A faux tweet noted a raunch-and-roll version of Dating Game played at the University of Connecticut. Which reminds me of various recent complaints about off-color material on game shows.The GSN boards have seen plenty of wailing over Baggage, Newlywed Game and Bill Engvall's Lingo. These whines mostly strike me as Victorian and prudish. After all, there's no nudity or f-bombing language on these shows. Compared to, say, Game of Thrones, GSN is squeaky-cleaner than Barney the Dinosaur.
And I can't stand Barney. Syndicated game shows are also mostly G-rated. Oh, some mildly risque talk sneaks into Family Feud. But the other three syndies are family-friendly to a fault. There's a famous Wheel of Fortune blooper, for instance, where a contestant guesses "a group of pill pushers." In disbelief Pat exclaims: "This is Wheel of Fortune!"
The genre's inherent conservatism - there are rules and some things are just not done - tends to keep the proceedings fairly harmless. In its time Match Game was considered somewhat daring, but the 1998 revival foundered when the panelists got too ribald.
If you're going to be shocked by anything on most game shows, you're probably extremely shockable. If you have any tolerance at all, most game shows will leave you unfazed.
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