Let's be optimistic and say CBS brings GSM back next summer.

It's your job to pick six new games, six contestants (B- through D-level celebs) and ... do you keep Ricki???

Discuss...

I already posted my suggestion here.

Keep Rikki,drop the celeb contestants.
1. Joker's Wild
2.High Rollers
3.Password 60's version
4 $OTC

If Chris Lemon isn't available to host and you have no other halfway capable people *checks the bottom of the list*, ah there's Ricki's name.

Let's be REALISTIC. It won't come back, I can almost bet good money on it. For all the time and trouble put forth to authenticate these games and to get mediocre ratings...I just don't see it coming back people.

Press Your Luck is going to be the closest thing we see to an intelligent game...there are going to be questions, right?

So, why the heck is someone thinking they'll do a question/answer game in a proposed future marathon? It would only make the celebs look bad, thus they wouldn't take a paycheck and waste their time on the matter...unless Leslie Nielsen's there.

As much as I dislike spelling flames...

It's "G-a-m-e-s-h-o-w," not "G-a-z-p-a-c-h-o." Get it right next time. ;-)

In spite of the fact that I'm actually pretty happy with most of everything that's been done on GSM (especially last night), It doesn't take a genius to see that the ratings aren't good enough to justify doing this again...unless they happen to have kept the sets and CBS has a bad season.

Regardless, If I were doing this, I would...

1. Keep Ricki, but add a Male Co-host for certain shows...
2. Make Randy West the announcer, as his voice fits nearly ANY game show....Rich has done very well, even on Price (my opinion) but I think Randy's better. EDIT: Come to think of it...Rich could be the male co-host..."
3. Have the celebrity who won their prizes surprise the winning person with the truck. Have Rich be the on-air personality.
4. Have each celeb play for an at-home contestant AND a studio contestant.
5. The lineup...Deal, BTC, Tattletales, PYL, CS,MG and Feud.

But that's just me...

You've got to be joking.
If PYL is an "intelligent game", then Hollywood Showdown is a MENSA convention.

Ah, hypocrisy.

Two things:

1) David's idea of those six shows would not be physically possible. Having all six of those programs in the same studio would cause such a Black Hole of Suck that it would engulf the entire sound stage and everything for the next six blocks.

2) Press Your Luck can be played intelligently. And there have been people who have done so. Just because you don't like the show doesn't make it anything other than a show you don't like. There's no reason to impugn Hollywood Showdown just because you want to take a swipe at PYL.

Maybe it's my optimistic view of this, but from the beginning, I thought PYL, TPIR, and FF would be the most recognized formats, and thus the 3 episodes that would do the best during GSM's run (thankfully, only one of those 3 has been played so far, and looking at the ratings, I really hope my prediction will come true)...

Thus, IMHO, I immediately think PYL, TPIR and FF should stay. MG and LMaD should stay too, but replace CS with HS, and have all of the ousted celebs up to that point serve as some of the squares, with maybe Peter Marshall or Tom Bergeron as the center square (the celebs have a shot at answering agree/disagree questions correctly, right?). Replace BTC with $25k Pyramid, and whichever 2 teams who win the first 2 rounds faceoff in the final round with their appointed partner. The first 2 Winner's Circles: $10k, the final Winner's Circle: $25k.

Maybe John O'Hurley could do better than Ricki, but that's the only person I can think of on the top of my head that would have a decent chance of doing well. Otherwise, keep Ricki, at least she'd have the first run of the series behind her belt...

Burton Richardson would be a good announcer, and you could theoretically have true contestants on the show instead of celebrities. It could be advertised as the ultimate test of contestants' true, all-encompassing, game show skill...

Seriously though, with the ratings not being the greatest, I don't see it coming back unless these next few shows blow our minds away... :(

I'll give you one sentence to explain this statement...and how the show wasn't a bunch of goops who couldn't pass The $25,000 Pyramid audition to save their lives.

I don't believe Travis is beholden to you for anything.

Mark:

Please note that FOXSportsFan didn't even call Press Your Luck an "intelligent game." He said it was "the closest thing to an intelligent game" (emphasis mine), which pretty much implies that he thinks it isn't one.

Are you so desperate for a reason to complain that you're willing to make one up?

Rich was actually the first choice of producers to travel and deliver the prizes. His TPIR taping schedule made that impossible, as well as being the reason he was not "in studio" for some of the tapings. I do like the idea of the celebrities being the ones to deliver prizes. Terrific thought, although probably not practical from a budget standpoint. I was at most every taping, and can tell you that tonights episode is not to be missed!

The ones that come to my mind would be better titled "Quiz Show Marathon" because there's much more wits and smarts involved instead of the gimmicks, stunts and other influences that each of these seven have.

I'd go:

Password
Pyramid
Jeopardy
Joker's Wild

and, some lesser-knowns such as Go and Chain Reaction.

Heck, if they want to cross-promote with GSN, they could use Lingo.

Gazpacho Marathon? Nice try, Zink, but Celebrity Cooking Showdown failed.

If not for that little problem regarding the fact that all but one of those shows are owned by Sony.

If they tried it again--and remember, this is the network that trots out "Big Brother" every summer, so there's a chance they'd give it another shot--the biggest issue is the contestants.

Not only are these six barely recognizable, there's barely any interaction between them.

The first few Celebrity WWTBAMs were enjoyable because there was banter, competitiveness and good-natured ribbing. You need funny people who know each other, like, say, the casts of Drew Carey's show or "Everybody Loves Raymond." For that matter, celebrity poker is fun to watch.

Maybe it's just because they seem to actually enjoy playing games, as opposed to this group.

Tattletales and Password would work just fine for this.
My other two suggestions are Celebrity Sweepstakes and, a pretty obscure entry in the US, Call My Bluff. (No I'm not joking)
If they could wrestle with Burt Sugarman for the okay to produce an episode of 'Sweepstakes' for this, it might just click. As for the latter, from what I've seen of it, the US version of Call My Bluff could've been a nice little daytime staple if the bluffs weren't so freakin horrible. At least the UK seemed to get it right. It's also part of the Goodson-Todman library, so rights issues wouldn't be a problem.

--Jamie

Thank you, Zink. That was my point. It's the closest thing to an intelligent game in the marathon, which says nothing.

I would argue that one would need a relative bit of intelligence to play FF well, but otherwise point well taken.

Doug -- and the countdown to 2000 continues

The only argument against Feud is you answering opinion based questions. Press Your Luck throws out 8 knowledge based...ok rudimentary knowledge...okay Stevie Wonder can see the answer-style knowledge questions.

Which I think takes a little bit of intelligence to pull off. Doesn't mean you're gonna get the answers right every time, but you have a better shot than one not so brainy.

YMMV.

Doug -- and the countdown to 2000 continues

I knew I left something out. I was going to preface my idea with a 'inconsiderate of who-owns-what' disclaimer.

I'm not, and Mark's reply indicates that he has no interest in my reply. Here goes anyway, for the rest of the group.

Any game can be played intelligently, even if it's not what you would call "An intelligent game" (Which you can't, because intelligence is a trait only found in people and animals). Even so, players could count the number of whammies on the board, and stop when that number is one or two. Use risk analysis to figure out when to pass or when to play. If one player has built up a big spin lead, buzz in early on the fourth question to kill the 3-spin bonus. There are lots of things that can be done to swing the odds in your favor; it so happens that most people chose not to employ those strategies.

And any moron can turn over the top half of a six-answer-plus board. It gets a little harder when you're trying to turn over the bottom of the board.

And it all depends on the material. Now if they had "name a type of philosophy" or "name an element on the Periodic Table..."

Here goes. As SteveR said, I'm pretending we can get clearances to play all the games. First, get players who can play. Second, I'm okay with Ricki continuing.

Day 1: Pyramid With three games, everyone can play twice. (If they happen to choose three male celebs and three female, naturally you set it up so that all pairings consist of one male, one female.) Teams split the money they win, and the player who wins the most money is that night's winner.

Day 2: SP/P+, but it would just be identified as Password. I figure you'd have time for five puzzles and five bonus rounds, with pairings like this:

• Game 1: A&B v. C&D, E sits out
• Game 2: A&C v. B&E, D sits out
• Game 3: B&C v. D&E, A sits out
• Game 4: A&D v. C&E, B sits out
• Game 5: A&E v. B&D, C sits out

Each puzzle is followed by the Alphabetics round. As with Pyramid, teams split their winnings, and the person with the most winnings is that day's winner. (Obviously, if a puzzle is unsolved, we can edit it out.)

Day 3: Scrabble, with the format that they used when games were self-contained
Day 4: WoF

Day 5 or 6: Concentration The one whose prize total is the highest wins.
Day 5 or 6: High Rollers, 2 of 3 games wins

Day 7: Hollywood Squares, self-contained version
My preference would be to include the four losing celebrities among the nine squares.

I don't know about that Password setup, man. Not that I'm a genius on this topic, but I don't think anybody would allow 5 bonus rounds to be played on one show, even if it is a hour- it's overkill. You have to put something in the second half of the hour that will make viewers want to keep watching.
My quick suggestion? Put Password on Day 3 instead. Have the contestants paired with other celebrities in a tournament format similar to Beat The Clock's, where the bonus round is played by the winner at the end of the show.

Using Fremantle-owned formats, here's my line-up:

Day 1: The Price is Right (Grand Game, Cliffhangers, One Away)
Day 2: Scrabble (With the one who lost the Showcase Showdown acting as "champion," and the three celebrities remaining in Contestants' Row. Each game won is $500, on top of any bonuses. Bonus Sprint is played for $25,000, or a "fast" car priced somewhere around $30,000.)
Day 3: Distraction (obviously, with stunts clean enough for primetime television.)
Day 4: Press Your Luck
Day 5: Match Game (PM format)
Day 6: Hollywood Squares (I like the idea of using the eliminated celebrities, except I'd add them to the Match Game panel for our 9 squares, with the one who got eliminated in Match Game becoming the center square.)
Day 7: Family Feud

As for celebrities, I'd get anybody I can get, as long as their names aren't Kathy Griffin or Leslie Nielsen.

Also, all of these episodes would air in the span of one week, a la Millionaire and Deal.

Here's my trip through Fantasy Island:
* The host is Wink Martindale---there could be an Orbitz tie-in
* The announcer is Charlie O'Donnell
* The contestants are NOT celebrities. They are former grand champions.
Brad Rutter, Thom McKee, Rob Griffin, John Hatten, John Goss, Dan Avila.
Sub three ladies for three men if it must be 50:50 guys to gals.
* Make 'em all quiz games.
* Audience members at home or charities share the winnings of the contestants.
* Shows: $otC, Split Second, The Challengers, Twenty One, Tic Tac Dough, Trivia Trap, History IQ.
Jeopardy! is not included since it's still on the air and I don't want to deal with the inevitable comparisons.

CBS could keep everything in-house and re-do the Nick and MTV games with adult contestants, maybe locate Ken Ober and Jenny McCarthy for nostalgia's sake. The teens of 20 years ago are now pushing 40.

Okay, I don't understand why you want someone as a host that is a such a caricature that everybody would look on the series as a parody instead of an attempt to drum up interest in the genre.

Huh? With all due respect...are you daft?

Chris, I assume you noticed who posted this...?

Yes. Is my Sarcasm Detector broken?

How about commemorating eight games in seven weeks? (Let's assume the rights for most of these can be obtained, even if one or two may not.) Here are my ideas. I'm more or less happy with what's currently on; I'm just tweaking things a bit.

Celebrity contestants: Vicki Lawrence, George Foreman, Adam Carolla, Bruce Vilanch, Tracey Gold, Kirstie Alley, and Margaret Cho. That's right, seven players.

Episode 1: TPIR. Four pricing games - Ten Chances, It's in the Bag, Clock Game, and Switcheroo. Two SCSDs, winners to the Showcases, winner gets a finalist seat.

Episode 2: Beat the Clock. Of the 6 left, pair them off and run one stunt three times. The winning pair gets split up, competing against each other on a second stunt; winner gets a seat. Super Bonus Stunt ends the show.

Episode 3: LMAD. Big Deal winner (or biggest winner) gets a seat.

Episode 4: Card Sharks. 1 vs. 2, 3 vs. 4, winner vs. winner for the last seat. Finish with Money Cards and a survey of 10 associated people (I'm thinking circus performers) to win a car.

Episode 5: Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour. 1 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 4 in two rounds each of Match Game. Winners face each other in Hollywood Squares to go to the finals. End appropriately with the Super Match. (Obvious clearance problem here.)

Episode 6: Press Your Luck. (Make those prize squares easier to read, and fix the sound bugs on those Whammies, please.) The three losers from Episode 5 play to go to the finals.

Episode 7: Family Feud. Fast Money for $25,000 (or $10 a point).

Host: Todd Newton. (Let Ricki Lake do the prize van gig this time.)

Announcer: Rich Fields did well enough, but let's rotate announcers. Randy West and Burton Richardson can join in on the fun.

(I thought about either Scrabble for Ep 5 and MG/HSH for Ep 6, or Tattletales for Ep 6. The only reason I went with PYL was because of Mr. Newton.)

I don't think it would be that hard to license Hollywood Squares for a future Marathon. Remember; the Squares format is owned by King World, a CBS subsidiary. I would think that the owner of the network might loan out a format they own to another production company for a show to go on the network's air (right?).

You notice the Perfesser is back on his rant about how GSM (or any game show that uses celebs) should have the contestants play for home viewers determined by postcards.

Exsqueeze me?

Do they even MAKE postcards anymore? Home viewer contests don't even use 900 numbers any more. Someone wake up the Perfesser, tell him it's not 1966 any more, and then we'll get back to business.

And besides which, with postcards, you have to have people send them in in advance of the taping. With an established, ongoing show, that's much easier to do, but it's NOT going to work for a short-flight miniseries that isn't even live.

I thought the Perfesser had put himself on hiatus, after whining about how burnt out he was maintaining such a high-quality site (tee-hee) for so long. Did I miss something?

I think he's still doing his stuff once a week now, instead of every day.

Doug -- and the countdown to 2000 concludes

A shame that Stevie B. Wrong is still deemed the source for game shows when he's about as accurate as Dick Cheney's aim on quail hunting.

Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

BTW, who deems him as the "source"?

He does. And the media, being what they are, believes him.

I don't see him as the be all end all source, it's just if there's a game show topic that makes it mainstream he gets interviewed for better or worse.

But some parts of his site (like FAQ for example) haven't bene updated in months...not that I'm looking, mind you...

First, I'd make a slight change to the format. Since the point is not only to bring back game shows, and (of course) get ratings, but also to fill schedule time, I'd extend by one episode, and only air one a week. In addition, I'd like to have one 60 minute show prior to the first episode with the "clips" and "retrospectives". Even with 20 minutes of commercials, at eight games, you're talking 5 minutes per "retro". That should be long enough. This way, the beginning and end of each show could still feature the GSM theme and logos, but then immediately head from the "opening" to the "TV Screen opening shot" and that night's game, using all the official and correct music within the game play. If a game runs short, they could do some quick audience participation, or even save the "At Home Contest" for after the show. They could also place the "Prize Delivery" spot there as well, or put that in the commercial breaks.

As for the host, I'd like to try another woman, Vicki Lawrence. Since some games would require a co-host to fit the format, I'd also have Tom Bergeron. As for the players, Doris Roberts, Suzanne Pleshette, Caroline Rhea, Brad Garrett, Kevin James, and Jerry Stiller.

Game One:
Whew!
I'd use 3 sets of front rounds, and one "Gauntlet" for the hour. Let the Celeb who wins the most money in their game be Finalist #1, and play the Gauntlet for bonus money. Winner gets Finalist #1, regardless of bonus outcome. I'm thinking the lines would need to be $100 - $500, instead of $10 - $50, and also $2,500 - $3,500 - and $5,000 on the top line. I would also have $50,000 for the Gauntlet win, with $1,000 or $2,000 per villain if no win.

Game Two:
Super Password
Make the four highest non-winning scorers from Whew! play, and leave the low scorer (Celeb "E") sit out at first. Ties can be settled by coin toss. Instead of the $100-$200-$300-$400 progression, have it be a best 2 out of 3 puzzles wins $5,000 for each Celeb on the winning team(and no Ca$hword). At that point, Celeb "E", and Vicki make pairings with the winning team, splitting them apart, and Tom would host. New 2 out of 3 ensues. If Vicki and her teammate win, they play the bonus, with Tom hosting. If Celeb "E" and partner win, Tom and the winner play while Vicki returns to hosting, and Celeb "E" goes back to the "pool". Winning Celeb automatically gets Finalist #2. Since winning Celeb would have $10,000 (2 wins @ $5,000 ea.), make bonus worth $50,000, for a $60,000 payoff.

Game Three:
Body Language
Four remaining Celebs all play. Normal rules, except multiply amounts by 10. When the game finishes, Tom hosts at that point, and winning team splits, one with Vicki and one with a Celeb from the losing team. They play one "Winner Takes All" puzzle, with the winning team going to bonus for additional money. Tom takes over as partner, and Vicki hosts again if the team without her wins. Celeb who makes the bonus is Finalist #3.

Game Four:
Wheel Of Fortune
I know, it's on the air now. They did TPIR, why not Wheel? Normal rules apply, bonus wheel holds values from $25,000 to $50,000 in multiples of $5,000, as well as some cars. Winner advances as Finalist #4.

Game Five:
Hollywood Squares
One of the Male and one of the Female Celebs become Mr. X and Miss Circle for Hollywood Squares. The 2 Celebs who didn't make it through will join 7 others as the "Square" celebs, and Tom would host, with Vicki among those in the Squares. Winner is Grand Finalist #1.

Game Six:
Tic-Tac-Dough
Might as well have two similar games for the Finals, no? Money increased where needed, and the Dragon, Tic, Tac and money bonus used. Winner becomes Grand Finalist #2.

Game Seven:
Joker's Wild
Money increased as needed, "money" and Devils bonus game. Winning player automatically gets $75,000 for charity, wins additional $50,000 for "win" in bonus. $25,000 additional if devil is hit, therefore no stop rule. Celeb must play it out.

Game Eight:
($250,000) Pyramid
This would bring out the Grand Winner of the current season, against the Grand Winner of Season 2. Donny Osmond would team with Season 1's GW, and Tom Bergeron would team with Season 2's GW. Vicki would host. Celeb earns additional $25,000 for their charity by winning one game, thus $50,000 if they win both.

If the first Celeb wins the Pyramid, it makes an aggregate total of $250,000 in addition to all previous monies from their season (in other words, Pyramid is played for $225,000). If the $225,000 win happens, losing Celeb scores $75,000 additional for their charity, and Grand Finalist who lost from Season 2, and Grand Finalist who lost from Season 1 play second half for a $125,000 Pyramid shot. Both those players get an additional $50,000 for their charities, unless the winner clears the Pyramid.

If the First Celeb loses, second game is still with the Grand Winners, and game play goes as above, with winner attempting to make the aggregate $250,000 by clearing the Pyramid. If neither Celeb clears the Pyramid, player with the highest "money" total from their attempt wins an additional $125,000, and loser gets $75,000.

Questions, comments, etc?

Ambitous, but a bit much...

Whew and Body Language are too obscure, with their relatively short runs.

Super Password would be cool, but many GS fans would cry foul and say Password Plus instead. Not me though.

Wheel of Fortune would be cool...but if retro is the big thing, why not shopping plus the new end game?

I've said it before and I'll say it again...B and E shows don't rerun or revive well.

And Pyramid is too cerebral for this retro-mindless show.

Like I said, ambitous, but just a bit too much.

I'd say the 70s revivals of Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough did pretty well.
Just because Kline & Friends buggered it up in 1990 doesn't mean they don't revive well.

--Jamie

I knew this was coming...:-) Here's my argument.
I think that even if you were to revive Joker's Wild or Tic Tac Dough now with a modern set, a good host, decent questions and nice prizes, it would still be a one-season wonder.
I think those shows are the typical 70's game shows that don't require a lot of knowledge and are almost purely based on luck. Granted, So is Deal or No Deal, but DOND has that "newness" factor which I don't think TTD or JW could get simply because they've been done before.

Wow. Somebody REALLY loves Raymond.

And...Suzanne Pleshette? What are you promoting? Bob Newhart reruns from 1974?

You are aware that the idea here is to use game shows people have HEARD of, right? 'Cuz the geeks who would recognize Whew! are gonna watch regardless.

Apparently not.

I can sum it up in one word. That word is "no."

Both shows were on GSN for years. They must have been doing OK for them to stay on that long. Personally, I'd like to see them get another shot. Even if ratings dropped enough to force them off the schedule in 2003, maybe they'd do better now after a three-year break. Heck...they keep bringing back shows like Body Language, and that couldn't have done that well otherwise they wouldn't keep taking it off in the first place.