1. The Price Is RightI am convinced that Bob Barker will live forever. While the host may replace his models (Barker's Beauties) every few years to keep them young and attractive, Barker himself has a timeless quality to him. The object of the show, and even most of the individual games, have remained essentially unchanged from when I was seven years old and would watch TPIR on CBS at 11 a.m. on days when I was home from school. I still watch TPIR on CBS at 11 a.m. on days when I'm home from law school. Things like the big wheel, the Plinko board, and the phrase "a new car!" have become cultural icons.
2. Jeopardy!Jeopardy! is what I would call a pure game show -- Alex Trebek reads a question, the first person to buzz in gets to answer it, and you get points if you're right. It's that simple. I never quite understood the purpose of putting the answers in the form of a question, but it's become such an engrained part of the show that nobody would mess with it now. The only substantive part of the show that's changed in my lifetime has been the dollar values. Jeopardy! gets bonus points for inspiring one of the funniest series of sketches in the history of Saturday Night Live.
3. Wheel Of FortuneThe Wheel has undergone more changes than its time-slot partner Jeopardy! over the years. (Does any remember when the winner of a round would get to go shopping with his winnings?) Hostess Vanna White has now been made obsolete thanks to a computer-controlled board, but they keep her around anyway. For someone who's 50 years old, she's fabulous eye candy. But again, a time traveler from 20 years ago would still easily recognize Wheel Of Fortune and knows exactly what you mean when you offer to buy a vowel.
4. Family FeudThe Feud has been hosted by a variety of colorful (or obnoxious, depending on how you think about it) characters over the course of the years, from ladies' man Richard Dawson to suicidal Ray Combs to human blob Louis Anderson to Al from Home Improvement and today, J. Peterman from Seinfeld. But again the objective is the same: ask one hundred people to answer a question about some random category, put the top several answers on board, and see how out of touch the contestants are with mainstream America. If you're lucky, you can catch an episode where family members on the same team genuinely dislike each other.
5. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?Okay, so this show hasn't been around quite as long as the others, but it's one of the few game shows that remains in regular continuous production today. It was a cultural event when it first premiered on ABC's primetime lineup during sweeps month in 1999. Today, it runs in syndication, airs at midday, and is hosted by Meredith Vieira instead of Regis Philbin. But the deceptive simple concept remains the same -- answer 15 multiple choice questions in a row while sitting in the hotseat and win a million bucks. That's pretty much all there is to it. Since there's just one contestant competing against the bank, it's easy for the audience to get behind and get to know him as the game goes on. The potential for this show to last as long as TPIR or Wheel or Jeopardy! is clearly there.
2 comments:
And the survey says......what about The Match Game? How hilarious were Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly? Except not.
One of the conditions for making it onto the Top Five list was that the show must still be on the air. So, classics like Let's Make A Deal, Match Game, The $25,000 Pyramid, etc. are excluded. Maybe we'll do another Top Five list with those cancelled or retired game shows.
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