Love them or hate them, game shows are here to stay. They’ve made people into millionaires, instant celebrities, and notorious criminals. How many of us can say that they've never contemplated what it would be like to win big on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" or spin for $100,000 on "Wheel of Fortune"? I know I have, and that is why I am paying homage to some of the most iconic examples by compiling a list of the Top Five Game Shows of All Time.
5. The Joker’s Wild. This may be an obscure choice, but this CBS show made the list in the number 5 spot for one reason: Jack Barry. He is one of my all time favorite game show hosts because he could make the most uninteresting person seem utterly fascinating. The show’s only other redeeming quality was its endgame called “Face the Devil”. The highest denomination that a player could win was $200 and if he or she won $350 it was an amazing amount of money. The Joker’s Wild will definitely go down in history as not only one of the best game shows of all time, but also the cheapest.
4. The Hollywood Squares. Hollywood Squares ran for an astonishing 39 years, from 1965-2004. The show went through several hosts, including Peter Marshall and Dancing With the Star’s Tom Bergeron. My fondest memories though are of the “stars” that inhabited the vertically stacked cubes. Paul Lind was by far the best square of them all. His quirky sense of humor and nails on a chalk board voice fit right in with the show’s off beat sense of humor. If you are ever in the mood for cheesy zingers and one liners, The Hollywood Squares will never disappoint.
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3. Password. This list is not only about the shows themselves, but the hosts that made them great. Password is another example of this for two reasons: Bert Convy and Allen Ludden. The true beauty of this show that aired an astonishing 2855 episodes definitely lies in its simplicity. Two players, two celebrities, a lengthy guessing game, and Betty White all rolled into 30 minutes of prime television entertainment.
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2. The Match Game. I began watching The Match Game when I was about 13, and was fascinated with the adult humor. At the time I thought this show was pretty risqué. But to this day, there is still one aspect of the program I haven’t fully grasped: I still do not have any idea who Brett Somers is, or why she was so famous? All I know is this funny woman always sat in the middle seat of the top row, with Charles Nelson Riley at her side. Their banter was classic, and that is what truly made The Match Game one of my all time favorites.
1. Jeopardy. I am a very huge fan of Jeopardy for three reasons. 1. I am very competitive and love nothing more than answering obscure questions about the Dead Sea Scrolls to the amazement and horror of my friends and family. 2. Trivia and useless knowledge. I studied history and art history in college and have found all the information I obtained during this pursuit to be pretty useless in the real world. Jeopardy is my only outlet. 3. My mother was an avid fan, and before her passing the two of us watched countless episodes of the show together. The two are intertwined in my mind for all time.
Thank goodness for the Game Show Network because most of these shows are, unfortunately, no longer on the air. I had high hopes for the new Password starring Regis Philbin, but alas, I was not impressed. In these tough economic times I will gladly stop eating out or skip that morning trip to Starbucks to keep my cable television.
Tags:
games,
tv,
entertainment