I'll Start With The Only Piece Of News

NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me will be doing a cinecast (live broadcast into movie theaters) of one of its tapings on May 2, 2013. It's kind of sad that I've already seen Wait Wait Don't Tell Me live on tour three times at the Wang Theater in Boston, I watched the TV special on BBC America, and I'm still considering buying tickets to this five months in advance.

Now, as this is my last post of 2012, I thought I'd end the year by paying tribute to some of the game show greats we lost this year (and there are plenty of them). This is by no means an exhaustive list - I'm not about to list everyone who died this year who once appeared on Hollywood Squares, and there are probably a few more prominent game show figures I overlooked. Still, here we go, in alphabetical order:

Jacques Antoine

 Legendary producer of game shows in France who created Fort Boyard and Treasure Hunt, among countless others.

Max Bygraves 

Veteran performer who hosted Family Fortunes (the British version of Family Feud) for a few years

Dick Clark

Flat-out showbiz icon - hosting Pyramid was probably one of his lesser achievements!

Denise Darcel

Host of a few game shows in the early years of television.

Richard Dawson

Icon of American game shows, most famous as the original host of Family Feud.

Bob Holness

Icon of British game shows, most famous as the original host of Blockbusters.

Ruth Horowitz

Became the Ken Jennings of the 1960s with a long string of wins on Concentration.

Rich Jeffries

Announcer on a few game shows in the 1980s.

Kenneth Kendall

Original host of Treasure Hunt in Britain.

Dave Maynard

Hosted a local talent show in the Boston area for decades.

Jim Packard

Announcer on Whad'ya Know for decades.

Jim Paratore

Veteran TV producer who created Let's Ask America.

Bill Rafferty

Host of a few game shows in the 1980s.

Bob Stewart

Legendary producer of game shows in America who created The Price Is Right, Password, and Pyramid, among countless others; as if that wasn't enough, his son, Sande Stewart, is a game show producer in his own right.

Ian Turpie

Icon of Australian game shows, most famous for hosting The Price Is Right for years.

Mike Wallace

Hosted a few game shows in the early years of television, but later became much more famous as a newscaster.

RIP to all.

Aaron