A EMMY AW RDS

38th Annual Daytime Entertainment CREATIVE ARTS EMMY ® AWARDS
36
The Games
People Play
Television’s Love Affair
with the
Game Show
“Twenty-One” game show host Jack Barry, center, with participants,
By Allison J. Waldman
including famous contestant Charles Van Doren.
Once upon a time, from the earliest days of broadcasting,
game shows dominated the daytime schedule.
Carrying over from radio, daytime television has been a
place where quiz shows, soap operas, court dramas, talk
programs or news all thrived. ---- And for game shows it
wasn’t just the competition that was entertaining; there
were celebrities like Groucho Marx, Betty White, Lucille
Ball and an entire tic-tac-toe box of stars on “Hollywood
Squares,” to dazzle daytime watchers.
Imagine that you could bet your life, play the
pyramid, solve a word puzzle with concentration,
learn the password, spin the wheel, and so much more.
Competition programming filled the landscape of
daytime, from “To Tell the Truth” to “Password” to
“Family Feud.”
“Game shows come and go like tidal
waves throughout TV history.”
– Tom O’Neil, Author, “ The Emmys”
“Game shows come and go like tidal waves throughout
TV history,” according to Tom O’Neil, the author of
“The Emmys,” as well as LATimes.com and Goldderby.
com television columnist. “They’re quickly popular one
minute, then interest suddenly ebbs and recedes the next.
…It gets reborn a few years later, though.”
Currently, America has renewed its love affair with
game shows. In 2006, just five years ago, the Daytime
Emmy nominations included only two shows —
“Jeopardy!” and “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.” This
year, the 2010 Emmy winner “Cash Cab” is back in
contention, as well as “Jeopardy!,” “The Price Is Right”
and “Wheel of Fortune.” And GSN, the Game Show
Network, has grown in popularity, reaching 75 million
homes with a mix of classic programs, retooled favorites
and new shows
THE EARLY DAYS
In the pioneer days of the television industry, game
shows migrated from radio, bringing audiences with
them. In the 1940s, there were 44 game shows on network
primetime, and over four times that amount, 151, in
the 1950s. But the scandal of “Twenty-One,” in which a
popular contestant, Charles Van Doren, had received the
answers in advance to ensure that he kept winning, cast a
shadow over the legitimacy of these shows. The networks
shied away from the genre, and by the summer of 1958,
there were just 23 quiz/game shows on the air.
But the tide rose in the 1960s and beyond, as
each decade produced new and innovative games
that resonated with the viewing public. “Jeopardy!,”
“Hollywood Squares” and “Match Game” all began in
the 1960s, as well as Chuck Barris’ “The Dating Game”
and “The Newlywed Game.” In the ‘70s, “The $10,000
Pyramid” and “Family Feud” were hugely popular, and
Barris pushed the envelop of good taste with “The
Gong Show.”
In the 1980s, “Jeopardy!” creator Merv Griffin struck
gold a second time with “Wheel of Fortune.” “Blind
Date,” a descendant of “The Dating Game,” appeared in
1999, the same year that “Win Ben Stein’s Money” won
the Emmy as Outstanding Game Show. Stars emerged
on these games, including Pat Sajak and Vanna White on
“Wheel,” Richard Dawson with “Feud,” and Alex Trebek
on “Jeopardy!,” to name but a few.
Wayne Brady, the current host of CBS’s reboot
of “Let’s Make A Deal,” admits to being a long-time
admirer of “Jeopardy!.” “It’s skill-based. It’s not how
lucky you are with the luck of the cards or what’s behind
that door, it actually takes brain-power to get on that
show and do well.”
Brady discovered soon after stepping into Monty
Hall’s shoes with “Deal,” that game show contestants are
as ardent today as they were in the Kennedy-era 1960’s
when the show premiered. “The appeal of the game show