The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: wdm1219inpenna on August 13, 2022, 03:03:47 AM
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Once upon a time, the hour long Price I believe ran for 44 or 45 minutes with the remainder of the time used for commercials and the 2 minutes at the end before leading up to the next program, whether it was Gambit or the local news or a soap opera.
This allowed for far more time for host-contestant interactions. This also allowed for more involved pricing games to be played.
Now with the advent of Price running for just 37 or 38 minutes, there's far less interaction time, and far fewer involved games being played.
Often now, for the sake of time constraints, there are 3, sometimes even 4 "quicky" pricing games played out of 6. My definition of a "quicky" game is a game that is not traditionally played for a car, and also a game that does not involve pricing of more than 1 small prize (e.g. Bonus Game, Cliff Hangers) and grocery item games.
When a combo game is played, it usually requires one extra "quicky" game. For example if Pathfinder or Hole in One are played, then a third quicky game was needed, and I was okay with that.
What else saddens me is usually when 3 to 4 quicky games are played, at least 2 of them are for just a single larger prize. I do believe time constraints led to the unceremonious retirement of Credit Card, as that was a "quicky" game involving 5 prizes.
Rarely if ever are overbids left in during the One Bid round. There have been occasions where there were 2 or 3 overbids during the One Bid round, and that led to great humor at times. I recall once after there were 3 overbids in a row, Bob asked the first bidder "What is the prize that we are bidding on?" and the player could not remember! Time constraints now rarely if ever show more than 1 overbid.
I miss a lot of the classic music cues that were used during the Barker era, although I do understand that now that the show has been on 5 full decades, them wanting to have some more modern cues. That was probably the only good thing about the '94 Doug Davidson version of "Price", getting some new and more modern music cues.
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It’s ok to say that you prefer the show from the old days, Bill.
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To me, Quickie Games on TPIR are, more specifically, games where the contestant only gets to say +/- 5 words during their pricing game appearance (not counting any brief questions from Drew, if applicable).
More or less this is applicable to most of the One Right Price, Most/Least Expensive, Flip/Flop, etc... games.
At least the contestants usually get a second chance at uttering a sentence or two during the Showcase Showdown.
Meanwhile, that's one of the things I like about LMAD: I'm not sure if the total run time has been pared down over the last 12+ years, but at least Wayne gives the contestants a chance to interact more on his show, which has basically remained the same since the Monty Hall days. Not having a required minimum amount of games, or contestants each episode helps as well.
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Now with the advent of Price running for just 37 or 38 minutes, there's far less interaction time, and far fewer involved games being played.
Often now, for the sake of time constraints, there are 3, sometimes even 4 "quicky" pricing games played out of 6. My definition of a "quicky" game is a game that is not traditionally played for a car, and also a game that does not involve pricing of more than 1 small prize (e.g. Bonus Game, Cliff Hangers) and grocery item games.
If that's the case, it's amazing they still play 3 Strikes, since "this game takes forever" as Drew said when he first played it.
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Once upon a time, the hour long Price I believe ran for 44 or 45 minutes with the remainder of the time used for commercials and the 2 minutes at the end before leading up to the next program, whether it was Gambit or the local news or a soap opera.
There is a specific name for this: "station break."
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I miss business casual clothes. Now it's mostly T-shirts.
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After the 4th pricing game, I miss the shot of the audience and the announcer saying, "Stay tuned for more pricing games and the fabulous showcases (which are) coming up on the second half of 'The Price is Right'!" Now, it's just mentioned in passing by Drew.
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After the 4th pricing game, I miss the shot of the audience and the announcer saying, "Stay tuned for more pricing games and the fabulous showcases (which are) coming up on the second half of 'The Price is Right'!" Now, it's just mentioned in passing by Drew.
I was typing up a reply with this exact thing and saw you already had commented it.
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After the 4th pricing game, I miss the shot of the audience and the announcer saying, "Stay tuned for more pricing games and the fabulous showcases (which are) coming up on the second half of 'The Price is Right'!" Now, it's just mentioned in passing by Drew.
I was typing up a reply with this exact thing and saw you already had commented it.
Just to be clear, that was done away with years before Bob retired.
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Just to be clear, that was done away with years before Bob retired.
Sorry to give the impression that I was putting down the current version. I'm not one of "those people". :)
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A little thing, but I liked when the show would take a few beats after the fourth contestant was called down in the intro- the camera got a chance to settle on Contestants Row, the audience got to cheer, and we got a couple bars of the theme song before Bob/Drew was introduced. Now it feels like Contestant 4 and Drew get mentioned in the same breath.
I miss the musicality of the old prize cues. I don't necessarily need them back (except for Back to '72, where it should be a no-brainer), but I wish the show's cues were a little more memorable than the stock library we currently have.
While I don't miss Showcase skits, I always liked the when the showcases had some sort of through line between the prizes to make them feel like a curated collection.
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I’m with Aaron on the midshow break…that’s something that shows in general stopped doing outside of maybe the daytime soaps. I’m also with Jeremy on the music cues.
I don’t mind the audience levels, but I think the atmosphere was at its best in the 80s to the early-90s. Watching the Showcase Showdown, it’s relatively quiet as Bob converses with the spinner……..until the audience realizes the contestant is close to hitting a dollar. The buildup is so dramatic.
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While I don't miss Showcase skits, I always liked the when the showcases had some sort of through line between the prizes to make them feel like a curated collection.
A little goes a long way with Showcases. We don't have to bring back the Jay Wolpert extravaganzas (not that there would be time for them anyway), but it would be nice to have a little more presentational pizazz than the cut-and-paste of "so it's this, this and this" every single time. At least run the elevator through the Price Is Right Department Store once in a while.
And color me weird, but I miss actual product plugs. A lot more generic prize copy written by the show since Dob & Co. left.
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Are they back to Contestant's Row and et. and al. or are they still doing the one-bids on stage and the socially-distant cabaret audience and so on?
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Yes back to contestants row but the audience is behind barriers in groups of three or less
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The show is also now permanently using the extended version of Contestants' Row with more separate displays -- that version had been created before the pandemic for episodes in which families competed together and they were trying to cram three or four people behind each display.
Here's an example of an episode from the most recent season. As you can see, each small group of related audience members has been separated to promote social distancing. Until someone gets called to come on down, at which point that person high-fives everybody they see on their way to Contestants' Row.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6IyBaSk9gg
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Ah ok, thanks. Honestly, about as good as you're gonna get it for TPiR, I think.
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As someone else noted, I miss the days when the audience wore street clothes rather than t-shirts. Yeah, we know, everyone loves Drew and has Plinko on their bucket list. Stop picking them. I suppose the heavily practiced preternatural enthusiasm is here to stay, but I'd love to see the whole audience again. Just check for vaccinations at the door. If it encourages a few, all the better.
And I'd like to see an unriggable set-up for the Bonus Game again and the original nicely designed set-up for its sister the Shell Game.
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T-shirts aren't street clothes? Maybe I'm not as old as I thought.
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I miss the creative camera work. The subtle zooms when a contestant wins, etc.
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I think it was a Marc Breslow thing, but i liked seeing the shot of the showcase podium flashing the total during the credits.
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I wouldn't know I missed this if it weren't for the Pluto channel, but I think the camera transition following the Train as it moves offscreen is one of the neatest things ever.
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This shouldn't bug me as much as it does, but I miss the days when contestants weren't directed to run over to their prizes every. single. time.
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And I'd like to see an unriggable set-up for the Bonus Game again and the original nicely designed set-up for its sister the Shell Game.
At what point in time would you say Bonus Game wasn't a rigged set-up? Because my observations lead me to believe that the producers have made it incredibly easy or incredibly difficult to win since day one.
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And I'd like to see an unriggable set-up for the Bonus Game again and the original nicely designed set-up for its sister the Shell Game.
At what point in time would you say Bonus Game wasn't a rigged set-up? Because my observations lead me to believe that the producers have made it incredibly easy or incredibly difficult to win since day one.
I assume the above is referring to a setup where it's clearly impossible to move the bonus window around after the fact to a prize the contestant lost (or won).
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I assume the above is referring to a setup where it's clearly impossible to move the bonus window around after the fact to a prize the contestant lost (or won).
I think the point is that the game really hinges on the difficulty of the prize controlling the bonus window. There's two ways the game could be set up:
1) The higher/lower aspect is assigned to all four prizes and then the bonus is attached without considering difficulty of any particular prize
2) The higher/lower for the window controlling the bonus is deliberately planned: if you are over budget, you make the higher/lower margin close or use a prize that is difficult to price. If you want to ensure a win, make that window a particularly easy choice.
I'm inclined to think that #2 applied more often than not. I don't think "rigging" is the exact best term, which would be illegal interference, but they could certainly promote a win or loss to be nearly inevitable.
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Yes, that's where I was going with my reply. By that token, the HIGHER/LOWER aspect of Bonus Game has always been tougher than Punch-A-Bunch because your odds of winning the top prize with each correct guess are 15 times greater in the former.
If you want to force a win in Bonus Game, you only need to make one SP price easy to guess; in Shell Game, all 4 need to be easy to guess!
What I think may have been the greatest example of a forced win in TPIR's history happened in an early '90s playing of Bonus Game. The contestant lost the first 3 SPs. The 4th SP was a Monopoly board game. The wrong price was $7, the contestant correctly guessed higher ($11), and the BONUS was in that window.
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There is definitely a correlation between prize values and the odds. Punch-a-Bunch and Three Strikes are scaled accordingly to their odds. Bonus Game did not offer the largest prizes, save special occasions -- the win ratio for Bonus Game, Hit Me, and the coin-flip quickies must have had the lowest average prize value. (Risking hijacking the thread, because I'm sure someone has that to the penny.) Then games like Clock Game and Poker Game pushed down those prize amounts to fit the constructs of the game, and really should have been won most of the time.
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Yes, that's where I was going with my reply. By that token, the HIGHER/LOWER aspect of Bonus Game has always been tougher than Punch-A-Bunch because your odds of winning the top prize with each correct guess are 15 times greater in the former.
It's also important to remember that the main aspect of Bonus Game is watching the contestant play for each window and the reveal of all of them at the end. The main aspect of Punch-A-Bunch is to watch the contestant punch and the one by one reveal by the host. No punch is given for free, so it's vital to set up the HIGHER/LOWER portion to be easier so that the main aspect of the game can be played in the first place. Otherwise, the game could end without any punches being taken and the segment will fall flat.
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I've always been surprised they didn't go Shell Game with Bonus Game in the "Contestant gets them all right" scenario.
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I've always been surprised they didn't go Shell Game with Bonus Game in the "Contestant gets them all right" scenario.
Count me as one who doesn't like the $500 option on Shell Game. When a player wins all four shells but doesn't win the $500, the game ends feeling like a loss.
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I've always been surprised they didn't go Shell Game with Bonus Game in the "Contestant gets them all right" scenario.
Count me as one who doesn't like the $500 option on Shell Game. When a player wins all four shells but doesn't win the $500, the game ends feeling like a loss.
I agree; incidentally, for the past few years the bonus has been the cash equivalent of the prize on offer.
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At what point in time would you say Bonus Game wasn't a rigged set-up? Because my observations lead me to believe that the producers have made it incredibly easy or incredibly difficult to win since day one.
Monitors would be easily changeable while the game is going on. Not that they would ever bother, it just looks dodgy. It's why Mark Goodson didn't let them put the Family Feud front-game on the Solari board. Making it easy or hard, yeah, they do that in lots of games.
When it comes down to it, there's not much reason to play any windows other than the one with the bonus. I've always wanted them to scrap it and play Shell Game instead, which fixed the problems.
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I suppose the heavily practiced preternatural enthusiasm is here to stay, but I'd love to see the whole audience again. Just check for vaccinations at the door.
The primary purpose of the vaccine is to keep you from degrading to the point of requiring hospitalization, not to bring spread of the virus to a screeching halt. Filling that place up with hooting and hollering people again would be incredibly irresponsible at this point. If they were masked it MIGHT be ok, but as producer that's not the downer reminder I want to be pumping into people's homes every day.
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This shouldn't bug me as much as it does, but I miss the days when contestants weren't directed to run over to their prizes every. single. time.
On one of the reruns, I heard Barker tell a player that they could not go see their prize, because S&P was worried that contestants would see something backstage. There must have been a change at some point before the introduction of Easy as 1-2-3, which is the only game at the time (if memory serves) where the contestant goes behind the doors, other than the showcase winner. But, I agree, the histrionics of celebrating with your prize (and the dopey license plate frame a car winner has to point to the camera) are just so forced and unnatural.
But, that's what they figure the audience wants, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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At what point in time would you say Bonus Game wasn't a rigged set-up? Because my observations lead me to believe that the producers have made it incredibly easy or incredibly difficult to win since day one.
Monitors would be easily changeable while the game is going on. Not that they would ever bother, it just looks dodgy. It's why Mark Goodson didn't let them put the Family Feud front-game on the Solari board. Making it easy or hard, yeah, they do that in lots of games.
When it comes down to it, there's not much reason to play any windows other than the one with the bonus. I've always wanted them to scrap it and play Shell Game instead, which fixed the problems.
I'm all in favor of games where the monitors make sense from a display/efficiency perspective; it always seemed like Bonus Game, logistically, would have been one of the LAST games to need a monitor replacement. I'm not an expert on electronics, but it would seem that all Bonus Game used to require was a flip of a switch to illuminate the hidden windows.
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At what point in time would you say Bonus Game wasn't a rigged set-up? Because my observations lead me to believe that the producers have made it incredibly easy or incredibly difficult to win since day one.
Monitors would be easily changeable while the game is going on. Not that they would ever bother, it just looks dodgy. It's why Mark Goodson didn't let them put the Family Feud front-game on the Solari board. Making it easy or hard, yeah, they do that in lots of games.
When it comes down to it, there's not much reason to play any windows other than the one with the bonus. I've always wanted them to scrap it and play Shell Game instead, which fixed the problems.
I'm all in favor of games where the monitors make sense from a display/efficiency perspective; it always seemed like Bonus Game, logistically, would have been one of the LAST games to need a monitor replacement. I'm not an expert on electronics, but it would seem that all Bonus Game used to require was a flip of a switch to illuminate the hidden windows.
If the BG board was getting outdated, how hard would it have been to just build a new board with LED-backlit static displays? It's gotta be cheaper than adding another high-tech monitor(s) for a game which only needs a quick reveal at the end. It's about as unnecessary as needing to upgrade Secret 'X' for a monitor(s) reveal.
As far as using monitors for games that *could* (NOT saying it's been done) be altered during gameplay, I am also in the boat of those who, in the back of their mind, think outcomes could be tinkered with.
I felt that way as far back as the Pat Finn-hosted Joker's Wild with the video displays...some of the spins didn't look or feel natural for a competitive game.
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Watching the Pluto episodes, I always loved the flipping messages that came on screen at the top of the show (“HOUR POWER”, “YOU’LL LOVE IT!”). It’s not the same with a smaller audience, but I’d love to see it return one day.
I dunno what it is, but I preferred when they’d come back for the Showcase reveal with no music or applause. Not because it feels forced or anything, but I felt it was more dramatic when Bob rattled off the first player’s bid as if it was a horse race (“Irene you bid $12,000 on your Showcase and Irene the ARP…”).
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Monitors would be easily changeable while the game is going on. Not that they would ever bother, it just looks dodgy. It's why Mark Goodson didn't let them put the Family Feud front-game on the Solari board.
I wonder if that's *the* reason though--I figured it was pure aesthetics. Given how slow answers are revealed during Fast Money, revealing an answer/points string that's at least twice as long would be painful to watch and potentially anticlimactic. (I'm assuming they hit a software bottleneck and didn't intentionally update the board that slow.)
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I wonder if that's *the* reason though--I figured it was pure aesthetics.
I want to say Randy West posted it on Facebook, but I could be wrong.