Board games have been a pillar of human togetherness since ancient history. Even in modern times, some specific brands of tabletop family games have become staples of pop culture. Games like Monopoly, Clue, and even Mouse Trap are commonplace in most American households, perfect for rainy days or quiet afternoons at home.
Some of these board games, like Clue, have even been adapted into feature films. Other movies, like Jumanji, find characters deeply involved in fictionalized board games. However, occasionally board games will become prominent in TV shows as well, such as these shows that are either based on board games or feature them in key episodes.
9 Pictionary
Pictionary is one of the most popular board games of all time, as it demands players to essentially play charades with only their ability to draw as their guide for their teams. Due to its highly visual nature, it's been featured in many TV shows and movies over the years as a go-to game night choice. However, the game also spawned its own game show in 1989.
Hosted by sitcom actor and future head of Paramount Brian Robbins, the show works essentially the same as the home version. It ran throughout the summer of 1989 for one season and was later revived in 1997 with Growing Pains actor Alan Thicke as host. This iteration of the show also featured teams paired up with celebrities like Weird Al Yankovic.
8 Monopoly
Another board game adapted into a game show was Monopoly, the popular tabletop game where players buy and sell property. This show was even created by Merv Griffin, who was known for his role in creating Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. The host was former Jeopardy contestant Mike Reilly, with interchanged female co-hosts.
The game show version is a lot more high stakes than the board game, as contestants have the chance to win actual cash prizes. It aired for only 12 episodes in the summer of 1990 alongside Super Jeopardy on ABC. Unfortunately, it hasn't been revived since, and it doesn't seem like there's much of an audience these days for a comeback.
7 Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit was a more successful board-game-turned-game show that aired from 1993 to 1994 on The Family Channel. It was hosted by Wink Martindale, an American radio DJ, and loosely follows the rules of the original game. Contestants must answer multiple-choice questions made up of six different categories of academic-related subjects.
The subjects included Geography, Entertainment, History, Art & Literature, Science & Nature, and Sports & Leisure. However, the second and third rounds feature a wider variety of subjects, including movies and television. Another iteration of the game show called Trivial Pursuit: America Plays, aired for one season between 2008 and 2009.
6 Seinfeld
Seinfeld is one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, mostly for how it created top-tier comedy out of ordinary or mundane scenarios. One of its most popular episodes featured an intense game of Risk between Kramer and Newman. "The Label Maker" aired in 1995 during the show's sixth season, and was written by Alec Berg and Jeff Schaffer.
The Kramer-Newman Risk game takes up a large portion of the episode as the two attempts to prevent each other from cheating. This results in the board being kept at Jerry's apartment, then later following the two on the subway and eventually to the Super Bowl. This serves as the climax to an episode-long storyline involving Jerry and Elaine re-gifting Super Bowl tickets.
5 Community
Rick & Morty creator Dan Harmon has not hidden his love for Dungeons & Dragons over the years. Harmon even created a show titled HarmonQuest which finds him and a panel of celebrities navigating a role-playing scenario. However, Harmon utilized his D&D fandom way earlier in two episodes of his NBC sitcom Community.
The first of these episodes, "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons," aired in the show's second season and is a fan favorite. It features some pretty great moments from the show's cast, especially Alison Brie as the naive Annie Edison whose actions become quite graphic. A season five episode reprised the premise with guest stars Jonathan Banks and David Cross.
4 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of the longest-running live-action sitcoms in American TV history. The show's main cast is a collection of sociopathic, self-centered bar owners in Philadelphia whose actions often lead to the misfortune of others. That certainly describes their attitudes in the season 7 episode "Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games."
In the episode, the five members of the gang split off into two teams to revive a self-created board game titled Chardee MacDennis. The intense, often cruel game tests their minds, bodies, and spirits, resulting in trivia, physical pain, and emotional humiliation. The game later reappeared in an episode of the eleventh season and somehow gets even darker.
3 The Big Bang Theory
The characters on The Big Bang Theory rarely hide their fandom of all things nerdy. That definitely applies to Settlers Of Catan, a board game where players build and grow settlements alongside each other. The game appears in the fifth season episode "The Recombination Hypothesis," where Sheldon, Howard, and Raj play it together in one scene.
The game becomes a humorous occasion for Howard and Raj, as Sheldon unintentionally makes sexual innuendos throughout the game. Sheldon remains oblivious to what they find funny about him needing "wood" in the game. While this is only a brief moment that shows the characters playing Settlers Of Catan, it's fairly accurate to the way the game is played.
2 The Queen's Gambit
This Netflix miniseries released in 2020 became a smash hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy as fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon, and her journey from a socially-awkward orphan to a worldwide chess celebrity. Based on the novel by Walter Tevis, Taylor-Joy's portrayal of Beth has skyrocketed the character to pop culture stardom.
The show is also unique for its slightly surrealistic portrayal of Beth's chess skills. As she pictures the game board in her mind, the visuals race through all the different possibilities until Beth finds the one that will win her the game. Along with this, it's a deeply emotional story about drug abuse, a woman in a man's world, and a young girl's coming of age.
1 Stranger Things
There's a lot going on in Hawkins, Indiana throughout four seasons of Stranger Things. The stuff that's difficult to explain, however, makes itself easily understandable thanks to Dungeons & Dragons. The show's first moments even depict the main group of friends (Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will) playing a D&D game that foreshadows the events of the season.
Dungeons & Dragons, even three seasons later, remains an integral part of the story and world of Stranger Things. Monsters that appear from the Upside-Down are often named after monsters from the fantasy RPG. Not only that, but the game is a bonding mechanism for the small-town friends, as a source of their camaraderie and sometimes their falling-outs.