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Panel show

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A recording of radio panel game Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, featuring, from left, announcer and scorekeeper Carl Kasell; host Peter Sagal; and panelists Adam Felber, Roxanne Roberts and Keegan-Michael Key before a live audience.

A panel game or panel show is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates.[1] Panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by guest contestants, such as on Match Game/Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! The genre can be traced to 1938, when Information Please debuted in the United States.[2] While panel shows were more popular in the past in the U.S., they are still very common in the United Kingdom.[3]

Format

Most games, such as Mock the Week or Hollywood Squares, are humorous, while others, such as Face The Music, are more serious. Often, the competition and points are a formality, while comedic banter provides much of the entertainment.[4] The American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? acknowledged this with the introduction, "Welcome to Whose Line Is It Anyway, the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter." On QI, the questions are so hard, points can be given for interesting discussion, even if the answers are wrong.

Panel games often have a theme. Some are satirical, such as Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! or Have I Got News for You. 8 Out of 10 Cats is based on statistics, What's My Line? is about occupations, Quote... Unquote features quotations, I've Got a Secret is about secrets, while Would I Lie to You? and The Unbelievable Truth deal with lies.

Some panel games are variants on classic parlor games.[5] Twenty Questions is based on the parlor game of the same name, Give Us a Clue is modeled after Charades, and Call My Bluff and Balderdash are based on Fictionary.

Frequently, a panel show features recurring panelists. Some panelists also appear on multiple panel shows.[6]

Most shows are recorded in front of a studio audience.

Panel games are so popular in Britain that they have been the subject of satire themselves. I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is a panel game that spoofs many common elements of such shows, including the unimportance of scoring, while Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive is a scripted comedy series that parodies the workings of a panel show.

International production

United States

The first known example of a panel game in the world is the radio program Information Please, which debuted on 17 May 1938 on the NBC Blue Network. An evolution of the quiz show format, Information Please added the key element of a panel of celebrities, largely writers and intellectuals, but also actors and politicians. Listeners would mail in questions, winning prizes for stumping the panel.

U.S. panel games transferred to television and saw their peak of popularity in the 1950s and '60s, when, in addition to shorter-lived series on other networks, CBS ran the three longest-running panel shows in prime time: What's My Line?, I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth. At times, they were among the top ten shows on U.S. television and they continue to experience occasional revivals on daytime television and on cable. All three Goodson-Todman primetime shows were cancelled by CBS in 1967 amid ratings declines and trouble attracting younger viewers, although the programs were consistently profitable by being among the cheapest television shows to produce.[7][8] Their cancellations came as attention to demographics and a focus on younger viewers gained currency among advertisers.[9] The departures of these three New York-based shows were also part of a mass migration of television production to Los Angeles, leaving only one primetime show produced on the East Coast.[8][10]

Later years saw several successes in the format, with Match Game;[11] Hollywood Squares;[12][13][14][15][16] The Gong Show;[17] Win, Lose or Draw; Celebrity Sweepstakes; Password[18] and Pyramid primarily running in the daytime and airing in their greatest numbers during the '70s and '80s. Later, the U.S. version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? had a primetime run from 1998 to 2004 on ABC, while Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! has become a popular weekend show on NPR since 1998. In 2010, NBC's launch of The Marriage Ref was described as a revival of the primetime American panel game.[19][20]

United Kingdom

Panel games are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they've found continued success since the BBC adapted its first radio panel shows from classic parlor games.[3][5] Perhaps the earliest UK panel show is the BBC radio adaptation of Twenty Questions, which debuted on 28 February 1947. Panel games have enjoyed lasting success in the UK; Twenty Questions lasted until 1976, while Just a Minute has been on the air since 1967. Other long-running games on radio include I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue since 1972, The News Quiz from 1977, and My Word! from 1956 to 1990.

The British import of What's My Line? may be the first television panel game in the UK with an original run from 1951 to 1963 and several remakes in later years.

Australia

Australian panel games include Good News Week and Spicks and Specks.

Canada

Canadian panel games include Front Page Challenge and The Debaters.

France

French panel games include L'Académie des neuf ("The Academy of Nine", based on Hollywood Squares), Burger Quiz, Cluedo (based on Cluedo/Clue), Le Francophonissime, Incroyables Expériences ("Incredible Experiences") and Kamoulox (a portmanteau of the creators' names).

Germany

German panel games include Genial daneben ("Idiot Savant"), Kopfball ("Headball"), Die Montagsmaler ("Pictionary"), Noch Besserwissen ("Even Better Knowledge"), Die Pyramide (the German version of Pyramid), Quizfire, Sag die Wahrheit ("Tell the Truth", the German version of To Tell the Truth), Typisch Frau – Typisch Mann ("Typical Woman – Typical Man"), Was bin ich? ("What am I?", the German version of What's My Line?) and Was denkt Deutschland? ("What Does Germany Do?").

Japan

Japanese panel games include おしゃべりクイズ疑問の館 ("Chat House Quiz Questions"), 二十の扉 ("Twenty Doors", based on Twenty Questions), 話の泉 ("Source of the Story", based on Information Please), ABOBAゲーム ("ABOBA Game"), 一攫千金ヤマワケQ! ("Yamawake Fortune Q!"), おっちゃんVSギャル ("Uncle vs. Gal"), クイズ仕事人 ("Business People Quiz"), クイズ!紳助くん ("Shinsuke-kun Quiz"), 3・3が9イズ ("3.3 is 9", based on Hollywood Squares), 世界痛快伝説!!運命のダダダダーン!("Thrilling World Legend! Fate! Da-da-da-da!") and 世界痛快伝説!!運命のダダダダーン! ("Thrilling World Legend! Destiny! Da-da-da-da!").

Examples

References

  1. ^ Russell Davies, host (9 April 2011). "Episode 2". Let's Get Quizzical. 1 minutes in. Retrieved 19 May 2011. In the old days, quizzes and panel games were easy to tell apart, because quiz competitors were people you'd never heard of, and panellists were more or less well-known figures. More recently, though, the rise of the celebrity quiz has complicated the picture. {{cite episode}}: Text "BBC Radio 4 Extra" ignored (help)
  2. ^ "Quiz show". Britannica Online Encyclopedia.
  3. ^ a b "For an extra point, why are panel games so popular?". The Telegraph.
  4. ^ "A very British tradition". The Guardian.
  5. ^ a b "Fingers On The Buzzer". Daily Mail. UK. 2001 Jan 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Is it good news that there's so many topical comedy shows?". The Guardian.
  7. ^ "'What's My Line?' Leaving TV in Fall". The New York Times.
  8. ^ a b "Only One Prime-Time TV Show Will Be Produced Here In Fall". The New York Times.
  9. ^ "Mature Programs Dying As TV Woos Young Folks". The Oregonian.
  10. ^ "Last New York-Based Shows On The Way Out Due To Lack Of Space". The Evening Independent.
  11. ^ Cynthia Lowry (1 January 1963). "Newest Quiz Game Bows". The Telegraph-Herald. Dubuque, Iowa. The Associated Press. Retrieved 18 May 2011. Skillful chefs of television cooked up a panel show called "What's My Line?" more than a decade ago. ... Now still another variation of the good old recipe has been launched, "The Match Game."
  12. ^ Maxene Fabe (25 September 1975). "Celebrities love to play TV games, but some personalities never make it". The Modesto Bee. Los Angelese Times Syndicate. Retrieved 18 May 2011. The most complex and entertaining panel game ever devised is Hollywood Squares... {{cite news}}: Text "+celebrity-squares+panel-game+" ignored (help); Text "+panel-show" ignored (help)
  13. ^ "Wally Cox (obituary)". Los Angeles Times. 15 February 1973. Retrieved 18 May 2011. ...was a regular on the NBC daytime panel show "The Hollywood Squares,"...
  14. ^ Stephanie Harrington (3 August 1975). "To tell the truth, the price is right" (PDF). The New York Times. third to last paragraph. Retrieved 18 May 2011. ...the disclaimer run at the end of the celebrity panel show "Hollywood Squares"...
  15. ^ Cynthia Lowry (25 November 1971). "Hollywood Squares easy income source to its guest stars". Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. Retrieved 18 May 2011. ...NBC's "Hollywood Squares," the most popular game or panel show on television today. {{cite news}}: Text "+celebrity-squares+panel-game+" ignored (help); Text "+panel-show" ignored (help)
  16. ^ Vernon Scott (21 February 1969). "Dual Format TV Show Reflects Generation Gap". Schenectady Gazette. UPI. Retrieved 18 May 2011. The daily "Hollywood Squares" series is a tic-tac-toe game with a panel of nine performers... {{cite news}}: Text "+celebrity-squares+panel-game+" ignored (help); Text "+panel-show" ignored (help)
  17. ^ Brian Lowry (16 July 2008). "The Gong Show With Dave Attell/Reality Bites Back". Variety. Retrieved 18 May 2011. ...creating a "panel show," as they used to call them in the '50s, with a "Man Show" sensibility.
  18. ^ Cynthia Lowry (17 May 1963). "Panelist, Show Host Plan Marriage in Vegas June 14". Ocala Star-Banner. The Associated Press. Retrieved 18 May 2011. Apparently romance finally bloomed on a panel show—but in truth "Password" had little or nothing to do with it.
  19. ^ Lowry, Brian (1 March 2010). "The Marriage Ref". Variety magazine. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
  20. ^ Simmons, Chris (1 March 2010). "Jerry Seinfeld's "The Marriage Ref" Debuts on NBC". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 March 2010. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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