Game Shows--Making a Comeback?

To look at daytime or evening television, it seems that for the past several years a long-known entertainment venue has been mostly missing--the game show. Sure, "Wheel of Fortune", "Jeopardy!" and "The Price is Right" have seemingly been around forever--but do you know where the game show genre first began?

The first actual television game show was "Spelling Bee", which aired in 1938. Many people may think "Truth or Consequences" came on the air in the 1950s, but in fact it first aired in 1941 as an experiment in television. The first network game show, "Cash and Carry", aired in 1946 on the long-defunct Dumont network and featured Dennis James, who later became better known for hosting the nighttime "Price is Right" in the 1970s. Another future television icon to get his start in the game show world in the 1940s was Bill Cullen, who starred in "Winner Take All". "Winner Take All" is also the first creation of a very talented duo--Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. By August 1949, however, the game show was banned from television because they were deemed to be in violation of lottery laws in effect at the time.

Many radio quiz shows made the transition to television. One of the most notable was a radio quiz called "Take It or Leave It", which became better known on TV as "The $64,000 Question".

One of the most popular panel shows in history began in 1950 with the airing of "What's My Line" with veteran CBS newsman John Daly at the helm, where he stayed for nearly 18 years. The show has returned to the air in several variations with hosts such as Wally Bruner and Larry Blyden. Another classic panel show, "I've Got a Secret", began its run in 1952 and featured such television icons as Garry Moore, Steve Allen and Bill Cullen as hosts. Attempts to revive this show as recently as 2006 have failed.

The stunt show was also very popular in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and perhaps the most well known of these is "Beat the Clock", which featured contestants doing stunts for money or prizes. Bud Collyer, Monty Hall, Jack Narz and Gene Wood were among the men who hosted this classic show over the years. Another famous long-running stunt show was "Truth or Consequences", started by Ralph Edwards as a daytime show. In December 1956 Edwards turned over the reins to a relative unknown in the television world--a fellow named Bob Barker.

There are so many shows that could be mentioned here--in 1958 there were 23 game, quiz, panel or stunt shows on the air--but we would have a very long article here, so we will just try to jar a few memories here by listing some of the more well-known shows and their hosts over the years:

3 for the Money - Dick Enberg; The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime - Jim Lange; Anything You Can Do - Gene Wood & Don Harron; Blockbusters - Bill Cullen & Bill Rafferty; Celebrity Sweepstakes - Jim McKrell; Concentration - Hugh Downs, Bob Clayton, Jack Narz & Alex Trebek; Dream House - Mike Darrow & Bob Eubanks; Eye Guess - Bill Cullen; Family Feud - Richard Dawson, Ray Combs, Louie Anderson, Richard Karn, John O'Hurley & Steve Harvey; Gambit - Wink Martindale; High Rollers - Alex Trebek & Wink Martindale; Information Please - Clifton Fadiman; Jackpot! - Geoff Edwards & Mike Darrow; Jeopardy! - Art Fleming & Alex Trebek; Knockout - Arte Johnson; Let's Make a Deal - Monty Hall, Bob Hilton & Wayne Brady; Match Game - Gene Rayburn, Ross Shafer & Michael Burger; Name That Tune - Red Benson, Bill Cullen, George DeWitt, Richard Hayes, Dennis James, Tom Kennedy & Jim Lange; The Object Is - Dick Clark; Password (and all variations) - Allen Ludden, Tom Kennedy, Bert Convy & Regis Philbin; The Price is Right - Bill Cullen, Bob Barker, Dennis James, Tom Kennedy, Doug Davidson & Drew Carey; Quiz Kids - Joe Kelly, Clifton Fadiman, Norman Lear, Jonathan Prince & Terry Mulligan; Remote Control - Ken Ober; Seven Keys - Jack Narz; Split Second - Tom Kennedy & Monty Hall; Supermarket Sweep - Bill Malone & David Ruprecht; Tattletales - Bert Convy; Tic Tac Dough - Jack Barry, Gene Rayburn, Jay Jackson, Win Elliott, Bill Wendell, Wink Martindale, Jim Caldwell & Patrick Wayne; Treasure Hunt - Jan Murray & Geoff Edwards; Truth or Consequences - Ralph Edwards, Bob Barker, Jack Bailey, Bob Hilton & Larry Anderson; Wheel of Fortune - Edd Byrnes (pilot), Chuck Woolery, Pat Sajak, Rolf Benirschke & Bob Goen; You Bet Your Life - Groucho Marx, Buddy Hackett & Bill Cosby

As we go along in several more articles, we'll cover more aspects of the game show as we know it--how it developed, behind the scenes, announcers and the like.