More than Reruns

In a move reminiscent of Kentucky Fried Chicken's decision to shorten its corporate name to KFC, the Game Show Network has reinvented itself as GSN, the Network for Games. With a new logo, GSN is hoping to bring in a new cache of viewers, eager to watch innovative programs, as opposed to the endless string of rehashed game shows.

Another goal of the network's resurrection was to be taken more seriously as a cable network -- a cable network that has more value than to serve as a barometer of horrible '70s fashion sense. For this reason, GSN chose to blast off their revamping with the documentary feature, "Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession."

While not as serious as something you might see on The Discovery Channel, and not nearly as fluffy as any "E! Inside Story" special, this documentary took a fascinating look at the innovative and backstabbing origins of video gaming. Beginning in the early 1960s with the invention of the Magnavox Odyssey, "Video Game Invasion" follows the evolution of electronic gaming in the arcade, at home, and with the invention of the PC, on the computer screen.

For anyone eager to relive the glory days of twenty minutes of homework and twenty hours of hitting inside the park home runs with Roger Clemens in "RBI Baseball," the documentary succeeds at hitting the soft place in your heart for nostalgia.

Yet the show is not just a fond remembrance of things past, a la VH1's "I love the 80s." The program also takes a look at the original programmers and pioneers of video gaming, including familiar names like Steve Jobs and Nolan Bushnell. The backstabbing and vicious relationship between the programmers and executives at Atari and Coleco is almost as exciting as dodging a barrel in Donkey Kong.

Perhaps the only misstep in "Video Game Invasion," is its lack of any real chronology. It covers the first few years of electronic gaming in a sequential manner, then veers off in a confusing array of tangents that hop around the past twenty areas like Frogger in traffic.

In addition to documentaries, GSN has also premiered the new programs "Kenny vs. Spenny" and "World Series of Blackjack" in recent weeks. The former is the cheesy "ultimate roommate challenge," where two friends go head to head each week in a series of ridiculously stupid contests. The supposed "draw" is that Spencer (Spenny) is a straight shooting, play-it-safe competitor while his friend Kenny will find any way possible to cheat the system.

The other new programming is an obvious rip-off of the Travel Channel's wildly successful "World Series of Poker." The riveting action of the turn of the cards in poker translates as being horribly lame in blackjack. The only true "skill" in winning money at blackjack comes from counting cards, mathematically calculating the odds in your head, and playing an interminable number of hands to maximize one's winnings. Math just isn't all that exciting.

While the newer programs offered by GSN aren't riveting entertainment, they should be commended for beginning to abandon a schedule filled with old Family Feud reruns -- Richard Dawson's sexual harassment actions and all. Viewers can still find old episodes of "Match Game" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" on a daily basis, but as a whole, GSN is on its way to becoming a viable cable network. It's got fascinating and intriguing programming while still being able to answer the "$64,000 Question."