The Flashback Game Shows Daytime
This was a lost thought , that we've considered not looking back at game shows , but then after much consideration and searching, we thought why not. (Yeah Why not?) So , let's take a look at a few game shows , most of these not by magic didn't last long . (We picked these for good reason).
1. Child's Play
Child's play was a game show that ran on CBS from 1982 to 1983 ,but since it was a daily game show it racked up 258 episodes. (pretty good)
Judging by the name you might think it involves Children. (Well, you were right) yep children gave definitions of words for our contestants to figure out.
Exhibit A
They put the word on the screen , Can't play at home ...sigh
To the point , that was the game show , you had 2 rounds and a bonus round (so three rounds in math terms) , It was hosted by Bob Cullen , a famous radio and TV guy he also almost hosted the 1972 revival of "The Price is Right" (the one on TV now , as of 2015, unless it was canceled and nobody told us ).
As we said , the game show didn't last long only 1 season it couldn't compete at the 10:30/9:30c slot and CBS axed it. One thing about game shows is they sometimes get made for other countries ,that happened to this one.
The Brits , did it as well. London Weekend Television made a version of it that broadcast from 1984-1988 hosted by Michael Aspel. It also had Australian version, Russian , Greece, Spain ,Netherlands , Germany , and Indonesia.
2. Dreamhouse
Now we go to ABC and here's an idea for a game show , you know some give away dates (with figures ) , cars, trips (to Toledo) , money (to buy stuff in Toledo) but how about a Brand New House! ( yeah!!!!!, does it come fully loaded?) Dream House was that game show.
In 1968 on ABC (America's Network that is not CBS) it was a daily game show , while it also had a prime time weekly version for a while.
It was hosted by Mike Darow. It had two couples play against each other (to the death?) in recall games to see who gets the right amount of points.
The winning couple in the final game, wins a room full of swanky early 70's furniture ( I think)
Joshuaonline when we sold furniture
Now , what about this house business ? well the contestants who won got a new house , worth $40,000 (this is in 1968's money) plus $7,000 for land , or they could have $20,000 in cash. Anyway it lasted from 1968 to 1970 . It was reported that some of the houses won , were not finished (oops) ,and sometimes the former contestants found out they needed more than the $7,000 given in the contest, hence the show added the $20,000 prize option. The game was hurt by this already so it was axed and replaced by ... "All My Children" ( see here at JOL it was always ends up back to soap operas).
Then in 1983 it came back , now to NBC, (America's Network, that is also not CBS) with now host Bob Eubanks . Now the couples (yes still couples) competed for a house worth $100,000 (in 1983 money). Also contestants had to get a combination correct (they had to work hard for the house) if they got it right they would win the house, they didn't get it right they would the classic - Come back the next day and try again ,against another couple if they won that day , they could try the combination again and see if they won the house. (rinse then repeat)
I think they won !
It ended after about a year because it wasn't the best in ratings (could have been worse, ask ABC) it was replaced by Scrabble.
3. Scrabble
Ok, this is not a new idea but why not take a board game ( though not Operation) and make it in to a game show .(The last word of board game is game) This is our longest running of the soaps in this article began on NBC in 1984 and ended in 1990. It was hosted by Chuck Woolery.
Youtube... will also comeback to haunt you
4. GO
Again with NBC ( We better not have to say to NBC again this article) , GO was a game show that didn't go to long ( ha ha ha , worked hard on that didn't you?) It was created by Bob Stewart (also the creator of Chain Reaction) and ran from October 1983 to February 1984. It was hosted by Kevin O Connell (who people in Buffalo might know as a weather man ). The contestants were two teams including one of the players being a celebrity. The goal was to play the game to get to 1,500 points , which ever team go those points made it to the jackpot round where they had change to win up to $20,000 ( if they made it to double jackpot).
(Just for fun , there also was a soap stars week in November of 83)
It was canceled after a few months due to it's 12PMET /11ct slot , many NBC stations would preempt for newcasts ( it could have waited til 5 , you know NBC affiliate , seesh) so it was hard for it attract an audience if people in some markets didn't even know it existed.
5. Time Machine
And finally (thank goodness) , our last game show "Time Machine" which ran on NBC ( of course it did) , from January 1985 to April 1985 (Time machine huh?) .
It was a game show bulit with mini games that fit into it's focus on history and pop culture. After the first month they changed the format , for instance instead of the champion playing the mini games , the new challengers faced each other off to meet the champion later. They played 3 mini games and there was no prize bank anymore. Then the winner meets the champion in the champion round.
Time Machine!!!
That's our look back at short lived game shows (well except for that one) you win a brand new un finished house but you did get swanky 60's furniture and a time machine. Comeback next time at Noon (except in the 230 markets that are airing newscasts). Thanks for reading,
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