1. Family Feud
Why is this show still going on today? The answer is because it's the perfect game show. There's absolutely nothing wrong or bad about this show, it's entertaining from start to finish. It's all great because it's made for all ages, every question asked is always interesting because you want to know what the top 5 or 6 answers are, and of course the answers themselves. Contestants have to answer the question so fast that you never know if they'll say something ridiculous or not, and it's like that all the way through an episode. The part I'm sure everyone loves the most is the final round "Fast Money" where to members of the winning family are chosen to play for the family to win $20,000 by trying to guess the number 1 answer to each of the five questions asked. If they won they would also get to come back again for the next episode to where they could play for another $20,000, of course every winning family can only come back five times maximum which is totally fair in my opinion. I can see why the show's lasted as long as it should have, fun rules, great hosts (Richard Karn was my favorite), reasonable amount of money at stake. Also I love whenever someone answers something idiotic that the family still claps for them and says "good answer!". I'm just waiting one day for some family member to say "That was a horrible answer! What were you thinking?!" that would still be as hilarious as it would sad and embarrassing. I will never get tired of watching this show as long as I live.
2. Greed
If I had to think of a better show than Who Wants to be a Millionaire that gave away a million dollars, it would be this one; "The Richest Most Dangerous Game Show In America". I'm not kidding that was their definition. Not only that, their top prize was not one but TWO million dollars. The way it was played was that there would be a team of five and one of them was a captain. One of the five would answer the first question and for whatever answer they put down it has to be accepted by the captain. If they made it to the questions worth $200,000 on up, they would be asked a question having to name 4 of the correct answers among the 6, 7 or 8 listed. Each one could name an answer in which power would go back to the captain to see if he or she wants to change any of the answers put. If they get the question right, they would split however much money they won. There is also a thing called the terminator to where whoever's panel flashes would get a chance to eliminate a player on their team by answering a question correctly on whoever buzzes in first and whoever wins would get their share of money. Also whoever is selected on the terminator gets $10,000 win or lose. It's entertaining non-stop and I wish it could've lasted a lot longer than just one season. It was the first show EVER to award a million dollars, not to one person but in general among all game shows. It was a great show that at one point even doubled its prize up to FOUR million dollars for only five episodes of what they called Super Greed. After that it got cancelled immediately, shame on you FOX! I've seen every episode of this show on GSN, but I still watch them again to this day cause it was THAT exciting.
3. Who Wants to be a Millionaire
(with Regis Philbin hosting)
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Yes I mean only Regis hosting, not the lady that does it today. I mean when it was on primetime ABC. That's when it was good (though I do respect the original UK one as well). Back in the late 90s, this was the show EVERYONE was talking about. It was so popular that it got spoofed in so many shows and movies, hell they even made a Best Picture winning movie based off this show. That's one hell of an influence this game show had. Not to mention one of the greatest hosts ever, Regis Philbin. The guy knew exactly what he was doing. He knew what to say to the contestants when ever they said something awkward or just plain idiotic, it was hilarious. Also the rules were pretty easy to figure out, just answer the correct question to win bigger amounts of money and if you answer all 15 correctly, you win a million dollars. You also had three lifelines 50/50, ask the audience or phone-a-friend (my favorite). Usually most people would have used all those before they got to the $250,000 mark, but who would've thought the first million dollar winner could actually answer all 15 difficult questions without using any lifelines. Now for those who did see it and say he DID use one, well technically he did call up his father on the million dollar question but not to ask for help, only to tell him that he was going to win the million dollars. THAT is what I call clever. When I saw that moment on TV, I was only 9 years old and was literally jumping up and down when that happened cause I had never seen one person win a million dollars on TV before in the history of game shows. I will always worship this game, but only when Regis is involved.
4. Double Dare
This is no doubt at all the messiest game show ever, and I LOVE IT. There were even other versions of this game besides just Double Dare. There was Super Sloppy Double Dare, Family Double Dare and Double Dare 2000. For over a decade and a half, people like myself couldn't get enough of this show. You had fun questions, messy challenges and of course the best part of the show, the Slopstacle Course. It first started off with two people on each of the two teams but then later came to four when Family Double Dare came around (the most popular one among all). They would first start off with a messy physical challenge and whichever team won first would be the ones to start off with the first question. They would be allowed to skip the question and pass it on to the other team by saying "Dare" and if the other team didn't know it, they would say "Double Dare" to pass it back to them and they could either answer it to get double the money on the question or take a physical challenge to win the same amount. Everyone wanted to see the physical challenges cause they were so bizarre, messy and of course entertaining. At the end of the final round, whichever team had the most money earned at the end would get to take part in the Slopstacle Course which was the main highlight of the show. One member would go through the first among 8 parts of the course and grab the flag and pass it off to another member to do the second part of the course and so on. They would win a prize for each part of the course they completed which got bigger the further along they got among the 60 seconds they would have to complete the whole course. It was a great game show that was more about the fun people had than it was about winning the actual money. It also had a great host named Marc Summers and Jason Harris who hosted Double Dare 2000. So much of this show is great to talk abut, but I'll end it here. If you want to find out more about the show, just YouTube it or check out this video the Nostalgia Critic made about the show: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/nostalgia-critic/34-nostalgia-critic/692-double-dare
5. Wheel of Fortune
When it comes to classic game shows, THIS is what I'm talking about. I'm amazed that it still goes on today knowing most game shows don't make it past 1 to 5 seasons. This has gone on for almost 40 seasons and boy is it as entertaining as it was when Chuck Woolery was hosting all the way back in 1975. Of course it isn't really Wheel of Fortune without Pat Sajak and Vanna White for todays audience, knowing they've gone the longest hosting the same game show for almost 30 years now. I'm surprised they both haven't asked for replacements yet, though I hope not. This show is so famous that I don't even have to say the rules of the game, but if you still don't know them look it up online because I'm sure they'll be somewhere NOT hard to find. Great show, great hosts, and great gameplay.
6. Finders Keepers
Now I know this was just a game show for elementary students where kids would just search for the missing item on the board to answer the questions, and then search random rooms for the missing item in the set of a giant house depending on how many questions they got right to win cash and money. It had no intelligent involvement in any way and mainly made the list because I watched this all the time when I was a kid. On the other hand... it was fun as hell to watch! Kid or no kid, this show was and still is entertaining by watching old reruns of this. How often do you get to make a room as messy as possible just to find a missing item to win money? Not on any other game show I've seen. Even if you're past 30 or middle aged, I would still recommend you have a look at this show on YouTube or some website that has old episodes of this, because you many not know exactly what you've missed out on.
7. Starcade
I couldn't decide wether this or Nick Arcade should be on the list, but I chose this because it came first before other arcade game shows. It was a nice and simple one as well, answer questions to play arcade games, and play arcade games to win prizes. The fun part was that anyone at any age could participate to play in the show. That's what made it interesting, seeing two contestants answer questions about video games and the player who got that question right would choose the arcade game they want to play against the other contestant in for more points. After three rounds, the one with the most points would then compete for a bonus prize by playing the game they chose to play and get the average score among 20 professionals that have played the game before. If they did it, they would win the grand prize which consisted of either their own arcade game, a home entertainment robot, a jukebox, or even a vacation. Shows like this make me miss the 80s a lot, even if I never existed during that decade.
8. Cash Cab
Okay, this is one of those examples where I still consider it a game show even if it's not in a studio but instead in a cab, with multiple cameras rolling. Why is it in a cab? Here's the interesting part; random people hail for a cab in New York City and believe they're literally just in a regular cab, but what they don't know is that the cab driver is a game show host named Ben Bailey who hosts the show right in the cab they're sitting in by asking them random trivia questions while driving them to they're destination. If they make it to their destination without getting questions wrong three times, they win money depending on how many questions they answered correctly. If they strike out three times, they literally get dropped off wherever they are and lose their ride. It's great because contestants don't have to go through any audition process to get on the show. They just step in and have the chance to win money. Great host, great game show.
9. 1 vs. 100 (with Bob Saget hosting)
I must say, Bob Saget is one of the greatest game show hosts of all time, even if he only did this one for a short amount of time. He did so well with interacting with the contestants and the mob. I'm not saying he's the only reason why I watched this show, but he was the main highlight. For the show itself, it had a good premise to it. One contestant would try to outguess a hundred mob members on the same question and if the contestant got it right we would then see how many mob members got it wrong, and depending on how many got it wrong that contestant would earn a certain amount of money and the mob members who got it wrong would be eliminated. The goal of the game is to try and eliminate all 100 mob members to win a million dollars but if eventually if that contestant got the question wrong, the remaining mob contestants would split the money the contestant won. It was pretty awesome cause somebody would always win on that show, either the contestant or the mob. The cooler thing is that the mob featured a quite a few random celebrities as well who could be actors, sports stars, and of course previous game show winners. It was fun entertainment that only lasted a couple years which GSN decided to rip-off and change the top prize to $100,000 which isn't even close to as much as the last one. Either way, it was fun to watch when you had Bob Saget as the host.
10. Press Your Luck
I do love the literal meaning of the title. You press a button hoping it would land on money for you to win. As simple as that sounds, it's a lot harder than most game shows. You still have to answer questions to earn spins (more numbers of times to press the button to win money), but the harder part is actually pressing the button hoping it won't land on a whammy. That's right, these little red dudes that will take away every dollar you've earned and you would have to start all over again. But if that's not enough; if you land on a whammy 3 times, you're out of the game. It's a cruel game that's so much fun to watch. Just seeing the contestants about to press a button in the most dramatic way screaming "Big money! No whammies!" is such a delight. I do miss this show, but its still fun to remember.
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