Game Show Network

[dth1971]

Are there any fans of the cable channel Game Show Network? This 24 hour cable channel shows classic game shows (i.e. "Match Game", "Family Feud", "Let's Make a Deal", "Press Your Luck", "What's My Line", "Win Lose or Draw", and "To Tell The Truth") and newer current ones (i.e. "Whammy!", "Cram", and "National Lampoon's Funny Money"). To compete with G4, GSN is adding a 2 hour weekend (non game show related) video games block this month.

For an alternative to GSN: There's Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids (Nick GAS) which mostly shows reruns of 1980's and 1990's Nickelodeon kids game shows (i.e. "Double Dare", "Finders Keepers", and "Figure it Out").

[Classic Speedy]

I watched Game Show Network a LOT in the 2nd half of my Freshman year of college. I'd watch Press Your Luck and Weakest Link in the morning, then Whammy!, Win Tuition, Lingo, Cram, and Family Feud in the afternoon, and, if I was really bored, another Lingo at night. Don't worry- I have since grew out of that obsessive phase and now I only watch when I have absolutely nothing to do (which isn't very often!). I watched a single episode of Funny Money and thought it was the stupidest game show I've ever seen. The questions are SO easy and the money is huge. It's like the 1st round of Millionaire for an entire half hour! So I used to watch GSN much more, but I've definitely lost a lot of interest in it. And no, I don't have NickGAS (I saw a free preview weekend on Dish, but that was it).

[Carolina Red]

I watched a single episode of Funny Money and thought it was the stupidest game show I've ever seen. The questions are SO easy and the money is huge. It's like the 1st round of Millionaire for an entire half hour!

Isn't that show supposed to be similar to Comedy Central's "Make Me Laugh?" I notice that a good amount of comedians show up on it all of the time, but I haven't seen a full episode of it.

"Make Me Laugh" was probably the worst game show I've seen. The reason why none of those people laughed was because most of the comedians on the show weren't very funny! (i did like Jonathan Katz though....much better by himself than on that other show)

By the way, I heard that GSN had a documentary about the Press Your Luck contest who memorized the lights and broke the show's system. I missed it when it first came on; I'd really like to see it sometime.

[Mysterious Saturn]

To compete with G4, GSN is adding a 2 hour weekend (non game show related) video games block this month.

It's not much of a competition actually. The shows GSN are going to air are the Gamer.TV shows from the UK. They've already been airing on G4 for almost a year now. They're not even that great actually. I also don't like the ad campaign for it. Who uses the word "ill" for anything other than sickness?


And yes, I do have Nick GAS and I love it! Well, not really. I watch it every once in awhile when I'm feeling nostalgic.

[Classic Speedy]

Isn't that show supposed to be similar to Comedy Central's "Make Me Laugh?" I notice that a good amount of comedians show up on it all of the time, but I haven't seen a full episode of it.

"Make Me Laugh" was probably the worst game show I've seen. The reason why none of those people laughed was because most of the comedians on the show weren't very funny! (i did like Jonathan Katz though....much better by himself than on that other show)

By the way, I heard that GSN had a documentary about the Press Your Luck contest who memorized the lights and broke the show's system. I missed it when it first came on; I'd really like to see it sometime.

OK, here's the format for Funny Money: You've got 3 contestants who are asked unbelievably easy pop culture questions in round one. They use the money to bet on how much a comedian will make the audience laugh. Round 2: A bunch of photos are pulled from the Funny Money website and the contestants vote on which zinger about the pic will get the biggest laugh. Finally round 3 has a comedian performing their act and then the contestants have to answer questions about the act. Now is that an easy game show or what? NO advanced knowledge is needed and atleast 1/2 of the show is based on pure luck, based on what the audience will do. Meh... and I liked Make Me Laugh. It didn't require ANY talent other than refusing to laugh, but that was the point. It was pure comedy and I discovered some new (to me) comedians from that show (prop comic The Legendary Wid, Mark Cohen). True, Make Me Laugh also had betting, but it seemed more fair; atleast you were only voting on whether the person would laugh or not, not an entire audience's reaction. And Dr. Katz was an awesome show. Finally... (WHEW!) the documentary was called Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal and was hosted by none other than former PYL host Peter Tomarken. It was about Michael Larson, a simple small town man who won $110,237 in a show stretched across two episodes. They showed most of the two episodes during the 2 hour special, and even showed a few seconds of unaired footage. The interesting thing about the special was how it made Larson seem inhuman, simply because he could nail the board within microseconds. They would literally slo-mo the tape and show how fast he pushed that button and then show how fast he reacted to the win. I'm not sure if GSN will air it soon; it aired last in March 2003. Well, that was an exhaustive response!