Inspired by my recent Wheel of Fortune thread, I was wondering what other game shows spin the big wheel, for a majority of game play. (Press your Luck, and Whammy! need not apply, as I doubt the contestants would agree that the big board is a wheel, even if they earn “spins”.)
Then I got to thinking, Every Game show seems to have a unique presence. Right off the bat, I can only think of “Whats my Line?” and I’ve got a Secret" and “Funhouse” and “Legends of the Hidden Temple” being the most similar. Both focus on the same premise, just candy coated to one or the other’s theme. American Gladiators and GUTS also comes to mind. But I want to focus on the traditional stand at a podium for most of the game schema.
How about Greed and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The same idea with easy first round questions and then extremely difficult questions for higher amounts of money. Greed used teams unlike Millionaire which featured a single player.
A bunch of these shows came on when Millionaire became a hit. Weakest Link, Greed, 21, and a few others I’m sure I’ve forgotten.
The 1960’s game show “You Don’t Say” resembles “Password” quite a bit.
Some of the Barry-Enright programs of the 1970’s resemble more successful game shows of the same era. “Hollywood Connection” was a “Match Game” clone, "“Break the Bank” a “Hollywood Squares” clone.
Many of Bob Stewart’s game shows (especially starting in the mid-1970’s) used the same ideas over and over again.