The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: I must admit that I'm only 13, but I watch Game Show network a lot! I found game shows in here that I never even heard of and ones I had forgotten about like "Press Your Luck"(used to be my favorite). Now I can show my friends these old game shows that I watch! This book has every game show thinkable and a little blurb about when it was started, syndicated, the rules, and the general description. Some even have highlights of certain moments. Very well done!

Rating:
Summary: An amazing and complete collection of information!
Review: I really wish to thank David for publishing his obsession with Game Shows! It's an excellent resourse for Game show fans and buffs like myself. I look forward to his next revision, perhaps next year, so that he has an edition that covers the entire 20th century...all the way up the the new "Family Feud", and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" It would also be wonderful to see him put together a video documentry on the history of the fabulous world of game shows:)! I strongly recommend it to both hard core game show fans, and casual fans alike!

Rating:
Summary: The bible of TV game shows!
Review: I use this book constantly when I need info on my favorite game shows. I've noticed there are still a few inaccuracies but hopefully those will be updated in future editions as the TV game show makes a triumphant return

Rating:
Summary: For $200...pick a different reference book
Review: I was dissapointed in the accuracy of information in "The Enycyclopedia of TV Game Shows". While the selection of photos from Schwartz's and Wostbrock personal collection is nice; the inaccurate information is something else.

"Sale of the Century" is one page with such misinformation; many other entries have inaccurate information as well.

Well the effort is nice; I'm afraid the authors need to leave with some nice parting gifts.

Rating:
Summary: A Great book about game shows!
Review: If you love game shows, get this! This has many facts about game shows from the past and present. A great buy!

Rating:
Summary: A Great book about game shows!
Review: If you love game shows, get this! This has many facts about game shows from the past and present. A great buy!

Rating:
Summary: A Most Neglected Chapter of Television History!!!
Review: One of the most sadly neglected styles of program in all of television history has been the TV game show. Despite the fact that throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, one or more of the top rated shows on TV has been a game show, whether "What's My Line" or "Wheel of Fortune," the format has been criticized by lovers of "serious" television as being "exploitive" of women, "anti-intellectual trash" or "merely entertainment" (as if entertaining the public is a bad thing.) However, The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows proves that these charges are, for the most part, without merit. In fact, during the medium's earliest days in the 1950's, some of the wittiest and most urbane shows were panel shows, i.e., a type of game show featuring a panel of celebrities, and not just movie stars, either! Great minds from the worlds of publishing, journalism, and the theatre such as Bennett Cerf, Abe Burrows, and Dorothy Kilgallen were regular guests into our homes each week as well. (The notion that game shows were "trashy" probably came from the popularity of the mostly horrible Chuck Barris-produced shows of the late sixites-early seventies, such as The Gong Show, The $1.98 Beauty Pagent, and Three's a Crowd. Thankfully, unlike Goodson-Todman and Merv Griffin, he does not rate his own chapter in this book.) Every single game show produced from the late 1940's until 1999 is covered here, and most are given their proper amount of space. (A few, such as Press Your Luck, seem to be shortchanged, but only a few.) An update is absolutely necessary as of this writing, as the game show has just made a marvelous comeback, thanks mostly to the success of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Also, a little more space might be devoted to individual personalities, such as the great Bill Cullen, arguably the greatest and certainly the busiest host in history, and a heartwarming success story in his own right. (He overcame polio at an early age, which left him with a permanent limp; if you watch his shows carefully, he is almost never shown walking.) But, these are minor quibbles. The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows is a great book for game show novice and aficionado alike, and is a welcome addition to a most neglected chapter of television history!

Rating:
Summary: Sensational!
Review: So far, this is the only book about game shows that I've ever owned and it's terrific. I have enjoyed watching game shows ever since I was a little kid and reading this book gets me motivated to keep watching them. Everytime I open this book, I always learn something new. Very interesting facts and the rules of each game are explained very well. I am looking forward to the next edition. Game shows RULE! Thanks Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Ryan, and Mr. Wostbrock for an excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: Thanks for the great reviews!
Review: Thanks for all the great reviews to our encyclopedia. David, Steve and myself (Fred) are already working on our 4th edition! It will be jam-packed with new entries, rare photos....and a few suprises!

Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly first rate encyclopedia of the TV Game Show
Review: The Editors of "The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows" have done a surprisingly nice job of covering a particular niche in the history of television programming. Except for the mania over the big prize game shows in the early 1950's and the brief resurgence of their popularity with "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," game shows have mostly been the province of day time programming and syndication. Consequently, a reference book like the Brooks and Marsh "Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows" is only going to cover those relatively few series that went on the air at night. "The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows" not only has the virtue of covering every single Game Show in the history of television, it is done with an enviable balance between the historian's concern for air dates, hosts, assistants and rules of the game with the fans need for compelling pop culture details and television trivia with their "Did You Know" sections. Certainly, this is the best of both worlds collected into one reasonably priced volume. I picked up this book hoping it would be almost as good as Brooks and Marsh, but it turns out to be much better in terms of its particular corner of the television universe. Whatever you want to know about Game Shows, whether it is how many were hosted by Gene Rayburn, which has been on the air the longest, or which had the contestant who won the most money, you can bet this book has it and not even need to worry about what is behind Curtain #2.