It's 2009: Let's make a deal (again)

CBS, having sacked its long-running soap opera Guiding Light, is now on the verge of bringing back a new run of one of TV's most venerable game shows, Let's Make a Deal.

The selection reveals a lot about our state of mind. TV tried bringing back the show before, including in 1990, when we were in the grip of the last big recession.

Let's Make a Deal, for those too young to remember (or for those who aren't watching Game Show Network at the odd hours when the even odder originals are shown), was a cheap-as-dirt carnival of bartering, aired 1963 to 1976, in which contestants were given options between taking a concealed prize standing before them or a handful of cash they knew to be a sure thing. It's main legacy is the lingering catch phrase: "Do you want what's behind Door Number One, or Door Number Two?" (Posterity tends to forget the third door.)