January 18, 2000

We could all win a million bucks! - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

VANCOUVER - Are you like me and have had enough of Reege, Maury, Dick and Chuck? Are you sick to high hell with entertainment shows like ET, Access Hollywood and Inside Edition focusing so much damned attention on the night’s episode of Millionaire or Twenty-One?

Well, when Who Want’s To Be A Millionaire? debuted on ABC in the summer, it saved the summer for both the network and all of TV. It was an inventive series and had some interesting questions and the format was to kill for. I, too watched incessantly, like the millions of folks. Then, FOX came aboard with a new show called Greed hosted by the washed up Chuck Wollery, that show was predictable and oh so, boring. Then this past month the other two networks, NBC and CBS dolled out their own shows. And have you noticed during the same week Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? returns?

CBS came out with the Dick Clark hosted Winning Lines. It’s from the same creators of Millionaire, and it has the futuristic sets and music. But, it’s a little drab and confusing. Twenty-One on the other hand has the great possibility of being as exciting if not more. It was a hell of a good show in the fifties, but then the world found out it was a crock, a fake. You might remember it from Bob Redford’s terrific film Quiz Show. This time around it lacks real drama, the booths are suppose to be sort of dramatic, but they make the viewer feel claustrophobic.

This renaissance to game shows is interesting, because game show, compared to dramas or sitcoms, are rather cheap to produce. They garner ratings, too like no other drama or sitcom. The best line I heard to sum up this whole phenomenon, is that like goatees, they’re a good thing, until everyone has one.

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