TVSquad

When I read AOL's Top 20 Best Game Shows of All Time, I pretty much agreed with all the choices. I might have moved Password up a bit, and dropped Who Wants to Be A Millionaire to a lower slot, but the one selection that really made me glower was The Price Is Right as number one.

No, no, not to me. For me, the only choice for numero uno is Jeopardy. It's not a game of chance or luck or random spins of a wheel. It's all about brains and thinking on your feet. And maybe having really fast thumbs. Merv Grifffin's creation remains the best gameshow ever in my book.

As I was thinking about Jeopardy, I realized that for me, the best Jeopardy is not today's Alex Trebek version. I mean, it's great -- don't misunderstand me. It's the one I still prefer to watch today, but my favorite Jeopardy remains the pre-syndication edition, the one that played on NBC daytime from 1964-1975. No, I'm not nuts. I have five very good reasons why I prefer the original, classic Jeopardy.

Hole in the Wall, this summer's latest Japanese game show ripoff, has announced its hosts. Actress Brooke Burns and L.A. weather anchor Mark Thompson will be presiding over Fox's version of human Tetris. Both have game show experience, with Burns having served as the host of Dog Eat Dog and Thompson providing the voiceover for Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Hole is being brought to America by American Idol producers FremantleMedia North America and came to be after clips of the Japanese version became hugely popular on YouTube. Ellen DeGeneres also got a kick out of the Japanese competition, not only featuring several clips on her talk show, but even going so far as having audience members participate in her own version.

Oh, the humanity! Wheel of Fortune is not all frivolity and fun. Merv Griffin knew what he was doing when he created this venerable game show. Drama, ensues! You think it's so easy spinning the wheel, buying a vowel, laughing at Pat Sajak's jokes and ogling Vanna's gorgeous gait? Well, it's not. Under all that pressure you'd be surprised -- or maybe you wouldn't -- to see how some people simply come up short in the solution department. The letters all float together and instead of spelling a word you know as well as your own name, you pick the wrong consonant and you're WAH-WAHed in shame and regret. The fortune goes to the next player and you're left with egg on your face.

Watch these great examples and you'll see what I mean (a sample is after the jump). Like Jay Leno's simple "man in the street" questions about common knowledge, you see that there's no telling how stupid people can be, especially with a camera and microphone in their face.

[via digg]

For the pink tile ... it's Trivial Pursuit! The ultimate trivia challenge finally makes the leap back to the television airwaves [thanks posters-jh]. The upcoming syndicated Trivial Pursuit: America Plays has cleared 55% of the nation, including eight of the top 10 markets. What this means to you and me is it's virtually a lock that we'll be able to participate in this new show soon.

Yes, you read that right. The show will feature viewer submitted video questions. You could get your ugly mug ("No, no, not you ... you're beautiful ... I'm talking about the rest of them.") up on the screen asking your very own trivia question. Man, I hope they have a pretty hefty screening process for this. I don't want some redneck yahoo standing there in his cutoff jean shorts and too small high school football jersey yelling "How many interceptions did I make in the big game against the Duke County Daisies in '76? ... or was it '77?"

The third annual New York Television Festival is now taking place in the Big Apple. As we did last year, we will review each of the pilots in competition there. This is the first of those reviews.

Last year I decided not to review any of the pilots from the New York Television Festival, but this year curiosity got the better of me and I said yes.

I decided to review one of the comedy DVDs. More specifically, the one featuring a pilot with puppets. You know what I learned, Mable? I learned that if your plot is lame and contrived, having puppets as half your cast doesn't improve things at all. Let's get into it (you can view the pilots at MSN):

As you may or may not know, I have been on many game shows. I won $40,000 on Greed. I won a car, seven televisions and a buttload of other stuff on TV Land's Ultimate Fan Search. I won over a grand on To Tell The Truth and of course, I was on every episode of Beat the Geeks. Suffice it to say, I have plenty of experience with this game we call show. Recently Joel Keller wrote a piece chock full of information on where to apply to be on a gameshow, and while this information is certainly helpful, you should know that it's only the beginning. There are a multitude of Do's and Dont's to remember.

Let's start with the Do's...

I figured since I honored Elvis yesterday I might as well also pay homage to Groucho Marx. You may wonder what these two people have in common, and the answer is: absolutely nothing. However, they both died within three days of one another, and news of Elvis' death overshadowed Groucho's in many respects. Also, I just happen to be a big Marx Brothers fan. Their movies are still as funny today as when they were first released, proving that the best comedy never goes out of style.

Since this isn't a movie blog, it wouldn't make sense for me to stick a bunch of clips below from their many films, but I can show you a clip from Groucho's comedy game show You Bet Your Life. The game show began on the radio in the late '40s before moving to NBC TV in 1950. It ran until 1961, changing it's name to The Groucho Show near the very end. Two attempts were made to revive the game show: once in the '80s with Buddy Hackett as the host, and again in the '90s with Bill Cosby.

(S01E04) Finally, the last open casting-call episode. It's a good thing, because honestly, I'm starting to lose interest. The show had really better pick up the pace and quality of content, or else the next post I'm presenting to you will be the finale.

This week the judges visit Denver and New York again, among other places. The number of accepted inventions seems to have dropped a bit this time, though a few of them that did pass are questionable.

Sodoku seems to be sweeping the world, isn't it? There seems to be a puzzle in every newspaper in the country now, becoming more popular than the crossoword, word find, and Jumble, all at once. Well, in England, the craze has graduated to the next logical step: Sodoku is getting its own TV show! ITV2, the UK's most watched digital channel, will air an audience-participation Sodoku game, where viewers call in to a toll number (the call will cost 60p) and give their solutions to the 9x9 number puzzle, with the chance to win cash prizes large and small.

Sounds scintillating. Reminds me of the video game program that was on Channel 11 here in New York (WPIX), where kids would call in and yell "PIX! PIX! PIX!" in order to move the gun/shooter/runner/etc. on an Intellivision video game. All that show did was make me want to buy an Intellivision and play the game myself. But I was stuck with an Atari. Ah, well.

Only a few days into it's December run, NBC has already ordered more episodes of its new game show Deal or No Deal. Hosted by Howie Mandel, the show was popular in many countries around the world before NBC decided to produce its own version. Similar to how ABC handled Who Wants to be a Millionaire a few years ago, NBC plans to bring Deal back in March. No news on how many additional episodes have been ordered for the March run.

[via Hollywood Reporter]