Kid stuff

Have I mentioned that my grumpy old self doesn't particularly like kid game shows? But this is a full service blog, so I just watched the "sneak previews" of two kid shows on Hasbro, er, Hub.



The first is The Game of Life, and it's definitely aimed at real little young'uns. Two teams of one adult and two little kids ride a car through endless CGI landscapes. They occasionally answer pretty simple two-choice questions and score "life points" or some kind of points. All the while host Frank Nicotero, of the late lamented Street Smarts, hollers and hollers some more.



There's a final stunt round when we get out of the endless CGI. In the sneak peek the stunt was wrapping and tossing hamburgers. Made me a little hungry, to be honest. When all the points are tallied, the winners go to a big wheel and spin for some not enormous prize. Happily, the team in the sneak peek copped a home entertainment system.



The second show, Scrabble Showdown, features much more serious gameplay. Two teams of an adult and an older kid compete through three rounds of games with letter tiles. These rounds are not closely related to actual Scrabble. The fourth and final round is the biggie. A realistic Scrabble board shows up on the screen, and a high-speed and quite entertaining version of the board game ensues.



If you evaluate the shows just on their gameplay, Scrabble Showdown wins easy. But my guess is that the louder, simpler and bouncier Game of Life will prove more appealing to Hub's kiddie audience. Maybe it's just that Frank Nicotero irritates me less than Scrabble Showdown's Justin Willman. A less squeaky voice, anyway.



UPDATE: On the GSN general board, frequent poster TheKid965 offers an interesting comparison of Scrabble Showdown to the ancient Chuck Woolery show. He notes quite a few similarities.