One of the things that's interesting about threads like this is the way some of the examples expose people's preferences for game vs. show in the cover-all "game show" title.
Someone like Bill Cullen (and Bill Rafferty, honestly) on Blockbusters or Bert Convy on Super Password wasn't going to move the game along at an even remotely quick clip, but damned if they weren't entertaining. Getting into a tangent about a contestant's stamp collection. Celebrities wanting to play a prank on Bert. Bill Rafferty's soapboxing after the seventh "Mary Ellen's advice" question in a row. Not everyone wants every Q&A to be some rapid-fire Jeopardy-like spectacle, nor every word game to be an endless barrage of clues and words.
For me, without Bill investing a significant amount of charm - precisely by slowing things down and actually getting into conversations with the contestants or making quips or telling a story - the show starts to feel VERY same-y very fast.
Bill's very next show after it, Child's Play, is honestly an exemplar of why sometimes style (in this case 'laid back') matters over substance: The first 80% of the show is essentially Legally Distinct Kids Say the Darndest Things reworked as a guessing game. It's slow, a paper-thin format ("guess what the kids said, get points"), it's prone to wild tangents or just 20 seconds of laughter, it's just a light but fine time that's made utterly delightful 50% by Bill and 50% by the kids. Then you get to the bonus game. The first bonus game was requiring Bill to do an almost Whew-like speedreading of transcripts of kids' definitions - well past even what Blockbusters asked in the Gold Run - so the contestants could match 6 in 45. Not only is Bill squarely not in his element, but the show itself actually feels weird here because of the abrupt tone shift in the game. Fundamentally, it's very much 'game' over 'show' and is a disaster. The change to the Turnabout bonus was a godsend. Adults having to give definitions to a (somewhat curated) selection of the kids is a FANTASTIC gameplay hook, you still keep the bonus game timer but you keep the game out of it, and having the adults and kids means you still keep a little of the fun.
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Also again, subjective tastes and not wanting to steamroll opinions - but it is fascinating to read a thread speaking complimentary of Rich Fields on TPiR and with others knocking George Gray. George's arrival to the show at the end of 2010 is almost the EXACT point where the show seems to settle in and shift from whatever the post-Roger-firing era was into something enjoyable, and at this point I firmly think he's the show's 2nd best announcer after Johnny. He can announce, he can co-host, he can model, he can sometimes do more than one of these things at once, and he's supposedly great to work with. Yes, a better announcer than Rod, who was more of a character but had a lot of difficulties as an announcer especially the last few years of his life. And orders of magnitude better than Rich, who started off okay in 2004 but quickly turned into a genuine mess. No willingness to react to anything going around him - and while that might have been what someone like Roger or an 80-something Barker were after, he makes for bad TV, often grating copy reads, and he is left sticking out like a sore thumb as the show changes around him in 2008-10.
(Edited to clarify some wording re: Child's Play)
