It's 2009: Let's make a deal (again)
Filed under: Extracurriculars, Wealth, Recession
CBS, having sacked its long-running soap opera Guiding Light, is now on the verge of bringing back a new run of one of TV's most venerable game shows, Let's Make a Deal.The selection reveals a lot about our state of mind. TV tried bringing back the show before, including in 1990, when we were in the grip of the last big recession.
Let's Make a Deal, for those too young to remember (or for those who aren't watching Game Show Network at the odd hours when the even odder originals are shown), was a cheap-as-dirt carnival of bartering, aired 1963 to 1976, in which contestants were given options between taking a concealed prize standing before them or a handful of cash they knew to be a sure thing. It's main legacy is the lingering catch phrase: "Do you want what's behind Door Number One, or Door Number Two?" (Posterity tends to forget the third door.)
Like NBC's current Deal or No Deal -- and here's my point: our current economy -- the tension of the game is in the dilemma of choice, and in watching the contestants twist in the wind when their greed or their fear keeps them from taking home the big prize. Bet wrong, and you lose everything. The show is about missed financial opportunities. It runs on regret.
I'll always be partial to the originals. It's not just Monty Hall's regrettable sport jackets, the astoundingly rickety production values that had Monty (father of Joanna Gleason) literally working off of folding card tables, or even the prizes, which are as now hysterically dated as American Tourister and mink coats.
What I really love, in a skin-crawling way, was the way the original audience members dressed up in demeaning costumes, like cowgirls or fairy tale characters, in order to catch Hall's attention and get picked to play. They sold their dignity for a chance at bling, and often, they left the room crushed with a bad case of might-have-beens. That ending, the natural outcome of many such economic gladiator matches, continues as a theme on TV game shows even today.
This iteration, which will be brought to us by American Idol and America's Got Talent producer FremantleMedia (the multinational producer that also bought The Price Is Right), will be slicker than the curtain-bedecked '60s hoe-down, but Monty Hall is reportedly still involved as a guiding force.
Monty's role will be taken by a younger TV presence, and the prize girls will surely look more like pneumatic pleasure devices than the erstwhile clean-as-soap babysitters of the original run. But the show's prevailing sense of doom -- that your financial future depends on not making any foolish risks -- will be the perfect reprise for our bearish times.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-08-2009 @ 10:26PM
Joel Lafargue said...
While we're reviving game shows, not that I have a problem with that, they're better than most of the garbage on TV these days,
how about bringing a classic: "Concentration"? With the technology availabe today (computer animation), those rebus puzzles would look absolutely KILLER cool!
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5-08-2009 @ 7:05PM
mark said...
get kathy "mimi" kinney to host the show.
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5-09-2009 @ 2:44PM
Joel said...
Just bring back Guiding Light....enough with the game shows already!
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5-09-2009 @ 2:57PM
poughkeepsiejohn said...
As demeaning as "Let's Make A Deal" was, it's best moment was when it was used on an episode of "The Odd Couple". That's where Felix and Oscar tried to appear on the show as contestants dressed as a horse. You remember that?
Monty: What do you want to do now?
Felix: Keep the squid!
Oscar: Why? Who are you, Jacques Cousteau?
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5-09-2009 @ 3:13PM
Susan said...
I cannot believe that CBS is dumping the longest running TV show in history in order to air yet another game show! Bring back Guiding Light, the best acted TV show in daytime.
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5-09-2009 @ 3:13PM
tom said...
the only thing CBS needs to bring back is JERICHO!!!
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5-09-2009 @ 3:14PM
asoulfulmuse said...
I'll never forgive them for taking "Guiding Light" off to put on a mindless game show, must be those 20 yr. old know it alls. I hope it doesn't last.
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5-09-2009 @ 3:19PM
Daniel said...
Hey, how about reduxing the ancient "Queen for a Day". If any one out there is old enough to remember that strange show's peculiar aroma of personal debasement offered for the most insignificant variety of 'bling', he can understand quite how appropriate it would be in this era of breathless expectancy in the salvific might of President "Our Savior' to come rescue us from our suffering with those promised pretty baubles. He could even be made, I am sure, to personally judge the tales of financial woe which these contestants (like their forebears in the show) would willingly traipse out there for their anticipated gifts. Oh, wait a minute I think he has already superintended that show... I believe she had asked for a house, he for a new job, a better job than the McDonald's "no go" he was currently enduring. That is, I fear, how we have come to reduce our understanding and expectations of our government: "provider of goodies, of last resort".
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5-09-2009 @ 5:38PM
jim said...
You are SO RIGHT ON!!!
5-09-2009 @ 3:46PM
dakneebrasco79 said...
GL had a run of almost 60 years on TV...sorry to see it go, but we could use another game show, especially w/the glut of court shows that seem to dominate the daytime schedule. Just hope this version is better than the last 2 (anyone remember Big Deal, Fox's short-lived 1996 revival? How about NBC's 2003 revival, hosted by Billy Bush, that got cancelled after 3 wks b/c they stupidly ran it opposite Idol?) and that they can get a decent host.
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5-23-2009 @ 2:29AM
Ryan said...
I remember Big Deal. I'm trying to forget that lump of crap ever existed. XP
But yeah, I really hope this pilot takes off. We haven't had a new daytime network game show in over 15 years!
5-09-2009 @ 3:46PM
arlene said...
I have watched theGuiding Light since I was about 12 years old, I am now 58. It was a big shock to see that it has been canceled. We really do not need another game show or another talk show on daytime TV. The same people are on all the talk shows on all the networks. If you miss them on one you can just flip the channel and see them on another show.We already have a game show channel that can be watched all day long. Thanks for nothing!! It is just one more reason not to watch your channel. Bring back the GUIDING LIGHT!!
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5-23-2009 @ 2:06PM
dakneebrasco79 said...
Arlene, your analysis is like saying "we already have TV Land, so we don't need any more sitcoms"...GSN airs 80% classic shows, only 20% consist of originals or reruns of former original series.
5-09-2009 @ 3:54PM
Joe said...
yes they need 2 bring back JERICHO and not some dumb game show we need education programs 4 kids and other people so bring back jericho
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5-22-2009 @ 6:23PM
Ralph said...
Jericho's gone. Dead. The show's cancelled. Get over it.
Your line about "education programs 4 kids" and somehow relating it to Jericho is the best comedy I've seen today. Please don't reproduce.
5-09-2009 @ 4:57PM
MARY BAISE said...
I AM SICK OF ALL THE GAME SHOWS ON TV WHY CAN"T YOU JUST LEAVE GUILDING LIGHT ON? IT'S THE BEST SOAP OPERA ON I LOVE IT AND WILL MISS IT SOMETHING AWFUL I SURE WON'T WATCH LET'S MAKE A DEAL CBS IS SURE DOING THE WRONG THING TO A LOT OF VIEWERS, I WISH THEY WOULD CHANE THIER MINDS.
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5-09-2009 @ 3:57PM
Annie said...
I don't know who to contact but I would sure like to keep The Guiding Light on TV. I have watched The Guiding Light for many years and always look forward to it. Is there any way to keep it on?
Please help. I also watch As the World Turns. Thanks to anyone who can help.
Annie
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5-09-2009 @ 4:01PM
Joe said...
they need 2 bring back good shows not any game shows or american idol they can take them off as i`m concerned and american idol is just a hoax
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5-09-2009 @ 4:24PM
flutemaker said...
CBS has alot of good show, Jericho was one of them. But how about Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show??? He's a hoot!!!!! Enough game shows!!
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5-09-2009 @ 5:11PM
DSwan said...
I cannot believe CBS thinks they will get higher ratings with a mindless gameshow than they have with Guiding Light. Leaving Guiding Light in it's time slot would be the best move for CBS to make, but I see they aren't interested. It's a shame too - GL is one of the best written and acted daytime series on TV. Why cut a show when it's at it's peak??
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