Come on...no Whammies...Big Bucks...Stop!

Klonoa

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Oh my gosh! A post by me that's not about video games or Namco? Yup, I do have other interests that you folks don't know about, ya know! I'm more complicated than that! But not much more. One of the things I secretly like to do is...is...watch game shows. There, I said it. I'm kind of mad at TV right now because all the games shows I watched as a kid in the 80's have been replaced by sleazy talk shows and reality series. And I don't like those new fancy games shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire or The Weakest Link. The questions in those shows are too hard and I don't like the announcers of those shows anyways. My favorite kinds of games shows are the ones that require the least amount of skill as possible. Like Wheel of Fortune. You have to know your ABCs for that one, though. And I liked it better a long time ago when the contestants had to bid for prizes. "I'll take that porcelain dalmation for 9 dollars, Pat." I also LOVED The Price is Right. I think I actually asked for that big wheel they spin at the end for Christmas when I was little. And it always cracked me up how Barker's Beauties would look like they were making out with that jar of Pamolive while Rod Roddy (RIP) announced what Pamolive does. And all you have to do in that show is guess the price of groceries!

But my most favorite game show of all was one that required even less skill than that. To quote the Garfield and Friends cartoon, it was the equivelent of "Mash the buzzer, win a cookie." That game show was Press Your Luck. I won't explain the show, you're already on the Internet so do a search for it if you don't know about it. All I can say is that my dog could win on that show. There are two reasons why I liked this show so much. One was the giant Press Your Luck board. I've always been attracted to bright, colorful, flashy things. The other thing I liked were the Whammies. I thought they were SO cool when I was a kid. I'd always hope the contestants would get Whammies and lose their money so that I could see the funny animations of the Whammies on screen. I think I even asked for a Whammy toy for Christmas back then, knowing full well they didn't make Whammy toys. The cool thing about the Whammies is that I did a little search on the Internet...turns out they were created and animated by Steve "Savage" Holland, who also did one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons: Eek! the Cat.

I was so infatuated with the Press Your Luck game when I was little that I made up my own home game of it. I drew a Press Your Luck board and stuck it on the wall. I waved a flashlight over the prizes and would stop it when my "contestants" said to stop. I mashed on my Casio keyboard to make the beeping booping sounds of the board. I even had real prizes, too, like pennies and pieces of gum and stuff. And of course, I drew Whammies. My contestants were my best friend and the girl down the street. To this day I think my best friend was mad at me about that game because he claimed that I let the girl win. I hate to admit it, but he was probably right. The questions that I asked for them to earn spins were skewed towards things she would know: "What Strawberry Shortcake character smells like strawberries?" "What color is Barbie's cat's litterbox?" And the 'boy' questions were rigged anyway. "What Decepticon starts with an S" "Starscream?" "No, uh...Soundwave." Yeah, I know, not very fair. I also tended to stop on the Whammies for my best friend, since I was controlling the flashlight. See, my mom always told me to be nice to girls, so I thought I was doing the right thing. I guess I wasn't. Hey, give me a break, I was only like six years old!

I don't have the best cable TV in the world. I pay for the cheapest package. I don't have all those fancy TIVOs and HDTV like you folks have. But recently I finally got a new channel. It's the Game Show Network! And they even have a new Press Your Luck game show called Whammy! Why didn't anyone tell me this!?! I watched a lot of Whammy over the Christmas break. It's basically the same as Press Your Luck except nobody has 80's hairstyles and the Whammies are computer animated. And last night they had a two hour special on the GSN called "Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal." No, it wasn't about me, it was about some freaky guy back in the 80's who didn't have his life priorities straight and he watched a lot of TV and figured out the pattern of the Press Your Luck board and went on the show and cleaned house! He won like, four times as much money as anyone else on that show could've won. Not technically a scandal, but man that guy looked freaky. Although I think I could've done what he did if I wasn't just a kid at the time. The pattern wasn't too hard to figure out, and years of playing video games have made me really good at mashing buttons.

So anyway, that's my favorite game show. What's yours? ACTUALLY, my favorite game show isn't Press Your Luck. It's a game show that's more in tune with my interests. Can you guess what it is? And if you say "Nick Arcade" I'm going to beat you up. Hint: It starts with an S.

Hey, I think I'd make a pretty good game show host, what do you think? Don't worry, guys, I wouldn't let the ladies win ALL the time. --Cary
 

The Count

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Heh, at least now it's out there and you can't hide from it anymore. Why didn't we tell you about Whammy!? Well, you never asked. BTW: Loved to watch that when I was younger and had better sight, which is why I like the original version better. And that makes two of us who'd secretly wish for the contestants to land on the Whammies' squares. Not only to count them up, but to see the funny animation sequences.

Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Tammy Whammette!

Other faves of mine were Classic Concentration hosted by quizmaster Alex Trebek, the game show versions of Monopoly and Scattergories, and there's this rully old one they showed on the Disney Channel that made use of their classic animated movies for contestants to win these golden ring/discs and whoever won the most would then get some sort of ubber-prize.
And from my childhood, the ones at the top werer the truly great game shows like Fun House, Double Dare in its many encarnations, and Finders Keepers.
 

JaniceFerSure

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I've always been a couch potato,starting in the early 70s.I'm still a game show fan. Here's a listing of most of my many fav. game shows,from over the years.Got to watch a lot of those listed on cable tv's game show network:

  • Price is Right
  • Wheel of Fortune
  • Jeopardy!
  • Who Wants to be a Millionare
  • Tic Tac Dough
  • Press Your Luck
  • Joker's Wild
  • Concentration
  • Supermarket Sweep
  • Let's Make a Deal
  • Double-Dare
  • Family Feud
  • Pyramid
  • Match Game
  • Win,Lose or Draw
  • To Tell the Truth
  • Bumper Stumpers
  • Card Sharks
  • Name that Tune
  • The Gong Show
  • Hollywood Squares
  • I've Got a Secret
  • Make Me Laugh
  • Password
  • Remote Control
  • Shop 'Til You Drop
  • Tattletales
  • What's My Line
  • Where in the World is Carmen San Diego
  • Win Ben Stein's Money
Found a nice game show website.

The Original Game Show Page! - TV Game Shows and Reality Shows @ gameshowpage.com
 

McFraggle

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Good list, I like "PYL" and that is a good and interesting special Klonoa. I saw it a few years ago. I also love '70s "Match Game" and most versions of "Family Feud." Dawson is no. 1! Most of the others listed by Dee I like as well.
 

The Count

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Hey D, you got the third one to go with Supermarket Sweep? There was Supermarket Sweep, then Shop 'Till You Drop, and Born Lucky was added afterwards though it didn't last.

Win Ben Stein's Money was great, and so were Beat the Geeks and Battlebots, rully miss those "Good" shows on Comedy Central. Missed the premiere of Distraction last night, but it looks like crud.
 

The Count

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BTW: Gary Kroeger, the announcer of Whammy!, is a former SNL ashlum.
 

maxdrive

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a person after my own heart i love all those game shows i want the game show network

and i loved where in the world is carman sandiago the theme by rockapella was great i stuill find my self saying is in jail from that show i know i know im a nerd i am a nerd and pround of it

and in the words of the adudience when a contestent was eliminated on remote control

nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah hey hey hey good bye

a si siad nerd proud of it that includes the terms geek and dork



JaniceFerSure said:
I've always been a couch potato,starting in the early 70s.I'm still a game show fan. Here's a listing of most of my many fav. game shows,from over the years.Got to watch a lot of those listed on cable tv's game show network:

  • Price is Right
  • Wheel of Fortune
  • Jeopardy!
  • Who Wants to be a Millionare
  • Tic Tac Dough
  • Press Your Luck
  • Joker's Wild
  • Concentration
  • Supermarket Sweep
  • Let's Make a Deal
  • Double-Dare
  • Family Feud
  • Pyramid
  • Match Game
  • Win,Lose or Draw
  • To Tell the Truth
  • Bumper Stumpers
  • Card Sharks
  • Name that Tune
  • The Gong Show
  • Hollywood Squares
  • I've Got a Secret
  • Make Me Laugh
  • Password
  • Remote Control
  • Shop 'Til You Drop
  • Tattletales
  • What's My Line
  • Where in the World is Carmen San Diego
  • Win Ben Stein's Money
Found a nice game show website.

The Original Game Show Page! - TV Game Shows and Reality Shows @ gameshowpage.com
 

JaniceFerSure

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Another one that came to me yesterday,The Weakest Link.Very short-run,and hard questions,but good to watch.
 

ceecee

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I love game shows too! Where do I begin?

I still watch Wheel of Fortune most nights. I saw a live taping when I was 7. This was before the days when they showed the studio audience, but that day they had Pat and Vanna talking with announcer Charlie O'Donnell at the end, and the studio audience can be seen. You can see me in the background pointing at the monitor like a maniac to my mom, who's just shaking her head because she doesn't believe me that we're actually on tv. That was so cool! I still have a cue card from the show.

I also love The Price Is Right, Jeopardy! (I want to be on that show!), and old game shows like Concentration, Password, Supermarket Sweep, and oh so many more!

Does anyone remember Crosswits? My aunt was on that show when I was little.

Game Show Network has too many original shows now and not enough old ones. I like watching old shows where a new car cost $4000, and a box of Rice-A-Roni cost 19 cents.
 

The Count

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Yes, I remember CrossWits, another good one. Used to watch those shows on the USA Network, but now it's all been shunted to GSN and they don't even show all they should.
 
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