No reason for the rhymes

As a faux tweet noted, Ryan Seacrest is working on a remake of a nearly forgotten 1970s game show called Rhyme and Reason. The show was almost completely wiped, but the pilot somehow survived and has surfaced on YouTube.

Seacrest apparently plans to use hip hoppers for his remake, which is tentatively titled Rhyme, Rap or Reason. The original used a cast of old game show regulars like Richard Dawson, Jaye P. Morgan and Lee Meriwether. The central figure was Nipsey Russell, who contributed rhymes of all sorts, some of them kind of funny.

Bob Eubanks hosted in a classically smarmy way. The idea was to get the celebs to create rhyming answers which used words secretly picked by the civvies. Slightly off-color humor was encouraged, as the show tried to duplicate a Match Game atmosphere.

The problem was simple: too many of the rhymes were lame beyond any possible forgiveness. Of course, not every reply on Match Game hit the target, either, but at least the celebs didn't have to force their answers into stilted verse. Even Nipsey couldn't knock off the rhymes consistently enough. Rhyme and Reason suffered through one low-rated year before ABC pulled the plug and brought on something called Family Feud as the replacement.

We'll see if Seacrest has any more luck with the remake.