Bad fits for established hosts/announcers

[Loogaroo]

I still believe Divorce Court was the biggest waste of Jim Peck's talent!

He deserved better but it kept him employed for several years. I don’t think he’s gonna call it a waste of his career just because it wasn’t a game show.

It also was three months out of the year (he mentioned in a phone interview with the Game Show Convention crew that tapings would run well into the night due to rewrites advised by the show's legal consultants to keep things plausible in a courtroom setting) so he'd have the rest of the year available to work on other projects.

Also, I can't believe we're three pages in and nobody has mentioned Gene Rayburn's stint on Break The Bank '85. (Maybe because that was doomed to be a trainwreck no matter who was at the helm of it).

[cmjb13]

I still believe Divorce Court was the biggest waste of Jim Peck's talent!

He deserved better but it kept him employed for several years. I don’t think he’s gonna call it a waste of his career just because it wasn’t a game show.

It also was three months out of the year (he mentioned in a phone interview with the Game Show Convention crew that tapings would run well into the night due to rewrites advised by the show's legal consultants to keep things plausible in a courtroom setting) so he'd have the rest of the year available to work on other projects.

Also, I can't believe we're three pages in and nobody has mentioned Gene Rayburn's stint on Break The Bank '85. (Maybe because that was doomed to be a trainwreck no matter who was at the helm of it).

I remember watching an episode of Divorce court when I was young where someone pulled a gun. If I hadn’t realized realized before that the show was not entirely real, that did it.

[chris319]

Rich Jeffries was an employee of the NABET film local and happened to hold an AFTRA card. He was the stand-in emcee during rehearsals of P+. He buddied up to Gene Wood and helped out on warm-ups for P+. He wanted to be a full-fledged announcer and I suggested that he get some formal voice training, which he did. The rest is history.

Both Gene and Rich J. were cigarette smokers and I think this took away some of the resonance their voices may otherwise have had.

[Mike Tennant]

Has anyone heard if Bob Barker had any ill will toward Bob Hilton over The New T or C?

I doubt he did. Barker said in Priceless Memories that he chose not to return to T or C because his agent advised him that doing that along with daytime and nighttime TPIR would lead to "overexposure" and because much of the old guard at T or C had left. I'm not saying it isn't possible, but I don't see why he would be upset that Hilton took "his" job under those circumstances--especially after Hilton's version flopped. One could, after all, make the case that Barker took Ralph Edwards' or Jack Bailey's job when he became the host of T or C.

[rwalker]

Cullen on Tjw. Clearly, he talked too much to the contestants. Especially in his first season, there was hardly any game play. They were knocking on the door of the audience game with the bat of an eye

[Jeremy Nelson]

I didn't think Bill Cullen was an ideal fit for Blockbusters. While it didn't need to be a straight up quizzer, there were definitely times when he brought the pace to a halt when all the contestants wanted to do was get more questions in.

[Jamey Greek]

TPIR never had a good announcer after Johnny Olson passed, and that includes Rod Roddy and Rich Fields. Rod was not a disciplined performer and made mistakes, resulting in pickups. Gene Wood didn't have the pipes for TPIR.

There exists somewhere a test show of TPIR with Bob Hilton announcing. He should have been made the permanent announcer.

Bob Hilton should've got the job in 85 and Burton Richardson or Art Sanders in 2004, Rich just sounded rough when he yells.
 
I am not a fan of George Gray he just sounds like a parody of an announcer and the same goes with Jonathan Magnum.

I agree George should have stuck to hosting.  Hell, I could see him host a revival of Remote Control he would have been great for it during TV Land’s heyday in the late 90s/early 2000s.

[Jamey Greek]

I still believe Divorce Court was the biggest waste of Jim Peck's talent!

He deserved better but it kept him employed for several years. I don’t think he’s gonna call it a waste of his career just because it wasn’t a game show.

I dunno if this counts as established given that it was his only game show, but MG Kelly wasn’t a good fit as a Wheel announcer. He was a little too lowkey IMO.

Second everyone who said Rich Fields on TPiR. Anytime an episode from the 2000s plays, I hear “HERE IT CAH-MS!” and have to decide if I wanna keep watching.

 MG was only temporary until Charlie O fulfilled his commitments with Barris and was able to return to the announcer seat on Wheel.  MG IMO, should have gotten the job to host Daytime Wheel after Pat left to do his talk show.

[mystery7]

I didn't think Bill Cullen was an ideal fit for Blockbusters. While it didn't need to be a straight up quizzer, there were definitely times when he brought the pace to a halt when all the contestants wanted to do was get more questions in.

Watch him do a Gold Run. His slow clue reading be excruciating if a player was having a rough time getting across.

[Adam Nedeff]

Has anyone heard if Bob Barker had any ill will toward Bob Hilton over The New T or C?

I doubt he did. Barker said in Priceless Memories that he chose not to return to T or C because his agent advised him that doing that along with daytime and nighttime TPIR would lead to "overexposure" and because much of the old guard at T or C had left.

Here's your teaser. We just an oral history interview with Bob Hilton for the Strong Museum and it's scheduled to be released over the summer. Bob Hilton tells a completely different story of why Bob Barker didn't/couldn't host T or C anymore.

[PYLdude]

Going back to Rich Fields vs. Jim Thornton: I found it interesting that Rich seemed to outshine Jim on TPIR (in my opinion; I thought he was decent enough), yet when the two were auditioning for Wheel it was polar opposites; Jim was the star while Rich just couldn’t get it together.

Whatever happened to Paul Boland, anyway? I remember his tryout being rather loud.

[The Ol' Guy]

Here's a vote FOR Bill on Blockbusters. IMO, he hit the perfect pace. Bill's folksy banter and deliberate pacing in question reading gave you dashes of suspense broken up with a quip. If it were a speed game, it could be a bit overwhelming. I'd call it Bill's last hurrah, because I'm with those who felt he was a poor choice for JOKER, and even Pyramid, where the host should get out of the way and let let the teams generate the excitement.

[JasonA1]

Here's a vote FOR Bill on Blockbusters. IMO, he hit the perfect pace. Bill's folksy banter and deliberate pacing in question reading gave you dashes of suspense broken up with a quip. If it were a speed game, it could be a bit overwhelming. I'd call it Bill's last hurrah, because I'm with those who felt he was a poor choice for JOKER, and even Pyramid, where the host should get out of the way and let let the teams generate the excitement.

Agreed re: Blockbusters. Bill's humor was what made my dad watch the series in its entirety -- multiple times -- when GSN was running it. I stumbled across it on Buzzr the other day, and my wife had a similar reaction.

And I also slightly agree with Pyramid. He wasn't a BAD fit, but I can't un-hear all the off-mic, during-round comments. ("Good!" "One more!")

I found it interesting that Rich seemed to outshine Jim on TPIR (in my opinion; I thought he was decent enough), yet when the two were auditioning for Wheel it was polar opposites; Jim was the star while Rich just couldn’t get it together.

I never heard any of Rich's in-studio episodes of Wheel, just the ones where he was overdubbing Charlie. I'd be curious if he was better or otherwise different when in person. I could also see any sort of note on toning down his TPIR enthusiasm having a chilling effect.

-Jason

[Dbacksfan12]

Here's a vote FOR Bill on Blockbusters. IMO, he hit the perfect pace. Bill's folksy banter and deliberate pacing in question reading gave you dashes of suspense broken up with a quip. If it were a speed game, it could be a bit overwhelming. I'd call it Bill's last hurrah, because I'm with those who felt he was a poor choice for JOKER, and even Pyramid, where the host should get out of the way and let let the teams generate the excitement.

Agreed re: Blockbusters. Bill's humor was what made my dad watch the series in its entirety -- multiple times -- when GSN was running it. I stumbled across it on Buzzr the other day, and my wife had a similar reaction.

I had a friend with an inverse reaction to your dad's.  His comment was to the effect of:  "Why doesn't the old [dude] just shut up?"

I thought Jim Perry did it better on $ale where he had one quip going into the break. 

[Neumms]

I love Uncle Bill on Blockbusters. Without much Eye Guess or Three on a Match extant, it’s my favorite show with him. With one game playing out pretty much the same as the next, Bill brought life to it. The set was perfectly designed for him, too.

If contestants didn’t like his reading speed, they certainly won a lot.