GSN’s Viewer’s Choice Marathon: Review

The game show fans voted daily early in November, and this is what we got: classic goodness!

The marathon itself was as follows:
9:00 am - Family Feud (“September” answer episode, 1980)
9:30 am - Tattletales (CBS Soap episode featuring Meg Ryan, 1982)
10:00 am - Super Password (Tournament of Champions finale, 1985)
10:30 am - Card Sharks (One five-figure money cards win, 1986)
11:00 am - Match Game (“Cuckoo, Friend, and Ollie,” 1979)
11:30 am - Trivia Trap (Fact or fiction/agree or disagree format, 1984)
12:00 pm - Password Plus (Tom Kennedy and Elaine Joyce, 1979)
12:30 pm - Press Your Luck (Veronica, who‘s no longer a mortician, 1984)
1:00 pm - Password (Second tournament of champions, 1967)
1:30 pm - Card Sharks (Two five-figure money card wins, 1979)
2:00 pm - Wheel of Fortune (Last day before the Jackpot space debuted, 1996)
2:30 pm - Let’s Make a Deal (Last Hilton show, and last episode of the series, 1977)
3:00 pm - Hot Potato (Accountants vs. Car Saleswomen, 1984)
3:30 pm - Match Game PM (Big money win, 1975)
4:00 pm - Treasure Hunt (Contestant faints, 1974)
4:30 pm - Jackpot! (Super Jackpot! Win, 1989)
5:00 pm - Bullseye (Big Bonus Island win, 1981)
5:30 pm - The Joker’s Wild (Hal and his lucky suit, 1978)
6:00 pm - Tic Tac Dough (An early episode with Thom McKee, 1980)
6:30 pm - The $100,000 Pyramid ($100,000 Tournament win, 1987)

I really enjoyed this marathon. I'd say the big favorites were Bullseye, Hot Potato, Wheel of Fortune, Tattletales, Password, both Card Sharks episodes, Treasure Hunt, and Jackpot. They really picked good episodes for the most part.

I always thought both Hot Potato and Bullseye were good before the celebrities came. One of the things that made Hot Potato unique was the fact that they had three people on each team who had the same careers. Of course, this factor was gone when the stars came. And while the idea of seeing Marla Gibbs and Harvey Korman playing Bullseye is kind of fun, at the same time it also suffered that the game was much slower, and some days Bonus Island was not even played. Let’s also not forget the fact that celebrities would play on these shows for the remainders of their run. I can take a good week or so, or have a few weeks out of the year with all-star fun like the various Passwords have done, but the idea of it being all day everyday is a major turn-off. I’d have thought Barry & Enright would have learned their lesson after the demise of Bullseye.

While I was hoping that hoping a more vintage episode of Wheel of Fortune would air instead of something kind of recent, I thought it was still enjoyable. I loved seeing one of the contestants come from behind so well after landing on Lose-A-Turn. To me it’s always a bit awkward seeing episodes from the late ‘90’s with the older wheel with no backdrops, the egg crate score displays still there, and eventually all this with the electronic puzzle board. And I was never a fan of the 1995-97 variation of “Changing Keys.” However, I will take the mid-late ‘90’s era any day over what’s on now. Wheel of Fortune first-run today I can enjoy every once in a while, but I don't have the "got to watch every night" feeling with this show anymore. It’s gotten way more extravagant than it should. Part of the reason why I enjoy most of the older eras of the show so much is because of the simplicity. And the reason why I say that the ‘90’s era is still somewhat enjoyable is because even though changes were made, the show still had that level of simplicity.

I had no idea off-hand that the CBS version of Password ever did a tournament of any kind, so I was pleasantly surprised to see an episode of this. And from Television City in Hollywood, no doubt.

Being a soap fan (and mostly a classic one at that), Tattletales was fun for me. And it was nice seeing Meg Ryan. I’ve been waiting to see an episode from this week for a long time.

Then you have the big money wins on both episodes of Card Sharks. Five-figure money card wins on this show are always a blast, especially on the Perry version because they didn’t happen as often as they did on the 1980’s versions. Intense moments like this show how great of a host Jim Perry is, and even though I’m not the biggest fan of Bob Eubanks on Card Sharks, he could be enjoyable for me on his version from time to time and he can handle suspense and tension very well. Both on this show and Trivia Trap.

Treasure Hunt was just awesome. This series showed us how great Geoff was as a host. Geoff is another emcee that is great at building suspense. And then there’s the fact that he had to memorize at least two dozen skits for the show. Just when you think a game is over, it’s not. Never think “that’s it, that’s all she got” with this show, because at least ninety percent of the time you’ll be wrong.

Jackpot! is my second favorite Bob Stewart show after Pyramid, so it was nice seeing another episode of that. I’m a bigger fan of the ‘70’s era, but the ‘80’s version was fun in itself. I enjoy Geoff Edwards on this show much more than Mike Darrow. This series shows how fun riddles can be and it’s a show that Camouflage could have learned from. That was a show that had some of the most difficult riddles and plays on words I’ve ever seen. It’s too bad the syndication company for Jackpot! went bankrupt. We could have gotten another year of this show at least. It’s something I’d love to see on the weekend schedule sometime.

While I was kind of hoping that we’d see something from a different season of $100,000 Pyramid or better yet $25,000 Pyramid or something from the ‘70’s era, they did pick a good episode and big money wins are always great to see.

The only real disappointment I had was with the episode of Trivia Trap that aired. I’m not a fan of the fact or fiction/agree or disagree main game. While the $1,000 Trivia Race and the bonus round were still there, for me it just didn’t feel the same anymore. At least there was a $10,000 win during the bonus, so that helped out a bit.

One other nitpick: Why was the Price Is Right logo on during the commercial bumpers? That show wasn’t even on the ballot, and most fans know that GSN can no longer air it. Not even under a special circumstance like this one. And sadly, this includes any version; even the Cullen version that aired on NBC and ABC.

Seeing this event really has me wishing we could see Jackpot!, Hot Potato, or another season and/or era of Pyramid on the weekend schedule sometime.