ABC
America has long-held a fascination for rooting for everyday people competing for a chance to win fabulous prizes and money on game shows, which trace their roots back to radio and to television when it was still in its infancy stages. The very first TV game show was called Spelling Bee and it was broadcast all the way back in 1938. However, the first game show to air on commercially licensed television was Truth or Consequences in 1941. Game shows became a television staple by the 1950s thanks to the popularity of Twenty One and The $64,000 Question.
Television producers love game shows because they cost far less to produce than comedies or dramas, and they can be churned out much faster. And if a game show becomes popular enough to last through several reincarnations, you have a winning formula for success. Why would you do anything to change it? That must be how ABC feels, bringing back the fan favorite The $100,000 Pyramid with host Michael Strahan of Good Morning America fame. When I first heard the revival news, I thought Strahan was an interesting, but odd, choice to wear the hosting shoes once filled by the one-and-only Dick Clark.
I love game shows as much as anyone. My game show watching roots began with The Price Is Right every time I stayed home from school, to watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! at night with my grandparents. When my mother and stepfather got cable in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, suddenly my game show options increased. One of my favorites to watch was always The $25,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark.
The format was pretty simple: you had two contestants each paired with a celebrity guest star. Partners would take turns giving each other clues in an attempt to get their teammate to say all 7 keywords during each 30-second round. The name of the show is indicative of its signature pyramid-shaped game board, which had six categories arranged in a triangle per round. Whichever team had the highest score after three 30-second rounds went on to the Winner’s Circle, where they had a chance to win the ultimate prize money by completing the final pyramid-shaped game board.
In the event of a tie, the teams would each play another round (sometimes more than one) with words that began with a specific letter before the successful team went to the Winner’s Circle (if they had to go to a third tie breaker, the team who got to 7 points the fastest would win). In the $100,000 format, they had a chance to win $50,000 the first time they made it to the Winner’s Circle, and if they managed to get back to the Winner’s Circle a second time once they’d switched celebrity partners for the second round of competition, they could try to add another $50,000 to their total prize money (it seemed most were not very successful). And who could forget about the ever-exciting Mystery 7 round? One category would have a mystery theme and if the pair who had selected it got all 7 keywords correct, the contestant would win an exotic trip envied by many.
The category names were usually outrageous puns or colorful phrases, as were the types of clues they would give each other without being able to utter the actual word itself. The celebrities were a treat because you never knew what type of off-color remark someone like Vicki Lawrence, Nipsey Russell, Billy Crystal, Betty White, William Shatner, Michael J. Fox or Rob Reiner would make during each round of play. But that was most of the fun! Along with the witty banter from Clark himself. I believe Dick Clark was one of the most personable game show hosts ever, and he is still sorely missed.
Did you know this game show actually dates back to 1973 when it was known as The $10,000 Pyramid? Dick Clark hosted it from 1973 to 1988 except for the syndicated The $25,000 Pyramid that was hosted by Bill Cullen from 1974 to 1979. The show briefly came back as The $100,000 Pyramid in 1991 with host John Davidson and again in 2002 with Donny Osmond as host. Game Show Network also brought it back in 2012, calling it simply The Pyramid with host Mike Richards. This makes the current The $100,000 Pyramid at least the sixth reincarnation of the program. What can longtime fans expect? It’s about as close to the original as it can get sans actually digging up Dick Clark and making his corpse serve hosting duties again. Although that’s certainly a morbidly entertaining notion!
ABC
Strahan makes a decent enough host (I do like the guy and thought he got a raw deal when he got cut from Live! with Kelly and Michael earlier this year), but I don’t feel like he has enough charisma to carry the show very long before viewers may begin to feel like it’s just another rehashed show that wishes it were still in its heyday. Although they do have some interesting celebrity guest stars lined up for the first four episodes, ranging from comedians Sherri Shepherd and Anthony Anderson to personalities such as Rosie O’Donnell and Kathy Najimy (Najimy was actually a winning contestant during the Dick Clark era before she was a celebrity and yes, they do show a clip!), to Saturday Night Live alumni Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer, to a showdown between Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and Sex and the City’s Mario Cantone. I found myself a little surprised at how competitive some of these celebrities can be with one another (although it’s all in good fun). And we definitely have some screamers among the competitors – it’s always a good thing when a contestant shows over-enthusiasm about being on a game show. That’s the other half of the fun!
ABC
The set has been modernized, but it remains fairly faithful to the original. As soon as the familiar strains of the theme song came on, I was nostalgically transported back to the Dick Clark era of greatness. Until I saw categories such as “’Sup,” “A Cry for Yelp,” and “I Got You, Bae.” Damn millennials. Maybe the original categories weren’t quite as witty as I remember, but they had to have been better than some of these! The format and overall feel of the show are also faithful. Look for a great clue about Donald Trump that made me chuckle. And an infuriatingly frustrating round in which the category was “Things That Sting” and the guy giving the clues says everything from needles to rays, but fails to state the obvious one: bees! *face palm*
ABC
Will America learn to love The $100,000 Pyramid without Dick Clark this time around? Beginning June 26, it’s slated to air on ABC on Sundays at 9 p.m. followed by the revival of other longtime fan favorite Match Game, this time hosted by Alec Baldwin. I’d put my money on Baldwin being more successful at handling the hosting duties of a primetime game show than Strahan, but only time will tell.
Share this post
