Game Guru
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Game GuruTM is perhaps the most popular and famous of all Game Network UK's video gaming shows.
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[edit] Game Guru: Original Version
December 9 2002 – Mid October 2003
The original Game Guru television program was conceived, developed and produced by AlienPants and debuted on the Game Network channel on December 9, 2002. It was a live daily video gaming show presented by a live "guru", originally working from home via webcam. Members of the public sent in requests for game hints, tips or cheats via Short Message Service (SMS), and the "guru" responded verbally, whilst also displaying the original cheat request or text chat on screen. Alongside Game Guru was a text-reply only cheat service called GTIP, which allowed Game Guru viewers to request and receive cheats via Short message service while the program was off air. The GTIP service later appeared as the GuruGold cheat service for Gamezville, another British television computer games show.
The original version of Game Guru ran until mid-October 2003, when the Game Network decided to take over production of the program. Though AlienPants retained the trademark in the name Game Guru and the program concept.
Chris Cartwright took over presenting and producing the show when Game Network took over. Hired Guru Chris and Guru Vagus, When Guru Vagus took over the show, he inturn hired Guru Ben, Guru Larry, Guru Boidster, Guru Paul and Guru Phil. Bizarelly He did offer Guru Ed a job at the time, but he was unable to join he had just started university, he was hired a year later by Daniel Scammell/Guru NES.
[edit] Making History
Game Guru was the longest consecutively running games TV show with the most episodes made of any video game show in TV history, with an estimated 2,500 programs broadcast during the show's run. (Although another British gaming TV series, GamesMaster Ran for 7 years, it took a six - eight month break between seasons).
The final episode of Game Guru aired on February 27th 2006, presented by Guru Larry and Guru Ed. Many fans were upset by the show's demise as it was their only source of cheats. There have been rumours, and the possibility of a similar show appearing on another channel, but there are currently no plans for the shows return.
[edit] Where are they now?
Daniel Scammell (DJ NES / Guru NES) and Peter Browning still work for Cellcast on their numerous interactive based shows.
Mike Rushton ("The Chad") now works for ITV Play.
Wesley Lock (Guru Wes) is now in university training to become a psychologist as well as having just co-written the E-Book "How to make money playing Video Games" with Edwin Jones (Guru Ed)
Chris Jeffery (Guru Chris) resides in Scotland with his two children; rupert and Brian.
Gareth Williams (Guru Vagus) freelances for Videogames magazines.
Larry Bundy Jr. (Guru Larry) Is now the Retro Games Advisor for Rapture TV's video game show, G@mers and is also presenting a forthcoming comedy video game show for Gamer.TV
Ben Parfitt (Guru Ben) is now assistant editor of the weekly games industry magazine, MCV.
Guru Olly went on to do nothing.
and... Dominic Lawler, well, we'll never know what happened to him - or the bush...
[edit] Game Guru Italy
Game Guru was also adapted for the Italian version of Game Network (which even aired occasionally on the UK version albeit in Italian), although the series failed to become as popular as the UK version because they also incorporated it with a Live TV Text Chat room.
[edit] Game Guru Vs. The Gamez Guru
The Gamez Guru from the Sky One series Gamezville was renamed "The Guru" in the second series, due to a complaint from Game Network owners Cellcast, as it infringed on the copyright of their own long running gaming cheat TV show Game Guru.
When the first series re-aired on Sky One in the early mornings, all "Guru" graphic sequences were replaced with the second series, to keep in line with the new character, even though they clearly call him the "Gamez Guru" in the live-action sequences.
Ironically, the Guru Gold SMS cheat service, that was made available to veiwers towards the end of the program's run was provided by the same company that developed the early Game Guru episodes.
