The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: brianhenke on October 08, 2011, 12:38:37 AM
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The online guide for WCHS-TV in Charleston, South Carolina, says that ABC will begin burning off Million Dollar Mind Game (episodes were taped over a year ago) on Sunday afternoons beginning Oct. 23.
The Vernon Kay-hosted show, based on a Russian format, has six-contestant teams answering questions that start at $6,000 and go up to $1 million.
Brian
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A friend of mine worked on this show, and what he described was something I would love. Me and about seventeen other people. It's people sitting around solving riddles, but increasingly clever and complex ones. It's really banking on the play-at-home element, and I just don't know how many people are going to be willing or able to put enough thought into it. From the sounds of things, even with big money on the line, there are few vicarious thrills.
Still, Sunday afternoon? Interestingly, the only other non-athletic game I can think of that ever had a Sunday afternoon slot was the similar-appeal (but completely different era) original College Bowl.
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Eighteen, Matt. (Or were you including me?)
I'm sorry that the show isn't getting a more decent airing, but it's nice to think there'll be something interesting to look forward to on Sunday afternoons.
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Eighteen, Matt. (Or were you including me?)
You're a smart guy with a wife you adore and a love for game shows, New York City and musical theater. Believe me, when *I* like something, you're on the list.
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Interestingly, the only other non-athletic game I can think of that ever had a Sunday afternoon slot was the similar-appeal (but completely different era) original College Bowl.
I believe Alumni Fun was Sunday afternoons as well.
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I tried out for this show way back when with a group of acquaintances -- I really liked the format, and they showed us clips from the pilot episode which seemed reasonably well-done, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it as well.
(No, we didn't get chosen as contestants.)
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Since ABC Sports was rebranded as "ESPN Sports on ABC," the Alphabet's sports content has been quite thin compared to years past, as ESPN gets the more-than-healthy share of Disney's sports material. ABC has college football, IRL and the occasional NASCAR race, but that seems to be it (not counting NBA since there may not be a season this year).
ABC affiliates aren't thrilled with what the network has been offering on weekends the last 2-3 years -- selected reruns of ABC primetime shows (Wipeout and Shark Tank come to mind), reruns of ESPN "long-form" shows (30 for 30) and the highlight-y Winner's Circle. Not sure if MDMG is the first "first-run" show to air in the ABC weekend bloc (thinking the Alphabet may have burned off a canceled prime time show in these slots, but I'm not sure).
The show sounds interesting but, as others have lamented, it may not play in Peoria. I'm also not thrilled about watching Vernon Kay host again (he was absolutely dreadful on "Skating with the Stars" -- granted, the whole show was horrid, but Kay was no help. Have to wonder if Kay's "Skating" performance played a factor in ABC burying MDMG).
JD
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Not sure if MDMG is the first "first-run" show to air in the ABC weekend bloc
laughing at myself here: I forgot the name of the show we were discussing, and for a brief moment I thought there was a Million-Dollar Match Game. The mind reels ...
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Million-Dollar Match Game. The mind reels ...
And I thought $5,000 was enough for _____ FLAKES anyway, myself.
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One of the writers on this show was Gary Lucy, who also wrote for Win Ben Stein's Money, Street Smarts, 1 Vs. 100 and Million Dollar Money Drop. (Also "Blind Date", but that's neither here nor there.) On the Facebook page for his podcast Rock Solid he wrote, "If you're not doing anything on Sunday, maybe check this out. Easily the hardest and 'out of the box' game show I've ever written on... but you Rock Solid fans are a clever lot! You'll get everything right "
For what it's worth, Rock Solid is a music podcast, but Gary has lately taken to introducing a game element. Sometimes a straight quiz, sometimes a Pyramid format guessing game, etc. He did a incredible question set for the 10th show about 10s in music. If you're a fan of rock or pop music, the podcast's worth checking out.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is to say, "I bet the questions will be well written." So there you go.
-M
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Anyway, the whole point of this post is to say, "I bet the questions will be well written." So there you go.
...and right you are- a couple of the questions seemed to heavily weigh moreso on trivia than the logic of figuring it out the Mona Lisa question comes to mind , but I really liked the writing. The various audio/video/black box clues were a nice touch, too.
My roommate, a regular college student, got into the show, to my surprise. I don't think it's as mentally daunting as Americans will probably assume it is- at least they get to watch the team work out the question, which makes it more manageable.
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The questions were for the most part quite good...
although I thought one that had the word "tribute" in it was much too easy.
But did they have to make it a show with a f****** money tree and f****** lifelines?
The questions and the team of six are, as I understand it, based on the Russian show Brain Ring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protmušis#History), which had two teams of six, something for which Million Dollar Mind Game screams out for. Some of the question would obviously have worked better if a second team had a chance at the question once the first team got it wrong, or if teams had to buzz in early.
And having it as standalone episodes made it so obvious when the game was going to end.
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I think they got five percent right and 95 percent wrong. The thing that dug into my side the most on the game side was that this show begged to have a first part and a bonus part. You build up the bank in the first part and then either stand pat or have a punt on a big prize.
On the material side, I felt cheated many times, and bewildered at others. Those are not two adjectives that a show wants me to use if they expect me to stick around.
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It's QI, Countdown, Jackpot, and Millionaire all thrown into a blender and turned on warp speed.
I was bouncing back and forth...the show really didn't keep my interest. Six teammates seems like way too many.
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I was bouncing back and forth...the show really didn't keep my interest. Six teammates seems like way too many.
Six teammates are only a problem when they're all talking at once. It is like Friday night at a Denny's. And I hate Friday night at Denny's. Let the team have the entire hour to play their game, get through as many questions as they can, and allow them to play a final question for a multiplying factor or a dividing divisible.
Plus the money tree is awkward and anticlimactic. Ten steps from $1,000 to $167,000. Yee haw.
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I watched it and thought this is perfect...for the UK. It just feels like it could work there for some reason- but not here (too slow, and I don't think the average person would get more than one or two of the questions). Probably the most elegant GS setup ever done in the US however.
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I taped it and watched it last night...not a terrible show, but I can definitely see why ABC decided it wouldn't work in primetime. I liked the variations of the questions, but I know the average viewer might not be into questions with that high difficulty. The cooperative team with rotating captain was also a nice change of pace from the usual "one vs. the house" we're used to seeing.
Nevertheless, there were definitely some things to fix:
-Still too few questions in an episode; even with the discussion time placed on a clock, the show felt painfully slow.
-I don't like that one person can vote to keep going and drag the team "kicking and screaming" into the next question; why didn't they just make it majority rule?
-Seriously...STRADDLE the freakin' game! Yet another show where you can tell when a game is going to end just by looking at how much time is left.
But, all that being said, I thought Vernon Kay was decent as host, and the show is certainly harmless fun on a Sunday afternoon. So, I'll watch again.
Anthony
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Six against the house isn't much better than one against the house.
Most of the rest of your problems could be solved very simply by doing what the Russian original did: having two teams play against each other. I can't stress this enough.
Seriously...STRADDLE the freakin' game!
The Self-Contained Show is the One True God. Thou shalt have no other gods before thee save The Self-Contained Show.
Am I also the only one here who disagrees with the idea that the questions were on average overly difficult? Sure, one or two of them were tough, but I thought a lot of them could be solved with some lateral thinking and bouncing ideas off teammates' heads -- even the ones I wouldn't have gotten. The first question (spoiler below), for example, is one that a reasonably bright ten-year-old could have had the insight on and impressed all the adults.
For the people who didn't watch, the first question was:
Champagne has it; ginger ale doesn't. A foreigner has one, but an immigrant doesn't. What is it?
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I DVR'd the premiere and watched it last night.....thank you early blowout Saints-Colts game :)
THE GOOD...
-- The writing on the slow was clever and original. As Fedya noted, the questions were, looking back, not as difficult as implied, but were written in a way that the viewer needed a second or third glance to make sure your reasoning toward an answer was correct.
-- The home playalong factor, to me, was high. My wife was sitting with me during the show. She ignored the show for the first few questions when, suddenly, something clicked and she was drawn in. Pretty soon, we were working together to answer the questions at hand. The format has "party game/board game" potential in the U.S., given a few tweaks.
-- After watching him stumble and bumble on "Skating with the Stars," I feared the worst with Vernon Kay fronting the show. However, I was pleasantly surprised with his performance. He knew his limitations and allowed the contestants to be the stars of the program.
-- "Million Dollar Mind Game" managed to avoid a few intangibles that have tripped up a number of modern U.S. game shows. Two examples...
-- One of the six contestants admitted to working as a pro wrestler whose finishing move was "The Phil-abuster." Kay referenced it once or twice, then dropped it. A show like, say, "Deal or No Deal" or "Wipeout" would reference this every 30 seconds during the telecast, with the former bringing out John Cena to polite applause.
-- In one round, the captain went over the majority of his teammates, all of whom had the right answer, and proceeded to give the wrong answer. Again, Kay let it slide after one reference. A modern game show would refer to the contestant at hand as "evil" and remind the others that he can't be trusted every 2-3 minutes.
-- Liked the "rotating captains" gimmick.
-- It was refreshing to see a group of contestants that did not appear to come straight out of Central Casting. The lack of screaming, whooping, etc., was also a welcome relief.
THE BAD...
-- Other web pages and social media sites are reporting that at least two of the questions featured on Sunday's show were used during contestant auditions. Massive S&P screwup if that's true.
-- The show looked too formal. The set had a Connery-esque "Casino Royale" feel to it (even the music at times seemed to come straight out of 007), and Kay was dressed as if he were presenting the contestants with a wine list. It would have been acceptable for the contestants to wear "businesswear" to the affair, not come out like they just got out of a Men's Wearhouse/David's Bridal catalog.
-- Agree with Fedya that having two teams play against each other would have been a better option than "Team of Six vs. The House"
-- The money tree looked awkward -- it's as if the show wanted to keep going with the "six" gimmick and got lost along the way.
-- Yes, the stand-alone episodes stink, but they could have worked if the show employed a tournament format. Eight teams, four quarterfinal matches, two semis and a final.
OVERALL GRADE: B -- Honestly, I liked it, and I'm disappointed that ABC didn't try the show over the summer. It could have worked Wednesdays or Sundays at 8p ET during the "silly season."
JD
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But the Russian original doesn't have two teams against it each other in the traditional sense, it has one team vs the viewers who send in the questions. In fact the Russian show goes out live, and people can e-mail questions in unchecked and if the spinner comes up a certain way can be used there and then.
The English Wiki entry is quite interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Where_When
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No; I was thinking about the Russian Brain Ring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protmušis#History), which had two teams against each other and similar riddle-type questions. (I think that's the same link I included in one of my previous posts.)
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No; I was thinking about the Russian Brain Ring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protmušis#History), which had two teams against each other and similar riddle-type questions. (I think that's the same link I included in one of my previous posts.)
But the show isn't based on Brain Ring, which may be a similar concept, it's based on What? Where? When? which predates it by about 15 years by the looks of things.
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Ah, I see you're right.
I still submit that a lot of the problems with Million Dollar Mind Game could be solved by having it be two teams playing against each other. A fun little game for small stakes, at that.
But that's not what the Suits With Focus Groups think will bring in the ratings.
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I still submit that a lot of the problems with Million Dollar Mind Game could be solved by having it be two teams playing against each other.
Now you have twelve people all talking over each other as opposed to merely six.
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Well since they're competing against each other, they talk about as loud as the families on Family Feud when families were allowed to huddle and think up answers to steal while the other team was playing the question. If I remember correctly from the few episodes I saw back when I was in college, it played out a lot like Final Jeopardy.
Now, I suppose you can say the Suits would argue that's bad TV too.
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-- Other web pages and social media sites are reporting that at least two of the questions featured on Sunday's show were used during contestant auditions. Massive S&P screwup if that's true.
I tried out for the show way back when, and I didn't recognize any of the questions (of course, I obviously wasn't at all of the audition sessions).
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Not sure if anyone stuck around for episode 2, but
The show does straddle, as the episode ended with the team two questions away from the million with all of their helps intact and two incorrect answers.
I thought that the questions were easier than the premiere, as there were a few occasions where I figured out the answer before the team did which didn't happen at all last week.
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I thought that the questions were easier than the premiere, as there were a few occasions where I figured out the answer before the team did which didn't happen at all last week.
It seemed to me that there were too many "light bulb moments" happening right after the 30-second point; I got the feeling that the producers told them to throw around wrong answers for the first 30 seconds. I can think of two reasons for this; it prevents the contestants agreeing on an answer early and then having 45 seconds of silence, and it gives the viewers 30 seconds to see if they can come up with the answer.
You would think that at least one of them would have known the story behind "Steal My Thunder" and would have known the answer the second the question was read.
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It seemed to me that there were too many "light bulb moments" happening right after the 30-second point; I got the feeling that the producers told them to throw around wrong answers for the first 30 seconds. I can think of two reasons for this; it prevents the contestants agreeing on an answer early and then having 45 seconds of silence, and it gives the viewers 30 seconds to see if they can come up with the answer.
That's an easy fix--the Russian version allows you to stop the clock then carry over the time. I think that would make things interesting. You want to make sure you're right, yet seconds are at a premium. Presumably only the captain can stop the clock, so that presents an interesting dynamic, too.
I don't even mind that it's one team against your basic money ladder, but they could frame the lifelines less like lifelines: The 30-extra-seconds could be replaced by the carryover seconds--whenever you have some, the captain can ask for them. You don't really need switch-the-question, since you get three free misses anyway. And allow each player one veto in the course of the game. That could add some compelling conflict, as should the "if one person says risk it, you risk it" rule. (It may work better with teams of strangers, though.)
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I watched it and thought this is perfect...for the UK. It just feels like it could work there for some reason- but not here (too slow, and I don't think the average person would get more than one or two of the questions). Probably the most elegant GS setup ever done in the US however.
I watched episode 2, and loved it. No, the folks at home won't get them all, but once you hear the answers, you kick yourself because they SHOULD be so easy.
I love the Casino Royale feel. I'm not wild about Vernon. He's not offensive, but he doesn't add anything. ABC is 0 for how many on imported game show hosts? Put Ben Stein in a white tux, let him rib the guy with the Colonel Sanders bow tie and bring some wit to the whole thing, then the show won't be too slow.
What I really didn't like was the forced clapping. Players shouldn't clap for themselves. It's gauche. And the host shouldn't be clapping all the time either.
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ABC is 0 for how many on imported game show hosts?
Ant and Dec say "hi."
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Ant and Dec
The reason Brian Dunkleman was almost famous.
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I watched this Sunday and thought it was clever. It makes you think more than most game shows of recent years.
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ABC is 0 for how many on imported game show hosts?
Ant and Dec say "hi."
And I bring this up as one of the three fans of Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak.
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And I bring this up as one of the three fans of Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak.
I rather enjoyed it myself. Great theme too.
Is there a clear copy of the theme anywhere?
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I thought that the questions were easier than the premiere, as there were a few occasions where I figured out the answer before the team did which didn't happen at all last week.
It seemed to me that there were too many "light bulb moments" happening right after the 30-second point; I got the feeling that the producers told them to throw around wrong answers for the first 30 seconds. I can think of two reasons for this; it prevents the contestants agreeing on an answer early and then having 45 seconds of silence, and it gives the viewers 30 seconds to see if they can come up with the answer.
You would think that at least one of them would have known the story behind "Steal My Thunder" and would have known the answer the second the question was read.
Well, that's why they get people who know each other; usually those people are more used to spitballing with each other to see if ideas stick. Besides, even if we thought we knew the answer, I'd still want people to throw things out there in case we missed something; there a million dollars at stake.
To reply to your spoiler, I thought the exact same thing, but about the Fruit of the Loom question...and I don't even buy the stuff.
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I'm liking this show so far, the questions have just the right amount of difficulty and the team debates are interesting to hear. Not a big fan of the Casino Royale-esque set though, looks pretty bland. I'll admit it's not the best timeslot to have, but it works out well for me since I couldn't care less about football(or any other major sport for that matter).