I remember always playing "Win, Lose or Draw" with friends and while I was always a great guesser, I was probably the most useless drawer to ever play the game. A little known fact about me is that I may be the worst artist I know, and the only way I would ever be good as the person that was doing the drawing is if the answer was "house" or "tree." Anything else and my team would be sure to lose.
44. Don't Forget the Lyrics (2007 - 2011) Because of my passion for music, there was a zero percent chance that I was not going to enjoy a show called "Don't Forget the Lyrics." I did, however, think that I would be more into it then I actually was. Even I, who knows all of the lyrics to thousands and thousands of songs, had a difficult time with the show. I suppose I did not like the fact that if you said something like "a" rather than "the" you would lose the game. I suppose that is the only way that the show could work, but it just seemed so difficult to win the game.
Like many game shows the first song (question) was so easy that any human being on Earth (with the possible exception of a few deaf people) would answer correctly.
Example of a first missing lyric - (1 lyric missing) Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as _________.
As the game went on, the next few questions were a little more difficult, but certainly managable.
An example of missing lyric questions 2-4:
(3 lyrics missing) - Britney Spears, 1999. "I must confess, that my lonliness is killing me now, don't you know I still believe that you will be here, just give me a sign, and hit me baby ____ _____ ____."
or
(3 lyrics missing) - Beatles, 1964. "Oh please, say to me, you'll let me be your man. And please, say to me, you'll let me hold you hand. Now let me hold your hand. I want to ____ ____ ____."
The show would build up your confidence until you felt certain that you would soon be a millionaire.
Then, the naive contestant would risk it all to go for the million dollar question, which would go something like this.
Million Dollar Question!
(18 missing lyrics) - REM, 1987. "6 o'clock TV hour ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____."
or maybe
(missing 32 lyics) - Barenaked Ladies, 1998. "Hold it now and watch the hoodwink ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ _____ _____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ _____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ _____ ____"
Regardless of how difficult the show was, it was very easy to play along at home and those are always the best kinds of game shows. "Don't Forget the Lyrics" was canceled in syndication in 2011 and will be missed. We must, as a nation, never forget, never ever forget, Don't Forget the Lyrics.
43. Debt (1996 - 1998) I am sure not too many people will remember this humiliating show, but I certainly can't forget it. The show not only introduced contestants and the current amount of debt that they owed, but the contestants were forced to give a quick little funny sentences about how they accumilated so much debt. The person that won the game would have all their debt paid for, and the other two losers would go home with all their debt in tact and the embarassment of sharing their money issues with the entire country. Seeing as this show was on Lifetime or some station like that, it did not have the budget to pay for mortgage debt, or college loans or anything like that. It was basically "I am $8,000 in debt because I like to PAAAARRRRRTTTTTTYYYYYY!" or "I am $9,500 in debt because I can't stop going to Target."
Above is a classic episode in which Ryan, the shows winner, is in debt from deciding to purchase a toupee to cover his receeding hair line. A must watch.
42. Minute to Win It (2010 - Present) I am not a HUGE fan of "Minute to Win It" because I kind of got sick of it pretty quickly. I think the reason is because I hate commercials so much. Any game show that is an hour long is just littered with commercials and it is just too much for me to handle sometimes. For the last day of school a few years ago I organized a "Minute to Win It" day for our 90 eighth graders. The students were broken into 4 groups (about 22 in each group.) The morning was the educational part of the game in which they were quizzed on Math, Science, English, and Social Studies. At each stage of the educational part of the game students were eliminated (although they did not know they were eliminated until the educational part of the day was over.) By the end of the morning the top 16 kids moved on to the "Minute to Win It" part of the day and had to complete tasks that they do on the show. Kids were eliminated one by one until there was only one winner and that winner got a huge prize.
To prepare for this I watched many episodes of "Minute to Win It" and since I created a day of pure teaching genius, I will forever be indebted to the game show. It was a teaching high point for me and if the "Teacher of the Year" nominating committee had been anywhere near me that day, then I'm convinced that I would have been flown to Washington DC the very next day to shake hands with the President.
Also, if there is anyone I know that would win a million dollars on the real "Minute to Win It" show, it would be me. I tend to me really good at completely useless, stupid things like balancing a tooth pick on a wire while blindfolded or whatever the hell they do.
41. Couch Potatoes (1989) USA - "Couch Potatoes" is a television game show about television shows. Hosted by the game show legend, Marc Summers. "Couch Potatoes" pitted teams of three (usually three men vs. three women) against each other and about 95% of the time the men would win. Guys tend to have a much better memory when it comes to television trivia than women. Oh, and they are usually better at movie trivia as well. And of course, music trivia.
and general trivia.
Sadly "Couch Potatoes" was only on air for about seven months (September of 1989 - March 1990.)
RIP "Couch Potatoes" - The best seven months of my life :(
"Only the good die young."
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