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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
38th Annual Daytime Entertainment CREATIVE ARTS EMMY ® AWARDS 37 is simple,” said Brady. “People love to win. People enjoy seeing other people compete because they have fantasies that it could be them.” TODAY’S GAMES With the new millennium, the traditional game needed more than color to attract viewers. The bright lights, theatrical music and dramatic effects of UK import, “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?” took off in America, with Regis Philbin as the host. “Millionaire” had international appeal, as witnessed in the Oscar-winning motion picture “Slumdog Millionaire.” “People expect some theater, and if you have to make it that way, you do,” said Gabrielle Johnston, veteran executive producer, “Family Feud.” “If the game is simple—and you can’t get much simpler than ‘Deal or No Deal’— it’s important to make it feel like it’s bigger. …The girls with the suitcases are just props, but I think they produce it very well and they’ve turned it into big theater.” Today, the return of the aforementioned “Let’s Make A Deal” and the ongoing success of “The Price Is Right” on CBS suggests that the pendulum may be swinging back in the game show direction. Regis Philbin hosting “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.” SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE What’s indisputable over the past 60 years of broadcast television is the fact that game shows remain a viable genre, albeit one that is constantly evolving. “Cash Cab,” for instance, was last year’s Emmy winner and, as O’Neil points out, “It’s ‘Jeopardy!’ To Go’ – a classic brain twister with a hip new tweak on wheels.” Beyond daytime and syndication, you can also see variations on the game show formula all over the dial. In primetime, competition driven reality shows, “Survivor,” “The Apprentice,” “The Amazing Race” and others are essentially the game shows of decades past. It’s easy to connect the antics of “Truth and Consequences” to “Wipe Out,” the fake courtship of “The Dating Game” to “The Bachelor” and even the mawkish tears of “Queen for a Day” to “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” “Basically, these reality shows take the game concept out of the staid studio and place it into real world experiences,” contends Mary Ann Cooper, a syndicated television columnist. “They amp up the game show concept.” “Networks can’t afford to keep doing expensive dramas. When they fail, they have to start new shows. There’s less risk with game shows, and they’re cheaper to produce in general,” explains Johnston. “Game shows will always be a popular TV genre in general because they entertain viewers while engaging their intellects. Few TV shows bother to do that,” said O’Neil. n CONGRATULATIONS Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek on your Lifetime Achievement. © 2011 IGT. All rights reserved. “Jeopardy!” is a registered trademark of Jeopardy Productions, Inc. “Jeopardy!” © 2011 Jeopardy Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. “Wheel of Fortune” is a registered trademark of Califon Productions, Inc. “Wheel of Fortune” © 2011 Califon Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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