My, what hoopla can be elicited by one game show. A couple of years back people went gaga for Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Now they are infatuated with Deal or No Deal. This got me thinking. I shouldn't do that because wood smells when it burns.
Still, ponder I did. Like everything else in life, things evolve. They change. The inevitable force of progress forces us all to adapt and game shows are no different.
For me it was less the game shows per se and more of their role in certain moments in my life. Not too many of us ran home to watch a game show but we all watched them. To get an idea of its place in contemporary television pop culture, just look at the huge amount of coverage they get here in the TV section at BC.
Remember when you got sick and you got to stay home from school? One of the first things I used to do was flick on the TV as dear mother put on her nursing uniform. While today morning programming is filled with witless talk shows, back then it was mindless game shows running in successive order. If I had to choose between both options it would be game shows.
Now game shows are prime time hyped up programs with a limited shelf time. Worse, they all focus on one of the seven deadly sins: greed. (Although one can legitimately claim they involve all seven of them but I am not going to spend time on how they all intricately relate to this discussion.) What can I say? Sloth has overcome my senses. Indeed, all game shows, for our purposes here, hinge on the greed element. After all, contestants are out to win a prize — usually money.
Canadians were pioneers here as they have been in many aspects of pop culture. This is ironic given that cultural nationalists loathe the importation of American programming. Little do they realize we have been a willing participant in what can be described as a cultural mercantilist experiment whereby Canadians leave Canada to invent programs in America only to be exported back into Canada. Roy Ward Dickinson hosted the first game show in 1935, the unfortunately titled Professor Dick and his Question Box. Of course, then we went on to come up with freaky game shows like Definition, a game I still don't get. All I remember is that wild jazz-inspired intro (I believe it was actually a Quincy Jones work) and terrible prizes like pencil cases or something to that effect.
Article comments
1 - Brent
It wasn't Pierre Berton who was impossible to replace on Front Page Challenge - he was on the show to the bitter end. It was the great curmudgeon Gordon Sinclair who was irreplacable, though they tried.
2 - alessandro nicolo
Brent, forgot about old Gord.
3 - Chris
Yes, indeed, game shows do continue to evolve! As a matter of fact, I'm looking for a new player over at my friendly little Game Show tonight. Come on over and check it out!