As a huge fan of classic game shows, I was thrilled when I saw the advertisements for CBS' Game$how Marathon. It's not hard to create updated versions of shows; the somewhat successful reincarnations of Family Feud, Match Game, and I've Got a Secret prove this. CBS, however, managed to ruin the many classics that it attempts to recreate. Their first mistake was the host--there's a reason why Ricki Lake hasn't hosted a game show up to this point, as she's a horrible emcee. The attempts to create nearly exact replicas of the game shows depicted in this series only further the problems, as any attempts to reminisce are broken by a stale Lake, who is clearly out of her element, as well as the dozens of audience shots peppered throughout the broadcast. In addition to the content, the length of the show itself is a severe problem; there's a reason why all the game shows featured on Marathon (sans The Price is Right) were only half an hour long.If you want to watch game shows like Family Feud and Card Sharks, stick with GSN. All the brilliance and simplicity of these classics are lost through overproduction in this train wreck of a "tribute."

It seemed that the Game Show marathon nose dived into mind numbing stupidity with The Price is Right. A lot of the contestants didn't seem remotely interested in the show. A lot of them were squealing like idiots and some were just paying around on Camera... It seemed to hurt the rest of the series. These people are playing for a charity of their choosing, but I feel bad for them. My advice is not to play down or act stupid even if it is trying to liven things up on national TV.The one bright spot is the Press Your Luck segment... The Detail is close to the original set and it was really neat to see the old Whammy back on our screens again. Best of all, Ricki Lake made up for the shoddy start to this series by not fooling around or acting too silly...The audience had an incredible energy that I have not seen since the original show... The contestants save for one, really seemed to be enjoying themselves...The clips of that show brought back a lot of memories for me as a kid and I could almost feel Peter's spirit and I thought of Rod too... The memorial at the end was a nice touch.. Aside from a shining moment on the PYL set, the goofing around on the first show seemed to hurt the rest of the series...CBS needs to bring back PYL for another charity type show.. The crown jewel in what would have been a totally bleak series... PYlk is the one bright spot in it...

They started off the episode I watched ("The Price is Right") with a fairly interesting retrospective of the real show and it's all-but- canonized host, Bob Barker.Big mistake. All it did was ensure anyone who watched what followed would see this show for the crap it is, and that Ricki Lake is woefully unsuited to game show hosting (in much the same way that she was woefully unsuited to talk show hosting). The retrospective was followed by a whole lot of gabbing with/about the celebrities, followed by a dreadful, boring, truncated version of "The Price is Right."Avoid at all costs.