I’ve been working on this giant project that has three themes — Living Room, TV Game Show, and State Park Visitor’s Center. I would like to use this little blog space to explore these themes in a little more depth. Beginning with game shows!
A television game show is a genre of programming that involves an activity that challenges players in a physical, intellectual, or emotional manner. Often a public display of normally devalued or invisible knowledge, game shows elevate the display of the culture of everyday; based in ritual, community and materialism. Americans were hooked on the excitement and thrill of competition, along with the opportunity to “play along” at home.
Gamification refers to the act of transforming every form of existence and cultural practice into the form of a game. This phenomenon may be related to the hypercompetitiveness of Americans, the popularity of gaming shows, or the way competition makes us more attentive and responsive.
The Price Is Right, which has the distinction of being the longest running daytime game show in North America, first aired in 1956 and is still making new episodes today. On the show, contestants compete to win cash and prizes by guessing the pricing of merchandise. It starts with an initial bid, followed by a series of pricing games and a final showcase. The games and bidding are based on the player’s knowledge of the retail price of these items. The show relied entirely on non-academic and devalued knowledge, those of shopping and household management. This knowledge is put on display not for education, but continued consumerism, sanctifying the worship of possessions. The live audience is allowed to participate by shouting out their opinions on pricing, which fosters a sense of we’re-all-in-this-together and limits any sense of competition. The pressure comes entirely from a desire to win the thing.
In the case of dating game shows, romance and courtship is converted into a structured performance. In reality, people go on dates in search of love and intimate connection with another person. Dating and romantic life is usually considered private. In a dating game show a private, personal, everyday activity becomes a structured, public activity that you participate in for reward: dating transformed into performative labor. These game shows are outwardly attempting to approximate a true view of love and courtship, while simultaneously transforming our emotions and desires into cultural commodities.
The Dating Game, which originated over 50 years ago and aired from 1965 through 2000, was the originator of many of the current reality dating shows on television today. The show brought in one man or woman contestant, who was separated from three eligible dates of the opposite sex by a wall. The contestant would ask each of three candidates straightforward, scripted and often flirtatious questions that would assist them with making the right choice for “the perfect date”. The date was an all-expense paid trip somewhere usually involving an activity, dinner, and a night in a hotel. All the dates were chaperoned by the host or the producer. The contestant was usually a young woman, remarkable at the time because women were expected to wait for a man to ask them out.
While the people really would go on a date together, The Dating Game did not try to pretend they might fall in love, and the show was popular in its use and trivialization of the dating experience. Rituals of dating were portrayed as often comical and absurd. Everyone knew they were on a game show, and the eligible dates knew the objective was to please their intended date. They tried to be charming and funny while also truthful. Once chosen, there was no follow-up after the date to determine how they did. No one was invested in learning how well the date went or if they were a match.
Aired in 1966, The Newlywed Game pitted newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing questions to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. Many of The Newlywed Game's questions dealt with "making whoopee".
Love Connection ran for nearly 20 years from 1983 to 1999. Prior to the show, a contestant seeking a date would watch video segments of interviews with three eligible candidates and had chosen which one he or she would date. Following the date, the contestant would appear on the program to be interviewed by the host and debrief the date. The contestant would explain what they were looking for and how they chose their date. While playing clips of the three candidates, the contestant would explain what happened on the date. If the contestant had a successful date with their chosen candidate, the couple would be congratulated for making a “love connection” and were offered a second date at the show’s expense.
As reality television has taken over game shows, the gamification of our lives just intensifies. In reality television dating shows, the most complicated and intimate relationships in our lives are progressively gamified.
This consumption of dating in the form of games moved in to reality televisions shows like The Bachelor in the early 2000s. The Bachelor, which debuted in 2002 and continues to make new episodes, revolves around a single bachelor who starts with a pool of romantic interests from whom he is expected to select a wife. During the course of the season, the bachelor eliminates candidates, culminating in a marriage proposal. The Bachelor operates under the premise that it is actually possible to find true love in this process and everyone, contestants and viewers alike, seems to believe it. The story arc lasts an entire season, rather than a single episode. Emphasis is placed on moments of embarrassment and many of the more prominent candidates are exploited for comic and ironic moments. Much of the conflict in the series, both internal and external, stem from the elimination-style format of the show.
In one of the most recent dating game shows, Are You The One? involves a group of contestants who are secretly paired into couples via a matchmaking algorithm. Then, while living together, the contestants try to identify all of the “perfect matches”. Over the course of each season, the contestants go on dates with partners determined by competitions. If they succeed, they win a million dollars. All couples in the first seven seasons were male-female, while in the eighth season (2019) a contestant's match could be someone of any gender. Are You The One? relies heavily on conflict and drama to keep viewers coming back.
I’m working on making my own game show inspired by the research I’ve done here - called Tree Connection. I’ll have a live taping of it on Thursday, February 13th, 2019 at Temple’s Ambler Campus! Come see!!
