Do you have traditions that you associate with the holidays? For some folks, that tradition involves seasonal baked goods with flavors and aromas that create a special aura. For others, it’s a beverage, perhaps a glass of eggnog or a mug of hot chocolate. In my family, there’s the annual Christmas jigsaw puzzle.
From my perspective, there are a couple great things about associating jigsaw puzzles with the holidays. For one, it gives me an automatic gift idea for my sister […]
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Teaching Dungeons & Dragons: Continuing the Years of Storytelling
It is always an exciting thing to have your personal hobbies suddenly become relevant to your work. But imagine my shock when I got asked by multiple teams here at The Strong Museum to run Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) games so that my colleagues could get familiar with the game in preparation for working on our Dungeons & Dragons: 50 Years of Storytelling exhibit!
While I have run multiple tabletop role-play games (TTRPG) for friends, I had only recently started dipping […]
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Bill Cullen: The Man Who Hosted 29 Game Shows
By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
The most prolific name in the history of game shows was a man who once admitted to TV Guide, “I’m certainly not the man who appeals to women ages 18-35.”
Bill Cullen was right about that. He appealed to everybody. For 40 years, he appeared on one game show or another; often one game show and another. His gigs overlapped and he had no qualms about taking on whatever work […]
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Hilarious Game Show Answers
By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
While going through some filing cabinets filled with memos and paperwork from the CBS game shows of the 1980s, we found a marvelous document titled, “I Heard It on the Pyramid-Vine.” The authors, Jerry Martz and Tom Buchanan, were CBS audio technicians. Both of them worked many tapings of The $25,000 Pyramid and The $100,000 Pyramid. As a refresher on these shows, celebrities and contestants teamed up for a […]
Hush Harbors: Life in the Toy Box
“You are a toy!” Could the oft-recited line from the 1995 feature film Toy Story—a beloved classic—hide a more profound meaning? The film’s portrayal of toys, which are sentient in their private world but lifeless in the presence of humans, can be interpreted as a commentary on the performative aspects of existence under oppressive systems. Moreover, it sketches a rough outline of a protective practice deployed by African Americans for centuries.
The central theme of Toy Story revolves around the life […]
Survey Says: How Family Feud Gets Its Answers
By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
“We surveyed 100 people. The top six answers are on the board…”
You probably easily guessed those iconic lines come from Family Feud. But have you ever wondered who those 100 people are?
Writing material and building each episode is plenty of work for any game show. When Family Feud started production in 1976, the staff took on an even bigger challenge. Not only would they write the material (the […]
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How *That* Microphone Became a Game Show Staple
By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
It seems strange that game shows have a signature microphone. If you watch a comedy sketch spoofing game shows, then the host character is usually holding a long, pencil-thin microphone. Watch reruns of classic game shows, or even the game shows of today, and you’ll see that same long, thin microphone. What happened? Why did the game show genre develop an affinity for such a specific microphone design?
The early […]
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Game Shows Have Scripts?
By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
The National Archives of Game Show History has been fortunate to have many eager contributors donate their prized possessions to be preserved. Among the many treasures that have been donated: set pieces, handheld props, question cards, photographs and slides, tickets, and scripts.
“Wait a minute, scripts? Game shows have scripts?” you might be asking.
Game shows do have scripts, but not in the sense you’re thinking. It’s important for everyone […]
Birth of the Modern Game Show
By Bob Boden, co-founder of the National Archives of Game Show History
On September 4, 1998, ITV network in the United Kingdom premiered a one-hour primetime game show called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It featured one contestant, sitting across from host Chris Tarrant, answering up to 15 multiple choice general knowledge questions of increasing values, from £100 to a top prize of £1 million. As long as the player answered questions correctly, they could remain in the “hot […]
