The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: edholland83 on February 13, 2004, 02:19:33 PM
-
Since it's black history month and since I don't think anyone on the board has already asked this (no to my knowledge) other than Nipsey Russell, Spencer Christian & Clint Holmes, are there any other black game show hosts or producers that I have left out?
For those of you who don't know who Clint Holmes is, he is the moderator of the Honda Campus All Star Challenge, the HBCU version of College Bowl, he's only a moderator during the championship games, games we seem to fall short of every year. But this year it looks like my school is one of the favorites to win, but back to the topic at hand.
-
[quote name=\'edholland83\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 02:19 PM\'] Since it's black history month and since I don't think anyone on the board has already asked this (no to my knowledge) other than Nipsey Russell, Spencer Christian & Clint Holmes, are there any other black game show hosts or producers that I have left out?
For those of you who don't know who Clint Holmes is, he is the moderator of the Honda Campus All Star Challenge, the HBCU version of College Bowl, he's only a moderator during the championship games, games we seem to fall short of every year. But this year it looks like my school is one of the favorites to win, but back to the topic at hand. [/quote]
Adam Wade-Musical Chairs
Lynn Swann-To Tell The Truth
Don't know of any producers right off-hand, other than shows that were on BET...also add Quincy Jones, if you want to include musicians.
-
Ahmad Rashad did "Caesar's Challenge." Melvin and Mario Van Peebles did "Family Figures." John Salley and Randall Cunningham did for a short time. There are others from BET shows.
-
Oddly enough, Nickelodeon has been the most accepting nework toward black hosts. They've had Phil Moore (Nick Arcade, You're On), Michael Carrington (Think Fast), and Robb Edward Morris (Make The Grade, 2nd season). TTBOMK, NBC has had 3, CBS 1 and ABC has never had a black emcee, correct?
Tyshaun
(who thinks Wayne Brady may break ABC's streak with Deal or No Deal, to be contined........)
-
The late Monteria Ivey [sp?] hosted Think Twice on PBS back in 1994.
-
While not a host per se, the late Lynne Thigpen played a co-hostish role on Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? as well.
And back to the living, I'm surprise we've skipped over The Cos on You Bet Yer Life! :)
And Karen Bryant was at the helm of Name That Video on VH-1.
Marc Curry on Don't Forget Your Toothbrush on Comedy Central...
-
[quote name=\'edholland83\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 01:19 PM\'] For those of you who don't know who Clint Holmes is, he is the moderator of the Honda Campus All Star Challenge, the HBCU version of College Bowl, he's only a moderator during the championship games, games we seem to fall short of every year. But this year it looks like my school is one of the favorites to win, but back to the topic at hand. [/quote]
Same Clint Holmes who did "Playground In My Mind", yes?
Doug
-
[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 12:01 PM\'] Same Clint Holmes who did "Playground In My Mind", yes? [/quote]
Yes!
Now regularly appears at the Harrah's properties in Vegas.
And has a one man musical show show about his parents, his mixed heritage, and his childhood.
And the joke when I played "Playground In My Mind" on the radio was:
Clint Holmes.... isn't that the new housing development downtown? ;-)
Warmup is my life! ;-]
Randy
tvrandywest.com
-
[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 02:37 PM\'] And has a one man musical show show about his parents, his mixed heritage, and his childhood.
[/quote]
That's right. That show (I believe "Comfortable Shoes" was the name) played in Chicago a couple of years ago (without Holmes performing). Sorry I didn't get to go out and see it then.
And the joke when I played "Playground In My Mind" on the radio was:
Clint Holmes.... isn't that the new housing development downtown? ;-)
Warmup is my life!
You're no Howard Hoffman, but I'll give it a 9. ;-)
Doug
-
[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 02:38 PM\'] Oddly enough, Nickelodeon has been the most accepting nework toward black hosts. They've had Phil Moore (Nick Arcade, You're On), Michael Carrington (Think Fast), and Robb Edward Morris (Make The Grade, 2nd season). TTBOMK, NBC has had 3, CBS 1 and ABC has never had a black emcee, correct?
Tyshaun
[/quote]
Sammy Davis Jr. hosted one question on Dawson's FF. I think that was an ABC ep.
-
There's also Al Roker from Remember This on MSNBC; and he was nominated for an Emmy for that show to boot! Another is Gina St. John from Lifetime's Who Knows You Best.
Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Karen Valentine of the Big Board!'
-
Randall Cunningham hosted Scramble for a year (in syndication or on cable?).
-
I can't think of a single black U.S. game show producer or director. Anyone?
-
[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 04:07 PM\'] [quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 02:38 PM\'] Oddly enough, Nickelodeon has been the most accepting nework toward black hosts. They've had Phil Moore (Nick Arcade, You're On), Michael Carrington (Think Fast), and Robb Edward Morris (Make The Grade, 2nd season). TTBOMK, NBC has had 3, CBS 1 and ABC has never had a black emcee, correct?
Tyshaun
[/quote]
Sammy Davis Jr. hosted one question on Dawson's FF. I think that was an ABC ep. [/quote]
1 question? I don't think we can count that as hosting a series..............
Now that I think about it, I can't recall very many (if any) staff on any show that was a minority, save for the host or announcer, and for announcers it's been Burton, Lynne Thigpen (technically), and, well, that's it.
Tyshaun
-
[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 06:07 PM\'] I can't think of a single black U.S. game show producer or director. Anyone? [/quote]
I can't outside of possibly the shows on BET. What did QUincy Jones produce, game show wise? I know he and David Salzman mentioned a revival of Name that Tune and also Treasure Hunt around 1996, but they never materialized. I don't think pilots were done for either.
-
[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 06:07 PM\'] I can't think of a single black U.S. game show producer or director. Anyone? [/quote]
Whoopi Goldberg-Hollywood Squares, exec. producer
-
[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 03:50 PM\'] Randall Cunningham hosted Scramble for a year (in syndication or on cable?). [/quote]
Scramble was syndicated. In my market at the time it would air, naturally, in that void between the Sunday NFL games and the weekend evening news.
-
He didn't actually produce anything that I know of, but he did write "Chump Change," the theme music for both versions of "Now You See It," but even that can be nitpicked since he didn't actually compose it specifically for the series.
-
of course the problem is most of these shows never really took off and their hosts never got a chance to shine. And then you have the Phil Moores of the world who just plain stinks.
Lynn Swann could have done well if he wasnt rushed into the job.
Now Cosby and Roker were excellent and Michael Carrington was really good, but the rest were either average or below average. Too bad Roker turned down the 2003 LMAD because I think he would have done a great job.
Now from the "is this really a game show?" department, Omar Gooding on the original Wild and Crazy Kids was quite good.
As for the late great Chief Lynne Thigpen, I dunno what to call her either, she was more than a cohost and announcer but not really a hostess either. But she WAS one of the main reasons for the show's success, definatly one of the more successful black game show personalities out there.
-
Don Cornielius had the "Soul Train Scramble" segment for many years. That was one game where everybody was too busy dancing to notice if the players won.
-
Whoopi is not a career producer. She had never been associated with a game show before and never will be again. My take is that the EP title was merely an ego-boosting fillip. Brian Conn can set the record straight here but I'd be surprised if she ever set foot in the HS office.
-
Whoopi is not a career producer. She had never been associated with a game show before and never will be again. My take is that the EP title was merely an ego-boosting fillip. Brian Conn can set the record straight here but I'd be surprised if she ever set foot in the HS office.
Surprise surprise :) She came to host callback auditions in our office, and even played her part as "Whoopi" during the host gameplay, with two other standins taking the part of the other eight celebrities. Since I was not based out of the Moffitt/Lee office, I can't say if she ever physically showed up there. I do know that things were run by her as a courtesy, she did have comments/notes on those things.
-
[quote name=\'Fedya\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 02:45 PM\']The late Monteria Ivey [sp?] hosted Think Twice on PBS back in 1994.[/quote]
And--although it's stretching it a little--"Snaps," a comedy competition that ran for three or four episodes on HBO at about the same time and based on a book he co-wrote in which "Snaps" was his word for "the dozens," the "yo mama so fat..." and "yo mama so big..." one-upping competitions so common in black communities.
The dozens, of course, was the inspiration for at least one game show parody on "In Living Color."
-
You can now add one more to this list, or at least you will be able to starting February 21, 2004.
That's when the Ohio Lottery's Cash Explosion Double Play TV game show will get a new African-American host with a man named Leilani Barrett. I got a preview of him and his new co-hostess, Michelle Duda on the Ohio Lottery's "TPD Special" that aired last night (2-14-2004) in place of their regularly-scheduled CEDP program, which will also get a set makeover when it returns this Saturday.
As the show's new host, I think he'll do all right, but the "TPD Special" was a bomb, plain and simple, in my opinion. They started out with 19 players who were in the running for the top prizes of $2 million in each of two of the Ohio Lottery's scratch-off games, "28th Anniversary Spectacular" and "Stocking Stuffer," but no real games were played by these players during the show -- they simply read off their names, one by one, with each one of the players eliminated as their names were read, until only one player was left for each game. (A drawing, held in advance of the program's taping, actually determined who those two winners would be.)
During the show, they also ripped-off the Publisher's Clearing House's "Prize Patrol" gimmick by having lottery employees show up with big checks for other winners in those games -- one supposed winner of $40,000, two supposed winners of $250,000, and one supposed winner of $500,000. But note here that I said supposed winners -- because, thanks to my mother's big-screen TV on which I was watching that show on, I was able to spot the words "Non-Negotiable" on the checks that those winners were given!
So, in short, these four people got checks that were actually worth $100 less than the one I got in my mail from the Kentucky Lottery three weeks after my Powerball Instant Millionaire show aired on November 9, 2002 on which I was one of the "home partners" -- and if they tried to cash them at my bank, they would have been hit for a $27 "service charge" for trying to deposit no-good checks!
Give me Powerball Instant Millionaire over this anytime!
Michael Brandenburg
(and I think I can count on the Kentucky Lottery Corporation to give me a good check again, even if I win $10,000 as a Powerball Instant Millionaire "home partner" on the June 5, 2004, program!)
-
LeVar Burton did "Know Your Heritage" on WGN in the mid '80s, followed by Karyn Bryant with "Name That Video" on VH1 a few years back.
Valarie Rae Miller hosted Gladiators 2000 (with a much younger Ryan Seacrest) and Peer Pressure in the '90s before playing "Original Cindy", the Art Carney to Jackie Gleason's (Jessica Alba's) Ralph Kramden ("Max") on Dark Angel. Geez, with Jessica back in the spotlight and looking as stunning as ever thanks to "Honey" (BTW, it'll come out on DVD in late March), Valarie's next move is uncertain.
At least I would've imagined her taking Kennedy's spot on Friend or Foe...
Jonathan Allen
-
[quote name=\'johnnya2k3\' date=\'Feb 16 2004, 03:54 PM\']Valarie Rae Miller hosted Gladiators 2000 (with a much younger Ryan Seacrest) and Peer Pressure in the '90s before playing "Original Cindy", the Ed McMahon to Jessica Alba's Johnny Carson ("Max") on Dark Angel. Geez, with Jessica back in the spotlight and looking as stunning as ever thanks to "Honey" (can't wait for it to come out on DVD), Valarie's next move is uncertain.[/quote]
Valarie also hosted the ABC "Disney's One Saturday Morning" block for at least a year before "Dark Angel."
And she was a lot better on "Peer Pressure" than that air-headed host, whose name I now conveniently forget--the best thing about that misbegotten show.
-
According to the E! True Hollywood Story on Hollywood Squares, Whoppi was active in trying to get celebrities to appear on the show, an important role for the show.
-
[quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Feb 17 2004, 12:27 PM\'] According to the E! True Hollywood Story on Hollywood Squares, Whoppi was active in trying to get celebrities to appear on the show, an important role for the show. [/quote]
Is "Whoppi" a new sandwich at Burger King?
(I could've gone a dirtier route, too...)
-
[quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Feb 17 2004, 12:27 PM\'] According to the E! True Hollywood Story on Hollywood Squares, Whoppi was active in trying to get celebrities to appear on the show, an important role for the show. [/quote]
Hey now, that's no way to describe the Italian-Americans who work on that show.....:-)
-
And she was a lot better on "Peer Pressure" than that air-headed host, whose name I now conveniently forget--the best thing about that misbegotten show.
Nick Spano, who would later go on trying to raise hell on "Even Stevens" (I'm glad Shia LeBeouf moved on).
BTW, I remember Peer Pressure and Click (another pre-American Idol/On-Air/American Top 40 show Seacrest did) being on back-to-back Saturday afternoons; Click was well-produced while Peer Pressure looked like it was taped at a darkened lumber yard! Even the "Temptation" part had a very well-known game show that's still on the air after over three decades cry out "RIPOFF!!!"
Jonathan Allen
-
Even the "Temptation" part had a very well-known game show that's still on the air after over three decades cry out "RIPOFF!!!"
The fact that it was produced by Burt Wheeler, who helmed the last 2 yrs of $otC after orig. line producer Geroge Vosburgh departed for J!, may have had something to do w/it. :-)
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")