Game Shows Galore!

It's certainly been an exciting time for game shows. With the cancellation of CBS's long running soap opera The Guiding Light, an hour of television has opened up on the daytime schedule. Much to my delight, CBS has decided to not fill this hour with another soap opera, and instead put two half-hour game shows there. And they're not just any old game shows, either. They're both classics.

The first game show they're considering is a new revival of Pyramid. Set to be called "The $1,000,000 Pyramid," it is a near perfect remake of the classic Dick Clark era shows. Those who saw the 2002 Donny Osmond remake need not fear. They did it right this time.

The rules are exactly the same as in the old days: the contestants and their celebrity partners have 30 seconds to guess seven subjects in the six categories on the main game's pyramid. The team with the most points after all six categories (and any necessary tiebreakers) have been played goes on to the Winner's Circle, where they attempt to guess six new categories in less than 60 seconds. Word on the street is that the prize money is $25,000 if they conquer the pyramid once, and $50,000 if they do it twice in the same show. That means someone can potentially win $75,000 in a single episode, and that's before any bonuses that may occur in the main game!

Just as before, there will be periodic tournaments throughout the series. A successful climb up the pyramid in the tournaments is worth the titular $1 million. I'm very excited about this show.

The set for the pilot was incredible - it was a perfect recreation of the classic Clark era set, albeit with a "$1,000,000" sign at the top of the pyramid. They even had trilons on the pyramid during the pilot - personally, I hope those stay for the real thing. Photos of the pilot set can be found here.

And before you ask, no, there's not a host yet.

The other game show they're considering is a remake of Monty Hall's greatest achievement: Let's Make a Deal. The best way to describe this show is just pure comedy with prizes thrown in. For those unfamiliar with how the game works, I'll do a brief explanation.

The easiest way to start it off is by quoting the introduction of the show: "These people, dressed as they are, have come from across the country to make deals here in the marketplace of America - LET'S MAKE A DEAL!"

There's a key phrase in there - "dressed as they are." You see, while most game shows have contestants in business casual attire, Let's Make a Deal is completely different. The entire audience is dressed in outlandish costumes, and for good reason. The contestants are picked from the audience at the sole discretion of the host. A good costume could lead to your chance to play for some big prizes.

As far as the actual game goes, each episode is a little different. Each of the chosen contestants plays a different game in which they make deals with the host for prizes, either seen onstage or concealed behind boxes or one of three curtains, while at the same time trying to avoid ending up with a useless booby prize (formally referred to on the show as a "zonk"), such as a giant high chair, a box of packing peanuts, or even live animals. (In fact, there's a famous blooper that likes to make clip shows of an elephant who decided to relieve himself on camera right as the curtain opened. But I digress.)

At the end of the show, two of the contestants get to play in the Big Deal of the Day, in which they can trade away whatever they won during the course of the program for a shot at the day's Big Deal, containing the most expensive prizes of that episode. The catch is that there are three possible deals that they can choose, each concealed behind a big door, and only one of them is the Big Deal. It's always an exciting round.

Of course, a great part of the show's charm was in its cast. The host was Monty Hall, who had a remarkable ability to interact with the audience and read people instantly. His sidekick was his announcer and Zonk Master, Jay Stewart. And who could forget the lovely Carol Merrill, the prize model - she modeled everything from color TVs to brand new cars with extreme class, and was often the first thing people thought of when they heard the name of the show. In other words, she was the Vanna White of the 1970s.

Nowadays, the original cast is much too old to perform on this version. But that didn't stop the producers (which include Monty Hall, who actually created and produced the original program) from picking incredible new personalities to fill their roles.

The role of announcer, sidekick, and Zonk Master, formerly held by Jay Stewart, is now filled by Jonathan Mangum. You may not recognize the name, but he was involved with The Drew Carey Show and Drew Carey's Green Screen Show; he also toured with Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars. This choice of a relative unknown will make sense in just a moment.

The new model on the show (at least on the pilot) is Rachel Reynolds. I'm very excited about this choice. She's one of the models on The Price is Right, and has been my personal favorite one for a long time now. She's apparently a lot of people's favorite too, seeing that she appeared the most out of any of The Price is Right models during season 37 (she was on an incredible 161 out of 190 episodes!).

As a small personal note, Rachel attended LSU (my alma mater), where she was on the track team. Her bio (and photo from 10 years ago) is actually still on LSU's website (click here to see it).

Now for the big one. Monty Hall personally chose his successor, and he did so brilliantly. He chose a man who was very capable of audience interaction, is famous for his quick wit, has experience on multiple television and stage shows, and (what some may say is most important on a show like this) already has chemistry with his announcer and sidekick, as they've had a stage show together in Las Vegas for quite some time now.

He was also friends with Tigger at Walt Disney World during his college years.

Ladies and gentlemen, here he is, America's New Big Dealer, Wayne Brady!

I honestly cannot think of a better choice. After seeing Wayne perform on Whose Line is it Anyway, there is no doubt in my mind that he can do this. All reports that I've read from the pilot indicate that he did a wonderful job, and I can't wait to see this show in action.

The even more exciting thing is that there is the possibility of CBS airing this block of shows in the 10 a.m. EST timeslot - that's right before The Price is Right! I can't imagine a better way to start my day than with two hours of classic game shows, back to back to back. Personally, I'm hoping that either Colin Mochrie or Ryan Stiles is tapped to host Pyramid...it'd be a virtual Whose Line reunion!

But yes, those are The Guiding Light's replacement shows, according to most verifiable sources. There is always the chance that something could change at the last moment, but I think that these two choices are fantastic.

After all, other than The Price is Right, we haven't had daytime game show since Caesar's Challenge back in 1994 on NBC. I think it's time to have them on the airwaves once again.

Welcome back, my dear old friends. Welcome back.