Great 80’s Game Shows
Hair to dye for.
It seemed like they were always on.
Every host had that particular suit, type of delivery, and host haircut.
You know the one. (look left)
There were a few that stuck out but more or less you could trade in one for another and not skip a beat. Now the games themselves were a whole lot different than the HD effects laden modern shows on tv today.
Here are a few of the great 80s game shows that really stuck out:
The great 80s game shows included Press Your Luck, Card Sharks, Win Lose or Draw, and Love Connection, plus a bench of daytime staples that felt like they were always on somewhere. Flashing boards, one-liner hosts, and prizes worth screaming over.
Press Your Luck
Flashing lights, modern graphics, big ol’ buzzers!
No expense was spared for this classic 80s game show. Peter Tomarken held down the fort as host. And everyone seemed to cross every appendage they had for luck.
The battle-cry of “No Whammies. No Whammies!” lives on to this day.
The Whammy, and the man who memorized the board and beat it, gets its own deep-dive.
Jason – ” I caught this documentary ‘Big Bucks:The Press Your Luck Scandal’ a few years ago. I wish I woulda thought of that!”
Bobby – “No Whammies!..Big Bucks is engraved in my brain!”
Card Sharks
This one got you clapping along right from the second it came on the air.
52 oversized cards and a theme that sounds like its right outta a James Bond flick.
About as low tech as you can get this great 80s game show seemed like it was always on, any time of day.
Jason – “They shoulda done an 80s hair band version of that theme. Woulda been a classic! “
Bobby – “I always thought Bob Eubanks was smooth… in that TV host kinda way ;)”
Win, Lose or Draw
This show was part of an evil plot to have Vicki Lawrence on TV all the time.
A true ‘boys against the girls’ battle royale taking place in a living room that was modeled after one of the producers homes.
If you watched this gem you definitely yelled at the TV more than once at how clueless some of the contestants were.
Jason – “I remember watching this thinking ‘I suck at drawing. I would definitely lose on this show.’ “
Bobby – “I thought this show was fun but just like Jason I would totally suck at this. Stick figures is about my limit. Hangman anyone?”
Love Connection
Ah Chuck Woolery and the quest for true love.
Way before the Bachelor/Bachelorette had us peeking in on every single minute moment of the dating process, this was full access.
Watching the contestants kick their ‘game’ (or lack of it) and go down in flames was the highlight of this show.
The audience participation and their ego crushing opinions was just the cherry on top. Long live true love!
Jason – ” I had a few friends back in the 80s go on this show as contestants. Needless to say true love was never found.”
Bobby – ” What a cheesy ass show but a lot of fun to watch. Chuck Woolery always brought his “A” Game”
More Great 80s Game Shows We Couldn’t Leave Out
Four was never going to cover it. The 80s were wall-to-wall game shows, daytime, primetime, syndication, even MTV got in on it. Here’s the rest of the lineup that kept every sick day and summer afternoon fully booked.
The Price Is Right
The institution. Bob Barker, the big wheel, and “Come on down!”, plus Plinko, which arrived in 1983 and instantly became the greatest pricing game ever invented. If you stayed home from school in the 80s, this was 11 a.m., no negotiation. Full story: The Price Is Right in the 80s.
Wheel of Fortune
The nighttime syndicated version launched in 1983 with Pat Sajak and Vanna White and turned into the biggest thing in syndication, period. Buying a vowel entered the national vocabulary and never left. More in our Wheel of Fortune in the 80s story.
Jeopardy!
Technically a revival, the Alex Trebek era began in 1984 and quietly became the smartest half hour on television. The think music alone is one of the most recognizable pieces of audio the decade produced.
Family Feud
Richard Dawson, the kissing bandit himself, ran the Feud through 1985, “survey says!”, and Ray Combs picked it up in 1988. The fastest-money round remains undefeated television. We dig into the Dawson era in our Family Feud story.
Double Dare
Nickelodeon’s 1986 kid-quiz-turned-slime-cannon with Marc Summers. Take the physical challenge, lose a shoe in the obstacle course, go home sticky. Every kid in America wanted on this show. The slime-soaked history is in our Double Dare deep-dive.
The $25,000 Pyramid
Dick Clark’s 1982 revival is maybe the purest word game TV ever made, the winner’s circle with the clock running is still some of the most tense television of the decade.
Remote Control
MTV’s 1987 entry: Ken Ober quizzing college kids strapped into recliners about nothing but TV and pop culture. The writers’ room and guest list were a comedy incubator, you’d spot future stars all over it.
Sale of the Century
The 1983 NBC revival with Jim Perry, instant bargains, the fame game, and the agonizing end-game decision of whether to keep coming back for the lot. Quietly one of the best-built formats of the decade.
The honest bottom line
Honesty time: most of these games were interchangeable, the hosts were basically one guy with different hair, and half the fun was that nobody had anything better on at 3 p.m. That is not a complaint. Daytime TV was a hang, not an art form, and the 80s version of the hang had Whammies in it. We would trade a hundred HD reboots for one more afternoon of it.
80s Game Show FAQ
What was the most popular game show in the 80s?
By ratings, Wheel of Fortune. After its 1983 syndicated launch it became the #1 show in syndication. In daytime, The Price Is Right was (and still is) the institution.
Which 80s game show had the Whammy?
Press Your Luck (CBS, 1983–86). It’s also home to the greatest game-show story of the decade: in 1984 a contestant named Michael Larson memorized the board’s light patterns and won over $110,000, and technically broke no rules.
Are any 80s game shows still on the air?
Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and The Price Is Right never left. Press Your Luck, Card Sharks and Double Dare have all had revivals since, proof the 80s formats were built right the first time.
Looking back at classic 80s TV shows you can see how easy it was to love the corniness, camp and overall care-free nature of it all.
It’s something that todays shows are trying desperately to emulate. Lucky for us the magic of the great 80s game shows can be relived on Youtube any time you want.
And if you want the story of how two guys from the show ended up podcasting about all this, start with the Awesome 80s Podcast, then meet the 80s pop culture icons who ran the rest of the decade.