The scribblers

In the faux tweets I linked to a video about Jeopardy head writer Billy Wisse and his eight staff writers. Game show scribblers never get enough credit. But somebody has to pen a lot of the words on each episode. Though game shows are often called "unscripted," questions have to be phrased, puzzles designed, intros written, etc.

Although the pictured Bard never tried his hand at Elizabethan quizzers, other writers have made a mark on our little genre. The Match Game group was particularly wild and crazy. Guys like Dick DeBartolo would try to sneak the most risque stuff possible past the censors. On GSN's Match Game documentary Behind the Blank, DeBartolo explained his strategy: submit some truly insane things he knew wouldn't make the cut, so the lines he really wanted on the show would look acceptable by comparison.

Game show writers may suffer from the same snobbery that besets the genre in general. After all, how many critics ever compliment "unscripted show" writers? Instead the critics heap praise on writers who churn out the hoity-toitier dramas and sitcoms that are somehow nobler than little old game shows.

But once in a while spare a thought for the people who write the questions. It's not easy to come up with an entire Jeopardy board.