Alternate Daytime Emmys

[BrandonFG]

A 20-year bump…Roger is that a new record?

/Didn’t see William’s joke

[Chelsea Thrasher]

The distance from the bump to the OP is just over 19 years 11 months; that same time distance working backwards from the date of OP would have been June 1984. 

Since we're here though: As both OP and Bumpee both noted: Donny Osmond really should get more love for his Pyramid work. That version of the show had a lot of flaws but he was absolutely not one of them and was frequently stellar. Respectful of celebrity legends, gave the appearance of wanting you to care when it was some newer actor people might not know, great with contestants, seemed to balance all the roles required of an emcee very well, and even dealt well with some of the baffling production and judging choices that that reboot had. Obviously, Trebek's a legend (and Strahan's done a fantastic job on contemporary Pyramid the past near-decade) but Donny doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves for that version of the show IMO.

[TLEberle]

For my watching I thought Donny was a bright spot, unfortunately he was shackled with a legend property that went off the reservation in too many ways. I don't know if I think that he wins an Emmy (at the very least, I think George Gray on the daily Weakest Link was better) but you have Alex, Pat, Bob, Regis, Meredith and at least a couple of those names need to be pushed out of the box to win.

[BrandonFG]

Donny was a good host stuck in a decent but watered-down revival. I get that modern game shows don’t allow for a big money tournament that could potentially run for several weeks (J! is an anomaly, due to last year’s strike), but I’d rather you just do straight Pyramid instead of half-assing a tourney.

The other rule changes like six words in :20 and the writing/judging never sat well with me either.

[Kevin Prather]

Perhaps Donny just wasn't to my taste, but I always got the vibe that he was making the show about him too often. I remember Winners Circle wins when he was in the circle yelling before the win even registered. Michael Strahan is much better at what Dick Clark was good at, letting the moment happen.

[chrisholland03]

Donny as host of Pyramid > John Davidson as host of Pyramid

Fight me

[Matt Ottinger]

Roger, when was the last time someone bumped a thread this old?

My thing -- and I'm sure I've said this before -- is how do you even FIND a thread this old?

[aaron sica]

Seems to be the work of one "Long Live Jeopardy!", who also bumped a thread that was only 2 months old (as compared to nearly 20 years old).

[Kevin Prather]

Donny as host of Pyramid > John Davidson as host of Pyramid

Fight me

Well I mean...

Mark Odor as host of Pyramid > John Davidson as host of Pyramid.

[TLEberle]

Donny as host of Pyramid > John Davidson as host of Pyramid

Fight me

No fight required. That's a TKO victory.

/but keep fighting? What the hell does that mean? Keep fighting?

[Long live Jeopardy!]

Donny was a good host stuck in a decent but watered-down revival. I get that modern game shows don’t allow for a big money tournament that could potentially run for several weeks (J! is an anomaly, due to last year’s strike), but I’d rather you just do straight Pyramid instead of half-assing a tourney.

The other rule changes like six words in :20 and the writing/judging never sat well with me either.

Also, the episodes airing out of taping order (which is one reason why that version did not have returning champions) didn't help either.

[PYLdude]

I didn’t have a problem with the 6 in 20 second mechanic. That was a nice little twist.

Other than that, the old KISS principle is applied perfectly to Pyramid. They just tried too hard to be different, and it didn’t work. The writing was the killer for me. You look at the two most modern Pyramid efforts, they stuck to basics (well, for the most part) and it worked.

[TLEberle]

I didn’t have a problem with the 6 in 20 second mechanic. That was a nice little twist.

Other than that, the old KISS principle is applied perfectly to Pyramid. They just tried too hard to be different, and it didn’t work. The writing was the killer for me. You look at the two most modern Pyramid efforts, they stuck to basics (well, for the most part) and it worked.

I'm going to push just a wee bit, though I understand they needed to shave somewhere and that bought them two minutes. However:

The nice thing about 7 in 30 seconds is that you're expected to run off probably three or four of the answers without much trouble. A good team will then have a reserve amount to use if the sixth or seventh prompt is tough for them. (and if they run out of time? Rough chuckles, welcome to game shows.)

Six in twenty to me as a 22 year old felt way too fast. No real time to grasp what's going on or let the round sink in because we have the four-line topic titles and then the Super Six presentation and dashing off to the winners circle. Absolutely no time to reflect or let the tension sink in. (Did Donny ever mention "If you win the $15,000 here, that's a total of $25,000 and then we'll see you back her to try for another $100,000"? I don't recall.

[BrandonFG]

(Did Donny ever mention "If you win the $15,000 here, that's a total of $25,000 and then we'll see you back her to try for another $100,000"? I don't recall.

I don't know if he ever mentioned it, but when a team won the chyron flashed "$15,000" for a few seconds then dissolved to say "$25,000".

I always felt having the same celebrities for the entire week would've solved the 6-in-20 issue. IIRC, Donny always spent a lotta time bantering with celebrities about their projects; had they kept the same two all week those convos could've been stretched out more. Now we don't have to spend so much time on say, Mario Cantone talking so much about what to expect on Sex and the City this upcoming season.

I also agree the writing got a little too cute and esoteric. "What Tom Cruise's Dentist Might Say"? I mean I have clues for that one, but it doesn't make it any less silly. Don't even get me started on the judging (Not accepting "Disco Music" for "Disco Songs" caused a bit of a debate back on ATGS).

[Jeremy Nelson]

Other than that, the old KISS principle is applied perfectly to Pyramid. They just tried too hard to be different, and it didn’t work.

This, for me, applied most to the Tournament qualification. I just watched an ep with Kathy Najimy and in the first Winner's Circle, she gave an illegal clue and my first thought was "damn, that guy already got disqualified for the tournament".

The three fastest successful runs seemed like the best way to go for qualification; I understand that they wanted an easy way to cull the field and skirt continuity for syndication, but to penalize players after they already have to overcome bad writing and nitpick-y judging seemed like bad form to me.