of daytime "Millionaire."

 

Rip, you are killing it on this thread. Very good work, sir!