The Game Show Pilot Light Has Moved!

[tpirfan28]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'162441\' date=\'Aug 31 2007, 01:29 AM\']
The incident in question happened on a show hosted by Richard Karn. Not Dawson. It was before they switched the the far better format in the fourth year of the most recent run.
[/quote]
Wait...I thought they used the "one strike" BS rule just on Louie's Feud.  Shows how much I watched during the Karn era.

I actually like the fact that UK WWTBAM is making the first tier two questions.  I do agree with both points...the beginning questions need to be a part of the game, but they also need to be icebreakers.  I never did understand why it was five questions...that's way too many.  Two is enough to get comfortable.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' post=\'162449\' date=\'Aug 31 2007, 04:31 AM\']
Random early-morning thought ... allow the contestant to start at question 6 ... with NO option to bug off. You can skip the first five, start at six and have to answer it. Miss it, you go home empty handed.
[/quote]
So you're effectively letting a contestant take out Idiot Insurance for $1000. (And really, less, since some of that money would end up being Uncle Sam's.)

I don't know who _wouldn't_ take that deal, since the $2,000 question usually isn't remotely hard - at WORST an ATA should get it - and now the contestant is no worse off than they were beforehand. NO Millionaire contestant is content to take home a grand, and they ostensibly would have had to burn that possible ATA anyhow.

[uncamark]

To me, I much preferred "Showoffs"' original best-two-out-of-three.  Since both teams were playing the same words in each round, I just didn't see the reasoning in going to a point goal.

And let it be said that I preferred the Sweepstakes end game to the second risk end game.  Used all four celebs and made the civilian the receiver, which I think is the proper position in an end game for the civilian if you're not offering a choice.

Which leads me to that YouTube clip of the Australian "Celebrity Game"--oh, forget it, since sources state that it pre-dated "Showoffs."

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' post=\'162461\' date=\'Aug 31 2007, 11:18 AM\']
To me, I much preferred "Showoffs"' original best-two-out-of-three.  Since both teams were playing the same words in each round, I just didn't see the reasoning in going to a point goal.

And let it be said that I preferred the Sweepstakes end game to the second risk end game.  Used all four celebs and made the civilian the receiver, which I think is the proper position in an end game for the civilian if you're not offering a choice.
[/quote]
I also preferred the original versions.  When I came back to the show (after watching The Magnificent Marble Machine hoping against hope it would get better), they'd already switched formats -- even at 12 years old, I knew that was a death knell.  Still, one big strike against the show was the audience watching one pair of celebrities acting out a bunch of words -- and then another pair of celebrities acting out the exact same words.  Couldn't they have had an A and B pack to choose from?

Best scoring system (non-G&T award):  The Money Maze, with its Catchup Round.  Trailing couple answers questions, worth one point for the first and increasing by one point apiece until they go ahead (one miss ends the game, leaders win), and then the other team gets one final question for the $10,000 Dash.  If the teams are tied going into the Catchup Round, both couples run the $10,000 Dash.

[mmb5]

Since I need to dull some pain (pain #1 and pain #2), here's a few more:

Call My Bluff
Child's Play
Comedy Club
Hot Potato
The Love Experts (Cullen)
Smart Money
Star Cluster
Word Grabbers


--Mike

[alfonzos]

The Name Game is not listed among your titles. I'll tell you what I remember witnessing and perhaps you can work from there. Hangman + Pyramid was the format, basically. Bob Eubanks hosted two teams of celebrity-peasant. One member of each team would see in their monitor a word puzzle consisting of one blank space of each letter of a famous person's name. One letter at a time would appear at a time until either player could buzz in after recognizing the name. The player then had fifteen or twenty seconds to describe the person so that the partner would give the name in question. The first team to get three or five went on to the bonus round. In the bonus round, the audience would be given a category such as "someone whose diary you'd like to read" or "someone whose name contains a color." The first five responses yelled by the auidence where taken and the player had one minute to describe these people to the partner (who didn't hear the names) to win a car. The car, a convertible, was displayed on stage at an angle so the interior could be seen.

The pilot was shot sometime during the nineties on the ABC-TV studio lot on Prospect Avenue. I hope I was of service.

[Dbacksfan12]

Well, it is his website, and he can choose to review what he wants.  I suspect Mike has seen more pilots than he has actually reviewed (and he is free to correct me if I am wrong) on the website.  So it's not up there. Big deal.

[DoorNumberFour]

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'162687\' date=\'Sep 4 2007, 02:28 PM\']
Well, it is his website, and he can choose to review what he wants.  I suspect Mike has seen more pilots than he has actually reviewed (and he is free to correct me if I am wrong) on the website.  So it's not up there. Big deal.
[/quote]

I think he might have just been trying to help.

Maybe not in the right place (I would have emailed him), and maybe unsolicited, but nothing snarky.

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'162687\' date=\'Sep 4 2007, 03:28 PM\']
Well, it is his website, and he can choose to review what he wants.
[/quote]
I don't think it's a matter of what Mike wants to review so much as that he doesn't review pilots he hasn't seen himself.

[Matt Ottinger]

I can't speak for Mike...so I will anyway.

Mike is interested in collecting any and all information about game show pilots.  He probably won't post a formal review based on Alonzo's recollections, any more than he would for the one game show pilot I attended.  (Greg Proops and another which-is-the-right-definition game.)  And yes, he's told me he has many pilots he's seen but not posted.  Maybe he's got The Name Game, maybe not.  But either way, all information is good information.

[mmb5]

Matt is right that I will pretty much have to see the pilot before I review it.  And usually I'll have to see it at least twice.  For example, on the Word Grabbers one I posted yesterday I didn't really pick up on George Miller's antagonism towards Jim Lange on my first viewing.  I also have at least two I've marked as "must see again" due to poor note taking on my part, since I won't be able to coherently write a good piece.

As part of the current updates, I will eventually be adding a master list of all known pilots, whether I'll be able to review them or not.  As far as numbers go, right now I'm at 120 reviewed, 38 I still need to review and 200+ I know have a pilot but I currently have not seen.  Of those, about 40-50 are in the UCLA Archive and I will see some day in the future.  Many of the other ones on the "not seen" lists include mentions in trade magazines, ticket collections, people's resumes, etc.

Alfonzos' example is one where I have not heard of the show so I'll be adding it to the the master list.  However, since I haven't seen it personally, I can't review it.  I'll try to get this list a little more "camera ready" in the next few days and get that up.  Then we can have some fun...


--Mike

[chris319]

There is an obvious practical reason some scoring systems are set up the way they are: contestant casting. You don't want a game where a contestant can lose after one round of play, otherwise you'll have contestants coming and going like s*** through a sewer pipe. You would need more contestant coordinators, more tryouts, more contestants coming to the studio, etc. On Family Feud, multiply the contestant problem by five.

Mike: thanks for the memories of the summer of '78. I interviewed with Ira Skutch about a job on Spellbinders, but inasmuch as it didn't sell ... as things turned out, one year later I was watching Mindreaders and All New Beat the Clock coming together. Mike: if it helps, I never saw a tape of Spellbinders with Patty Duke-Astin around the office. I doubt they taped one, and think Debralee replaced Patty.

[uncamark]

On "Comedy Club," the assistant/model was also a comic--Sheryl Bernstein worked the circuit and IIRC, was a pretty good impressionist, which meant that she fell into cartoon voices, which she may still be doing today.

Between "Star Clusters," "Matchmaker" and the "Liars' Club" revival--not to mention "Reel to Reel" a decade later--Bill Armstrong's career didn't exactly close out on a strong note, did it?

[mmb5]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'162712\' date=\'Sep 4 2007, 05:22 PM\']
Mike: thanks for the memories of the summer of '78. I interviewed with Ira Skutch about a job on Spellbinders, but inasmuch as it didn't sell ... as things turned out, one year later I was watching Mindreaders and All New Beat the Clock coming together. Mike: if it helps, I never saw a tape of Spellbinders with Patty Duke-Astin around the office. I doubt they taped one, and think Debralee replaced Patty.
[/quote]
I'll quote the person who tipped me off on the EBay ticket, Debralee was...available.


--Mike

[mmb5]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' post=\'162716\' date=\'Sep 4 2007, 05:33 PM\']
On "Comedy Club," the assistant/model was also a comic--Sheryl Bernstein worked the circuit and IIRC, was a pretty good impressionist, which meant that she fell into cartoon voices, which she may still be doing today.

Between "Star Clusters," "Matchmaker" and the "Liars' Club" revival--not to mention "Reel to Reel" a decade later--Bill Armstrong's career didn't exactly close out on a strong note, did it?
[/quote]
It was a weird setup, she was sort of an announcer more than an assistant -- she "brought" in the comedians from the faux alley plus introduced the contestants and Jim McKrell -- but someone else did the prize copy.  She and the one female comic both showed off their Joan Rivers impressions within the first two minutes.

I don't think Bill Armstrong's career ever had a high note.  Liar's Club was a treble clef D at best.


--Mike