Truth is often stranger than fiction, as they say, and as someone who regularly creates quizzes, games, and puzzles for friends to unravel, that’s a core tenet of one of my favorite game styles: Real or Fake Games.
Real or Fake Games are quite simple. I present the player(s) with something — a headline, an animal, a fortune cookie fortune, the plot synopsis of an episode of The Simpsons — and they have to tell me if it’s real or fake.
So today, I’ve crafted a Real or Fake Game for you, fellow puzzler. Below are titles of TV shows, accompanied by a brief description. Can you sort the genuine article from the ones I made up?
Let’s find out!
1: Something Rotten in Denny’s
In this short-lived translation of Hamlet into an American restaurant, Ham tries to endure the mistreatment of management and find happiness while serving big ol’ stacks of pancakes.
2: Small & Frye
Nick Small and Chip Frye are a private-eye team with a twist. Frye has the ability to shrink to six inches in height, which gives him a slight advantage in investigating cases.
3: The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer
A black English nobleman is chased out of England due to gambling debts and becomes President Abraham Lincoln’s valet during the civil war. Oh, and it’s a comedy. About slavery.
4: Byrds of Pray
A comedy about all the shenanigans involved in running a small-town church that’s ALL about the fundraisers, this stars George Gaynes as Reverend Nehemiah Byrd, a bumbling priest who means to do good… but does it badly.
5: Occasional Wife
When his boss won’t promote unmarried men, Peter strikes a deal with a pretty young woman named Greta Patterson. If Greta pretends to be Peter’s wife, in return Peter will pay for her art lessons and set her up in an apartment two floors above his. (All their scampering up and down the fire escape gave the unnamed man who lived in the apartment between them — credited as Man-in-Middle — quite a bit to watch!)
6: Dial S for Santa
Yeah, this one has Santa Claus helping his detective daughter solve crimes in his off-time during the year. By checking the naughty list, sneaking into houses through the chimney, and occasionally throwing coal to distract bad guys, Santa (played by Ed Asner) and a young Teri Polo give this one socks.
7: The Second Hundred Years
A 33-year-old prospector in 1900 is buried in a freak Alaskan avalanche. 67 years later another avalanche thawed him out and he was returned alive to his astonished 67-year-old son and 33-year-old grandson. Although chronologically Luke was 101 years old, physically he was still 33 years old, just like his grandson. The two looked nearly identical but acted nothing alike.
8: The Vidocq Society
Appearing on TV two decades before true crime conquered the world, this short-run pseudo-documentary follows volunteer detectives and off-duty law enforcement solving cold cases. Too gritty for the time, people would be ALL over this one nowadays.
9: The Same Deep Waters as You
In the heyday of the soap opera boom, a harbor town is a haven for smuggling, betrayal, and sexy PG trysts. Featuring a little-seen cameo from young Tom Hanks, as well as soap opera powerhouses Eric Braeden and Deidre Hall, this late ’70s offering only lasted two seasons.
10: Mr. Smith
A top secret formula bestows upon an orangutan the power of speech and an IQ of 256. Now smarter than most humans, the orangutan formerly known as Cha Cha was given the name Mr. Smith and a job with the United States government as a consultant, advising top-level politicians on the most classified of subjects. He dressed in suits and wore glasses.
11: Woops!
An ensemble comedy about the six least likely survivors of a nuclear accident. The series was set in the aftermath of accidental global nuclear war, started when two boys playing with a toy at a parade accidentally set off a nuclear missile, which soon led to a nuclear apocalypse.
12: The Carolina
A sinister drama about a hotel frequented by celebrities (based on the Dakota), The Carolina jammed drug abuse, murder, and satanic rituals into only eight episodes, ending on a completely bonkers note when a secret spiral staircase in the basement leads directly to Hell!
13: West Virginia, MD
Three years before Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., we got a funny frontier doctor with a cowboy twist in West Virginia, MD. This gun-toting doctor was screwed out of his reputation and ventured west to help out during the gold rush. Kind to Indians and women (SHOCKER), this show only lasted one season.
14: Flockstars
A group of eight celebrities engage in sheepherding. The stars, which included actresses, a rapper, and a Paralympic athlete, were mentored by sheepherding experts. Its one saving grace was how attractive the shepherds who mentored the celebrities were.
15: Poochinski
The touching story of a police officer whose soul is absorbed into a flatulent bulldog’s body after he is killed in the line of duty. Voiced by Peter Boyle, Stanley Poochinski is easily the weirdest crime show character in history.
16: Dead at 29
One of the first edgy cable dramas, this one-season wonder features a young woman on the run from the government after escaping a lab after being experimented on. When a plague causes half the population to die the day before their 30th birthday, Callie Sparrow discovers that she and other subjects were helping the government CREATE the plague, not cure it.
17: Pour One Out
A middle-aged bartender (played by James Cromwell) has a knack for getting people to admit their secrets, and he teams up with (you guessed it!) a police detective to solve mysteries in a gritty Gotham-esque New York City neighborhood. But when they discover a mob boss is immune to his powers, they must go on the run to protect themselves and take Big Vinnie down.
18: Manimal
This single-season NBC sci-fi show followed Dr. Jonathan Chase, who inexplicably had the power to turn into any animal at will, and used his power to solve crime.
19: The Cuddlebugs!
What if bed bugs, but cute? This failed kids show featured the weird world between your mattress and the boxspring, and for some reason was populated with brightly colored bugs. For totally understandable reasons, this one only lasted 30 episodes.
20: Oh Sit!
The original title of this series was Extreme Musical Chairs. Basically, contestants compete in ridiculous obstacle courses while a live band plays in the background, and their performance determines how much money they win.
Were you able to tell the real TV shows from the figments of my imagination? Did you remember some of these short-lived television disasters? Let me know in the comments section below, I’d love to hear from you!
PuzzCulture 