So this turned up in a forum I was reading this morning, a show from the US 1979/80 called The Guinness Game, where people bet on records that may or may not be broken. The game element is basically lousy but the record breaking elements are quite good.
What’s really interesting is that lousy as the game is, the central conceit actually predates Wetten Dass? by a year or more.
Whatsmore as much as I love You Bet, one of the issues I had with it is that people wrote in saying they could do a thing, they come on, and 80%+ of the time they successfully do the thing and eventually I find myself wanting them to fail to add a bit of spice and because the celebrity forfeit element was quite amusing. World records are inherently a bit more challenging to break.
In other news do you remember Come On Down – The Game Show Story? One of the contributors to that and old-TV talking head, Louis Barfe, wants to write a book on the genre and is looking for crowdfunding. I’m sure this will be very entertaining, so if you’re interested put your name down for a copy here.
Actually, the idea that motivated both “Wetten Dass” and “The Guinness Game” goes back even further.
“Can Do” had a brief prime time run over NBC in 1956. Robert Alda (Alan’s dad, and a member of the original Broadway cast of “Guys and Dolls”) hosted, as contestants tried to predict whether celebrities could perform various physical stunts.
Ratings were low, and the show did not last very long. No kinescopes are known to be in collectors’ hands at this time–but we can always hope.
Mmm. It goes to show how well-developed its successors were. The record-breaking attempts were hit-and-miss in my book; while the abrupt conclusion of the first one spoke well of the show’s authenticity and the second was appropriately entertaining (it can’t have been just me wondering if the guy had been sandbagging for the first 90 seconds to make the final attempt more dramatic?), the third lacked spectacle but the fourth was an excellent representation of what was possible. There does need to be some degree of duration and ideally some sense of uncertainty as far through the stunt as possible as to whether it will succeed or fail. I also remain convinced that much of the affection we retain for You Bet! was due to the several different sensational record-breaking attempt tunes, too.
In related news, see this different world record attempt; it would appear that the world record had somehow regressed from 28 to 25 over the years – or perhaps, like swimming strokes, there are all sorts of different sub-categories for different types of canoe, kayak, coracle, skiff and so on.