Basically what it is, several celebrities play a series of classic game shows to win cash and prizes for their selected charities as well as for home viewers. The winner of each "quarterfinal" show advances to "Finalists' Row", while the losers compete in the next show of the series, etc., until a certain number of contestants reach "Finalists' Row". The remaining players are eliminated. Then, the contestants in "Finalists' Row" play in do-or-die semifinal games. Finally, the winners of each of the semifinal games play in the final game to determine a grand champion. For the specifics of how many contestants reach "Finalists' Row", etc., see the individual GSM series pages.

On each of the GSM series pages I will briefly run down the results, and then give my review of each of the episodes in the series. The reviews are as I posted them on the GSN message boards (my username there is bigdog913), with minor edits. The pages assume that you already know the rules to each of the classic game shows. If you don't, you should head on over to Matt Ottinger's Game Show Compendium, the link to which can be found on the Links page. I will now go over the rubric for how I reviewed each of the episodes.

GAMEPLAY: 30 percent of the total points. This is probably the grading phylum in which I graded the most leniently. Here, I'm just looking for how closely the shows felt compared to an episode of the original series. Since GSM has no original games, there's no point in grading the game itself.

HOSTING: 20 percent of the total points. The host of any game show must have just the right amount of enthusiasm. Too little will make the hosts's personality seem dry; too much and it may cause the viewers to get a headache. The same goes for the classic series recreated on GSM. Hosts who stumble a lot or say wrong phrases at the wrong times will lose points.

PRESENTATION: 20 percent of the total points. For a normal game show, this would simply mean the quality of the audiovisuals of the show. For GSM, it means how closely the classic sets, graphics, music, and sound effects were recreated. Inconsistency among the sound, among the graphics, or between the sound and the graphics is a no-no here.

EXECUTION: 20 percent of the total points. This grade evaluates how well each classic show's format was fit for the GSM format.

OTHER TALENT: 10 percent of the total points. This category grades the performance of the announcer and models, dealers, panelists, etc. if applicable.

GRADING SYSTEM:
A = 88 to 100 percent of the total points
B+ = 82 to 87.9 percent of the total points
B = 70 to 81.9 percent of the total points
C+ = 64 to 69.9 percent of the total points
C = 52 to 63.9 percent of the total points
D = 40 to 51.9 percent of the total points
F = below 40 percent of the total points

So with that out of the way, click on the Game Show Marathon Series to see the reviews of the shows in that series.

Game Show Marathon 1 - May-June 2006.htm

A special thanks goes to Wikipedia, who has helped me put together the summaries and for ratings information. As closely as I follow the series, I can't remember everything! Also thanks to some fellow GSN message board members, which there are too many to mention but especially TheKid965.