March 27, 2024: What is Game Show Studying?: Dating Games

[On March 30,1964, the legendary game show Jeopardydebuted. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that classic and a handful of othergame show histories! Add your thoughts, obviously in the form of a question, incomments!]

On a morestraightforward and a more subtle context for a pair of groundbreaking gameshows.

After the late1950s quiz show scandals about which I wrote in yesterday’s post, TV game showsdidn’t go away, nor did the genre leave quiz shows entirely behind, as the 1964inspiration for this week’s series reflects (and on which I’ll have more to sayin Friday’s post). But TV game shows did evolve significantly in the 1960s, andone of those evolutions was toward shows focused on dating and romance. 1965saw the creation of one hugely popular such show, Chuck Barris’ The Dating Game (hostedby Jim Lange); a year later another was created, Nick Nicholson and E. RogerMuir’s The Newlywed Game (hostedby Bob Eubanks); and from then on these two shows were consistently connected,both in original episodes and in syndication (and even more fully in their1990s joint revival, when the pair was known as “The Dating-Newlywed Hour”).

Pairingthese two game shows offers a fascinating window into a period when socialmores around romance were likewise evolving, as illustrated by The Dating Game’s relatively casualapproach to the idea of an individual (and usually a single woman, althoughsometimes the genders of contestant and candidates were reversed) choosingpotential romantic partners from a trio of anonymous single suitors. The Newlywed Game could thus be read asa more traditional counterpart, one focused on heterosexual couples who werealready partnered up in that more conventional way (although the preponderanceof Newlywed Game questions centeredon what Eubanks called “makingwhoopee” was at least a bit controversial on 1960s TV). Since both showsremained on the air for many years, and then again were revived together in the1990s, it would likewise be fascinating to consider how their individual andcomplementary depictions of romance themselves evolved as the shows went on (givingthat one away as a Media Studies dissertation topic).

One of thecomplaints that’s been consistently directed at 21st century datinggame shows (and withcause) is that the contestants are there not to find romance or love, but tobecome famous. The rise of the internet and social media and other suchavenues to fame has no doubt changed the landscape of dating games, like allgame shows (and all cultural forms period). But it’s also worth noting thatthese 1960s dating games likewise featured a number of both soon-to-be-famousand already-famous figures: The DatingGame in particular saw, to name just a handful, Farrah Fawcett, Tom Selleck,Andy Kaufman, KareemAbdul-Jabbar, and a very young Michael Freaking Jackson;The Newlywed Game did mostly featurenon-famous couples in its earliest iterations, but would go on to include celebritycouples such as GeorgeTakei and his husband Brad Altman. Which is to say, it’s always been a fairquestion how much of these dating game shows has to do with dating and how muchwith games of very different, and very culturally telling varieties.

Next gameshow histories tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other game shows you’d highlight?