Game Shows Wiki
Explore
Main Page
All Pages
Community
Interactive Maps
Recent Blog Posts
Random page
TopContent
most_visited
Deal or No Deal Island
Alison Betts
2024 Jeopardy! Masters
The Weakest Link
Jeopardy!
The Next Food Network Star
Bullsh*t The Game Show
newly_changed
2025 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime
Make the Grade
Lynn di Vito
Trinity Fatu
Matt Jackson
Wheel of Fortune (2)/Season Weekly Total/Season 31-35
NewPictures
community
Community portal
forum
FANDOM
Fan Central
BETA
Games
Anime
Movies
TV
Video
Wikis
Explore Wikis
Community Central
Start a Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Sign In
Sign In
Register
U.S. Game Shows Wiki
11,529
pages
Explore
Main Page
All Pages
Community
Interactive Maps
Recent Blog Posts
Random page
TopContent
most_visited
Deal or No Deal Island
Alison Betts
2024 Jeopardy! Masters
The Weakest Link
Jeopardy!
The Next Food Network Star
Bullsh*t The Game Show
newly_changed
2025 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime
Make the Grade
Lynn di Vito
Trinity Fatu
Matt Jackson
Wheel of Fortune (2)/Season Weekly Total/Season 31-35
NewPictures
community
Community portal
forum
Editing
Gameshow Marathon
Back to page
Edit
Edit source
View history
Talk (0)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{|cellpadding=2 cellspacing=2 align=right border=1 width=256px style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; padding: 6px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; font-size: 10px; border:1px solid #8888aa;" |align="center" colspan=2|'''Host''' |- |[[Ricki Lake]] |- |align="center" colspan=2|'''Prize Delivery Host''' |- |[[Todd Newton]] |- |align="center" colspan=2|'''Announcer''' |- |[[Rich Fields]] |- |align="center" colspan=2|'''Broadcast''' |- |[[File:Game$how_Marathon.png|center|160px]]CBS Primetime: 5/31/2006 β 6/29/2006 |- |align="center" colspan=2|'''Packagers''' |- |[[FremantleMedia North America]]<br />Granada America |} '''''Gameshow Marathon''''' (stylized as '''''Game$how Marathon''''') was a series of seven episodes each modeled after classic American game shows with celebrities playing to earn money for their charity as well as prizes for players at home. This series was based on the British format called '''''Ant & Dec's/Vernon Kay's Game Show Marathon'''''. ==Format== The players competed in four preliminary rounds, the winners of those rounds sat in what was called "Finalist's Row" and moved on to the semifinals. The four winners played semifinal rounds to determine finalists, who competed for a possible $100,000 for the charity of their choice. In addition, those who entered at CBS.com were eligible to win all cash & prizes earned during each game. A total of $329,352 was awarded to home viewers, out of total offerings of $987,165.48. ===Celebrities=== The celebrities who competed were: *'''PAIGE DAVIS''', playing for Donate Life *'''KATHY NAJIMY''', playing for Girls Best Friend *'''TIM MEADOWS''', playing for The Chris Farley Foundation *'''LANCE BASS''', playing for Habitat For Humanity's Katrina Relief *'''BRANDE RODERICK''', playing for City of Hope *'''LESLIE NIELSEN''', playing for "a society in Phoenix for blind children" ===Games=== Here are the game shows used, with more info located at the pages of the main games. ====''[[The Price is Right]]''==== <gallery position="center"> Vlcsnap-645345.png G$M_TPIR.jpg </gallery> While the basic structure of the game remained intact (including Rich announcing at the time), only three pricing games were played: [http://priceisright.wikia.com/wiki/Hole_in_One_(or_Two) Hole in One (or Two)], [http://priceisright.wikia.com/wiki/Plinko Plinko] (for $100,000), and [http://priceisright.wikia.com/wiki/Race_Game Race Game]. In addition, the top two scorers at the Big Wheel went to the Showcase. While not needed, the Double Showcase rule was in play, and in the event of a Double Overbid, the players were instructed to bid again, until there was a winner. Only the Showcase winner's grand total was awarded to a home viewer. In addition, Hole in One's second putt was edited out for time, and due to a correct guess, every non-celebrity audience member earned Plinko's fourth small prize, an MP3 player. Brande Roderick was the winner of this round, earning $54,336 in prizes for a home viewer. To view the full footage, watch the video seen below. [[File:Game Show Marathon (The Price is Right)-Game$how Marathon The Price is Right|center|350px]] ====''[[Let's Make a Deal]]''==== <gallery position="center"> Vlcsnap-596763.png G$M_LMAD.jpg </gallery> There were no major alterations to the format, except with one deal featuring two civilian contestants competing. Gilbert Gottfried guest starred as a Zonk, but his charity was never revealed. No one claimed the Big Deal, worth $87,044.99, so Lance Bass was the winner of this round, earning for a home viewer a $50,990 Lincoln Navigator 4X2. The format was based on the original Monty Hall version.Β To view the full footage, watch the video seen below. [[File:Game Show Marathon (Let's Make a Deal)- June 1, 2006|center|350px]] ====''[[Beat the Clock]]''==== <gallery position="center"> Vlcsnap-651527.png G$M_BTC.jpg </gallery> This was based on the 1950's version. Each player brought along a teammate to assist. Also, all the contestants were kept sequestered backstage so they didn't know what stunt they would play until they played it. Two teams would face the same stunt which was used in the original, those doing it in the fastest times won a prize package and faced off in a Head-To-Head stunt to determine a winner. That person won another prize package (that winner's prizes went to a home viewer), and they then played a Bonus Stunt for a car. Paige Davis won this round, and a total of $67,603 in prizes for a home viewer, including a Chrysler Crossfire SRT-6 Roadster. Note: Kathy tried to take the seat in Finalist's Row away from Paige. To view the full footage, watch the video seen below. [[File:Game Show Marathon (Beat the Clock)- June 7, 2006|center|350px]] ====''[[Press Your Luck]]''==== <gallery position="center" widths"150"> G$M_PYL.jpg PYLGSM4.jpg Vlcsnap-661710.png Marathon16.jpg </gallery> This was an elimination round; the two losers of this game would be eliminated. Again, other than an increased budget, the game remained the same save for the lack of Peter Tomarken and Rod Roddy (whom Rich Fields replaced on '' Price'' as well). The cash prizes increased to as much as $10,000, and though not won, the highest prize offered was a Chevy HHR worth $16,990. This episode was in memoriam of Peter, who died in a plane crash with his wife at that point. The Big Board from the original show was reconstructed with new electronics. Kathy Najimy eliminated Tim Meadows & Leslie Nielsen to win $46,267 in cash & prizes (Meade LX-90 GPS Telescope, Carsons of High Point Dinette Set, Trips to Paris and Juneau, Alaska, plus $25,750 cash) for a home viewer. To view the full footage, watch the video seen below. [[File:Game Show Marathon (Press Your Luck)- June 8, 2006|center|350px]] ====''[[Card Sharks]]''==== <gallery position="center"> Vlcsnap-679777.png G$M_CS.jpg </gallery> This was the first semifinal round, pitting Brande Roderick against Paige Davis. While the game was visually based on the 1978-1981 version, elements from the 1986-1989 version were also used, such as the look of the board (main game & Money Cards), an audience poll question, & "Change Cards" in the Money Cards. In addition, the face-card turntables from the original version were altered to feature the backs of the card decks themselves (and had the boards attached to them so the boards could be revealed and concealed by rotation of the turntables), as well as the podiums. In addition, eggcrate fonts were used for the main game '''and''' Money Cards. Also, for time purposes, the first game was worth $1,000, increasing by $1,000 per game with the high score winning. In the Money Cards, the winner earned $1,000 for each row, for a maximum of $144,000. The winner also played a car game, in which they had to guess if the actual number of people in the audience poll group who answered a question was higher or lower than 5; the correct answer was revealed by use of a card from the blue deck (coin tosses were used to determine who played red and who played blue). Brande Roderick won this round, $10,000 & a $40,445 BMW Z4 Roadster, a total of $50,455 in cash & car for a home viewer. To view the full footage, watch the video seen below. [[File:Game Show Marathon (Card Sharks)- June 15, 2006|center|350px]] ====''[[Match Game]]''==== <gallery position="center"> Vlcsnap-699742.png G$M_MG.jpg </gallery> This was the other semifinal round, pitting Kathy Najimy against Lance Bass. =====Panel===== These are the six other celebrities that were featured: *George Foreman *[[Kathy Griffin]] *Bruce Vilanch *[[Adrianne Curry]] *[[Adam Carolla]] *[[Betty White]] (the only celebrity from the original) The game used the Match Game PM format (three rounds, two Audience Matches), with the Head-To-Head Match played for 50 times the winnings, ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Kathy Najimy won this round and $50,000 for a home viewer. To view the full footage, watch the video seen below. [[File:Game Show Marathon (Match Game)- June 22, 2006|center|350px]] ====''[[Family Feud]]''==== <gallery position="center" widths="160"> G$M_FF.jpg Game-2.jpg Vlcsnap-704481.png </gallery> This was based on the original Dawson version (1976-1985). This was the final round, pitting Brande Roderick against Kathy Najimy in a standard 300-point game (Single-Single-Single-Double-Triple rules) for $100,000 for their charity, and a shot at $50,000 for a home viewer. Both players were on Feud previously (Najimy in 1981, Roderick in 2001), and relevant clips were shown. Kathy Najimy became GSM champion, winning $100,000 for her charity & $50,000 for a home viewer. While it used a duplicate of the 1976-1985 set (with the trilon board's rotation shown as an animation on a CGI screen), 20/25 seconds were offered in the Fast Money game like it did at the time, and the "blip" sound effect used to reveal Fast Money answers was not used, like in the original series itself. To view the full footage, watch the video seen below. [[File:Game Show Marathon (Family Feud)- June 29, 2006|center|350px]] ==International Versions== The following is a list of countries that have previously aired their versions ofΒ ''Gameshow Marathon'' including: *France β "Le Marathon des Jeux TV" *Germany β "Der Gameshow-Marathon" *Hungary β "szuletesnapi kvizmaratont tart" *Israel β "Play It Big" *Mexico β "TBA" *Portugal β "Superconcurso - Jogo de Sempre" *Turkey β "Yarisma Maratonu" *[[w:c:british-game-show:Gameshow Marathon|United Kingdom]] β "Ant & Dec's/Vernon Kay's Gameshow Marathon" (country that originated the program) ==Set Pics== <gallery position="center"> MarathonAudw_TV.jpg MarathonWinnersdeck&aud.jpg L1000186.jpg MarathonWinners&TV.jpg Marathonwinnersrowclose.jpg DSCN7133.jpg </gallery> ===Model Pics=== <gallery position="center"> DSCN6969.jpg DSCN6964.jpg DSCN6947.jpg </gallery> ==Trivia== *This series was considered a run of mini-pilots to test formats to see if they could still work today although two of them were/are still on the air respectively (i.e. ''[[The Price is Right]]'' & ''[[Family Feud]]''); this was also shown in both the UK and Germany in order to pitch ideas for game shows. *In episode four, announcer [[Rich Fields]] "mistakenly" said thatΒ ''[[Press Your Luck]]'' originally premiered in 1981, when it was in fact 1983. Additionally, this was also dedicated to the memory of [[Peter Tomarken]] who died in a plane crash along with his wife Kathleen Abigail on March 13 of that year. *In episode seven, although the set was supposed to emulate the original 1976-85 Dawson era, the colored buzzers for the face-off podium were red instead of yellow like in the actual show as they weren't red until the [[Ray Combs|Combs]] revival in 1988 along with other versions since then. Plus, the lights wiped-in rather than flash repeatedly. In Fast Money, the time limits 20/25 we're given instead of 15/20 from the original. In addition, the last and final Viewer Giveaway question from a 1976 episode of ''[[Family Feud|Feud]]'' was "Give a word polite people use instead of cursing" and the choices wereβ¦ *#Dang *#Darn *#Shoot Although it was never answered in the next episode, the correct one out of the three was #2. *Out of all shows, ''LMAD'' was never aired on CBS in the past until October 2009 when ''Fremantle'' bought the rights, relaunching ''[[Let's Make a Deal]]'' with [[Wayne Brady]]. *''Gameshow Marathon'' aired on CTV in Canada despite the fact that it aired in the U.S. ==Rating== [[File:72px-TV-PG icon svg.png]] ==Music== Main (Series) β Unknown Other show cues by [[Edd Kalehoff]], Sheila Cole, Walt Levinsky, Robert Israel, Ken Bichel and Score Productions. The theme from ''Press Your Luck'' was a re-recording and not the original by Lee Ringuette, possibly due to tape deterioration despite many copies of the theme online; the Whammy foghorn was rerecorded as well. ''Beat the Clock'' and ''Let's Make a Deal'' also had remastered music. The other shows used their original respective music. ==Inventor== Based on a format from the United Kingdom entitled ''[[Ant & Dec]]'s/[[Vernon Kay]]'s Gameshow Marathon'' but with American shows and formats by Mark Goodson, Bill Todman, Bob Stewart, Stefan Hatos, Monty Hall, and Bill Carruthers. ==Studio== [[CBS Television City|CBS Television City, Hollywood, CA]] ==Links== [http://web.archive.org/web/20060711184251/http://www.cbs.com/primetime/game_show_marathon/ Official Site]<br /> [http://web.archive.org/web/20080803055403/http://www.planetricki.com/television/gsm/index.php ''Gameshow Marathon'' description @ planetricki.com]<br /> [http://johnjanavs.com/Game_Shows/Pages/Gameshow_Marathon.html ''Gameshow Marathon'' set pics @ John Janavs' website] ===YouTube Videos=== [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynjAVuRrvBs Night #1 - The Price is Right]<br /> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdvGYi5swCc Night #2 - Let's Make a Deal]<br /> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sutUY7PLZE Night #3 - Beat the Clock]<br /> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJVe6goHk8Q Night #4 - Press Your Luck]<br /> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-_ljP879ww Night #5 - Card Sharks]<br /> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGAVNFA49pM Night #6 - Match Game]<br /> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_x7xut2dwQ Night #7 - Family Feud]<br /> [[Category:Celebrity]] [[Category:Family Game]] [[Category:Fremantle]] [[Category:CBS shows]] [[Category:Network shows]] [[Category:Primetime shows]] [[Category:British Formats]] [[Category:Specials]] [[Category:Big Prize]] [[Category:Short-Running]] [[Category:Flops]] [[Category:60 Minute Game Shows]] [[Category:Wednesday shows]] [[Category:Thursday shows]] [[Category:Los Angeles]] [[Category:2006 premieres]] [[Category:2006 endings]] [[Category:2000s shows]] [[Category:Increasing Prize]] [[Category:Parental Guidance Suggested shows]] [[Category:Anthology]] [[Category:Confetti Drop]] [[Category:Interactive]]
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to the Game Shows Wiki are considered to be released under the CC-BY-SA
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Follow on IG
TikTok
Join Fan Lab