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June 28, 2004 To me, game shows and sporting events represent the ultimate in Reality TV. Shows like Survivor, The Bachelor and American Idol are ridiculous, schmaltzy, highly-coordinated imitators of the breed, lots of sound and fury signifying less than nothing. Or, in modern parlance, they’ve jumped the shark and they aren’t coming back. My first exposure to Reality TV came in the 1970s. My sister, a huge fan of the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team, would have me watching games along with her, living and dying with the boys in the baby blue. And she introduced me to tennis legends like Bjorn Borg and Martina Navratilova while watching Wimbledon and the US Open during the summer. When I wasn’t in school as a kid, I’d get to watch some of the great game shows, like The Joker’s Wild and Match Game. Even after I got to college, I always tried to arrange my morning schedule so that I could catch Sale of the Century on NBC or The $25,000 Pyramid on CBS. And at night, I’d feast on the most popular game- show tandem in history, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Anyone here beside me remember when ABC used to show Monday Night Baseball? Yeah, Monday Night Baseball! Before the era of superstations and sports networks, you could tune in on Monday nights in the summertime and watch the hottest teams in the game. Sunday-night NFL football wasn’t a weekly thing. Back in the day, it was a treat, manna from Heaven for the football junky who craved one more game before calling it a night. Thursday-night games were even more special, because a game in the middle of the week was almost unheard of in those days. I have felt the electricity of the Golden Medley Showdown, Name That Tune’s great Tournament of Champions equalizer that often decided who was worthy of that fire-engine red Pontiac Fiero. I have played along on countless occasions with regular, everyday folks fortunate enough to make it onto Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (both the Regis and Meredith versions, thank you). I have screamed at contestants to stop the Range Finder on The Price Is Right more times than I care to count. And I have urged those people in the silly costumes to take the refrigerator in the box, instead of going for the mule behind Curtain #2, on Let’s Make A Deal. What makes game shows and sporting events the ultimate in Reality TV is watching the human drama unfold right before your eyes. There’s no way to know who’s going to win or how. Just ask the Detroit Pistons, who dominated a Los Angeles Lakers team that had been all but assured victory in the 2004 NBA Finals. Better yet, ask Ken Jennings, the trivia wunderkind who recently shattered every Jeopardy! record imaginable. This is tension, stress, and fear at its peak, and it can only be released through the crushing depression of defeat or the exhilarating joy of victory. Unless, of course, it’s a regular- season NHL game, which is just as likely to end in a fruitless tie. The other thing, too, is that these shows provide people to care about. Someone’s gotta win, and someone’s got to be an underdog in the fight. The Yankees fall into this category— they’re loved and hated so fiercely, there’s no middle ground. So, too, do the Dallas Cowboys. And how about Michael Larsen and Thom McKee, two big game show winners who racked up hundreds of thousands in cash and prizes in a time where it was much tougher to do so? The new breed of Reality TV could take a lesson from the sporting events and game shows. That lesson is, be real! ------------ About the author: An avid game show fan, Claxton Graham has tried (and failed) to get on both Jeopardy! and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He still has the desire to get on both, as well as The Price Is Right. He also enjoys watching sports on TV, especially the New Orleans Hornets, the Washington Redskins, the North Carolina Tar Heels and the NC State Wolfpack. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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