The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Skynet74 on October 14, 2003, 11:25:18 AM
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Here is One man and his experience as a Jeopardy Champ. Spoliler included but mostly just a take on his experience. Don't click the link if you would rather not know anything.
http://tinyurl.com/qvq0 (http://\"http://tinyurl.com/qvq0\")
John
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I'm not sure what he expected. Once you're done, you're done. What else is there to do? They have more taping to do that day and you're no longer a contestant.
He won money. Hooray for him. What else did he want?
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For three-game winners, there's a parade down the main street of Sony Pictures Studio.
Must have been raining that day.
Curt
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[quote name=\'inturnaround\' date=\'Oct 14 2003, 10:57 AM\'] I'm not sure what he expected. Once you're done, you're done. What else is there to do? They have more taping to do that day and you're no longer a contestant.
He won money. Hooray for him. What else did he want? [/quote]
That is what I was going to say, but you beat me to it. They have more contestants wanting to win money and so..... ON WITH THE SHOW!!
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This is how it is. I think he was still waiting for his crown and cape.
Tim :-)
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Wow must've been a sllllllllow news day...
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QUERY! The baby has gone and revealed the outcome of his matches in a published article. Doesn't that mean a forfeiture of his winnings?
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When are his shows slated to air? I'm gonna buy him a bib and a rattle for a victory present and I'll even pay the shipping(grin)
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Aren't you guys being a little harsh? I wouldn't expect a visit to Alex's wine cellar, but maybe there should be some hospitality specialists on staff, maybe an after-taping contestant get together at the commisary or something.
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1. His shows have already aired, so he's not revealing anything.
2. As the article says, "However, with almost $50,000 in winnings, Cumberland's Charles Champagne isn't complaining about his experience on the long-running, popular television game show Jeopardy."
3. He says he was ignored after he lost, but states it in a factual manner, not complainingly (at least, that's how I read it).
At least read the article before razzing the guy.
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1. His shows have already aired, so he's not revealing anything.
Damn. I understood it to mean he taped his last appearance on July 29th.
At least read the article before razzing the guy.
I have read it. The razzing continues.
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Jeepers, maybe I shouldn't even mention this, but on my one trip behind a game show podium, I vividly remember the empty "is that all there is?" feeling after being whisked away -- and I was a loser!
Before playing, you're surrounded by fellow contestants, coordinators are watching your every move, and there's this enormous anticipation. While you're playing, it's like being in the middle of a parade. There's all this activity, and you're a major part of it. But yeah, after it's over, you sign a couple things and you're history. It's extremely easy to be thrown by the sudden realization that it's over, and that these people aren't your best buddies in the whole wide world after all.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Oct 14 2003, 02:40 PM\'] Jeepers, maybe I shouldn't even mention this, but on my one trip behind a game show podium, I vividly remember the empty "is that all there is?" feeling after being whisked away -- and I was a loser! Before playing, you're surrounded by fellow contestants, coordinators are watching your every move, and there's this enormous anticipation. It's extremely easy to be thrown by the sudden realization that it's over, and that these people aren't your best buddies in the whole wide world after all. [/quote]
It's the same feeling I probably have after seeing a TV show Live. The Audience Coordinators pump you up with their pre show speech and then basicly treat you like scum when the show is over.
TYPICAL AUDIENCE COORDINATOR BEFORE THE SHOW: "This is going to be a lot of Fun today so applaud wildly and let everyone know you are having the best time in the world. We really need you guys today. Mr. Letterman feeds off the audience and if he feels you having fun then he's going to have fun! Then he'll give you an extra special show. Laugh at every joke. Even if you don't think it's funny....... Just pretend it is! Applaud when the signs come on and have a great time. We couldn't do it without you."
TYPICAL AUDIENCE COORDINATOR AFTER THE SHOW: "Don't step on the stage, Go up the aisle and out that back door. No stepping on the stage, No pictures, No using The Bathroom. Bye."
In a nutshell.... TV shows use you and throw you away. Once the show is over most of these Pages wouldn't save you from falling bricks over your head. They will do whatever it takes to keep you there to fill a seat, but once your job is done don't expect any special treatment.
John
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[quote name=\'Skynet74\' date=\'Oct 14 2003, 03:27 PM\']
TYPICAL AUDIENCE COORDINATOR BEFORE THE SHOW: "This is going to be a lot of Fun today so applaud wildly and let everyone know you are having the best time in the world. We really need you guys today. Mr. Letterman feeds off the audience and if he feels you having fun then he's going to have fun! Then he'll give you an extra special show. Laugh at every joke. Even if you don't think it's funny....... Just pretend it is! Applaud when the signs come on and have a great time. We couldn't do it without you."
[/quote]
So you were there on August 26, 2002, too? What a coincidence!
Dave must not have thought we were having fun, because, boy, it didn't seem like he was.
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[quote name=\'Skynet74\' date=\'Oct 14 2003, 03:27 PM\'] In a nutshell.... TV shows use you and throw you away. [/quote]
Thanks for the laugh, and welcome to show business!
While it doesn't take a ton more effort to have the illusion appear seamless by "staying in character" until the last audience member leaves, I suspect that you felt very much what the employees feel every day. It's a perfect example of the "trickle down theory"; and that has nothing to do with the host's prostate!! ;-)
Randy
tvrandywest.com
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[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Oct 14 2003, 05:24 PM\'] [quote name=\'Skynet74\' date=\'Oct 14 2003, 03:27 PM\'] In a nutshell.... TV shows use you and throw you away. [/quote]
Thanks for the laugh, and welcome to show business!
While it doesn't take a ton more effort to have the illusion appear seamless by "staying in character" until the last audience member leaves, I suspect that you felt very much what the employees feel every day. It's a perfect example of the "trickle down theory"; and that has nothing to do with the host's prostate!! ;-)
Randy
tvrandywest.com [/quote]
Randy, if you ever decide to change careers, go into standup comedy. You'd make a fortune.
:-D
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I'm sure when Contestant Cordinators "ignore" you at the end of show, they don't mean it in a negative way. It's just a dramatic way of telling you: "Hey, the show's over, we still have shows to tape and contestants to see, we can't just stay and chat with every person that passes by, thanks for coming, but your presence is no longer needed, enjoy your stuff but you have to leave"
As for this J! contestant:
"Alex is very professional, but definitely not warm and fuzzy," said Champagne. "He only talks to the contestants on the air, what you see on TV, there was no interaction otherwise. But he wasn't arrogant or anything."
He's a few years removed from "Classic Concentration". Alex doesn't really have much of an excuse to be warm and loose anymore. Also, just like the coridnators and most hosts, he simply doesn't have the time to converse with some guy he's never met before. Though I hear, away from the studio and you just happen to run into them out in public, like in the supermarket, and if they reconize you, most hosts are very friendly and talkative (I know a former PYL Contestant got to converse with Tomarken this way). I could probably make a really lame joke here about a "Warm and Loose" Trebek and Intoxication, but I wont...
Only exception to this the UK "Millionaire" where after the taping, all 10 contetants are invited to a local pub where they get to drink and hang out with Chris Tarrant, who I've seen to be VERY friendly with players off camera. (No, I haven't met Mr. Tarrant myself, this is off a few docs. of the show that I've seen)
But this post has run on too long, so I'll just leave it at that !
-Joe R.
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[quote name=\'PeterMarshallFan\' date=\'Oct 14 2003, 05:12 PM\']Randy, if you ever decide to change careers, go into standup comedy. You'd make a fortune.
[/quote]
So YOU'RE the one who finds me amusing.
I'll pay to have you cloned. 320 of YOU would be a warm-up's wet dream ;-)
Stand-up is tough. I prefer Sit-down Comedy. It's low impact... easier on the knees. And on a really good night you get a squatting ovation!
I have hours of this crap, and it's kept me out of the big time for years!
Randy
tvrandywest.com
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Price is Right announcing isn't big time Randy? Damn!
(grin)
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[quote name=\'JRaygor\' date=\'Oct 14 2003, 05:46 PM\']Only exception to this the UK "Millionaire" where after the taping, all 10 contetants are invited to a local pub where they get to drink and hang out with Chris Tarrant, who I've seen to be VERY friendly with players off camera. (No, I haven't met Mr. Tarrant myself, this is off a few docs. of the show that I've seen)[/quote]
I believe that's more of a British or European thing--the pub's right on the Elstree studio lot where the show is taped and it seems a more natural thing to do, particularly when there's no S&P squad to make sure that the host and the contestants are not in contact after the show. But it seems to me that other British shows of all kinds may do the same thing.
Which makes me wonder if Anne Robinson kicks back with the people she's just insulted on "TWL" in the Pinewood Studios pub after the show.
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Anne on a poorly poured libation:
"You are the weakest drink, goodbye!"
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Would it be so terrible to let the people who have already lost sit in the audience?
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Would it be so terrible to let the people who have already lost sit in the audience?
You mean like Tecwen Whitlock did over in the UK, which allowed him to watch his friend Maj. Charles Ingram in the Hot Seat on WWtBaM? :-)
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")
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Would it be so terrible to let the people who have already lost sit in the audience?
When watching "Questions Pour un Champion" in Paris in January 2002, I noticed that all contestants sat with their guests in the audience. Very very relaxed that way... and after every episode finished everyone would get up and mingle for about 20 minutes.
As someone said, "very European".
Cheers,
Ryan :)
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My experience is that a losing contestant's idea of a good time usually isn't sitting through three more shows watching people do better than them.
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TYPICAL AUDIENCE COORDINATOR BEFORE THE SHOW: "This is going to be a lot of Fun today so applaud wildly and let everyone know you are having the best time in the world. We really need you guys today. Mr. Letterman feeds off the audience and if he feels you having fun then he's going to have fun! Then he'll give you an extra special show. Laugh at every joke. Even if you don't think it's funny....... Just pretend it is! Applaud when the signs come on and have a great time. We couldn't do it without you."
TYPICAL AUDIENCE COORDINATOR AFTER THE SHOW: "Don't step on the stage, Go up the aisle and out that back door. No stepping on the stage, No pictures, No using The Bathroom. Bye."
A well-respected TV personality once told me:
With television, all the glitz and glamour is only on the living room side.
Sad to say, but TV is a business after all and we're 'disposable income' in certain situations.
JOSH
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I agree, you guys are being far too harsh. The contestant's comment is valid.
Matt's account of his experience meshes with mine. Days of anticipation, hours of mingling with fellow contestants and sweating in the green room, tons of pre-show attention from producers, stage managers, and other staff. An incredible rush of adrenaline during gameplay. Then... it's over. You sign a few papers, collect your things, and leave the studio. It's tremendously anticlimactic, especially if you win. For the staff, it's just another day on the job. But for you, it's a once-in-a-lifetime moment that comes screeching to an end while your emotions and body chemistry are still firing on all cylinders.
Is it a scandal? Hardly. But it's a bit of a disappointment, and not something most contestants expect.
- Peter
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[quote name=\'matchgame\' date=\'Oct 15 2003, 07:27 PM\']
A well-respected TV personality once told me:
With television, all the glitz and glamour is only on the living room side.
Sad to say, but TV is a business after all and we're 'disposable income' in certain situations.
[/quote]
Yes sir. I must say though, even after I lost on MG/HS I wasn't disappointed in the least. I had fun, and I understood it was time to step aside and let the others have their shot. I walked out of there with a big smile on my face.
Except my sister was at death's door less than an hour later. :-(
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[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Oct 15 2003, 05:42 PM\']
Which makes me wonder if Anne Robinson kicks back with the people she's just insulted on "TWL" in the Pinewood Studios pub after the show. [/quote]
Sadly not! The production team are very nice to you in the Green Room though, everyone gets to watch the rest of the game when they get voted out and because they pay for all the accomdation and travel, it's a lot cheaper to get one or two taxis to get to Kings Cross or Gatwick Airport or whatever where people are going and for them to all go in a group rather than sending everyone off as soon as they get voted off.
There's not really much time for the host to chat to players because when I filmed mine, they were filming three episodes a day so it was fairly production line. I gather that sometimes she'll make sure a contestant is OK if she particularly liked them or she thought she was unfairly harsh to them (so I read in interviews at any rate).
The daily ones are (as far as I know) still filmed at the Magic Eye studios in South London. The last time I saw an episode being filmed at Pinewood, it was the first of two shows being filmed that day - and Pinewood's actually fairly out of the way. I don't think there's a pub in a five minute walking distance!
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I understand what you are all saying. It's a big letdown. Maybe I was too harsh. But I just think it's all because it's a situation no one ever contemplates when they get on a game show. I can imagine contestant can picture winning cash and fabulous prizes, but no thought is ever given to when you're done and the cameras are turned off.
I'm not sure what can be done for contestants who have lost or are retired champs. I'm not sure anything could ever live up to the high of winning and competition. It must be one heckuva crash afterwards.
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The hasty send-off from the studio was the most surprising and disorienting part of the WWTBAM experience for me. The Town Car ride home acted as a nice buffer--man, would it have stunk to just get back in the subway!--but it was a quick sendoff from the studio.
(Don't even get me started on the driver's inability to follow directions!)
But, hey--it was an experience not everybody gets to have, and I'm glad to have been there.