Cal State LA TVFM students create game show pilot in groundbreaking course sequence, earning praise from industry legends

Cal State LA TVFM students, come on down!

Cal State LA and Hollywood industry experts celebrated about 30 students from TVFM- the Department of Television, Film, and Media Studies-following a special screening of their pilot for the game show From A to Gen Z at the TVFM Center on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

The pilot was the culminating project for Cal State LA's three-course game show development sequence, which kicked off in fall 2024 as the nation's first academic curriculum focused on the study and production of the game show genre.

The student-produced From A to Gen Z, featuring a bright blue-and-orange set, an engaging gameboard, catchy theme music, and enthusiastic contestants-everything that makes classic game shows fun and unforgettable-received outstanding reviews from two of the genre's most renowned executive producers.

"It was amazing," said Bob Boden, whose credits include The Chase, Boom!, and Family Game Night. "It's a great idea. It has participation, which is the mark of a great game show. It was entertaining, it was fun, and I was playing along. If you have all those elements, you have the makings of a great show."

"I loved it," said Harry Friedman, the Emmy Award-winning executive producer of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! "It was pretty much what we envisioned."

Friedman and Boden, who is also the co-founder of the National Archives of Game Show History, designed the curriculum as a comprehensive study of game shows, which have been a part of American pop culture since the late 1930s when radio was king and television was in its infancy.

The first course serves as an introduction that covers game show history and defines the many roles that go into producing a show. The second concentrates on game development, with each student proposing an idea for a game show.

The top proposal, as judged by the class instructors, ends up as the centerpiece of the final course as students work as a crew to produce the pilot.

Prior to the screening, TVFM leadership announced that the pilot is being shopped around for development.

From A to Gen Z was the brainchild of senior Jaime Diaz, who is scheduled to complete his Bachelor of Arts in TVFM this semester.

"I grew up on TV," said the 31-year-old Whittier resident. "It was always on in our house, and game shows were always a part of that. I just knew since I was a kid that I wanted to get into media and make things, either on TV or movies. I just wanted to be part of the creative process."

For his pilot proposal, Diaz researched game shows from decades back.

"I wanted to make something accessible, something that wouldn't be too difficult to produce," he said. "I started watching classic game shows from the 1970s. In terms of technology, they didn't have what we have now. I thought, whatever they were able to do in the '70s, we can do something similar now."

From A to Gen Z pits two contestants from different generations against each other. The pilot, for example, featured Gen-Xer Lolito and Gen Z's Mia, who had to answer trivia questions that pertained to their two generations.

The classic game shows Diaz watched inspired the gameboard featuring 19 hexagons, the earworm theme music, and the eye-catching set.

"You learn in class that you can borrow ideas and reuse them," Diaz said.

But Diaz also brought modern touches to his show. The gameboard, for example, featured emojis, not words, that provided hints to the categories for the question-and-answer segment of the first round.

For the second round, contestants can risk some of their first-round earnings to either "power up" and win more money for themselves or "power down" to sabotage their opponents. It was inspired by video games.

"They can't just gather points until the end. That's boring," Diaz said. "I put on my gamer mentality. What makes video games fun? Well, you gather skills or you gather ammo that you will use and lose later. I didn't want money to be the primary focus. The idea is to be better than the other generation."

In the pilot, Gen Z contestant Mia was the victor. She moved on to the bonus round, where she was given one minute to correctly answer seven questions to win additional money.

Pretty standard for a bonus round, right? Not quite. Mia had a choice of answering questions from her generation, or she could triple her earnings by answering trivia from Gen X, a generation less familiar to her.

"We learned in class that in essence every game show is the same, but there are always twists," said Diaz.

The pilot was produced entirely by the students. Diaz served as the showrunner, and his classmates' roles corresponded with those from actual game shows-from script writers to casting producers, camera operators, and editors.

Friedman first discussed the idea of the game show sequence with Dina Ibrahim, then the director of the California State University (CSU) Entertainment Alliance. He then contacted Boden, who previously tried to teach a single class on game shows at UCLA Extension but had to cancel for lack of interest.

Two hours after their initial conversation, Boden called back with the curriculum for the sequence, repurposing the syllabus from the failed UCLA course for the first class and then expanding it with the next two courses.

Ibrahim shared the idea within the CSU, and TVFM Associate Chair Kristiina Hackel jumped at the opportunity.

"I reached out to her and said, 'I want it!'" said Hackel, who had already been formulating a plan for game show classes.

"It's a very specific genre," she continued. "The traditional film school subjects are narratives and documentaries. Game shows are their own thing. It's an enduring genre. It's popular, and it's proven to be strike-proof and recession-proof. In fact, it thrives during periods of recession. It's an indestructible format, something that appeals to mass audiences."

The students have responded, with each of the three classes reaching capacity. The sequence will start over in spring 2026, and a second pilot will be produced in spring 2027.

"The students are very enthusiastic," Hackel said. "I've heard them say this is something they definitely want to do. And for students who don't think game shows are the summit of their ambitions, it's still a production. They learn about production, pre-production, post-production. Everything in game shows is also incorporated into any media field."

The instructors and guest speakers for the courses are a veritable who's who in the genre. They included Stuart Krasnow, producer and showrunner of The Weakest Link and Gameshow Marathon; Sean Loughlin, senior vice president of Unscripted Development at Endemol Shine North America; and Shannon Perry, executive in charge of production for Capital One College Bowl and The Fix.

Producer Joey Ortega, whose credits include The Chase and Supermarket Sweep, co-taught all three classes with guidance from TVFM lecturer Nidhin Patel.

"The classes have exceeded my expectations," he said. "The biggest takeaway for students is that it's a genre that's not only fun to watch, but fun to produce. That's really the imperative for me and all my co-teachers because we consider ourselves lucky to work in a genre where we're giving away other people's money. They get to learn about game shows and have fun for two and a half hours a week, and maybe they find a future career path."

Ortega was also impressed with the professionalism the students displayed in creating the pilot.

"It is both realistic and unrealistic," he said. "It's realistic that they pulled off something in such a brief amount of time, which is something we do in the industry all the time. It is unrealistic how excellent the pilot is. It is as good, if not better, than some of the pilots and presentations I've worked on. They should all be very proud."

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