subject: Televison Lets Me Play The Games That I Enjoy [print this page] Television lets me Play the Games That I Enjoy
Ive always enjoyed solving crossword puzzles, even though I was never able to complete the one that appears in each Sundays edition of The New York Times too difficult for me. As a student in grade school right up to and through college, I actually looked forward to quizzes, even the ones for which there was no warning.
That love of answering questions has always translated well for me when it comes to my television experiences. TV has been, almost from the beginning, a home for people who like to solve puzzles and answer questions.
Travel back fifty years or so and the biggest hit show of the period was a half hour program entitled The $64,000 Question. Unlike todays big money quiz shows that give contestants all sorts of help in answering the questions, that first successful quiz show put its contestants in soundproof booths in order to isolate them from audience chatter and the possibility of actually hearing a correct answer.
The first contestant to win the big prize (and $64,000 was a big prize) was a man named Charles Van Doren. He had to answer questions given to him by the shows host, Hal March, that were extremely difficult and required extensive knowledge of the subject matter posed in the question. When Van Doren answered the final question to win the money, he became a national celebrity until, some time later, news leaked out that the shows producer had given him the answer in advance.
That revelation literally destroyed the quiz show format for many years, certainly programs in which the top prize was a significant amount of money. In time, however, audiences forgot about the scandal and quiz (or knowledge) shows found their way back on to the small screen.
It started slowly at first with the introduction of simple word games that required quick responses, but no special knowledge. There were other TV games in which cash prizes were awarded to contestants who could solve a picture puzzle. And still other shows that rewarded contestants who possessed no special knowledge of any subject, but were just plain lucky.
Through it all, I watched and enjoyed these shows, always hoping that a show which would challenge me and test my knowledge would someday show up on my TV screen. And thanks to the special genius of the late Merv Griffin, that day arrived.
Now, and for as far back as I can remember, I have been a fan of Jeopardy. I love to sit at home and respond to the answers with the correct question. And when I do, I often wonder how successful I would be if I had to do it on stage in front of a national TV audience.
I dont have that answer. But, I know this: my need to answer questions (or respond to answers with questions) is being satisfied five nights a week every time host Alex Trebek and Jeopardy fill up my TV screen.
