50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time (TV series)

The 50 Greatest Game Shows of All-Time was a series on GSN airing from July 18 2006 through August 31 2006, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 10 PM Eastern Time. Hosted by Bil Dwyer, the series counted down the 50 greatest American game shows of all time as chosen by GSN executives, who voted on the best game shows from a list of programs nationally broadcast in the United States since the 1940s.

Episodes airing in the countdown usually were rarely seen, classic or notable episodes of those shows of which episodes still exist, and which GSN had the rights to air. Two shows GSN programmed at the time of their presentation in the countdown—Beat the Clock and Jeopardy!—were not represented by an episode, while an episode of Shop 'til You Drop was featured, even though the program had never appeared on GSN before.

Each installment of the countdown featured either a single episode of an hour-long game show, or two half-hour episodes. Starting with number eight on the list, half-hour shows took the whole hour with two episodes. Shows that were not represented with actual airings of episodes were instead featured during the bumpers in the countdown, which displayed still production photographs of these series as Dwyer described them and their prominence.

GSN repeated this list starting May 5, 2007 on a once-a-week basis normally presented in two-hour installment episode blocks on Saturday nights, and ended as scheduled after eleven weeks on July 14, 2007.

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The list

Rank	Show	Airdates	Featured	Notes
50.	Three's a Crowd	SYN 1979 - 1980	July 18	The episode aired was the September 1979 premiere (and aired pilot,) which featured the infamous "Spaghetti" answer.
49.	Treasure Hunt	SYN 1973 - 1977 SYN 1981 - 1982	July 18	This 1974 episode featured one of the show's ten $25,000 wins. This was only the third time GSN aired The New Treasure Hunt, and the first time the episode has aired.
48.	Blockbusters	NBC 1980 - 1982 NBC 1987	July 19	This November 1980 episode featured contestant Larae Dillman, one of the biggest winners during the 1980 iteration of the show. Dillman later appeared on game shows The New $25,000 Pyramid and Russian Roulette.
47.	Studs	SYN 1991 - 1993	July 19	No Episode Aired
46.	Hollywood Showdown	GSN 2000 PAX (ION) 2000	July 19	This episode featured a $16,000 Box Office win.
45.	Shop 'Til You Drop	LIFE 1991 - 1996 FAM 1996 - 1998 PAX (ION) 2000 - 2006	July 20	This episode was from the Pat Finn PAX run and marks the first time that GSN has ever aired Shop 'Til You Drop. This was also an episode with a high score of 950 points.
44.	Truth or Consequences	NBC 1954 - 1965 SYN 1966 - 1975	July 20	No Episode Aired
43.	Tattletales	CBS 1974 - 1978 CBS 1982 - 1984 SYN 1977 - 1978	July 20	This 1974 episode featured William Shatner and Marcy Lafferty, George Hamilton and wife Alana, and Scoey and Claire Mitchell.
42.	Queen for a Day	NBC 1956 - 1960 ABC 1960 - 1964	July 20	No Episode Aired
41.	The $1.98 Beauty Show	SYN 1978 - 1980	July 25	This episode was the First One from September of 1978 to be broadcast.
40.	Twenty One	NBC 1956 - 1958 NBC 2000	July 25	No Episode Aired
39.	G.E. College Bowl	CBS 1959 - 1962 NBC 1962 - 1970	July 25	No Episode Aired
38.	Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck	GSN 2002 - 2003	July 25	This episode was from the first season of its 2002 run. It was fairly straight-forward, although this episode had an over $10,000 win and a few instances of Double Whammies.
37.	Greed	FOX 1999 - 2000	July 26	This 2000 episode featured Curtis Warren's million dollar win.
36.	Remote Control	MTV 1987 - 1990 SYN 1989	July 26	No Episode Aired
35.	Beat the Clock	CBS 1950 - 1958 ABC 1958 - 1961 SYN 1969 - 1974 CBS 1979 - 1980 PAX (ION) 2002	July 26	No Episode Aired
34.	Sale of the Century	NBC 1969 - 1973 SYN 1973 - 1974 NBC 1983 - 1989 SYN 1985 - 1986	July 27	No Episode Aired
33.	Dog Eat Dog	NBC 2002 - 2003	July 27	This episode featured the strip putting challenge.
32.	Tic-Tac-Dough	NBC 1956 - 1959 CBS/SYN 1978 - 1986 SYN 1990 - 1991	August 1	This 1980 episode featured Thom McKee's last win from the 1978-1986 rendition of the show.
31.	You Bet Your Life	NBC 1950 - 1961	August 1	No Episode Aired
30.	Card Sharks	NBC 1978 - 1981 CBS 1986 - 1989 SYN 1986 - 1987 SYN 2001 - 2002	August 1	This was Norma Brown's $28,800 win playing the Money Cards, the only maximum win the show had (aside from one of the pilot episodes). This episode aired in November of 1978.
29.	Scrabble	NBC 1984 - 1990 NBC 1993	August 1	No Episode Aired
28.	The $64,000 Question	CBS 1955 - 1958	August 2	No Episode Aired
27.	Win Ben Stein's Money	COM 1997 - 2003	August 2	This episode from Jimmy Kimmel's tenure as co-host featured the first contestant to get a perfect score of 10 in the final round.
26.	Deal or No Deal	NBC 2005 - present	August 2	No Episode Aired
25.	Password Plus Super Password	NBC 1979 - 1982 NBC 1984 - 1989	August 2	An episode of Password Plus aired, in which featured future GSN President Rich Cronin as a contestant, who won a total of $3,300. The episode aired in June of 1979
24.	Win, Lose or Draw	NBC/SYN 1987 - 1990	August 3	This episode was from the first week of the syndicated Bert Convy version (1987). It featured celebrity guest (and executive producer) Burt Reynolds explaining the origins of the show.
23.	The Joker's Wild	CBS 1972 - 1975 SYN 1977 - 1986 SYN 1990 - 1991	August 3	This episode was from 1984, the final year Jack Barry hosted.
22.	Weakest Link	NBC 2001 - 2002 SYN 2002 - 2003	August 8	An episode from the George Gray version aired, in which the "chain" actually reached the top and was won and doubled in the second-to-last round. Also featured George doing an Anne Robinson imitation when a British-born contestant was voted off.
21.	I've Got a Secret	CBS 1952 - 1967 SYN 1972 - 1973 CBS 1976 OXY 2001 GSN 2006 - present	August 8	An episode was featured from the 1972 - 1973 syndicated run with Steve Allen as host with Amarillo Slim and Milton Berle.
20.	Concentration	NBC 1958 and 1961 NBC 1958 - 1973 SYN 1973 - 1978 NBC 1987 - 1991	August 9	No Episode Aired
19.	To Tell the Truth	CBS 1956 - 1968 SYN 1969 - 1978 SYN 1980 - 1981 NBC 1990 - 1991 SYN 2000 - 2002	August 9	This episode from the 1977-1978 Syndicated Joe Garagiola era features Frank Abagnale, a world-renowned con artist. He was the subject of the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can, which featured a re-creation of this episode's opening sequence.
18.	Love Connection	SYN 1983 - 1994 SYN 1998 - 1999	August 9	This 1990 episode featured a divorced contestant; when he was married, he had appeared on The Newlywed Game. Chuck Woolery, this program's host, has publicly stated on Biography that he does not believe Love Connection was a game show.
17.	Name That Tune	NBC/CBS 1953 - 1959 NBC/SYN 1974 - 1981 SYN 1984 - 1985	August 10	No Episode Aired
16.	Lingo	SYN 1987 - 1988 GSN 2002 - present	August 10	Two episodes were aired. One was the first episode ever aired of GSN's version, in August of 2002, where two Canadian-born contestants only won $500. The other featured Shandi Finnessey as co-host, the largest jackpot won of season five, and an appearance by Chuck's son, Sean. Aired in 2006. No mention was made of the original 1987 series.
15.	Password	CBS 1961 - 1967 ABC 1971 - 1975	August 15	This episode from 1967 featured Tony Randall, one of the series' best players, and Polly Bergen.
14.	What's My Line?	CBS 1950 - 1967 SYN 1968 - 1975	August 15	This episode from 1973 featured then-governor of Georgia and future president Jimmy Carter. The mystery guest was Joan Fontaine.
13.	''Press Your Luck	CBS 1983 - 1986	August 16	The two episodes featured from June of 1984, were those of infamous Michael Larson's appearance. He won $110,237 in his one appearance on PYL. Even though only one game was played, CBS split the game into two episodes due to its length.
12.	The Gong Show	NBC/SYN 1976 - 1980 SYN 1989	August 17	Featured Steve Martin as a judge.
11.	Hollywood Squares	NBC 1966 - 1981 SYN 1971 - 1981 SYN 1986 - 1989 SYN 1998 - 2004	August 17	A typical syndicated episode from 1972 aired, hosted by Peter Marshall.
10.	The Dating Game	ABC 1965 - 1973 SYN 1973 - 1974 SYN 1978 - 1980 SYN 1986 - 1989 SYN 1996 - 1999	August 22	This episode, hosted by Jim Lange, featured Andy Kaufman (using an alias), as a bachelor. He spoke, and acted, like his Taxi character Latka.
9.	The Newlywed Game	ABC 1966 - 1974 ABC 1967 - 1971 SYN 1977 - 1980 ABC 1984 SYN 1985 - 1989 SYN 1997 - 2000	August 22	This episode from the 1977 syndicated edition featured the infamous "In the butt, Bob" response.
8.	Pyramid	CBS 1973 - 1974 ABC 1974 - 1980 SYN 1974 - 1979 SYN 1981 CBS 1982 - 1987 SYN 1985 - 1988 CBS 1988 SYN 1991 - 1992 SYN 2002 - 2004	August 23	Two episodes were aired; One was from The $20,000 Pyramid featuring Sal Viscuso and Billy Crystal playing against each other. That episode aired in 1979 and showcased the clip of Billy Crystal's record Winner's Circle win, as the original episode was destroyed by ABC. The other was an episode of The $100,000 Pyramid from the 1986-1987 season which featured a $100,000 tournament win, with celebrities Shelley Smith and LeVar Burton.
7.	Let's Make a Deal	NBC 1963 - 1968 ABC 1968 - 1976 SYN 1971 - 1977 SYN 1980 - 1981 SYN 1984 - 1986 NBC 1990 - 1991 NBC 2003	August 24	Two nighttime episodes aired: one from 1972, and the other featuring the first Super Deal win from 1976.
6.	Wheel of Fortune	NBC 1975 - 1989 SYN 1983 - present CBS 1989 - 1991 NBC 1991	August 29	No Episode Aired
5.	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire	ABC 1999 - 2002 SYN 2002 - present ABC 2004	August 29	This episode featured David Goodman's $1,000,000 win.
4.	The Price is Right	NBC 1956 - 1963 ABC 1963 - 1965 SYN 1972 - 1980 CBS 1972 - present SYN 1985 - 1986 SYN 1994 - 1995	August 30	No Episode Aired
3.	Family Feud	ABC 1976 - 1985 SYN 1977 - 1985 CBS 1988 - 1993 SYN 1988 - 1995 SYN 1999 - present	August 30	The first episode was from the first broadcasted month (July of 1976) of the Dawson run. This featured the famous questions and answers, "Name a time when most people get up: Morning" and "Name a time when most people go to bed: Night" (which earned two points). The second episode was another Dawson episode, from 1980, this time featuring a big winning family, the Dodge family.
2.	Jeopardy!	NBC 1964 - 1975 SYN 1974 - 1975 NBC 1978 - 1979 SYN 1984 - present ABC 1990	August 31	No Episode Aired
1.	Match Game	NBC 1962 - 1969 CBS 1973 - 1979 SYN 1975 - 1982 ABC 1990 - 1991 SYN 1998 - 1999	August 31	The first episode was from 1978 featuring the star wheel and the first $10,000 win. This was also the last episode with the predominantly orange set before the change to the mostly blue set. The second episode featured the infamous 1977 "school riot."

50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time (TV series)

The list

See Also

Ballbreakers

FSN Final Score

BU Tonight

On The Cover (game show)

Game On (G4 television)