I'm not even old but you all made me feel old.

So, I've always been really into game shows, and I'm not just talking about "Jeopardy" or the "Price is Right" (though I do still love watching those). I mean all the game shows. I grew up watching them. I would go to my grandmas when I was little and get really excited to watch and play "Shop Till You Drop." When I was home sick from school, I was always watching Game Show Network--"Card Sharks," "Press Your Luck," "$100,000 Pyramid," "Password" and more. I absolutely love them. I guess I'm an old lady at heart. So, yesterday, when people seemed confused about the activity, all I could think was, "This is just 'To Tell the Truth'," but nobody even knew about it. From wikipedia, I've gotten so basic info--most important being that the show has been airing since 1956, and that "the show is one of two game shows in the United States to have aired at least one new episode in at least seven consecutive decades." I've included an old episode below, with an all time favorite--Dick Van Dyke.

So, you can see, the activity that we participated in yesterday was basically the same thing. We used the same investigative tools that the celebrity panel uses.

But I didn't want to make this post just to point out the game show. That would give us nothing to even talk about when it comes to this class. So I just want to talk about game shows in general. Every game requires a certain amount of knowledge, a certain amount of investigation, and a certain amount of strategy. "Jeopardy" requires trivia knowledge, "Password" requires vocabulary knowledge, "The Price is Right" requires product knowledge, and "Card Sharks" requires knowledge of probability. No one goes into these games unprepared, sometimes, even the audience is included in this statement.  

Like Sherlock Holmes, game shows were created with the express purpose of entertainment after the day to day drudge. Like Sherlock Holmes, the reader/viewer has the opportunity to participate. When Sherlock is compiling information about the human anatomy, contestants on "The Price is Right"are compiling information about the prices of every day items. Sherlock must observe small details at crime scenes, while contestants need to observe the prices of items that they might not even be buying. The contestants start to use reason to understand why some things cost more than other, and more. I know it's hard to think of the overly-excited contestants on "The Price is Right" or other game shows as Sherlock-like characters, but in many ways they are.