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Society’s Moment of Truth?
By John W. Kennedy | March 12, 2008
If you want to see how far our culture has deteriorated in the past half century, many comparative benchmarks exist. I suggest an analogy of game shows.
What’s My Line? had good reason to stay on primetime television every week for 17 years, ending in 1967. Besides been interesting, good-natured, witty, and spontaneous, the live quiz show in which four celebrity panelists tried to guess the occupation of regular contestants had another thing going for it: civility.
Nattily dressed What’s My Line? moderator John Charles Daly addressed contestants as “Mr.” and “Mrs.” After learning the identity of famous mystery guests, panelists (who had been blindfolded) typically would compliment them on their career or latest work. Male members of the panel stood to shake hands with contestants as they left the stage.
Alas, respect seems to be a trait of a bygone era.
Today we have the likes of Moment of Truth, which has a new episode on Fox tonight. In this game show, which is highly influenced by reality TV, players must answer 21 increasingly personal – and what should remain private – questions in an effort to win the top prize of $500,000. Examples are, “Do you find any of your spouse’s friends attractive?” and “Would you commit a sin to have your credit card debt erased?” A polygraph exam administered backstage preps the contestants.
A recent episode contained a segment in which a 26-year-old wife revealed in front of her 24-year-old husband that she had committed adultery. Rather than win any money, the couple quickly headed for divorce court.
If Moment of Truth isn’t your idea of fun, stay tuned. ABC has Wanna Bet? Contestants place wagers on whether they can perform stunts to win cash. Or CBS has Splitsville, where divorcing couples compete against each other to claim their own possessions.
I think I’ll stick with Arlene Francis and Bennett Cerf on What’s My Line? reruns on the Game Show Network.
Topics: television |
March 12th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Now you know me, I hate all those old shows, but I can agree with you that these new “reality” shows are completely horrible.