Hello again!
This came up on a news feed: 7 of the greatest game show gimmicks of all time. It’s a list from a US perspective, which leads me to ponder: what would a UK equivalent look like? (Quick, efficient set-up, yeah?)
I reckon the major criteria are that the gimmick has to be fairly original, and has to have improved the show’s chances of being a hit. A few spring to mind, in no particular order:
1. The Lifelines on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Turned a simple multiple-choice quiz into one of the world’s most successful TV formats. Sure, there were a lot of other elements that fell into place as well, but without the lifelines, well, it just wouldn’t be the same show.
2. The flight simulator on Krypton Factor. True, Krypton Factor was still a great show before the flight simulator was introduced, and it was still quite good when revived without it. And it had plenty of other iconic elements – but the flight simulator was just Really Really Cool.
3. The conveyor belt on The Generation Game. It was a simple prop for a simple game, but everyone remembers it. The constant presence of a cuddly toy helped.
4. The spotlit chair on Mastermind. It’s just a chair (well actually it’s a quite upmarket designer chair) but stick it under a spotlight in a darkened room and… whoa! Instant terror!
5. The not-strictly Geordie but near-enough narrator on Big Brother. It was an all-conquering format anyway, but even if most people would struggle to put a name to the voice, Marcus Bentley’s undisguised (and often played-up) Teesside tones gave the show a distinct personality, and the entire country a target for bad impersonations.
6. Using an actual, dangerous weapon on The Golden Shot. It’s an actual real-life crossbow, the most feared and deadly weapon of the early middle-ages! On live TV! Quite frankly, an absolutely insane idea.
7. Anne Robinson being nasty to the contestants on Weakest Link. It’s a pretty good format and doesn’t really need gimmicks like this, but it’s what the viewing public latched onto. Bizarre that her persona here is almost the complete opposite of her other big quiz show, Test The Nation.
And a bonus gimmick that never quite took off:
8. Swotting up on someone else’s specialist subject. Introduced in The Syndicate, became the basis for Swapheads, and was played for laughs in Don’t Call Me Stupid. None of these shows made it to a second series, but someday, somehow, someone’s going to make a success out of this one.
Any more suggestions? There could be a “Good Game Guide” (or, um, “Article”) in this…
