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The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: The Pyramids on February 08, 2014, 08:32:36 AM

Title: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: The Pyramids on February 08, 2014, 08:32:36 AM
How do you think 2007's 'Temptation' feel short? It may simply her a matter that it had none of the look & appeal of the original (80's). I'm sure other s can come up with some specifics.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: Bryce L. on February 08, 2014, 10:19:34 AM
To me, it just felt cheap, particularly because of no cash jackpot for a grand champion, and a five-day limit on champions, whether you've won the big prize or not... it also didn't sit well with me that there was no option to buy all the major prizes.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: joker316 on February 08, 2014, 10:22:41 AM
For me, because it offered items you could buy at home during the show, it came off as a home shopping show with a game show mixed in. It didn't help matters that the debut episode in most markets was an all D-list celebrity show. With at least two failed attempts at a home shopping/game show previously, you'd think the producers would have known better.

Just my 2 cents...
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: Vahan_Nisanian on February 08, 2014, 10:24:20 AM
This could have been a great revival. It appears this version had two options: Either be faithful to its Australian counterpart, or make really annoying changes to it. Guess which choice they made.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: SuperMatch93 on February 08, 2014, 10:36:57 AM
Not only did the prizes not live up to Australian Temptation or the original series (cosmetics kits and Bag, Borrow, or Steal subscriptions for Instant Bargains?) the format seemed really haphazard and felt like a bunch of other shows put in a blender.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: BrandonFG on February 08, 2014, 11:25:01 AM
What SuperMatch said. I liked it at first, but the more I watched, the more it felt like Another Half-Baked Fremantle Revival (tm), and everything was all over the place. Forcing contestants to retire regardless of whether they had enough to buy a big ticket item was a joke.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: TLEberle on February 08, 2014, 12:21:52 PM
This could have been a great revival. It appears this version had two options: Either be faithful to its Australian counterpart, or make really annoying changes to it. Guess which choice they made.
I reject your thesis.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: clemon79 on February 08, 2014, 12:32:27 PM
"Fun pop-culture questions."

That is all.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: Thunder on February 08, 2014, 02:16:41 PM
It clearly went for a female audience so it had no appeal to me as a guy.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: Steve Gavazzi on February 08, 2014, 03:00:51 PM
Having only seen the two "preview" episodes, it felt like the show was trying to stick as much of $ale of the Century into itself as possible without being $ale of the Century.

It sounds stupid, and it looked stupid.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: sotcfan2004 on February 08, 2014, 03:24:01 PM
It clearly went for a female audience so it had no appeal to me as a guy.

And in doing so, they thumbed their noses at 50% of their potential audience.

They made change after change just for the sake of making changes. They took a fast paced quiz show with shopping elements and turned it into an ADHD-infused casserole of borrowed ideas and watered down trivia.

If I sound ticked about it, it's because they've probably made it highly unlikely that we'll see the format revived again in the US in the next 10-20 years, if ever. And that's a crying shame.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: TLEberle on February 08, 2014, 03:29:22 PM
How do you think 2007's 'Temptation' feel short?
You name it, Temptation failed to measure up.

Quote
It may simply her a matter that it had none of the look & appeal of the original (80's).
The appeal was you had a fun fast-paced quiz game with an interesting dilemma three times a show, and a bigger one at the end. Temptation was likely the outcome of focus-group metings and a desire to please everyone and instead ending up as a game show version of Mario Party.

I don't even mind pop-culture questions (cf: Hollywood Showdown), I do mind it when a game show patronizes their (withered and atrophied) audience. Sale of the Century didn't pretend to be Jeopardy and it didn't have to: easy-ish questions allowed for exciting buzzer races.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: Thunder on February 08, 2014, 04:25:22 PM
...If I sound ticked about it, it's because they've probably made it highly unlikely that we'll see the format revived again in the US in the next 10-20 years, if ever. And that's a crying shame.

Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show. I should really just relax."
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: BrandonFG on February 08, 2014, 04:33:39 PM
I kinda agree with him, mainly because the show hadn't aired new episodes in close to two decades, and was probably long forgotten outside the forum. It was a bummer but nothing to get too upset about...GSN airing it is pretty sweet.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: gameshowcrazy on February 08, 2014, 04:44:51 PM
Bad host, bad questions, bad prizes, bad studio set, and double runs in many markets giving the viewer shows from two different weeks of shows so it was difficult to "follow" a championship run...what could have possibly gone wrong with this?
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: WarioBarker on February 08, 2014, 05:08:24 PM
I watched a good portion of the show's run and, while I didn't know very much at the time about the shows that preceded it, I still knew it sucked. (Still have about 10 episodes on tape, though.)

Looking back, what really bothers me about the show is how much whatever remained of Sale/Aussie Temptation was changed -- the Instant Bargains always ended with a five-second "Shop Clock", the Fame Game had its heart torn out, Instant Cash capped at $5,000, and the aforementioned flaws with the shopping endgame. Apparently, the format for the series was the same one they used for the 2006 pilots shot on the Australian set, but the pitchfilm stations got didn't mention anything much beyond "ooh shopping".

The other thing that really bothered me was the fact they used elements of Wipeout, which I'm pretty sure isn't a Fremantle property. I'm also pretty sure Super Knock-Off was there to offset the five-day limit.

There was also no real cash present, aside from the occasional $10,000 in the endgame, and apparently no consolation prizes if you didn't buy anything (including champions) -- just "Lots of love and hugs from me.", which is great but amounts to $0 in the end.

Oh, and the endgame was called "the shopping spree of a lifetime" but didn't let players buy more than one prize. Huh?

Having only seen the two "preview" episodes, it felt like the show was trying to stick as much of $ale of the Century into itself as possible without being $ale of the Century.

It sounds stupid, and it looked stupid.
Look up the Nicole/Katina/Susan episode uploaded by thewhammy83 -- it's a great example of how bad the series was, primarily in terms of contestant intelligence. Instant Cash is particularly headdesk-worthy.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: Vahan_Nisanian on February 08, 2014, 05:33:49 PM
Other than Mark (famously referred to by Rossi as a "Shopping Ninja"), was there anyone on this show who bought the top prize?
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: MikeK on February 08, 2014, 06:45:39 PM
If I sound ticked about it, it's because they've probably made it highly unlikely that we'll see the format revived again in the US in the next 10-20 years, if ever. And that's a crying shame.
It was almost 19 years between Sale's cancellation in early '89 and Temptation in 2007.  10 years from now would be 16 years since Temptation went adieu.  That sounds like a bit of an improvement to me.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: BrandonFG on February 08, 2014, 07:06:36 PM
The other thing that really bothered me was the fact they used elements of Wipeout, which I'm pretty sure isn't a Fremantle property.
That's not really that big of a deal...Hollywood Squares more or less ripped off Split Second's end game too.

Other than Mark (famously referred to by Rossi as a "Shopping Ninja"), was there anyone on this show who bought the top prize?
I think there was a guy who bought a Nissan Altima. I remember turning in during the closing, and I could've sworn the guy was sitting in the car.

That was the other thing...the show's budget dwindled significantly over the course of the season. A Jaguar during the premiere week, then a Prius, then an Altima. Looking up a few other episodes, they also offered a camper and Chrysler Sebring convertible. Still a bit of a dropoff.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: TLEberle on February 09, 2014, 05:47:14 PM
That was the other thing...the show's budget dwindled significantly over the course of the season. A Jaguar during the premiere week, then a Prius, then an Altima. Looking up a few other episodes, they also offered a camper and Chrysler Sebring convertible. Still a bit of a dropoff.
Not even the "worst" of it: once the tippy top prize was a three-week African safari.

Part of the decreased prize money came from the three-day tournaments where the scores rolled over and whoever won on the third day was the only one who got to go shopping; the purchase prices were smaller and so were the prizes.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: Strikerz04 on February 10, 2014, 03:27:08 PM
That was the other thing...the show's budget dwindled significantly over the course of the season. A Jaguar during the premiere week, then a Prius, then an Altima. Looking up a few other episodes, they also offered a camper and Chrysler Sebring convertible. Still a bit of a dropoff.
Not even the "worst" of it: once the tippy top prize was a three-week African safari.

Part of the decreased prize money came from the three-day tournaments where the scores rolled over and whoever won on the third day was the only one who got to go shopping; the purchase prices were smaller and so were the prizes.

At least the tournament offered a "10% discount" in an instant bargain that would be applied to the shopping floor, which was interesting (and I say that loosely). I can recall at least two car winners from that entire series. Might've been a third, or that person fell short on day 5.

The show lacked the intelligence factor and the home-shopping element was unnecessary. Just an omnishambles from the start.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: TLEberle on February 10, 2014, 03:47:23 PM
I thought the 10% off coupon was a bright spot of cleverness in an otherwise barren operation.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: PYLdude on February 10, 2014, 04:08:38 PM
That was the other thing...the show's budget dwindled significantly over the course of the season. A Jaguar during the premiere week, then a Prius, then an Altima. Looking up a few other episodes, they also offered a camper and Chrysler Sebring convertible. Still a bit of a dropoff.
Not even the "worst" of it: once the tippy top prize was a three-week African safari.

Part of the decreased prize money came from the three-day tournaments where the scores rolled over and whoever won on the third day was the only one who got to go shopping; the purchase prices were smaller and so were the prizes.

At least the tournament offered a "10% discount" in an instant bargain that would be applied to the shopping floor, which was interesting (and I say that loosely). I can recall at least two car winners from that entire series. Might've been a third, or that person fell short on day 5.

The show lacked the intelligence factor and the home-shopping element was unnecessary. Just an omnishambles from the start.

And as I've told people in the past, all you need to do is make a couple of changes and the show would be so much more bearable.

I didn't have a problem with the Shop Clock- I thought that was a cool addition and "going once, going twice" needed an update. I didn't have an issue with the way the Fame Game was conducted either- I may be in the minority on that, but why not have it be for shopping money instead of the potential for a prize you might not necessarily have use for? Knockout I thought was okay, at least for the endgame because it helped the contestant more than it hindered anything. And even the higher stakes speed round at the end made things a little more interesting. And Rossi really wasn't the worst host...it wasn't the best job ever but he did what he could with what he was given. And I thought that he was better when you could tell he wasn't working on book. I even appreciated bringing back the Instant Cash and the use of the multicolored wallets- even if the stakes probably could've been a little different (the $500 increase is okay, but to start at $500 and to have a $5000 cap wasn't).

Other than that, the rest of the execution was just pisspoor. Overreliance on speed rounds, no sense of direction, home shopping segments, too rushed a pace...
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: clemon79 on February 10, 2014, 04:23:49 PM
and "going once, going twice" needed an update.

See, this to me is like saying "Here is your first subject!" needs an update.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: TLEberle on February 10, 2014, 04:30:16 PM
For me the Fame Game does two things: it breaks up the flow of the game into smaller chunks (without having those chunks be stupid as in Meat-or-Cheese), and it also gives everyone a chance to take something home. Sure, maybe you choose poorly and got a six-foot-tall teddy bear, but that's something. The only way everyone takes something home on Temptation is if the eventual losers lead at the time the Gift Shop opens and then decide to buy. (A year's membership to a handbag swap club? Ooh la la. Original Recipe wasn't the only version to have dumb prizes, so there's that.)

What's sad is I now understand who Temptation's idea viewer would have been. I guess there weren't enough of that person out there.
Title: Re: Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread
Post by: PYLdude on February 10, 2014, 04:44:40 PM
and "going once, going twice" needed an update.

See, this to me is like saying "Here is your first subject!" needs an update.

FTR, I thought the non-inclusion of that phrase was one of the bad things with Donnymid. Take that how you will.