The game show has been a popular genre (category), first on radio (see entry under 1920s—TV and Radio in volume 2) and later on television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3), since the 1930s. With a mixture of competition, entertainment, celebrities, ordinary citizens, and often outrageous formats, game shows have attracted large audiences, if not always critical appreciation. Jefferson Graham, in Come on Down!!!: The TV Game Show Book, quotes a New York Times critic who wrote that game shows were the "thorniest, stoniest area in the wasteland of television—infested with the scorpions of greed and strewn with the bones of those who perished pursuing the mirage of a new Cadillac Seville, a trip for two to Tahiti or a bushel basket of cool green cash." Despite such criticism, it has been estimated that one hundred million Americans watch game shows every...