The Generation Gap

Last updated
The Generation Gap
Thegenerationgap.jpg
The Generation Gap title logo.
Created byCastle-Drive Productions for Talent Associates/Norton-Simon
Directed byMike Gargiulo
Presented by Dennis Wholey (February 7-April 11)
Jack Barry (April 18-May 23)
Narrated by Fred Foy
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes16 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer Daniel Melnick
Producer Chester Feldman
Running time30 Minutes
Release
Original network ABC
Original releaseFebruary 7 (1969-02-07) 
May 23, 1969 (1969-05-23)

The Generation Gap is a primetime American game show that aired from February 7 to May 23, 1969, on ABC. It was originally hosted by Dennis Wholey, who was replaced by Jack Barry after ten episodes had aired. Fred Foy announced during the entire run.

Contents

Two teams of three players competed one composed of people under the age of thirty, the other being people over thirty. At least one member of each team was a well-known celebrity, occasionally playing against a relative on the other team.

Gameplay

Each team had to answer questions about the other's generation; for example, one episode had a youngster successfully identifying the Little Orphan Annie radio theme, while an adult on the other team watched a performance of "Yummy Yummy Yummy" by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. band, and had to complete the lyrics: "I've got ____ in my tummy."

Each round featured questions directed at each individual contestant worth $20 apiece. The other team could earn $5 for predicting whether their opponents could answer correctly. Shortly into the run, the prediction rule was discarded and each correct answer now scored $25. After all six players had each answered a question, the teams answered six Cross-Generation questions. Any player could buzz in, with a correct answer worth $10 but an incorrect answer deducting $10 from the team's earnings. The team who earned the most money after three rounds would have their winnings tripled (so that each contestant on that team would receive the team's final score).

At least one question on each show involved a musical guest from either the past or present.

Broadcast history

The series was aired on Friday nights and first hosted by Wholey from the pilot through the tenth episode on April 11, 1969. Beginning the following week, he was replaced by Jack Barry in his first national hosting job since the quiz show scandals forced him and his company out of the business more than a decade earlier.

It was hoped that, if the show were a success in primetime, it would lead to a daytime slot. However, ratings were not strong enough and The Generation Gap ended after 16 episodes. Despite this, Barry's game show career was successfully revived, and he thanked ABC for the opportunity during his goodbyes on the last episode.

Foreign versions

The Generation Gap has not been revived in other countries, partly due to its short run. Despite its title, The Generation Game which originally ran for 11 highly successful series in the United Kingdom between 1971 and 1981, it was hosted by Bruce Forsyth and Larry Grayson, was based on a 1969 Dutch show entitled Een van de acht ("One of the Eight"), in which turn used a stunt-based format much like that of Beat the Clock and Truth or Consequences .

Revivals

While not explicitly revived, the concept of "Juniors vs. Seniors" being over/under the age of thirty was later used on the 1984-1985 Mark Goodson series Trivia Trap .

The 1998 VH1 series My Generation could be considered a revival due to a similar format and emphasis on music, which featured two teams of two people representing different years. The game was played for points, and the series used a Pyramid -esque bonus round for a prize package.

Canadian youth channel YTV produced a game show of their own called Generation Gap hosted by Jeff Rechner which ran for a single season in 1989. This version was a stunt-based show which pitted a team of kids against a team of adults. However, beyond the title, it had very little to do with the original series.

Episode status

Unlike most other game shows of its era, all of the episodes of The Generation Gap have survived, including the 1968 pilot. [1] The first, eighth, and ninth episodes circulate among collectors.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Weakest Link</i> (British game show) British television quiz show

The Weakest Link is a British television quiz show, mainly broadcast on BBC Two and BBC One. It was devised by Fintan Coyle and Cathy Dunning and developed for television by the BBC Entertainment Department. The game begins with a team of nine contestants, who take turns answering general knowledge questions within a time limit to create chains of nine correct answers in a row. At the end of each round, the players then vote one contestant, "the weakest link", out of the game. After two players are left, they play in a head-to-head penalty shootout format, with five questions asked to each contestant in turn, to determine the winner.

<i>Hollywood Squares</i> American television game show

Hollywood Squares is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show piloted on NBC in 1965 and the regular series debuted in 1966 on the same network. The board for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth of their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.

<i>Beat the Clock</i> American television game show

Beat the Clock is an American television game show that involves people trying to complete challenges to win prizes while faced with a time limit. The show was a creation of Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions.

<i>Truth or Consequences</i> American radio and television game show

Truth or Consequences is an American game show originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards (1940–1957) and later on television by Edwards (1950–1954), Jack Bailey (1954–1956), Bob Barker (1956–1975), Steve Dunne (1957–1958), Bob Hilton (1977–1978) and Larry Anderson (1987–1988). The television show ran on CBS, NBC and also in syndication. The premise of the show was to mix the original quiz element of game shows with wacky stunts.

<i>Sale of the Century</i> American game show

Sale of the Century is an American television game show that originally debuted on September 29, 1969, on NBC daytime. It was one of three NBC game shows to premiere on that date, the other two being the short-lived game shows Letters to Laugh-In and Name Droppers. The series aired until July 13, 1973, and a weekly syndicated series began that fall and ran for one season.

<i>Hot Potato</i> (game show) American TV series or program

Hot Potato is a television game show that was broadcast on NBC in the United States from January 23 to June 29, 1984. From April 23 until its conclusion, the show was known as Celebrity Hot Potato.

The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times between 1972 and 2019. In the show, contestants answer questions based on categories determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine. The show's title refers to the game's slot-machine mechanism also having jokers.

<i>Twenty-One</i> (game show) American quiz show

Twenty-One was an American game show originally hosted by Jack Barry that aired on NBC from 1956 to 1958. Produced by Jack Barry-Dan Enright Productions, two contestants competed against each other in separate isolation booths, answering general-knowledge questions to earn 21 total points. The program became notorious when it was found to be rigged as part of the 1950s quiz show scandals, which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations. The 1994 film Quiz Show is based on these events. A new version of the show aired on NBC in 2000 with Maury Povich as host.

Cram is an American game show which aired on Game Show Network in 2003. The show featured two teams, each composed of two contestants. For 24 hours before taping, the contestants were sequestered, sleep deprived at a storefront. Contestants were then escorted to Sony Pictures Studios, in Culver City, California, where the actual gameplay would commence; with the intent of the contestants staying awake, and "cramming" various material such as trivia questions and jokes, which they would then answer on the show while attempting physical stunts in an attempt to stay awake. Graham Elwood was the show's host, with assistance from Berglind Icey, Arturo Gil, and Andrea Hutchman.

<i>Make the Grade</i> American television series

Make the Grade is a children's game show that aired from October 2, 1989, to September 14, 1990, on Nickelodeon.

<i>Dream House</i> (game show) American TV series or program

Dream House is an American game show that saw contestants competing to win, as the title of the show indicates, a new house. The show originally premiered in primetime on ABC on March 27, 1968, with a daytime edition premiering on April 1, 1968. The primetime series aired weekly until September 19, 1968 and the daytime series aired daily until January 2, 1970, when it was replaced with All My Children. The daytime series was revived for NBC's daytime schedule and premiered on April 4, 1983, running until June 29, 1984.

<i>Game Ka Na Ba?</i> Philippine television game show

Game Ka Na Ba?, formerly Pilipinas Game Ka Na Ba is a Philippine game show created by ABS-CBN. The main goal of the game is to win 2 million pesos by answering trivia questions.

<i>Tic-Tac-Dough</i> American game show

Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the paper-and-pencil game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–86 run initially on CBS and then in syndication, and a syndicated run in 1990. The show was produced by Barry & Enright Productions.

<i>The Better Sex</i> American TV series or program

The Better Sex is a television game show in the United States where men competed against women in a "battle of the sexes" format. The Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production ran on ABC from July 18, 1977, to January 13, 1978. The show had two hosts, one male and one female; each acted as leader of a team of the appropriate sex. The male host was Bill Anderson and the female host was Sarah Purcell. Gene Wood was the announcer.

<i>Who Wants to Be a Millionaire</i> (American game show) Game show from the United States

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television game show adapted from the same-titled British program created by David Briggs, Steven Knight and Mike Whitehill and developed for the United States by Michael Davies. The show features a quiz competition with contestants attempting to win a top prize of $1,000,000 by answering a series of multiple-choice questions, usually of increasing difficulty. The program has endured as one of the longest-running and most successful international variants in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise.

It Takes Two is a game show in which contestants gave numerical answers to questions. The original program was created and produced by Ralph Andrews and aired on NBC from March 31, 1969, to July 31, 1970, at 10:00 AM Eastern. A second version, produced by Mark Phillips Philms & Telephision, aired on The Family Channel in 1997.

<i>Gameshow Marathon</i> (American game show) American TV series or program

Gameshow Marathon is an American television program which aired on CBS from May 31 to June 29, 2006. It is based on the United Kingdom series Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon which aired on ITV in 2005. It also aired in Canada on CTV.

<i>Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?</i> (American game show) American quiz game show

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? is an American quiz game show. It originally aired on Fox where it was hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. It is produced by Mark Burnett. The show premiered as a three-day special which began on February 27, 2007, with the first two shows each a half-hour in length. Regular one-hour episodes began airing Thursdays from March 1 through May 10, and the first season continued with new episodes beginning May 31. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? was picked up for the 2007–08 season, which began on September 6, 2007, and aired in the same timeslot. Following the end of the original run of the primetime version on September 18, 2009, a first-run syndicated version of the show ran from September 2009 to May 2011, with Foxworthy returning as host. On May 26, 2015, the program returned to Fox for a new, 4th season, with Foxworthy, again, returning as host. On February 14, 2019, it was announced that the program would be revived on Nickelodeon with new host John Cena, airing from June 10 to November 3, 2019.

<i>Break the Bank</i> (1985 game show) American TV series or program

Break the Bank is a game show created by Richard S. Kline. It aired in syndication from September 16, 1985 to June 20, 1986, with repeats airing until September 12. It was not related to two previous shows by the same name.

<i>Fifteen to One</i> British game show

Fifteen to One is a British general knowledge quiz show broadcast on Channel 4. It originally ran from 11 January 1988 to 19 December 2003 and had a reputation for being one of the toughest quizzes on TV. Throughout the show's original run, it was presented and produced by William G. Stewart. Thousands of contestants appeared on the programme, which had very little of the chatting between host and contestants that is often a feature of other television quiz shows.

References