YouTube has everything: ‘You Don’t Know Jack’ TV show

In yesterday’s post I waxed nostalgic about “You Don’t Know Jack,” an awesome trivia game that has made a resurgence in recent years.  But many may not remember the short-lived TV version that aired on ABC for just six episodes in the summer of 2001.

The show starred Paul Reubens, who by then had largely been repairing his career with memorable turns on shows like “Murphy Brown.” The game was goofy and humorous, just like its computer predecessor, but didn’t garner much in the way of ratings. The show wasn’t advertised heavily and aired in the summer, which created a challenge for Jack fans to find it.  The show aired while the brand was still pretty potent, so perhaps it could’ve done better had it been given more promotion.

At any rate, all six of the episodes are available for enjoyment on YouTube, and like the game hold up pretty well more than a decade later.

Additional viewing

Jellyvision took a second shot at a TV game show the same year with “Smush,” starring Ken Ober of MTV’s “Remote Control” fame, and which aired on game show-friendly USA Network. The idea was clever, but it too didn’t survive for long; sadly, other than a now-defunct online game, the creation never made it past this, and there’s only a few clips online, but what’s available is still quite fun to watch. Hopefully someone will find more and post them.

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