JonCoochBU wrote: "This week's issue of TV Guide rates the top 50 game shows of all time; the results of which might surprise a few people here: {deletia} 3) G.E. College Bowl Yeah, that's what I said too..." I imagine most people reading this will be surprised, since few know how popular and influential the show was in the 50's and 60's. Here are some capsule facts to show you how it was regarded then (and still is, by people like Robert Klein and Dennis Miller): Just 16 months after the program's debut on radio, matches were drawing national press coverage and huge crowds. At Cornell, 30 students tried out for the team. 1,000 of the 1,300 undergraduates at the time packed the auditorium to watch their team play. (_Life_, April 4, 1955). Throughout the show's entire run on radio and TV, students who appeared on it were campus celebrities;and when taping moved to New York, it was usual for huge crowds to meet them at the train station or airport to welcome the winning teams home. The show was only the second game show (after _You Bet Your Life_ too receive the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, and the first show to do it while on TV. Once the show was as big a hit on TV as it was on radio, it spawned three spin-offs: _Alumni Fun_, _Bible Bowl_, and _High School Bowl_; the latter two are still around, though mutated and evolved. As late as 1969, close to the end of it's run, GE College Bowl was so highly regarded that Rice University made special arrangements for two seniors who had to miss graduation to appear on the show. The school held a special commencement ceremony just for them, complete with a full faculty processional. When the team retired as undefeated champions after its fifth win, the head of Rice's Board of Regents presented each team member with engraved gold swiss watches. Even today, some players regard the competition so highly that seniors skip their graduations in order to compete, as three of the legendary "Men From Morehouse" did at Honda Campus All-Star Challenge in 1994. Keep in mind that the student who tried so hard to be on their school's teams didn't get a million dollars, or any money at all for that matter. The school won scholarships. The players got mugs, home versions of the game, and other souveniers (which are highly collectible today, and often go for ridiculous prices on eBay). What finally killed the show was that broadcasting more football games in the afternoon was a much more profitable way for networks to use the time. For many who saw watched the show, though, it's very fondly remembered. It is quite unfortunate that only eight of the TV shows (and about 80 of the radio shows) are known to exist, and are in either private collections and university archives; or more people would be able to get a sense of what the show meant to it's time. Tom
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