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The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Argo on February 16, 2019, 10:06:43 PM

Title: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: Argo on February 16, 2019, 10:06:43 PM
Hi Everyone,

As Classic Concentration has resurfaced and the few episodes of Narz Concentration on Wink's channel, I was wondering if anyone here has any first hand or any hand knowledge of tapings.

I assume Concentration was much like WOF, where the home audience was much bigger than the studio audience. NBC no doubt sweetened Classic Concentration with their standard canned applause, but how big were the real audiences? I understand not all game shows can be exciting hits as TPIR or Match Game, but small audiences must affect host performance do a point.

I found it much more evident on the later Narz Concentration episodes that were uploaded. It looked like everyone, including lighting and applause sweetening staff just gave up on the series. Early episodes were bright and vibrant, with the usual applause, but later episodes were very dark, with lots of shadows and little to no sweetening. Was there limited audience space in the studios, could they just not get many to come see the show in person or did they know they were cancelled by this point and were just going through the motions? ? Jack was very professional in all his shows, but in the shows that did surface he didn't seem to have much excitement compared to the episodes from just a few years prior. He did a great job no doubt, but the whole thing definitely felt more "intimate", almost cable access, or small, local market stuff, instead of 'from Hollywood".

Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: JakeT on February 16, 2019, 11:45:58 PM
I assume Concentration was much like WOF, where the home audience was much bigger than the studio audience. NBC no doubt sweetened Classic Concentration with their standard canned applause, but how big were the real audiences? I understand not all game shows can be exciting hits as TPIR or Match Game, but small audiences must affect host performance do a point.

Uhhhhhh, isn't it a rather safe bet that virtually every home audience for a TV show was exponentially bigger than any studio audience?

I mean..

JakeT
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: carlisle96 on February 17, 2019, 02:33:35 PM
I was at a Classic Concentration taping. It was a pretty unspectacular experience. The audience was sparse -- maybe about 150 people, the studio small and dark, and Trebek didn't interact with the audience during the commercials, he wandered off by himself, until he discovered a group of teenage Japanese schoolgirls in the audience...then he became more intrigued.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: Kevin Prather on February 17, 2019, 04:31:25 PM
I assume Concentration was much like WOF, where the home audience was much bigger than the studio audience.

(https://pics.me.me/what-in-the-goddamn-fuck-35040697.png)
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: Strikerz04 on February 17, 2019, 07:45:48 PM
I assume Concentration was much like WOF, where the home audience was much bigger than the studio audience. NBC no doubt sweetened Classic Concentration with their standard canned applause, but how big were the real audiences? I understand not all game shows can be exciting hits as TPIR or Match Game, but small audiences must affect host performance do a point.

Uhhhhhh, isn't it a rather safe bet that virtually every home audience for a TV show was exponentially bigger than any studio audience?

I mean..

JakeT


You aren’t wrong.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: Argo on February 17, 2019, 08:54:29 PM
I'm thought it made more sense to me at the time, but what I meant was that like Wheel of Fortune, as stated in a documentary or special one time, the show was pretty boring to see in person so they didn't get much of an audience. I assume concentration suffered the same fate just due to style of show.

Nice to see the same rude comments haven't disappeared. I really don't know why I bother posting here anymore. Probably a lot of people would appreciate it. Congratulations and apologies for getting everyone up in arms about it. Ah well it is the Internet after all.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: DoorNumberFour on February 17, 2019, 11:37:31 PM
I think, as a whole, greater effort could be made by all members (including myself) to:

- Convey our thoughts and ideas in a clear and concise way, and take the extra minute to go back and proofread/edit what we post before we hit that button, and

- Give benefit of  the doubt when the thoughts and ideas we read aren’t necessarily the clearest or most concise, and take the extra minute and say to ourselves “Maybe what he meant was...” or “By x, did you mean y?”

Of course, there are some among us who have made a years-long habit of not doing either of these things, but to avoid snark and unnecessarily hurt feelings, all we can do is improve for our own sake and for the good of the forum. After all, we’re all here to learn and have fun and share our passion for this genre with each other.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: TLEberle on February 18, 2019, 12:21:02 AM
Co-sign. Christian said what I was thinking. Everyone has to put in work to get the output they want.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: BrandonFG on February 18, 2019, 12:25:02 AM
Agreed with Christian. There’s posts that make me roll my eyes and/or rub my temples. I can’t say Argo has ever had that effect. Maybe his post was ambiguous or lacking context, but I don’t think it deserved the snark here either.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: Brian44 on February 18, 2019, 04:27:41 AM
Maybe his post was ambiguous or lacking context, but I don’t think it deserved the snark here either.

Right off the bat, I can think of two posters here who automatically get snarked upon no matter what they say, and they both happen to share my first name. Neither deserves it every single time, IMHO.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: tvmitch on February 18, 2019, 07:44:55 AM
As I've been binging CC on Buzzr, I've thought about what that set must have looked like in person. It looks so narrow, especially when you realize that Alex's green screen is no more than 2 or 3 steps from the main game set. It all seemed to be crammed in a very narrow space.

And I could imagine that seeing a taping would be dull. No big clicky-clacky board or other grandiose set pieces to enjoy. Just contestants staring at monitors.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: Clay Zambo on February 18, 2019, 08:24:13 AM
And I could imagine that seeing a taping would be dull. No big clicky-clacky board or other grandiose set pieces to enjoy.

Well, except for that massive curved thing with the eight cars on it...

But I take your point. I thought that show would have been disappointing to watch in person, too. (I kinda thought it was disappointing to watch on *TV,* but I'm probably in the minority.)
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: chrisholland03 on February 18, 2019, 08:55:10 AM
CC was primarily in 3, correct?

http://www.dermandar.com/p/bwWhwM/studio-3


http://theburbankstudios.com/about-the-space.html

Above says the stage is 89' deep x 118' wide and 42' high.  It doesn't look like it's 89' deep to my eye - maybe that lower section of seats can be taken out?
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: tvmitch on February 18, 2019, 09:00:36 AM
CC was primarily in 3, correct?
http://www.dermandar.com/p/bwWhwM/studio-3
http://theburbankstudios.com/about-the-space.html
Above says the stage is 89' deep x 118' wide and 42' high.  It doesn't look like it's 89' deep to my eye - maybe that lower section of seats can be taken out?
Interesting. How much of the set space was needed to accommodate the vehicle lifts? I'm assuming they used lifts to get the cars at different heights. They would need some space to get the cars in and out too. Were individual lifts built into each platform?
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: chrisholland03 on February 18, 2019, 09:12:39 AM
Trying to find the reference (I want to say it was Corey Cooper), but my understanding is the cars were backloaded onto the platforms, then moved into position and raised with a forklift.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: Mr. Armadillo on February 18, 2019, 03:01:36 PM
As I've been binging CC on Buzzr, I've thought about what that set must have looked like in person. It looks so narrow, especially when you realize that Alex's green screen is no more than 2 or 3 steps from the main game set. It all seemed to be crammed in a very narrow space.
It feels like watching an opening band trying to perform in the four feet of space between the edge of the stage and the headliners' equipment.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: carlisle96 on February 18, 2019, 03:12:51 PM
As I've been binging CC on Buzzr, I've thought about what that set must have looked like in person. It looks so narrow, especially when you realize that Alex's green screen is no more than 2 or 3 steps from the main game set. It all seemed to be crammed in a very narrow space.

And I could imagine that seeing a taping would be dull. No big clicky-clacky board or other grandiose set pieces to enjoy. Just contestants staring at monitors.

As I said, it was a pretty dreary experience and the audience monitor that displayed the puzzles was hard to see unless you were in the first few rowns
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: bricon on February 18, 2019, 03:29:06 PM
CC was primarily in 3, correct?

http://www.dermandar.com/p/bwWhwM/studio-3


http://theburbankstudios.com/about-the-space.html

Above says the stage is 89' deep x 118' wide and 42' high.  It doesn't look like it's 89' deep to my eye - maybe that lower section of seats can be taken out?

That seating was for Leno's Tonight Show which was oriented at a 90 degree angle compared to the game shows done in 3.  Rotate the dermandar picture 90 degrees to the left of the Leno seats and that's where the CC bleachers were.   Take out Leno's seats and the dimensions would look closer to what you found.   Also, that protrusion you see at that angle in the upper left covered with white material was at one time the control booth with a window overlooking the stage.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: chrisholland03 on February 18, 2019, 04:10:51 PM
Thanks Brian - that makes sense.
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: geno57 on February 22, 2019, 03:22:45 AM
I’m with Clay here. Never was a fan of so-called “Classic Concentration”. I was taken aback when they’d take a shot of the full stage, and the game board — the freaking center of the Concentration universe — was nowhere to be seen, not even on a projection monitor.

The rebuses were fantastic, but the “tweedle-deep!” board sound effects drove me positively nutzo. (Yes. That’s what did it.)
Title: Re: Concentration staff/audience info?
Post by: BillCullen1 on March 01, 2019, 12:30:15 PM
I was at a Classic Concentration taping. It was a pretty unspectacular experience. The audience was sparse -- maybe about 150 people, the studio small and dark, and Trebek didn't interact with the audience during the commercials, he wandered off by himself, until he discovered a group of teenage Japanese schoolgirls in the audience...then he became more intrigued.

I was in the audience for Jack Narz's Concentration when I was out in CA in '75. They had the board which was clearly visible to all, and it had Johnny O as the announcer. I recall even solving one of the puzzles on the board, writing down the answer for Johnny O. "Complaint Department." Johnny gave me a thumbs up.