Monday, August 13, 2001
Are you game? - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- When Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? bucked the game show trend a couple of summers ago, I was amongst the legion of scribblers with a space, who tried to dissect the phenomenon of winning and losing. Equating it then, I always assumed people really enjoyed winning, that they’d risk embarrassment for the sake of getting a prize. Like sport, we watch game shows because we like -- to borrow from the venerable Jim McKay -- “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”. So much the better when it’s not us.
I’ve stopped watching Millionaire all together. It’s become staid and Regis is awfully annoying. (My biggest beef with Reege is the fact he can actually talk a contestant into using a lifeline, when they are convinced already of having the correct answer.) The Weakest Link and its dominatrix hostess Anne Robinson was interesting when it first came out. She was wickedly funny, and it moved at a more bearable pace than the lethargic, geriatrical-aimed Millionaire. However it too has become annoying and staid. Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune and The Price Is Right, have too long been mainstays on television that complacency sets in. ‘One wonders why watch now, when it’ll be on for you to watch when you’re really bored.’
There’s a plethora of game shows on the market now. If you aren’t a British import (Millionaire, Weakest Link), you could be a revamp of an old show like Family Feud or To Tell The Truth. At our house, we recently got digital cable. And as such we’ve got the Game Show Network. Being a great fan of television, I can’t get enough old television shows, and old game shows are no exception.
I grew up watching Family Feud, with its second host Ray Combs. I enjoyed the show then, but looking back at re-runs, I can’t stand him. Louie Anderson, the current host, I cannot stand at all. But with GSN, old re-runs of the old Feud with the effervescent and suave Richard Dawson, I am an regular viewer yet again.
Richard Dawson is the epitome of coolness. He struts on stage in his three piece suits with a self-assurance that was the ‘70s. He had a carnation on his lapel, a perpetual tan and a sense of humour Pat Sajack would kill for. Dawson also had the controversial habit of kissing the women on the show -- on the lips no less.
Looking back at old game shows, it’s interesting to note that like news anchors or talk show hosts, the game show host is a common denominator in the history of the boob tube. In the ‘50s we had people like Garry Moore, John Daly and Ralph Edwards. In the ‘60s emerged Jeopardy’s first, Art Fleming and less animated blokes like Allan Ludden. In the ‘70s came a rambunctious restless crew of middle-agers like Gene Rayburn and Monty Hall, amongst hipsters like Dawson, Bob Eubanks or Burt Convy. The ‘80s saw the emergence of people like Alex Trebek, Pat Sajack and Dick Clark. With Regis, Chuck Wollery’s re-birth with that god-awful Greed and Anne Robinson, the game show’s been reinvented. One also notes that with Millionaire and Weakest Link, that they also brought the game show back to primetime, something not seen since the days of Garry Moore and the 1950’s.
The Game Show Network gives viewers that extra fix. Bored or unsatisfied with the whiting Bob Barker, Wheel or Jeopardy!, GSN sends us into the halcyon days of television prize winning.
Besides being addicted to Family Feud, I’m discovering gems of yesteryear like Match Game, Tattletales, Super Password, The $100,000 Pyramid among others. I guess I enjoy them because I have never seen them before, but deep down there’s something more appealing about them (and not just the hairstyles) than the show that pepper the airwaves nowadays.
Also with shows like Match Game, Tattletales, Password and Pyramid, they had celebrities on, as well as contestants. I mean, you wouldn’t dare see the semi-celebrities of today on Jeopardy! or Price Is Right. There just isn’t any room for them. Looking back -- Match Game in particular -- it really is a doll to see graveled-voiced Brett Somers or campy Charles Nelson Reilly hamming it up and at the same time winning some housewife from Kansas or some student from Ft. Lauderdale a couple bucks.
Like stopping to see a car crash on the highway, we watch game shows to be appalled at the spectacle and sometimes be entertained. Television itself is often decried as tawdry, useless and cultural saturation personified, but they do bring people together. Could warfare do that, without the loss of life?
One of the Game Show Network’s marketing lines is that they have ‘a winner every thirty minutes.’ Forgetting reality shows like Big Brother, Survivor or Temptation Island -- it’s gladdening to know wars or things absurd like getting stuck in a place for a prolonged period of time, don’t subdue sheer joy at seeing someone we don’t know win a few bucks. If life were that simple.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .