Next Time You Hear That Beep...

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

... think of all the fun you can have on Supermarket Sweep! I first got cable in 1994 or so, which I think I've mentioned before. It was a big deal to my family, which previously only got the 6 or so channels that you can get over the air. This is actually really amusing, when you keep in mind how much TV I watched before age 10, haha. Anyway, my brother and I soon stumbled upon Supermarket Sweep and it became a staple of our post-dinner TV on weeknights, hehe. We used to get really into it, and were surprised at how poor some of the contestants were at the show!

Brief history: Although I didn't know it existed until the 90s, Supermarket Sweep actually premiered in 1965 on ABC, and was done in a real supermarket in New York City. The idea was born when a husband and wife thought it would be neat to just run through a supermarket and grab whatever you wanted. Well, after some tweaking, the show was born and came to stay in the 11am ABC time slot for two years. The show was off the air for a really long time before getting revived for Lifetime in 1990. It lasted five years and then another three in reruns, and this time was done in a mock supermarket in a studio instead of the real thing. PAX gave it a go from 2000-2003 with an additional year of reruns (again in a studio), but that was it. Now the show hasn't been seen for six or seven years, but I think it would still do well, especially with the economic downfall and the rising price of food. Plus, with all of the organic items out there changing prices left and right, it would make for some interesting twists. Plus, there are more than 1,000 episodes out there, so reruns could go a long time before repeating!

The game: The original game had multiple rounds, played by two teams of two, generally a husband and wife on a team. Round 1 was very Price is Right in that, one at a time, six products were shown, and whoever got the price correct won the item and 10 seconds to their time for the second round. Both teams played in the second round, where one person from each team went on a run through the market, throwing high-valued goods into the cart. The carts were totaled, then the other members of each team went and did the same thing. Carts were totaled again, and the team with the highest overall amount won the game and the privilege to play the next day. Both teams were allowed to keep everything they had put into the carts, so it was really a winner's game!

Notable changes to the way the game is played: When the show went to Lifetime, there were three teams, and they could be parent and child, best friends, siblings, etc. They wore matching sweatshirts to distinguish the teams. Teams were called from the audience by what grocery item they were holding (which we passed out before the show). There was first a question round, where one person from each team competed at a time, for two mini-rounds. Then there was a Round Robin round where the teammates alternated quickly between questions. Questions ranged from pricing to slogans and jungles to various word games about grocery items. Winners got 10 seconds added per correct answer. There was also a mini-sweep round, where a rhyming couplet was given and the team who correctly guessed which item it referred to had the chance to have one member run into the market and retrieve it. If they did it in 30 seconds, they got $50 added to the end round. If they did it in 20 seconds, they got $100 added. In the Big Sweep round, there was now a limit of 5 per item, plus you'd get penalized if you knocked things over and didn't clean them up. It was also at this point that you won the amount of money you'd racked up as your prize rather than the actual grocery items. There was also a special bonus of a giant stuffed animal or sign worth $50-300, but you had to get this item back to the checkout before time expired for it to count (normal grocery cart didn't have to make it back to count)... the best part about this was that you could steal it out of someone else's cart if they left it unattended. There were also smaller bonuses, like grounding a bag of coffee, weighing a bag of candy, putting certain bread items in a basket, or getting specific magazines. There were also buttons throughout the store that would give you clues as to what a special product would be that day. One of the craziest and most time-consuming options that appeared was digging through a barrel to find a marked item within. My brother liked it when they had to build a hoagie as a bonus. Oh, and then there was a BONUS SWEEP. The team that won the Big Sweep was given a clue and both members of the team ran into the grocery store to find the item, which had another clue, and then the second item had a clue to find the money prize. If you found one item, you got just $200... if you found 2, you got $400... if you found all three you got $5,000. . .

Special contestants: I don't know if there were ever any famous people as contestants on this one, but they did do some sort of military week at some point. There are some interesting people on there sometimes, but since it's so old, the video clips online are all pretty poor in both audio and video qualities, so I'll skip trying to bring in any specific examples.

Favorite Rounds: In one season of the Lifetime version, a giant Frankenstein walked through the aisles during the Big Sweep, which made the contestant have to turn around whenever they encountered him, and I thought that was great. I also remember a big tournament where teams played for a month to try to win a pair of cars, that was cool since the final week had different games and stuff. Once, when I was about twelve, I saw a question during the first round that I never forgot, probably because I was going through puberty and that sort of thing interested me at the time... it was the three guys' turn to answer, and the question was, "what cup size is the average American woman's bra?" and the first guy goes "C" and it's wrong. the second guy guesses "D" and it's wrong. The third guy hesitates before trying "B" and is surprised that he's right. At that point, what was he wavering between??

My take: I'd compete if given the opportunity, and I think I'd do well. My brother and I always thought that we'd compete together, but at this point in my life I'd probably choose my friend, Heather, as a partner. She knows prices, is into competition, thinks fast on her feet, and runs quickly, LoL. When it comes to the Big Sweep, I'd certainly go with diapers and turkeys like everyone does, but formula was a big one they always missed, so I'd sweep five of those into my cart. Spices are another category where you could rack up a lot pretty quickly, and those were rarely used. Plus, they're tiny. Another item I'd be sure to go with is coffee. Although something like 24-packs of soda would ring up the bill, they're just too large and take up too much cart space to help too much.

Did you ever watch Supermarket Sweep? Did you see more than one version of it, or just the Lifetime one? Who would you partner with if the show was still on the air and you were competing?

My Top Ten Game Shows

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

A couple days ago I read an article giving logical ideas on how to win various games within The Price is Right. I thought it was a clever thing to talk about, and even as a six-year-old, I would yell at players making dumb decisions. Even now, there are times when I look at the players like they're idiots on Wheel of Fortune when I've known the answer for 2-3 turns and they're still buying vowels. This whole thing got me thinking about my favorite game shows, which have changed somewhat over the years. The Price is Right would have been in the top 5 if Bob Barker was still hosting. Drew Carey isn't a bad host, but I just can't stand him, so it's been knocked from the Top Ten.

10. Classic Concentration. My brother and I were into memory games when we were kids. In fact, we had like a mega-memory game and the generic one that all six-year-olds seem to own, that came in the plastic container with slots for each card. Our mega set had over 50 cards to it, since we had a hard time even laying all of them out. So, I had a good time watching other people try to remember where cards were. BUT, what made this a great game show was the rebus puzzle behind the cards. This was the first rebus I had ever seen, and I still love them. I think that I have a slight advantage over other people in reading them because of this show, LoL.

9. Wipeout. I love a good physical challenge show. And while this one may be incredibly goofy sometimes, I think it's awesome. When we lived in California I downloaded the application to apply to be on it, knowing full well that it would be more of an experience for me than a win, since I'm not that strong of a swimmer (and that's important in the final round), and I'm kinda paranoid about knocking out teeth and things like that. I think it's interesting that some of the rounds change from time to time, but I really enjoy the creativity in some of those gags! It's not like you could ever try it at home, LoL.

8. Lingo. This isn't one of the most popular games, and it's strictly words and a little luck (regarding what numbers you pull to get points and then win prizes). Basically, you stand around guessing 5-letter words. In the first two rounds, two teams of two are pitted against eachother, and they only ever get a letter to start with. They find out which letters are in the right positions and which are correct but in the wrong places, and get 5 chances to guess the word. In the final round, the better team tries to do ten of these in two minutes (you still get the first letter, but now also get a random second letter). They rarely get all ten, but that usually doesn't matter, they still win something. I'm not that good at the game, but I do get excited watching it.

7. I'm Telling! If there was one game on this list that I'd bet you hadn't heard of, it's this one. It ran on cable only, and only a season or two were made. It was a children's game show, specifically geared for brother-sister pairs. The set-up is like the NewlyWed Game, in that the brothers answer questions about the sisters and vice versa, and you get points when you're right. The losing two teams all got 10-speed bikes. The two winners took turns running through a "prize arcade." See, before the show, each kid had written down the six prizes they thought their sibling would want (out of ten). When you chose six in the final round, you were choosing the six that you wanted. If it matched, you won it. You'd always win two prizes because of the overlap in the math on that, and if you matched 10/12, you'd win all of the prizes. The only real catch? There were "boys' prizes" and "girls' prizes" so it was very sexist. My brother and I played along ALL THE TIME.

6. Supermarket Sweep. In case you haven't seen a pattern yet, my brother and I played along with this one, too. The game was pretty easy... some general questions to bring up your points, and each of the three teams rotated the players' turns. The real excitement was in the end, when you ran around the supermarket throwing foods in your cart to ring up the highest bill. There were also certain items that were announced that could get you extra stuff. Depending on how much time you had banked in the beginning, you could get extra time in the aisles. In theory, it shouldn't have been hard to rack up the bill, but you'd always see people throwing crap in their carts.

5. Wheel of Fortune. This one's a classic, and I don't think you can really argue with that. I love Vanna, mostly for her clothing. The contestants aren't always that exciting, but I generally like the puzzles, although there are certain categories that I like much more than others. Plus, it's still on, so I can catch it five times a week if I'm really bored, LoL.

4. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? So when I list this one, I'm only referring to the Regis Philbin-hosted version. This is because I believe that, arguably, most people agree he's the only true host of that show. I rank it so high for several reasons. First, the gimmick of only having it on for a couple weeks and then taking it away again was interesting. Plus, the lights and the concept and the ten possible contestants in the beginning were neat. Lastly, it came on when my now-husband and I were first starting to date, so we'd often watch the show at our respective parents' houses and talk about it on the phone.

3. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? This show was supercool, especially from the seven-year-old's point-of-view. There was the mysterious storyline going on, plus some neat facts to learn, and lastly the running around putting the sirens on different countries/states. I always wanted to be on that show, and would have done really well since I knew my US map like the back of my hand by the time I was eight-years-old. PLUS, the prize was a trip to anyplace in the continental US! How neat!

2. Jeopardy! I love a good quiz show. I particularly love this one for several reasons, but the main ones at this point in my life are that the clues are always shown on the screen so I can read them while at the gym on the treadmill, and I have a wide berth of knowledge so this is a game I always have an excellent and a sucky category in. And I think this tends to be true for many of the contestants on the show. It's always good to watch when you're bored or on vacation and have no cable, or when you're with strangers and need an icebreaker on television, LoL.

1. Legends of the Hidden Temple. OF COURSE this is my #1 game show. It was THE COOLEST gameshow EVER. I may be too old to go on it now (in the event they bring it back), but it's still super mega awesome. There were six teams (of two) to start out with, and it always began with a physical challenge - crossing a moat. The first four teams to make it moved on. Then, on to some knowledge and listening comprehension, then some more physical stuff. But the end level was made up of running through a fun house of sorts (there were like seven different set-ups too, so it's not like you could memorize it beforehand... although there are websites out there with maps of each... I'm serious), collecting the artifact of the day by completing a task to open most of the doors, and avoiding the temple guard. Sometimes they'd also have to find part of their Pendant of Life, too. Both team members got to go in, and it just looked like so much fun! The only qualm I have about the game is that it always seemed the teams struggled with putting together the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, LoL. Oh, and it was another one that my brother and I would always talk about how we'd do each challenge if we were on a team, LoL.