Author Topic: Game show formats that wouldn't last no matter WHO is the host (Read 4672 times)

whewfan · « **on:** July 07, 2006, 05:50:55 PM »

Here are some examples...

Shop Till You Drop- (JD Roberto version) Ok, so the original was on and off the air for about 10 years, with silly and insipid stunts, an overbearing announcer/sidekick, and contestants that stumbled down a spiral staircase more than Jim Peck...it wasn't the greatest show on the air... but they proved it could do MUCH worse... The new format got rid of the stunts, in favor of pricing games that are TOO much like any TPIR pricing game. The bonus game was pretty much the same, just no staircase. JD Roberto really ads no interest to the proceedings, he just goes through the motions. I honestly can't think that ANY host could make this format any more bearable to watch, not even Bob Barker!

The Cheap Show- The celeb guest that doesn't show up, contestants getting messy, an INCREDIBLY ditzy co-host, a homely middle aged game show model, and Oscar the Wonder Rodent! Ok, this parody of a game show MIGHT be good for laughs for maybe a few shows... but you can only milk the same jokes so much! Dick Martin can hardly be blamed for this flimsy format. I don't think that Gene Rayburn or Richard Dawson could've added that much interest despite their gifts for adlibbing and joking around.

Mindreaders- Here's one of those shows that asks "Does the host even have to be there?" Here, it's the celebs that have to sell the show. DIck Martin has little to do with the format. The celebs have to "mindread" 3 different players that they've never met. Ok, so the pilot tested well, but it got pretty tiresome to listen to celebs try to pretend they know someone, and the contestants themselves are given little to do except say "yes" or "no". Mindreaders was clearly a celeb driven show, so they could've gotten ANYBODY to act as host, and the results would've been the same.

Blank Check- I am holding a secret number, can you guess what it is? Pick the number, guess the number, pick the number, guess the number, for an entire half hour. Art James had every right to call the show "Blank Mind"

You're in the Picture- WML was reinvented so many times by Goodson Todman, so why not do it again with Gleason? It could've worked, in fact it should've worked... it just... didn't!

Break the Bank 85- Here's an idea... silly stunts, a veteran emcee, and BIG MONEY. It could've worked, but you can hardly blame Gene Rayburn when the stunts took up too much time, Gene himself wasn't very well briefed on how to do the stunts, much less what direction to go in the prize vault. Nothing really wrong with the maingame, but it's nothing to write home about either. What do they do? They fire a veteran and hire an unknown. Unfortunately Joe Farago can't save the format either, so they got rid of the stunts, and unfortunately Break the Bank just became as much fun as watching paint dry.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #1 on:** July 07, 2006, 08:44:08 PM »

I'm not sure those are "formats that wouldn't last" any more than they're just "shows that failed," and there is certainly no shortage of those. The Cheap Show was exactly what it was intended to be, a comedy show. Blank Check might be nothing but picking number after number, but a show with that description was the biggest thing on NBC this season. As you admit, there's nothing inherently wrong with yet another panel guessing game, You're In the Picture just didn't work out. There's a lot more to failed shows than format flaws.

tvwxman · « **Reply #2 on:** July 07, 2006, 08:45:56 PM »

So basically, you start a thread with the idea of a list of shows that wouldn't last, and the first one on your list is a show that's still on after ten years?

That makes a LOT of sense.

zachhoran · « **Reply #3 on:** July 07, 2006, 08:52:35 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'123577\' date=\'Jul 7 2006, 08:44 PM\']
Blank Check might be nothing but picking number after number, but a show with that description was the biggest thing on NBC this season.

[/quote]

There were the toss-up questions on Blank Check, which decided who got the chance to pick the next number. However, if they always used the type of questions used on the pilot on the actual series, they were no harder than the typical B&E syndicated question model.

whewfan · « **Reply #4 on:** July 07, 2006, 08:56:22 PM »

Isn't the JD Roberto version now cancelled?

zachhoran · « **Reply #5 on:** July 07, 2006, 10:02:16 PM »

[quote name=\'whewfan\' post=\'123583\' date=\'Jul 7 2006, 08:56 PM\']
Isn't the JD Roberto version now cancelled?
[/quote]

Seems to me they stopped making new episodes after 2004. I saw JD (with Mr. West sitting in) when he hosted TPIR Live in Atlantic City last Fall. JD had said STYD would be back with new episodes for 2005. I checked a while later, and the episodes were still copyrighted 2004.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 07, 2006, 10:40:15 PM »

As much as I enjoyed watching the show back in the day, Your Number's Up was definitely a klunker. (The only saving grace was Lee Menning -- she still looked hot even when she was with child!)

Take out the re-re-recycled Bob Stewart word game element out of it (where skill & knowledge is involved), and you can probably sell the idea to any state lottery for a game show, since the rest is based purely on luck.

And then there's the wheel...Kinda hard to say that it was coincidence that the car space came up about a half dozen times in one show -- the LAST show -- and still it was not won. They really wanted to get rid of that car!

You know its a bad show when you can't get an audience to stick around for a full taping session, and the crowd gets smaller and smaller.

zachhoran · « **Reply #7 on:** July 07, 2006, 10:43:41 PM »

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'123586\' date=\'Jul 7 2006, 10:40 PM\']

Take out the re-re-recycled Bob Stewart word game element out of it (where skill & knowledge is involved), and you can probably sell the idea to any state lottery for a game show, since the rest is based purely on luck.

[/quote]

And pass it on to his son, which Bob Stewart did for YNU. That YNU frontgame style of question was recycled by Sande himself for the "Initial Reaction" Box Office category during the second season of Hollywood Showdown.

chris319 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 07, 2006, 11:09:58 PM »

If you change the topic to Shows Which Should Never Have Seen the Light of Day In the First Place, there are Hot Potato and Blackout.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 07, 2006, 11:22:23 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'123590\' date=\'Jul 7 2006, 10:09 PM\']
If you change the topic to Shows Which Should Never Have Seen the Light of Day In the First Place, there are Hot Potato and Blackout.
[/quote]

I'll agree on Hat Puta, er Hot Potato, but I have to defend Blackout to a point...

The concept of the Blackout Box front game was very interesting and challenging at times, but the execution was not the best (place the 4 words in the round to complete a funny joke) and the Bonus Game format had no relation to neither the front game nor the shows title.

Plus the Blackout theme rocked!!!

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #10 on:** July 08, 2006, 07:09:49 AM »

I'm a fan of HP, though it is an FF ripoff. Hey, at least we know how Bill would have hosted FF (very well, in my book.) I don't know how "Hot Seat" got on the air. I felt bad for Jim.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #11 on:** July 09, 2006, 05:44:20 PM »

Presentation, presentation, presentation. I think any show *could* potentially last a while depending on how it was done. Maybe Blank Check wasn't a long-lasting hit, or even a compelling game, but to have that splashy set with all the lights held my interest as a child watching it; and Matt's Deal or No Deal example is a good one.

Someone had brought this up before about WWTBAM - if you took away the lighting effects, the music, the set, and just had the host asking the questions to a contestant sitting on an office chair, would it have been a hit?

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #12 on:** July 10, 2006, 12:31:52 AM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'123716\' date=\'Jul 9 2006, 05:44 PM\']Someone had brought this up before about WWTBAM - if you took away the lighting effects, the music, the set, and just had the host asking the questions to a contestant sitting on an office chair, would it have been a hit?[/quote]
Well, the million bucks was certainly a compelling draw, and Regis was Regis. Plus, at least in the beginning, you had the whole "anybody can be a contestant" thing going on.

So yeah, certainly not as good a show, but there was a lot of fine stuff there separate from the presentation. I think the proof you need is the number of shows since Millonaire that did the presentation part just fine but had so many other flaws that they failed anyway.

chris319 · « **Reply #13 on:** July 10, 2006, 02:22:22 AM »

Quote

if you took away the lighting effects, the music, the set, and just had the host asking the questions to a contestant sitting on an office chair, would it have been a hit?

In the parlance of game show production this is called an office run-through, and it wouldn't have been quite the hit (assuming you also took away the million-dollar prize) without the gimmicks, but it is certainly a durable daytime show. BTW, when was the last time a daytime contestant won $1 million?

Repeat after me: If prize money were all that mattered, state lottery shows would be the biggest thing on television.

I'm still waiting for the novelty of DOND to wear off and the ratings to slip.

TLEberle · « **Reply #14 on:** July 10, 2006, 02:33:45 AM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'123758\' date=\'Jul 9 2006, 11:22 PM\']BTW, when was the last time a daytime contestant won $1 million? [/quote]Nancy Christy won the money in May of 2003. Since then they've had one $500,000 winner, and it goes downhill from there. I like that it's a hard prize to win. It's One Million Dollars. It should be HARD.