Game Shows

[kybearfuzz]

I have to admit that I usually love game shows, but not the current crop of them appearing on evening television. When watching shows like "Jeopardy" or "The Price is Right," I'm entertained, partly because I feel like I can compete with the people in the comfort of my living room. It's quick and painless and any drama on the show is transitory.

The evening game shows these days are horrible in my opinion. The current reigning show is "Deal or No Deal" and it turns my stomach. The apparent bastard child of Jerry Springer and "Let's Make a Deal," it has contestants I could absolutely care less about. Watching people act like complete idiots doesn't do much for me. In the daytime shows you might be rooting for some player, but in this show I can't muster the effort. The mix of game show and intentional drama just irks me. I've tried watching it, to give it a fair shake, but when Howie gets the calls from the boss, making a deal, and sending the overweight soccer mom from Alabama into screaming fits and speaking in tongues, I turn the channel.

With the current crop of game shows annoying me, I have started watching the Game Show Network on occasion, catching Brett Somers on "Match Game 76" where answers were fun and lascivious. Sigh... give me the days of "No Whammy! No Whammy!" or "Vinnie the Barber is so bad, he accidentally cut of the customer's (blank)"

Comments

[davemassive.livejournal.com]

Some day you'll have to check out the UK version of "Deal or No Deal", which is one of the original ones. Instead of having bimbos open the boxes, they have future contestants opening the boxes ... and each person stays in the lineup until it's their turn to play the game. This way you have recurring "characters" for lack of a better word, and you get to find out some of the players' personalities before they get up and try to win money.

I think it's a hundred times better than the American one.

We just finished up a run of a game show called "Poker Face", wherein contestants are asked general knowledge questions, and then try and bluff how well they've done to the other contestants. After each round of questions, they give everyone the opportunity to fold and take their money -- the first one to hit the buzzer is out of the game. If no one folds, then the person with the lowest amount of money goes home -- WITH NOTHING! Ha! They billed it as "the only game where you can win a million pounds by getting absolutely no questions right."