There is an interesting post over at YesButNoButYes on ten infamous game show moments. There are a couple good ones, like the guy who lost on the first question of Millionaire, and a couple classic Family Feud and Newlywed Game answers.Unfortunately, it's more a good idea for a list than an actual good list, because their definition of "Game Show" is insane. I just don't get the reasoning behind adding moments from The Bachelorette, Big Brother, and Top Chef. Especially when there are so many great moments from actual game shows that could have been added.
Some non-reality show contenders for such a list: From The Price Is Right, recently there was a guy who kept bidding 420 (video after the jump). Going back in the TPIR archive there was the time when a rather buxom woman was so excited to be comin' on down that she didn't realize her boobs had bounced right out of her tube top.
Then there is Michael Larson. He was the guy that used a VCR to figure out the patterns to Press Your Luck and then went on a 45 spin run that netted him some $110,000. How about Tom Kennedy from Password Plus trying to explain that they erased the tape of a segment of the show, complete with Wink Martindale and Gene Reyburn by his side? That's where the picture of Wink and his Tom Kennedy t-shirt comes from.
Or, there was the time when Henry Winkler set up Tom Bergeron for an April fools joke on Hollywood Squares. The contestants were just crazy. At one point, the woman burst into tears and started hugging Tom. In the middle of it all he joked, "Suddenly, turning down that job on Card Sharks doesn't seem like such a good idea."
Heck, I'd even put Ken Jennings on Jeopardy ahead of half the stuff on that list. The point being that there are thousands of moments from actual game shows that could make up a list like this. And I haven't even thought about Match Game yet. Feel free to share your favorites in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-13-2007 @ 4:59PM
M-D said...
From TPIR, you could create a whole montage of "Bob vs. the Island of Samoa".
Match Game would be ripe with 'infamous' moments, although the most obvious one is Gene Reyburn's infamous "Dimples/Nipples" Freudian slip. Also, anything involving Gene tormenting Earl, the operator of the Super Match board.
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2-13-2007 @ 1:22PM
cdawg said...
What about the newleywed game when the question was the weirdest place you've had sex and she wrote "up the butt"
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2-13-2007 @ 1:30PM
Bill said...
I don't know about infamous, but my favorite game show moment is from Jeopardy. This has to have been close to 20 years ago. And it's kinda dumb.
Anyway, all through the opening round, you could see this one lady knew a lot of the answers, but she never got any. Not only did she not get any right, she didn't even manage to buzz in first. It was only in the commercial between Single and Double Jeopardy that she realized she had been trying to ring in with the pen they use to write the Final Jeopardy responses.
I'm sure it was embarassing, and she handled it pretty gracefully, but there's nothing that cracks me up quite like smart people doing stupid things, so it always stuck with me.
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2-15-2007 @ 7:51AM
Sindi said...
My favorite happened years ago on the original Family Feud with Richard Dawson. During the final for all the money, the question was "In what month does a womans pregnancy begin to show?" and the ladies answer was "September." Poor Richard couldn't stop laughing. Also, I think they should do an entire hour of clips just from the Match game or Hollywood squares.
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2-15-2007 @ 8:22AM
richard said...
How about when the woman on the price is right. Her top fell down and she flashed Bob Barker.
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2-15-2007 @ 9:46AM
richard said...
How about the time on the Price is Right. They called a woman down. And when she was running down her top slip off. That had to be the best game show moment of all time.
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2-15-2007 @ 9:46AM
dbshrink said...
The best of all time (very old): "You Bet Your Life" which starred Graucho Marx, and was basically a chance for him to use his wit on contestants. They had to answer trivia questions for prizes, and if they said "the secret word" they won (I think) $100. At the time, 1950's, that was a bundle.
On his very last show--you'll see why it was his last in a minute--he had on a housewife, and asked her how many children she had. She replied something like "I have 9 children, Graucho." He mugged at the camera, then asked her how that came about. "Well Graucho, I love my husband," said the woman. "I love my cigar, too, but I take it out once in a while," was Graucho's response.
Unfortunately, the times were even more conservative than now, and this was worse than the equivalent of a "wardrobe malfunction" in the early 21st century. Graucho's show was immediately cancelled.
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2-19-2007 @ 2:02PM
Preston said...
I think that the most recent game show moment was that repetitive $420 bid from that contestant on The Price Is Right. He bid the same $420 bid hoping he would win. But they had prizes over $1000, $2000, even $3000, that they brought out. It was so funny, but after a while, you want to scream "Bid another number!" Didn't he want to win and then later win cars, boats, trips, or even money? I don't know how embarrassed he might have been afterwards, just winning a bunch of silly parting gifts.
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2-19-2007 @ 1:01PM
Preston said...
Ken Jennings may have singlehandledly saved Jeopardy from being forgettable in 2004 with his 74 consecutive wins. I went a 5-year drought not watching the show between 1999 and 2004. So I was in Las Vegas on vacation in July '04. Just about every morning I was reading the Life section of USA Today (while eating breakfast and drinking coffee)and there was always a mention of Ken's win on Jeopardy. When I came back to North Carolina, I watched many of the later shows he appeared. He does recall the early '80s era, when contestants won $100,000 to $300,000 on those game shows.
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