Hello to Scott and everyone else, I registered an account here about a month ago and have registered a handful of concepts, more to come in the future. One has already been reviewed by a very large production company, and I can only hope for more of the same to come in the future.
My specialty is in game shows, they are my personal favorite genre of TV shows and the one I have the most knowledge of, though I do dabble with sitcoms and reality now and then. My basic language and math skills stemmed from my seemingly constant watching of the games when I was young and to this day, I enjoy them just as much as I did back in the 80's.
In particular, Scott, I've noticed you said before that game shows are your particular favorite genre on TV. What exactly are your thoughts about the current status and future prospects of game shows? What is the TV executive's mindset today when it comes to producing/creating a game show?
In the 90's, with the exception of the 3 or 4 big mainstays that are the stalwarts of the genre even to this day, the genre was almost extinct. Come early 2000's, big money quiz shows were all the rage, but by the middle of the decade, that had faded, along with that initial glut of shows like Fear Factor that one might refer to as having quasi-game and reality aspects. Late 2000's had the luck-based games which now seemed to have past, no skin off my back there.
Today, a handful of classic formats are getting revivals, some with success, some not. Do you think this will continue for some time? As part of the large online game show community, my fellow fans and myself basically agree that companies aren't looking for pure/straightforward quiz shows anymore, but in the same breath, over 60+ years, it seems so many ideas have been tried/done at least once that trying to create a new game has the inevitability of drawing comparisons and ire from fans or veterans of a classic format from the likes of Goodson/Todman, Barry/Enright, Barris, Griffin, Heatter/Quiqley, etc.
In this vein, when writing treatments for game shows, and possibly many unscripted formats, we know it is vital that the rule sets and round-by-round breakdown for the show need to be included, a good logline be included, maybe a possible host candidate list, but is there really much else that one could do, without possibly going into too much detail or creating a rambling/repetitive sort of synopsis, to make a new game show concept appeal more to the modern mindset of television? Are there any particular types of games (word game vs quiz vs stunt, etc) that you think might become particularly "hot" in the near future?
As a fan of the genre itself, you probably believe like me the gameplay/play along factor should be the most important thing to focus on with a game show, but otherwise, to draw the necessary people in, do you believe the key lies in an engrossing logline, capable/entertaining host, or an intriguing title? While I hate to say it as such, if the gameplay were the true key factor anymore, a number of games that have made it to air these past few years would NOT have been picked up, if, for nothing else, that in some cases, they feature absolutely NO gameplay/play along factor at all.
As a fellow game show fan and one with experience in the industry, I'd be very interested in hearing what your opinions are with these topics, I'm rather sure you have plenty of them. Thanks for helping to maintain the site here and for your time in providing feedback on the industry's current status across the board. Let's hope the coming seasons are a whirlwind of positive activity in the game show genre!
