Best game shows of all time

My dad auditioned for Tic Tac Dough. He bailed when they said he needed to stay in LA for two weeks.

As for my favorite, it's Pig in the Poke.

 

Don't remember Talkabout but if you are ripping on my man Tino Monte, host of Supermarket Sweep, you and I are heading for trouble!

You want bad Canuckistani game shows, how about Love Me, Love Me Not, hosted by the immortal Ross (The Boss) Shafer?

 

I was glad to see "You Bet Your Life" on the list. Watched it nightly during syndication in the mid-1970s. I'm a little kid getting much of old Groucho's humor; loved how George Fenneman play the straight man.

Was a big fan of "Tattletales" with Bert Convy back in the day. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I thought Convy was a good entertainer. He died way too soon.

 

Anyone out there who grew up watching Chicago TV in the '60s/'70s and remembers Bozo's Circus on WGN? If so, I'd be remiss not to mention the Grand Prize Game, which was a segment midway through the program and basically a game show for kids age 6-10 or so. They'd choose two kids from the studio audience and they'd attempt to toss pingpong balls into each bucket (six in all, spaced about a foot apart) with prizes for each successful attempt. The "grand prize" for making all six shots was a Schwinn bike. They'd also pick two contestants from the TV audience who'd sent in entries, and they'd win whatever the participants won.

The show was live and there's always been an urban legend about a few kids who started swearing on the air after they screwed up, although I never saw it happen and there aren't any old clips on YouTube as proof.

A guy I hung out with as a kid was selected to participate and somehow missed Bucket No. 2, which should've been an easy shot for him. Last time I saw him was about 15 years ago and he'd become quite successful as an adult, but said he still hadn't lived that failure down.

 

Wait a minute. Hugh Downs was the host of the original Concentration (and there were four others after him). So what are they doing calling Trebek's version "Classic" (unless there was some mutation of the show in between)?

 

Didn't have to live in Chicago to see the ping-pong toss. WGN showed it throughout the country in the '80s. I've seen a Bozo-licensed version of the ping-pong ball toss in arcades. Couldn't land all six.

 

Loved it when Regis hosted it in prime time. Felt like a throwback to an earlier TV era where everyone gathers around the TV. Then they ruined it by having it on nearly every night.

I attended a couple of tapings with Meredith hosting to take the test for the show. Didn't pass of course.

First taping I went to, they must have really been trying to save money because the questions were ridiculously hard even for the show. Like the $32K question was put in the $2K hole. The first contestant, who was a holdover from he previous taping, got $8K and that was the most anyone ended up winning. A couple of others didn't even get up to the $1,000 question, and they weren't messing up gimmes.

 

John Carpenter's using his lifeline to phone his dad to tell him he was going to win the million dollars is one of the great ballsy moments in TV history.

 

Just look at this fucking assassin.

 

Interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.

 

The new "Let's Make a Deal" is quickly becoming my favorite. Besides being funny, it's also (unintentionally?) sneaky-dirty.

This is female host Tiffany Coyne.


Maybe once an episode, she's tasked with presenting a mystery prize hidden in a small cube at which time Wayne Brady asks the contestant something like "So, do you want this $200? Or do you pick Tiffany's tiny box?"

I snicker every time.

 

The guy even had his other two lifelines and didn't use them just to make sure. He was nuts.

I wonder if he's blown the million (or whatever he got after taxes) yet.