10. Blankety Blanks. Bill Cullen has hosted 23 game shows, the most of any host. Some shows he hosted ran 13 weeks but Blankety Blanks had the shortest run of any show he ran. Coming from producer Bob Stewart, two celebrity-contestant teams played to solve a word puzzle. The player who solves the puzzle gets to solve a Blankety Blank, which was usually a pun. The winner got the money, which was determined by electronic cards that were inserted into a device on Cullen's desk. The losing team received a strike. Three strikes and the player was finished. After four weeks, the format was changed to a team who earns $2500 wins the game. The game itself was too slow and the puns weren't good. After 10 weeks, Blankety Blanks went blank and was replaced by the show it replaced, reruns of The Brady Bunch.
9. Celebrity Bullseye. The production team of Jack Barry and Dan Enright were on a roll with revivals of The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough have successful runs in syndication. In 1980, a third show from the duo debuted titled Bullseye with Jim Lange as host. The show did well in its first season and was renewed for a second. Three months into the second season, the show changes format and becomes Celebrity Bullseye, with celebrity contestants playing for charity. Here's where the show goes downhill. The questions are all multiple choices and even worse, the celebrities keep asking for the three choices to be repeated on most of the questions, slowing down the pace of the game. An enjoyable show in its first season later becomes unwatchable. Fortunately, the show ended production after two seasons.
8. That ****Quiz Show. Comedy game shows have had a checkered history since You Bet Your Life went off the air in 1961. Hollywood Squares and the 70s incarnation of Match Game were two hit game shows that had successful long runs. But there have been other comedy games that came and went such as Make Me Laugh, Can You Top This and Laff-A-Thon. The latter was a short-lived show on Showtime that was hosted by comedian Jimmy Brogan. In 1982, there was That **** Quiz Show, the only show hosted by twin midget brothers John & Greg Rice. The show featured three contestant teams of two who had unusual occupations or claims to fame. The scoring system was similar to You Bet Your Life whereas a team started with $500 and could bet as much money as the want on each question. Whoever had the highest score came back for a bonus question. All the questions had four possible answers and there was at least one per show that kept making fun of the blogger's former home state New Jersey. The show turned out to be a flop and ended production after 13 weeks.
7. That's Amore. Based on an Italian game show, the show used the same host as the originating country, Luca Barbesheri. Three couples aired gripes about each other and the audience voted for the couple who was right about their beefs. Is this a game show? This sounds more like topics for talk shows hosted by Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos, etc. The only good thing about the show was that the theme song was the show's title, a hit song by Dean Martin. Otherwise, it was a terrible premise that lasted only a season in syndication.
6. Treasure Isle. Though Treasure Isle made game show history in 1967 by becoming the first outdoor daytime game show to be taped in Florida. Backed by millionaire John D. MacArthur and taped at his Colonnades Hotel in Palm Beach Shores, the show defied the criteria for a hit show. The rules were too complicated to follow and the home audience was not involved in the show, they were more of a spectator. It was the only game show John Bartholomew Tucker hosted and he closed each slow with the line "When you head for home, you gotta slide."
5. The Magnificent Marble Machine. Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley were best known for creating game shows with larger than life sets such as Video Village, Hollywood Squares and the kids game show Runaround. But in 1975, they created a show that would tun out to be a major flop. Two celebrity contestant teams played a word game where clues came on an electronic screen. The first team to get five (later four) correct answers went on to play a giant pinball machine to win prizes. If they reached a goal of 15,000 points that would go down by 1,000 until it was won, they team would play the all cash gold moneyball. The show's pinball format was boring since it's more of a participant game and not much of a game for spectators. Also, the machine kept breaking down and the balls had to be repainted after each game. Worse, the game went through a number of format changes, which is usually a sign of a bad show. In addition to the changes in the pinball game, that included only bumpers counting for prizes, the show also changed to an all-celebrity format, usually the kiss of death for any game show. HSGN can only describe this show in one word, TILT!
4. Three's a Crowd. Did Chuck Barris go too far with this show, that had the premise of "Who knows a man best, his wife or his secretary? The show was structured similar to The Newlywed Game and it drew fire from groups such as the National Organization from Women that cause Barris to yank the show from syndication in the spring of 1980. The backlash hurt him so much that he also ended production on his other shows, including The Dating Game and the Newlywed Game. As for host Jim Peck, he would move from this turkey to substituting for Jack Barry as host on The Joker's Wild and was set to take over as permanent host in the fall of 1984. But Barry died of a heart attack in May and Dan Enright decided to go with Bill Cullen instead of Peck.
3. You're in the Picture. The shortest lived of any of the shows on this list, it was hosted by Jackie Gleason and aired on January 20, 1961. Four panelists stuck their head through cardboard cutouts and through questions b Gleason, they had to guess the setting that was depicted. One of the biggest game show bombs of all-time. The following weak, Gleason appeared solo and made a half hour apology for the travesty that occurred the previous week. The following week, Gleason returned with a variety show before beginning the American Scene magazine in 1962. Unfortunately, this was his only game show and it wasn't in the picture for a long run.
2. Card Sharks (2001 version). The first two incarnations of Card Sharrks had two three year runs and were hosted by Jim Perry and Bob Eubanks. A syndicated version also aired with Bill Rafferty as host. Those versions were simple, fast paced gambling games that involved the home audience, especially when the home viewer could guess how many people responded to a poll of 100 people. But the 2001 version was a totally different show that was hosted by Pat Bullard and produced by FremantleMedia got rid of what was the best part of the game, the survey questions. Instead, they went to a straight seven card game. But in order to change the card, they could use a "Clip Chip', that showed a "Street Smarts" like situation and if they predicted the correct outcome, they got to change the card. The only part of the game that didn't change was the money cards. That was the good news. The bad news was this version of Card Sharks had a much shorter run than its predecessors.
And now for the number one worst game show of all-time...
1. The Neighbors. Hosted by Regis Philbin, the show featured five female neighbors, with two serving as contestants and the other three comprising the panel. The premise was to find out how well the neighbors know each other. Who cares what Neighbor A said about Neighbor B or what Neighbor C would say about Neighbor D? It was a show that left the viewer as a spectator and had no real value at all. It wasn't an interesting show to watch. The good news was that more than 20 years after The Neighbors was mercifully canceled, Philbin would redeem himself with the prime time game show hit Who Wants to be a Millionaire? where he created one of the famous game show catch phrases "Is that your final answer?" HSGN's final answer is The Neighbors is the worst game show of all-time.
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