On ABC in the US this last week an exciting new (old?) block of shows, Sunday Fun and Games, starring Celebrity Family Feud (a known entity), The $100,000 Pyramid and Match Game, all shows that have been done before (indeed C/FF has been a going concern for a while), Pyramid recently on GSN, Match Game variously in the 90s (and quite recently on Canadian television, both English language and Quebecois).
They are certainly findable if you know where to look and are willing to put up with pop-up ads (irritatingly if you want to use magic to use ABC Go you need to wait for over a week to watch “officially” unless you have a subscriber number).
The new shows are both very good, slick productions very true to the originals, albeit with more whooping. Also an hour of them feels a bit too much, Pyramid is tight but repetitive, Match Game has a bitty-ness that begins to grate three-quarters in. Both feature two full games (and Pyramid makes no secret of the fact it’s just two episodes from two tapings back to back), it’s almost a shame they don’t do The Pyramid Match Game Hour for twice the number of weeks.
I enjoyed Alec Baldwin hosting although the scripted gags felt a bit too scripted. Michael Strahan was confident, if a bit blandly competent. The sets terrific – loved the trilon screens on the Pyramid, for example.
Everything seemed to do fairly well, it remains to be seen if anyone will try anything like this over here, although with ITV apparently resting many of their remade hits maybe now is not the time.
Sky One’s The Big Spell films end of July/beginning of August at Brentford:
http://www.sroaudiences.com/application.asp?show_id=1746
I agree with everything you say. I wonder if German telly could want to do the Match Game as well. Celebrity Family Feud was cancelld after two seasons about two years ago (hosted by Daniel Hartwich on RTL) and the Pyramid is one of the biggest fails of ZDF afternoon telwvision in the last couple of years (they finished airing the season on tiny digital channel ZDFneo after two weeks or so). The problem with Match Game (my favourite of those shows) is the lack of a cult status in Germany. It aired for about 5 years in the 80s/90s or so, but on two different channels in three different versions, so there is no loyal fan base. With all the remakes coming up on RTLplus soon, I hope they will consider producing a German Match Game soon.
I vaguely remember Punkte, Punkte, Punkte in the TV guides but never really watched it.
official TV schedules were announced today in Italy
Avanti Un Altro! is NOT going to air in the next season but Bonolis renewed the contract with Mediaset so it’s likely that AUA! and Ciao Darwin (plus a non-game program) will return in 2017.
the first Italian season of Celebrity Big Brother will air in October on Canale 5, hosted by Ilary Blasi, the wife of football star Francesco Totti.
Rischiatutto is confirmed! a nine episode series of the Jeopardy! revival will start in October on RAI3
Can’t help but think that if Match Game (as BB) came back at the moment it’d be done as a full Lemon-esque itv 2 production. Eugh.
Whereas, what both of these shows (but particularly pyramid) would be perfect for is the 8/10 cats treatment.
As an aside, apparently the Iceland/England Euro match got 99.8% of the audience in Iceland…I suspect the other 0.2% fell asleep and forgot to change the channel beforehand…
just wanted to share how I watch the Euros in Italy: with ironic commentary and cartoon sound effects during the highlights 😀