Rules of the Game Book
CHAPTER 1 ___________ What Is a Genre? Quiz Shows/ Game Shows ore than any other genre on radio or television, the quiz show genre has Mbeen notoriously difficult to define. Radio and television genres routinely form hybrids and cross-fertilize each other, as can be seen in various recent popular comedy-drama hybrids such as Ally McBeal, The Wonder Years, or Sports Night, as well as in failed hybrids such as Cop Rock or Medicine Ball. In the case of quiz shows and game shows, however, the terms hide a myriad pro- gramming forms under these seemingly unifying generic labels. Shows as dif- ferent as The Price Is Right, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Dr. I.Q., Survivor, Family Feud, Double Dare, Supermarket Sweep, Jeopardy!, Queen for a Day, The Newlywed Game, Singled Out, and Take It or Leave It are united through a common generic label, yet their similarities are often difficult to discern. Although we sometimes see all of these shows referred to as game shows, some of them are also categorized with other generic labels, for exam- ple, the term reality show for Survivor, the term quiz show for Take It or Leave It, or the term dating show for Singled Out. The variation of such generic labels partly stems from historical changes in terminology, yet it also points to a fundamental instability of generic categories. In this chapter, the term quiz/game show genre indicates that the use of generic labels in everyday dis- course, industry practice, and scholarly work has consistently failed to address the complexities and shifts in this genre.
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