Forgotten Game Shows of TV History
 

Awright, awready. Third time's the charm, eh? Aw, gerroff, dagblangit.

This one can really be great, depending on what we bring to it. The idea is that a rift in the space-time continuum (oh, those pesky rifts) caused a big ol' glob o' great television programming to be swept into an alternate past, and out of our collective memories. Once I mention some titles, though, I'll bet you they'll come rushing back like a pitcher of Margaritas after a ride on the Scrambler. Take these game shows and quiz programs, for instance. You remember them, don't you? Surrrrre you do. The hosts, the rules, the tone, the sets, the celebrity panelists... hell, even the theme songs. Just you wait.

I've organized these lost classics by decade, because surely each was its own grand and distinctive era in a genre that could only have existed on TeeVee.

The 50's - What Do You Know?
...............Thousandaires

The 60's - Rock-O ("Everybody's favorite game of geological deduction!")
...............Don't Fall Over

The 70's - Blankety Blank ("That Euphemism Game")
..............Celebrity Socks

The 80's - Treasure Hunters
...............Collapse

The 90's - Z-z-z-zip! (hosted by Monica Lewinsky)
...............Who Wants To Be The Winner?

The 00's - Over The Top
...............Duration ("The Endurance Game")


These are, of course, just a few. A mere sprinkling. Does anybody remember one of these shows, and if so, might I persuade you to describe it to us, and perhaps share what it meant to you and your family? Maybe some of you out there remember shows that might still be eluding me. If this catches fire, maybe we could resurrect some of the great lost sitcoms. Cop shows? Westerns? Entire genres we may have forgotten completely... like Afternoon Greek Tragedies???

"Hmm," he hmmed.


Yrs.,
DDD

70's "Hippies, and Druggies , and Rockers. Oh My!" America's favorite matching game.

Hmm. They would all match, wouldn't they?

But that brings me to an important point. Adding more titles is well and good, but let's flesh some of these out. How did they work? What were the prizes? How many of them were hosted by Wink Martindale?

That many? Really?? :eek:

All of them.

Yes.

Okay, okay, I'll lead...
 

[Fade in: overexposed, grainy, black & white kinescope image of an enormous bottle of Sal Hepatica, standing in front of a shimmering curtain.]

ANNOUNCER: (Over the top) Sal Hepatica presents...

[SFX: Enthusiastic audience applause]

[The title of the show fades in, superimposed upon this image.]

ANNOUNCER: (Waaaay over the top) THOUSANDAIRES!!

[SFX: Theme music up. Cornets aplenty, with xylophone punctuation. However, it sounds like there's a woolen sock over the mic.]

CHORUS: (singing) Tall folks, short folks / Hep cats, squares / They all want to be / THOUSANDAIRES!!

[Theme music under]

ANNOUNCER: And now, here's the host of Thousandaires, Gil Bockerson!

Which came first? My head or the deep fryer?



a cooking game show

Blankety Blank!!!!
Wow that brings back some childhood memories

You betcha boo, as host Dougie Entendre used to repeat incessantly. Hey, who knew there were so many words for women's breasts? Or that they were all funny?


Hoo boy, now I'm trippin' onnit, too...


Love, Charles Nelson Reilly

I remember the late, great Les Dawson... but I'm from UK. He was great!

Les Dawson.
A LEGEND among men! (and also from Yorkshire which makes it even better)

A brief aside.
 

Waitwaitwait... Blankety Blank was REAL?? :eek:

That is just TOO great! (This thread was intended to be an alt-universe nostalgia exercise, you see. That particular title was a hat-tip to such seventies smarm as Match Game and Tattletales. I shoulda knowned gooder. :rolleyes: )

BTW, was Les related to Richard Dawson, the liver-lipped roue who hosted the original Family Feud?

Jes' wond'rin',
DDD

(P.S.: How might one describe Dickie & Les in matching porch rockers at the Old Host's Home?*)

^^^ I was wond'rin the same thing!

for those who were wondering... this is Les Dawson. Bless him.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P...2.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

ahhh 'blankety blanks'. The whole family would gather at 7pm for a half hour of innuendo about masturbation, homosexuality, genital misadventure and nymphomania. Of course that was the seventies, so everyone on the show had no idea what they were talking about, and we had no idea what we were laughing about.

Les Dawson gurning made me laugh then, and it still would now I think....I haven't progressed much in the last 15 years