There's a new version of Hollywood Squares now on CBS and my first thought was that this show gets revived more often than any decent villain who dies in a DC or Marvel comic book. But then I looked it up and say that the original series hosted by Peter Marshall ran from 1966 to 1980, then it was part of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour from 1983 to 1984 with Jon Bauman hosting the Hollywood Squares half. A syndicated version hosted by John Davidson ran from 1986 to 1989 and another syndicated version — this one hosted by Tom Bergeron — ran from 1998 to 2004.
So this is only the fifth revival? Apparently so but it sure feels like it's on its ninety-eighth resurrection. That may be because of a few variations that have been tried like Nashville Squares on CMT and a music-oriented version on VH1.
This new one is hosted by Nate Burleson, who's fine but like everyone on this show, a little over-energized. Every putative celebrity seated in the big tic-tac-toe board is a superstar legend and everything they say is hilarious. This gets a bit grating when it's one of those celebrities you've never heard of, let alone celebrated. They all, of course, have a funny answer to each question Mr. Burleson puts to them but some of them aren't too good at pretending they came up with that funny answer — or even the non-funny answer they give after that.
Hollywood Squares has always supplied its Paul Lyndes with snappy "zingers" and decent fluff answers but their Paul Lyndes were, I guess, better at faking this kind of thing than most of their current Paul Lyndes.
And like most game shows these days, the program has the feeling of being edited and seriously sweetened. Once upon a time, game shows were live and you were watching actual, right- before-your-eyes competitions. As with most talk shows — and others that allegedly present real-time proceedings — as technological advances made it easier to edit, it became increasingly difficult for producers to resist tightening up these three seconds of Nothing Happening, cleaning up that bobble, etc. Sometimes, even when it's well done, it adds a subtle sense of unreality to the proceedings.
Drew Barrymore is the Center Square on this version and one of its producers. Henry Winkler was one of the producers of the Tom Bergeron incarnation so I guess the premise is that you need a celebrity as producer to help round up other celebrities…or something like that. I like that the show moves quickly and they haven't tried to reinvent it so as to award someone life-changing money. If someone could win a million dollars on it, it might not be as much fun as it is…because despite the above quibbling, I kinda liked it. The only big changes I'd make would be to stop editing it, stop gushing over its "stars" and to put a CGI Charley Weaver in the lower left square.