The Game Show Forum

The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: J.R. on October 06, 2006, 03:32:23 PM

Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: J.R. on October 06, 2006, 03:32:23 PM
I can remember watching shows as late as 1995 where everyone in the audience was still wearing normal clothing.

Just when did the whole customized shirt thing start? Is there an episode out there that has the first time someone came out with one of these shirts?

-Joe R.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: Joe Mello on October 06, 2006, 06:48:13 PM
Since when were T-shirts not normal?

Steve G might be able to answer that (at least he seems more qualified than I do) but my personal hunch would be that if there was in increase of groups, there would be an increase of unqiue tees.  

/I was 10 in 1995, and I'm lucky to remember what day it is now.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: TimK2003 on October 06, 2006, 07:27:43 PM
[quote name=\'Joe Mello\' post=\'133743\' date=\'Oct 6 2006, 05:48 PM\']
Since when were T-shirts not normal?

Steve G might be able to answer that (at least he seems more qualified than I do) but my personal hunch would be that if there was in increase of groups, there would be an increase of unqiue tees.  

/I was 10 in 1995, and I'm lucky to remember what day it is now.
[/quote]

The customized T-shirt craze goes way back to the late-70's & early 80s (didn't Vanna White have a special T-Shirt when she got called down back in the pre-Wheel days)??.  

I think a lot of it has to do when the college-aged kids became the vast majority of the TPIR audience.  

Going back 10 or 15 years ago,  you could get to CBS TV city around 7 or 8AM and still be guaranteed a good spot in line.  But in recent years  you almost have to get there by 3 or 4AM to get that same spot in line.  

Thus, it's a strong theory that the older, casual crowds with normal clothing have given up on going to see & participate in  the show, which means the crazier younger crowds with equally crazy shirts are now the dominant audience members.


(And BTW, my wife and I both had specially-made airbrushed tees for the show  -- though ours only said "Just Married" on them.  A $60 investment netted us $800 in prizes, not a bad little payoff!!!)
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: alfonzos on October 06, 2006, 07:46:37 PM
It's LMaD all over again. Audience members will be wearing costumes in a couple of years. Mark my words.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: Steve McClellan on October 06, 2006, 11:05:55 PM
[quote name=\'alfonzos\' date=\'Oct 6 2006, 07:46 PM\']It's LMaD all over again. Audience members will be wearing costumes in a couple of years. Mark my words.[/quote]
Except that their tickets clearly state "No Costumes". Otherwise, they probably would have already.

EDIT: Oh, and Vanna's shirt read "Get Serious". It didn't strike me as custom-made.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: Joe Mello on October 07, 2006, 01:37:03 AM
And Roger Dobkowitz (producer-type person) has stated in interviews that they do not grade interviews based on shirts.

One thing the shirts are good for, however, is marking groups.  Cotenstant coordiators and pages will probably agree on that.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: TLEberle on October 07, 2006, 01:59:11 AM
[quote name=\'Joe Mello\' post=\'133778\' date=\'Oct 6 2006, 10:37 PM\']
And Roger Dobkowitz (producer-type person) has stated in interviews that they do not grade interviews based on shirts.[/quote] He can say whatever he wants; what he does is something else entirely. Or Stan, since I think that's who picks the players. The thing is, if eight of nine people picked to play have customized shirts, does that mean that 280 people in the audience were wearing one that day, or did a whole section of the crowd unknowingly disqualify themselves?

Quote
One thing the shirts are good for, however, is marking groups.  Cotenstant coordiators and pages will probably agree on that.
I have no problem with everyone from a college wearing the same shirt, or the Army guys being in uniform, or the Possum Lodge members all wearing their hats. It's when the shirts get over-the-top that bothers me.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: narzo on October 07, 2006, 11:02:40 AM
[quote name=\'Joe Mello\' post=\'133778\' date=\'Oct 7 2006, 12:37 AM\']
And Roger Dobkowitz (producer-type person) has stated in interviews that they do not grade interviews based on shirts.
[/quote]

although Jenny Jones stated that she was at the show many times and didn't get selected.  Then she says one day she showed up with a t-shirt and no bra.  "Jenny Jones, c'mon down!"
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: Steve Gavazzi on October 07, 2006, 05:28:23 PM
All that means is that Phil Rossi was doing the interviewing that day. :-P

Anyway...as MSTieScott stated a while back, if 8/9 of the audience on a given day has on customized t-shirts, it stands to reason that about 8/9 of the contestants will probably be people with customized t-shirts.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: Neumms on October 07, 2006, 06:05:49 PM
[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'133779\' date=\'Oct 7 2006, 12:59 AM\']
I have no problem with everyone from a college wearing the same shirt, or the Army guys being in uniform, or the Possum Lodge members all wearing their hats. It's when the shirts get over-the-top that bothers me.
[/quote]

Same here. Those kinds of shirts are natural attire. It's the homemade ones referring to Bob and the show that bug me, particularly when they're a size or three too small. I'll take Roger at his word if he says they don't figure into his selections. What I say is that they should figure in--they should disqualify you. They make the show seem way trashier than it otherwise would.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: TLEberle on October 07, 2006, 06:13:51 PM
[quote name=\'Neumms\' post=\'133805\' date=\'Oct 7 2006, 03:05 PM\']Same here. Those kinds of shirts are natural attire. It's the homemade ones referring to Bob and the show that bug me, particularly when they're a size or three too small. I'll take Roger at his word if he says they don't figure into his selections. What I say is that they should figure in--they should disqualify you. They make the show seem way trashier than it otherwise would.[/quote]You have managed to perfectly articulate what I couldn't wrap my head around. Thanks for that. There's something about the costumes that makes "Let's Make a Deal" fun and interesting, and the homemade shirts (and you're right, most of the time a bouncy young lady is wearing one, it's too small) for Price are irritating. I don't know why the difference is there, because Deal is almost completely intuition, and TPIR at least has the pricing knowledge. Maybe it's that there are only so many ways to say "Bob Rules" or "I Wanna Play Plinko!" on a shirt, but there are literally hundreds of different costume opportunities.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: SuperMatch93 on October 07, 2006, 10:43:34 PM
When did the guy with the "I'm here to kiss Holly" t-shirt go on?
Definitely sometime before 1995.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: Steve Gavazzi on October 08, 2006, 01:02:35 AM
I don't have the date on-hand, but that guy is Ted Slauson...he's a regular at Golden-Road, and I talk to him usually a couple times a week.  Decent guy.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: ClockGameJohn on October 08, 2006, 08:12:10 PM
[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' post=\'133829\' date=\'Oct 8 2006, 01:02 AM\']
I don't have the date on-hand, but that guy is Ted Slauson...he's a regular at Golden-Road, and I talk to him usually a couple times a week.  Decent guy.
[/quote]

His show aired 10/19/92.
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: SRIV94 on October 08, 2006, 08:18:36 PM
[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' post=\'133829\' date=\'Oct 8 2006, 12:02 AM\']
I don't have the date on-hand, but that guy is Ted Slauson...he's a regular at Golden-Road, and I talk to him usually a couple times a week.  Decent guy.
[/quote]
Must...resist...temptation...to...do...Slauson...cutoff...joke....

@#$%!

ObGS:  "Temptation" is both a game show title and a TPiR pricing game.

Doug -- and the countdown to 2300 continues
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: MSTieScott on October 09, 2006, 07:50:02 PM
Hopefully this isn't considered a spoiler...

So at one of the two tapings today, I went into the studio, watched all of the audience members as they came in, and quickly marked down whether they were wearing 1) a custom-made-for-TPiR shirt, 2) a shirt with a university name, military uniform, or similar clothing that isn't TPiR-related, but still kind of personalized, or 3) normal clothes that one would wear in any public place (including generic location shirts such as "OKLAHOMA" or "I heart NY").

At this particular taping, roughly 167 people were wearing normal, everyday clothes, 141 were wearing custom shirts mentioning the show or Bob, and 25 were wearing college/military clothes (allow a small margin of error as I tried to decipher shirts while people were quickly being herded into the studio).

Of the contestants that were called to come on down, four of them were wearing normal, everyday clothes, four of them were wearing custom shirts, and one was wearing a college shirt. To be honest, I was amazed at how closely it reflected the audience as a whole (I expected a slightly higher percentage of custom shirts being called, since they would be the people more excited about the show in general).

Granted, it's only a sample of one episode, but I think it does speak to the fact that the production staff isn't lying when they say that they don't pick based on the shirts.

--
Scott Robinson
Title: TPIR Shirt Craze
Post by: chris319 on October 09, 2006, 10:49:40 PM
Quote
It's the homemade ones referring to Bob and the show that bug me, particularly when they're a size or three too small. I'll take Roger at his word if he says they don't figure into his selections. What I say is that they should figure in--they should disqualify you. They make the show seem way trashier than it otherwise would.
Agreed.

Intrepid job of reporting, Mr. Scott.