Game Show History

What a fantasy!  Winning a lot of money and fabulous prize.  The excitement of it all.  What would the world be like if the common Joe on the street did not have this fantasy every night when he came home from work.   The game show has its roots dating back even before television.  The game show genre got it start in the late 1930s.  Some of today’s popular stars even got their “big break” being contestants on game shows.  The Dating Game is the best place to see where a lot of the biggest stars got their start.  One of the reasons game shows got their start was to get rich quick.  Listeners and viewer tuned in everyday to experience the fantasy that the contestant had the chance to live.  

Game shows have been a part of American culture for over seventy years, even before television.  The quiz show was the first to come over the radio wave.  Uncle Jim’s Question Bee, hosted by Jim McWilliams, was one of the first.  Three other radio game shows that went over the radio waves in the 1930s and 1940s were Pot O’ Gold, hosted by Don Grauer, Take It or Leave It, hosted by Horace Heidt, and Truth or Consequences, hosted by Ralph Edwards. 

By the 1940’s a new medium was becoming of age:  television.  Now instead of being listeners, the American population was slowly becoming viewers.  NBC was the first radio network to transition to television.  On July 1, 1941 Channel 1 (WNBT) sent over its first broadcast.  The first game shows Channel 1 aired was Uncle Jim’s Question Bee and Truth or Consequences. 

The following day came another television station.  Wow!  Now television viewers had two stations to choose from.  The other television station was Channel 2.  Channel 2 CBS (WCBW) launched its station.  CBS also got into the quiz show craze with The CBS Television Quiz, hosted by Gil Fates.  Channel 2 also carried another game show entitled Miss Goes-A-Shopping from 1944 to 1946. 

Television viewers were probably getting bored with just two television stations to choose from. On June 20, 1946 DuMont Television Network came out with another game show.  This game show was entitled Cash or Carry, hosted by Dennis James.  This was not a quiz show.  The game show genre was branching out.  Cash or Carry was shot on location at a local grocery store, not in a television studio.

By the late 1940s more and more viewers were catching on to the medium of television.  On May 4, 1948 CBS aired what would become the first true game show that was aired entitled Winner Take All, hosted by Bill Cullen.  This was one of first of many games shows to follow produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.   This led to a boost in game show history.  Out of all television genres game shows were very cheep to produce.  All game shows needed were a few podiums, microphones, and a selected few people (producers, host, cameramen, and the ever important contestants.)  Unfortunately by August 1949 quiz shows were banned on television because they were in violation of lottery laws.

Television was growing at a fast pace by 1950.  More appliances were making the lives of housewives easier. They were having more free time on their hands so during the daytime, when husband were at work and the children were in school.  The game show shifted to the daytime.  The daytime game shows were primetime counterparts.  The first daytime game show to premiere was a history quiz show entitled Remember This Date, hosted by Bill Stern.  Remember This Date aired Tuesdays and Thursdays mornings, on NBC.  Then on February 12, 1951 CBS came out with its own daytime game show entitled Winner Take All, Hosted by Barry Gray. 

By the 1950’s some of the game shows from radio people grew up listening to on the radio have transitioned their way to the television screen.  One famous radio classic was called Take It or Leave It. When this show came to television it changed it title to The $64,000 Question.  Back in the 1950s $64,000 was a lot of money. 

Also in the 1950s another aspect of the game show was starting to emerge.  The popular panel show had also transitioned its way from radio to television.  The most popular of these shows was entitled What’s My Line?, hosted by John Charles Daly.  What’s My Line? aired for tree decades on CBS.  The panel, consisting of publishers, poets, politicians, actors, and comedians, had to guess the occupations of the contestants.  Sometimes the panel was blind folded because some of the contestants were famous in the day.  The winnings on this game show, by today’s standards, were not very much.  The winner received $50 if he could stump the panel in a certain number of questions the panelists asked. 

The stunt show was also a popular type of game show.  The two most popular games shows were entitled Beat the Clock, hosted by Bud Collyer, and Truth or Consequences, hosted by a number of hosts throughout the decades, including Bob Barker.  The contestants had to also be physically fit to win these types of shows.  Many stunt oriented shows were soon to follow, especially in later years with children as contestants. 

Another type of a “game show” is the agony show.  This was more like a current talk show than a game show.  One of these shows was called Queen for a Day, hosted by Jack Bailey.  The contestant would spill a story about his or her difficult life.  At the end of the show the contestant who had the most believable story won the prize of the day.

As with many other genres of television the game show also had its scandals.   This was particularly true with the quiz show.  The game shows were also looking for the highest ratings possible.  If the contestant was popular with the studio audience, chances were that the contestants were popular with the television audience as well.  Game shows were also trying to win over sponsors.  These sponsors kept the game shows on the air by financing the shows themselves. 

For example, the most famous of these scandals were rumored about The $64,000 Question.  Hal March was the host at that time.  The show had to keep its sponsors as long as possible, because the sponsors were financing all the aspects of the show including the prize money.  Game shows were supposed to be unscripted, but there was a rumor going around that this particular show was being scripted, including the contestants.  This allowed the producers to keep the most popular contestant as champ as long as possible, because it was the contestant that was boosted the ratings.   Some of the winners became overnight celebrities. 

Another example of the game show scandal, was on another quiz show entitled Twenty-One.  Charles Van Doren was at the center of this controversy.  It was rumored that he was so popular with the viewing audience that he was given the answers to the questions prior to the show’s airing.  The Grand Jury wanted to charge him with perjury.  Luckily, the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.  Networks denied any involvement with the scandals.  And none of them were ever implemented.  President Eisenhower stated it was “a terrible thing to do to the American people.” 

In May 1959 Congress passed a law making it illegal to cheat in any way on a game show, and the networks set standards and practices departments to enforce these laws.  Federal regulators stepped in to watch over future shows.

Most game shows were just played for fun and laughs.  You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx, was on of these types of shows.  This game show was on the air from 1951 to 1960, one of the more successful game shows of that time.  The game show was more like a talk show with a twist.  At the beginning of the show Marz would reveal the “secret word” to the studio and viewing audiences.  The guest would appear without knowing the “secret word”.  If the guest said the “secret word” a loud sound effect would go off, usually startling the guest.  Other just-for-fun shows that aired throughout the years were:  Funny Boners, It Pays to be Ignorant, Pantomime Quiz, Make Me Laugh, and Who Do You Trust? 

By the summer of 1958 there were 23 different game shows on television.  Many of them only lasted a few months, but the television audience was always waiting for something new all the time.  Many of the game shows moved from primetime to daytime television to keep the audience fresh.  Also, the sponsors kept changing as well.  Also during this time the television set was evolving, so the game show evolved with it.  The color television created a more exciting game show with color.  The game show sets were more pleasing to eye which in turn brought even more viewers in to the game show genre. 

Since the beginning of game shows celebrities appeared on them.   It gave the celebrities more airtime.    The games shows that featured these celebrities were as follows:  Password; Hollywood Squares; You Don’t Say: Call my Bluff; The celebrity Game; The match Game; Missing Links; Name Droppers; PDQ; People Will Talk; Snap Judgment; What’s My Line? and countless others.   Some of the celebrities on game shows were as follows:  Don Adams; Pat Carroll; Michael Landon; June Lockhart; Lee Marvin; and Betty White. 

Another type of game show that aired was the dating or relationship show.  Some of these shows also had the talk show aspect rather than the competition aspect.   Chuck Barris produced two of these popular show that were entitled:  The Dating Game, Hosted by Jim Lange, and The Newlywed Game, hosted by Bob Eubanks. 

At the beginning of the 1970s a new generation was watching television and they wanted something new and exciting.  Color television was becoming cheaper to produce, so a lot of the game shows that were popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s were changing to meet the demands of this new audience.  The game show was now being syndicated.  According to the FCC “Any program sold, licensed, distributed or offered to television stations in more than on market for noninterconnected television broadcast exhibition.”  This gave local stations more control of what could be aired at a certain time slot.  For example, two of the most popular syndicated games shows that are being aired to this day are Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. 

Many syndicated game shows were Beat the Clock, Break the Bank, Concentration, The Dating Game, “I’ve Got a Secret, Let’s Make a Deal, Match Game PM, The Newlywed Game, Tic Tac Dough, To Tell the Truth, Truth or Consequences, and What’s My Line? to name a few.  Some of the popular syndicated hosts include Alex Trebek, Chuck Woolery, Richard Dawson, Chuck Barris, Bob Barker, Jack Benny, Dick Clark, Bill Cullen, Bob Eubanks, Art Fleming, Monty Hall, Art James, Dennis James, Tom Kennedy, Jim Lange, Allen Ludden, Peter Marshell, Wink Martindale, Gary Moore, Jack Narz, and Gene Reyburn. 

By the end of the 1970s game shows were losing their popularity due to more women entering the workforce, and another genre that took over the airways at the time called the soap opera or daytime drama.  There were still games shows on the air but they were placed at undesirable time slots later in the afternoon.  The viewership was wads next to nothing because the children were doing their homework and the housewives were starting dinner.  Was the era of the game show coming to an end?

At the beginning of the 1980s the game show was slowly disappearing.  The three most popular shows that survived the 1960s and 1970s were The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy.  But as the 1980s came about there was just not broadcast television any longer.  The advent of cable gave game shows strength to carry on well into the future. 

In 1981 the pay-per-view network Playboy debuted a game show entitled Everything Goes, hosted by Kip Addotta.  This show’s premise was simple and strangely enough brought back one of game show’s disappearing viewer, the adult male.  Everything Goes was the typical television quiz show with a twist.  If the contestant gave an incorrect answer an article of clothing was removed.  The contestant to lose his or her clothing lost the game. 

In 1983 TNN (now Spike) introduced viewers with a game show of their own entitled Fandango, hosted by Bill Anderson.  Again, it was the typical quiz show, but since it was on TNN at the time the trivia was specifically made for the country music fan. 

By the mid-1980s most of the cable networks had similar game show tailored to that cable network’s genre.  Even the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon had game shows with the major audience composed of children.  For example, Contraption debuted on the Disney Channel, and Double Dare debuted on Nickelodeon. 

Not only the game shows themselves changing, but to keep up with the younger generation they also had to change the sets one more time.  This time a lot of the game boards were computer generated with television monitors, instead of the basic cardboard sets of earlier years.  Again, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy are the best examples of game shows changing with the times.  Today, Vanna White no longer turns each letter in the puzzle.  Now all she taps a touch-screen monitor to reveal the letters in the puzzle. 

In 1987 USA network also premiered some original game shows as well as some repeats of some favorites from the 1960s and 1970s. Some of USA’s original Game shows included Bullseye and Chain Reaction.  Some old favorites that USA aired were The Gong Show, The Joker’s Wild, Let’s Make a Deal, and Press Your Luck.  

Also during this time game show emcees were changing as well.  It was no longer a man’s world when it came to hosting a game show.  Betty White followed in her husband’s footsteps and hosted Just Men.  Other women were soon to follow. For example, Vicky Lawrence hosted Win, Lose, or Draw, and the first woman to ever host a game show was back in 1949 with Arlene Francis Blind Date. 

By the 1990s the game show was still going strong.  Now we come to a new kind of game show.  There was a drastic change to the game show genre once again.  The viewers saw and played with a new type of game show.  Yes, that’s right, the viewer is now the contestant.  This was to be known as the ear of the interactive game show. The Interactive game show was first produced for the cable viewing audience.  The contestant (home viewer) had to do was call in (usually it was a 976 or 1-900 number) to play the game.  Some of these interactive game shows included classic board game titles like Trivial Pursuit, Boggle, Jumble, and Shuffle.  These shows only lasted for about a year or so, but soon fizzled out, because they were usually ran during the afternoon when most people were not watching television, or they were still caught up with their favorite soap opera.

The game show genre was slowly showing its age.  What happened to the viewership?  There may be a solution to this problem after all.  On December 1, 1994 there was a new cable network produced by Sony Pictures over the airways called The Game Show Network (toady the network shortened it to GSN.)  The Game Show Network aired many of the classic game shows from the 1960s to the 1980s.  Mark Goodson and Bill Todman produced most of the game shows.  Some of the more popular game shows that aired were Beat the Clock, Blockbusters, The Dating Game, “I’ve Got a Secret, Jeopardy, The Joker’s Wild, Match Game, The Newlywed Game, Password, Tic Tac Dough, To tell the Truth, What’s My Line? and Wheel of Fortune. 

By the end of the 1990s the Game Show Network had estimated over twelve million viewers nationwide.  New interactive game shows also premiered: Super Decades and Trivia Track.  Some of the interactive game show hosts included Larry Anderson, Marrianne Curan, Dave Nemeth, and Nancy Sullivan. 

The Game Show Network was always looking to broaden their viewership.  The network created two new children versions of two very successful game shows.  The two new children’s game shows were Jep  and Wheel 2000. 

Other cable networks also wanted to keep their ratings up as well.  Lifetime and The family Channel both came out with their own game shows to keep the viewrs watching.  Lifetime had Debt and Shop ‘til You Drop.  Even Comedy Central came out with a game show entitled Win Ben Stein’s Money.  In the 1990s there were only a select few networks that did not air a game show. 

It is now the 21st century and the game show is still going strong.  The stakes are a lot higher, and the excitement is still there.  Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, hosted by Regis Phillbin,  premiered on ABC in the Summer of 1999.  It was the first game show to offer a contestant $1 Million.  The contestant had to answer fifteen general knowledge questions to win.  If he or she missed one question the game was over.  Other million-dollar game shows soon followed during the past decade.  These game shows include Greed, an updated version of Twenty-One, Deal or No Deal, and others.   

Game shows are a fundamental part of American pop culture.  For over fifty years, they have been in our homes on both radio and television.  The major basic aspects that make a game show so popular are as follows:  surprise; tension; energy; excitement; riches (sometimes the home viewers won the prizes also); the educational values the media has to offer; and of course the nonsense and the unscripted chaos that a game show gives the viewer everyday.  The game show is here to stay.