The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: wdm1219inpenna on May 29, 2025, 06:43:51 AM
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I'm curious to hear about other members feelings about certain game shows that were either a let down from the very beginning or that disappointed you later on in the run.
For example, one that was an immediate disappointment for me was Monty Hall's Beat the Clock. It was "meh" at best and even worse once they changed to an all celebrity format.
I disliked that to determine the day's champion, they played a shuffleboard game, which has nothing at all to do with beating the clock! I understand they needed some sort of mechanism to determine the day's champion and to have a base dollar amount to multiply by 10 for the bonus stunt, but I would rather they would have had more stunts and perhaps selecting money cards from a board after each successful stunt and the team with the most money would go on to play for ten times their daily winnings in the bonus stunt.
Scrabble 1984 was awesome! As a 17 year old that summer I loved the concept and loved the pot format too. Hindsight being 20/20, I realize the pot format was rather flawed. I loved that 5 time champions at the Scrabble Sprint won an additional $20,000 and then another $20,000 if they won 5 more sprints. I hated when the show augmented a 5 time champion's winnings to a flat $20,000 and then a flat $40,000 after 10 sprint wins in a row. I rather liked when they switched it up to having 4 players each day, one champion, two crossword rounds, two sprint rounds using the same words (I loved that change!) and finally the bonus sprint. The 1993 reboot of Scrabble was a HUGE disappointment, starting the bonus jackpot with just $1,000 (so darn cheap!) and only being able to add money to the bonus sprint jackpot by landing on a pink or blue square during the crossword round to add to it instead of getting an instant cash bonus. Small wonder that reboot only lasted about 5 or so months. Also the 1993 set was so bland and just gave me an instant vibe that it was at best, temporary.
$ale of the Century kind of disappointed me when they retired the Winner's Board and replaced it with the Winner's Big Money Game instead. True it allowed contestants to win more cash than ever before, but there was something charming about that winner's board round, especially if after clearing the board the player had to decide whether to risk all ten major prizes to return for an 11th win for the cash jackpot.
Those are just 3 examples of what I am interested in hearing about. I thank you for your time as always.
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It's important to remember I was 10, almost 11, when it premiered so I had no idea how such things worked yet...........But I remember seeing the ads in TV Guide for "The $100,000 Pyramid" and thinking how awesome it was for that much money to be given away on a daily basis. I figured first try was $50K, and then $100K on the second try. I was rather disappointed when I tuned in and found out the $100K was only for occasional tournaments; otherwise it was exactly like the daytime show.
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Not going into a laundry list here, though I will certainly co-sign onto the fact that scrabble 1993 did not come close to whelming me, becoming friends with people who worked in the industry or being exposed to more stuff generally helped me understand why shows made those budgetary or stylistic decisions.
I did not realize it at the time but the 80s versions of Name Thst Tune or Split Second definitely lost something in moving from the 70s.
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Adding another - was rather dismayed that when WoF moved to CBS, the theme music got a new sound and the wheel's values were on the cheap.
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I thought of 2 other disappointments for me involving another game show, Las Vegas Gambit.
As a huge fan of the 70s version, I was jazzed to see it return in 1980.
My first disappointment was when the Gambit Board only had 18 numbers instead of 21 like the original.
But worse was when they replaced the Gambit Board with the High Rollers end game. I mean I get it as it was LAS VEGAS Gambit, so they wanted to add another game based on a casino game...would have been better if they had done that from the onset though.
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I thought of 2 other disappointments for me involving another game show, Las Vegas Gambit.
As a huge fan of the 70s version, I was jazzed to see it return in 1980.
My first disappointment was when the Gambit Board only had 18 numbers instead of 21 like the original.
But worse was when they replaced the Gambit Board with the High Rollers end game. I mean I get it as it was LAS VEGAS Gambit, so they wanted to add another game based on a casino game...would have been better if they had done that from the onset though.
And the LVG theme was just as much a disappointment. When I think of Sin City, I think of Elvis' Viva Las Vegas or jazzy cabaret music -- not music better suited for a Good Morning America chatfest.
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Adding another - one of my favorite elements of the first Pyramid editions was the tiebreakers, which could sometimes result in much higher scores than 21. I was disappointed when $25K came back in '82 and the tiebreaker was who could get 7 the fastest.
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Here are my disappointments, game show wise:
The $128,000 Question - Oh my God, what a train wreck this was. The '76-'77 season was done at the Sullivan theater in NYC with host Mike Darow. He got stuck in the curtain once. Another time, they stopped tape because someone sneezed. They were big on cue cards for Darow and the contestants. One day, they were supposed to do three shows. I showed up one late afternoon and was told they were still doing the first show. How they managed to get a full season in was a miracle, IMO, and this was a weekly show. I'd shudder to think if this was a daily production.
The Joker's Wild '90 - I just could not deal with that drastic of a change to a show that I liked. For the record, I thought Snoop Dogg's version was decent, better than the '90 version.
Shop Till You Drop - JD Roberto's version that looked like a Costco store in a mall was a big letdown for me from the Pat Finn version.
Scrabble '93 - a cheapened version of a popular 80s show that I loved
The $50,000 Pyramid - when I heard the first time in the Winner's Circle was for $5,000, I thought "What the bleep?" They really got cheap there.
As Walter Cronkite used to say, "And that's the way it is."
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The $50,000 Pyramid - when I heard the first time in the Winner's Circle was for $5,000, I thought "What the bleep?" They really got cheap there.
I mentioned I was 10 when $100K premiered........I was 6 when $50K premiered and I was so happy Pyramid was back..........I was so mesmerized by the solari boards (as I was with $20K) that I really wasn't paying attention to the money amounts.
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Just remembered another one, from 50 years ago no less...
As a youth I was enamored with The Magnificent Marble Machine, so much so that I begged my parents for a pinball machine for Christmas, and God love them, they had one for me Christmas morning 1975. It was called Egghead. They surprised the heck out of me too as they had it on our enclosed front porch. I opened all of my other presents and I tried to hide my disappointment when I saw no pinball machine, so my Dad casually asked me to go out to the front porch and bring in that day's newspaper. When I walked out and saw the machine sitting there, my jaw dropped to the floor. By far my alltime favorite Christmas memory from my youth...
Sorry I went off on a tangent there. Anyway, MMM used to have it where if the ball hit something in the machine it scored 200 points each time. Evidently there were flaws with the machine after they audited videotapes, so they changed it to just 500 points and only if 1 of the 7 numbered bumpers were hit and nothing else. Further making the show meh was now it was all celebs and they played for audience members. The show sadly flopped.
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I thought it was a lovely anecdote—I received a skee ball game one year, though the noise from the balls clacking meant I was restricted to particular hours. It was a Sportcraft model and not a full size arcade machine obviously,
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Mindreaders was a disappointment from the get-go. Dick Martin as emcee only made it worse.
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Bill's pinball machine story reminded me of another minor disappointment. In 1980, my favorite games were by far the NBC ones. Big cards! Big dice! A big wheel!!! When my mom told me that we had dice, I got very excited! Just like the show. I was disappointed when the dice she gave me were a mere fraction of the ones I saw on TV.
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It's Your Chance of a Lifetime and Twenty-One, for me. Gordon was great on the former, but the game was an uninspired WWTBAM clone. I just couldn't get into Twenty-One, legit or not.
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I was disappointed when shortly into the 1984-85 season, changes started to happen on $100,000 Name That Tune. When it first started with their SuperChamp playoff, everything seemed so good. I even was watching that, more than Jeopardy!, airing at the same time, different station. I got overly excited when I came home late from work one day, missing most of NTT, but catching the closing moments, and seeing more money depicted on the Melody Roulette wheel!
I then watched an entire episode with the new wheel, and found them spinning the wheels only once, and paying just that amount to the winner of the round.
Over the course of its run, I'd seen other things happening that turned me off, such as airing the pilot about mid-season (and not being as great looking set-wise, music cues not as exciting), shows airing out of sequence, featuring different sized Melody Roulette wheels, and the older and newer values on them, too much interaction with Tommy Oliver, even putting some comedy into the show.
Another turn-off, the popping of balloons during the playoff week's shows, happening a bit too often day after day.
It reminded of how during a local talk show "guest," appearance by Jim Lange, he mentioned he'd lost interest in the Dating Game, when questions/answers by contestants veered away from romance, and got into comedy!
FTR, NTT moved to a late morning time slot, and I began watch J! all the time (much better!)
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I remember enjoying the initial week of Deal or No Deal in December 2005. When it became a regular series they turned it into a circus and added idiotic gimmicks and scripted banter, and I was done. Things like having the kids in the peanut gallery say "We're gonna kick some Banker Butt!" or putting the contestant's church choir in the audience. No Deal for me.
When Temptation hit the States in '07, I watched the first couple weeks before realizing just how watered down they made this version. Like I said when the pilot was posted, it was as if the producers tried to recreate the Aussie version from memory, but while nursing a hangover.
When Card Sharks came back in '19, I don't think I made it through the first match. Given how well ABC did with most of their other reboots, I was surprised they made this one so obnoxious. Felt like was watching a Endemol show from about a decade earlier.
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Brandon your post reminded me of yet another disappointment from episode 1 of Card Sharks 2001! That was just a horrible attempt at a reboot.
Tic Tac Dough 1990 was a let down...rappin' dragon and Patrick "YOOOU WIIIN!" Wayne notwithstanding, the fact that they would reset the pot to $0 after a tie game was just plain wrong! I did prefer the 1990 end game although I would have rather they did 4 Xs 4 Os and 1 dragon and ditch the dragon slayer dude, and I did love how the players hit a button to stop the shuffle both with categories and the bonus game board.
I also echo how Joker '90 was a big time disappointment and also I was pleasantly surprised that I actually found myself enjoying Snoop Dogg's version of Joker, and was disappointed when it did not come back after a second season.
Also, the original rules for Play the Percentages was an awesome game. My first disappointment was when they amended the bonus game as the giant percent sign on the floor malfunctioned and they had to change the rules, but even worse was when they got rid of the married couples format and made it a 1 vs 1 player which was extremely boring.
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Scrabble '93 - a cheapened version of a popular 80s show that I loved
Add to that it's 30-minute.companion, Scattergories.
Mind you when Scattergories came out, I wasn't aware yet of other game shows from the past (if any) where the main game was played against pre-recorded answers (like Personality and Hollywood's Talking).
It looked awkward when Dick Clark at times was having a normal conversation with a paused video of a celebrity as if the star was live in-studio. I guess Grundy thought he'd save money if he didn't have to have 5 celebrities come to the studio for an afternoon taping of 5 episodes.
On top of that, when the Scattegories theme was just a remixed clone of the Scrabble '93 version theme, you KNEW you were in for a disappointment.
I'll also add to the disappointment list Kline & Friends' stab at Pictionary...I preferred the original WLoD franchise way better.
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I guess Grundy thought he'd save money if he didn't have to have 5 celebrities come to the studio for an afternoon taping of 5 episodes.
Which to me makes little sense, considering you have to dispatch your camera crew to five different locations. Dunno the logistics of it all, but I imagine that was a lot more cumbersome in 1993 as opposed to having the celebrities do a taping day and pay them $1,500 or so for their troubles.
I know Reg's Small Talk had a similar format a few years later, but IIRC the kids were all in the same setting (a school library I wanna say?)
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I guess Grundy thought he'd save money if he didn't have to have 5 celebrities come to the studio for an afternoon taping of 5 episodes.
Which to me makes little sense, considering you have to dispatch your camera crew to five different locations. Dunno the logistics of it all, but I imagine that was a lot more cumbersome in 1993 as opposed to having the celebrities do a taping day and pay them $1,500 or so for their troubles.
I know Reg's Small Talk had a similar format a few years later, but IIRC the kids were all in the same setting (a school library I wanna say?)
What if 2-5 "remote" celebrities gave the same word(s)? I assume each celebrity had to be filmed giving MULTIPLE answers for each question. Now you have to make extra videos that won't make the cut.
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Another vote for 1990's Joker and Dough. The reboot of Blockbusters, stripped down to two players and a computerized board, was also a letdown. The high point was Bill Rafferty's riffing. Maybe it was a placeholder, but talk about going from a Cadillac set to a Yugo...
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What if 2-5 "remote" celebrities gave the same word(s)? I assume each celebrity had to be filmed giving MULTIPLE answers for each question. Now you have to make extra videos that won't make the cut.
Ah I forgot the possibility of a repeat. Point taken.
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What if 2-5 "remote" celebrities gave the same word(s)? I assume each celebrity had to be filmed giving MULTIPLE answers for each question. Now you have to make extra videos that won't make the cut.
Ah I forgot the possibility of a repeat. Point taken.
I think the recorded answers also prevented a situation of the jury ruling that a contestant's answer was unacceptable when a celebrity also gave that answer ("FONDLING" by Joseph Wapner comes to mind), by having the producer direct the jury to unanimously rule the answer acceptable.
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Getting more current, I'll add the current GSN reboot of TTD to my list of disappointments. I am a huge fan of Brooke's and believe she's doing the best given what she has to work with. I've also gone on record at being understanding of GSN's economics and their belief in their formulaic structure of self-contained, estimated 1-2/week $10,000 wins with $1,000 payoffs for daily champs for just about all of their originals. All of that said, this was not a format that should have been backed into those constraints. And given that Joker was successfully modernized for a three-season run on far more popular networks, TTD could/should have had similar potential. My personal feelings, to be sure, but I contend somewhat educated.
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With you there, Steve. Perhaps if you’re going to the trouble of creating a virtual set, go with the 70s basement/rec room from forty years ago instead of the blandness we got.
It would be simple enough to have each box worth $100/$200and whoever wins the most can try to increase to a grand prize, but playing for points is such a dead fish in this format.
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I was underwhelmed with Headline Chasers. To me, the headline solving element looked too much like Wheel, and I don't recall the top amount being won much in the bonus game.
Regarding TJW 90, I was stunned by all the changes, but I did like when they made the show closer to the original with three jokers on the machine and categories instead of dollar figures... too bad they didn't also change the definitions. Although, looking back, I guess I don't mind the definition format all that much, but the bonus game was still weak for me.
With O'Hurley TTTT, while I thought it was a solid revival overall, Paula Poundstone was quite annoying trying way too hard to be funny. Her random questions about The Waltons made no sense... then they tried to throw her a curve by having Earl Hamner on the show... only she knew who he was and had to "recuse" herself. When I heard Dave Coulier was on the panel, I thought he would go overboard with the comedy, but he was fine... he played the game and cracked jokes when it was appropriate.
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Here's one: Winning graphics no longer flashing on the screen. :(
Classic Concentration: When the show first aired on May 4, 1987, a champion's total winnings after the car round would display flashing on the screen. But on April 18, 1988, the total winnings would no longer be flashing when displayed on the screen. :(
Family Feud: Starting in 1989 on the 1988-95 version, winning Fast Money would have a winning graphic of the cash prize (depending on what version) flashing on the screen. But in 1990, the winning graphic stopped flashing and the colors: red, orange, and yellow swept through the graphic rapidly. However, originally the $5,000 graphic on the CBS daytime version would do that on special celebrity weeks only while the $10,000 graphic on the syndicated nighttime version did that regularly, but then in the spring/summer of 1991, the $5,000 graphic would do that regularly. Then in late 1991 for both versions, the winning graphics would have sparks of light run through them and they kept those graphics for the rest of that version's run, although the winning graphics returned to flashing briefly during the special Opryland episodes. When the 1999-current version first aired, the winning graphic of the cash prize would be flashing on the screen for the first 4 seasons. But starting the 5th season, the current version followed the 1988-95 version's winning graphic by having it no longer flashing and have different animations throught the season; however, the winning graphics returned to flashing briefly during John O'Hurley's final season (with brief return of the "Bullseye" game). (NOTE: The original version had a rare $10,000 winning graphic on the Friday show of "TV's All-Time Favorites" in 1983, but it wasn't flashing.) :(
Jeopardy!: When the current version first aired on September 10, 1984, the champion's post-Final Jeopardy! total winnings would display flashing on the screen in a Helvetica Black text. But since season 8, the total winnings would no longer be flashing when displayed on the screen. :(
Wheel of Fortune: Starting on October 1983 on the nighttime show, winning the bonus round would have a winning graphic of the contestant's final total winnings flashing on the screen (the daytime version didn't do that sort of thing until December 1984). Starting in January 1985, the contestant's final total winnings would be flashing on the screen regardless of the outcome of the bonus round. But, since September 30, 1996, the bonus round totals stopped flashing. :(
The Price Is Right: The show started having winning graphics since the double showcase bonus was installed in 1974. And these graphics would be flashing, whenever a contestant won money on the big wheel or a cash award game, the cash prize would be flashing; whenever a contestant won both showcases, the words: "Double Showcase Winner" would be flashing; or when a contestant wins his/her showcase, his/her final total would be flashing. But, since March 2009, the winning graphics stopped flashing. :(
And that's the first disappointment of game shows for me that I posted on this subject. I'd like it better when winning graphics are flashing, not doing various of animations. And I want any game shows in current production that used to do that to bring that back and any current game shows that has their winning graphics originally in various of animations have them be flashing too. I'm serious I want winning graphics to be flashing again.
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I was underwhelmed with Headline Chasers. To me, the headline solving element looked too much like Wheel, and I don't recall the top amount being won much in the bonus game.
1985-87 was that weird era where there were several Hangman games on TV with Wheel, Scrabble, this, and eventually $1M Chance of a Lifetime. The former two were unique enough to work, whereas the latter two were basically Wheel in a different package and fizzled out quickly for a reason.
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Who Wants to be a Millionaire finally got back to its original format with its original hot seat and original music... and it's all celebrities.
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Mchale's Card Sharks was a disappointment if for no other reason than the previous ABC revivals were all so much better. The pacing was just so bad.
I was excited for the prospect of Jeopardy having a set postseason, but this is ridiculous. The Jeopardy Playoffs last longer than the NBA's and the NHL's.
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I think a lot of you took the ones that were going to be mine, but I'll echo some of them while adding two of my own:
I second the disappointments of:
Temptation US (so excited to have some form of Sale back on the air only to be so underwhelmed by what we got)
TTD GSN (first bona fide revival in over 30 years, but playing for points? Playing a solo speed round?)
Card Sharks ABC (so...slow...must every game end in sudden death? Joel McHale also looked so bored to be there)
Deal or No Deal NBC (enjoyed the temptations being made at first and still think Howie was an excellent host of the show, but too many sob stories/gimmicks taking away from the game got me to stop watching this shortly after the initial run)
I'll then add the following two disappointments:
Family Feud w/Steve Harvey (loved the breath of fresh air he brought the show when he started compared to Karn and O'Hurley, but the jokes are now predictable and I absolutely loathe that the third question's value will be changed to ensure that a fourth question must be played and pretty much will determine the winner)
Name That Tune FOX (first bona fide revival since Lange, but no Melody Roulette? Even less songs per half-hour? Beat Shazam seems to be the better iteration, honestly)
Anthony
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Hollywood Squares 2025— The show is slow-paced, the jokes are lame, and the "laughter" is so artificial that it's laughable.
Card Sharks, the show moves so slowly, and I thought the set was too large, and Joel McHale looked like he was bored hosting the show.
The Chase ABC—I wasn't a fan of Sara Haines hosting. (Chaser, did you know this answer?) after every question, and the show was just too over the top, and the suspenseful pauses and the theme music were terrible.
Weakest Link 2020—I thought the show was going to be fantastic with Jane Lynch hosting. The questions are way too long, the writing is terrible, and the contestants come off as actors. The updated music is fantastic.
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Lingo with Bill Engvall as host. I liked Bill well enough but disliked that now they were giving Scrabble like clues to the contestants.
Wasn't crazy about the giant balls either behind the players...much more fun when they'd reach into the hopper and pull them out instead.
The best Lingo was with Chuck and Shandi, $5,000 for Bonus Lingo and a growing jackpot if a Lingo was made on one pull.
I wish they could have had returning champions and also dollars instead of points during the front games.
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For me, it was Joel McHale himself. Zero energy or excitement.
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I was thrilled that Card Sharks was revived in 1986....only to see it hosted by Bob Eubanks. I realize that Jim Perry was engaged in several projects, but Bob's attitude came off as too obnoxious at a contestant's expense all too often, and just rather obnoxious in general--especially in the last year and change. There's my 1.5 cents.
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Forgot one: NBC Password. I’d seen Jimmy play it several times on Late Night/The Tonight Show and was always impressed - if not blown - by the efforts to make it look like the 60s version, all the way down to the intro.
I forgot Fremantle finds stuff like that too boring, because they turned everything up to 11 and did silly things like give a standing ovation for every single correct guess. Not because someone won the big money or anything; just for simply playing the game correctly. And because Jimmy Fallon acts like a 5-year-old who just ate a Pixy Stick before bed, everyone else acts that way too.
Anyway, I made it through the first half of the episode. Shame, because I love the current format and even the pacing. But again, Fremantle modernized it in all the wrong ways.
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Temptation and Joker’s Wild ‘90. I was pretty excited for a Press Your Luck reboot and felt let down by Whammy! Season premieres of The Price Is Right without a new pricing game.
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Hollywood Squares 2025— The show is slow-paced, the jokes are lame, and the "laughter" is so artificial that it's laughable.
I agree about Squares. It's great to have it back, but the couple of episodes I've seen I've been underwhelmed.
The Chase ABC—I wasn't a fan of Sara Haines hosting. (Chaser, did you know this answer?) after every question, and the show was just too over the top, and the suspenseful pauses and the theme music were terrible.
The thing that bugged me about The Chase is that there's too much money being thrown around. Even the lowball offers are still pretty big money and much more enticing than they were on the GSN version.
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McHale "Card Sharks" was quite the letdown for me, for reasons others have cited.
The current "Squares" didn't thrill me either, and also (perhaps solely, in my case) because of the pacing. Other than that......it *does* have a bit of potential.
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The Chase ABC—I wasn't a fan of Sara Haines hosting. (Chaser, did you know this answer?) after every question, and the show was just too over the top, and the suspenseful pauses and the theme music were terrible.
So I loved the first couple seasons, but the Chasers started to become a bit of a caricature. The Beast works as a foil who you'd still have a beer with after the show, but I feel ABC wanted true villains. Ken and Brad could never pull it off, but I remember seeing a last-second Chase loss that made me more irrationally angry than it prolly should've.
And I think that plays into Ian's point about why making the show a high-stakes affair doesn't look good when the team loses so much with no safety net. I've felt bad for a contestant losing money to the Whammy, the Dragon, the Devil, the Gauntlet, etc. I've never said "Fuck you!" to the screen when they took someone's money. I think this is one of those shows where there should be an incentive for every step you earned. $1,000 per answer could still be a decent consolation prize even split three ways.
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Match Game 1998-wow where do I start? I was expecting a version like the 70s version and the theme song a reworking of the 70s theme like they had in 1990 but the categories, no A &B and technology instead of the sliding door method and well you get the idea. At least the Alec Baldwin version was an interesting mix of old and new
Family Feud (Louie Anderson version)- I was hoping it would be like the previous two versions but it was not. At least subsequent hosts slowly but surely got it close to the original version as possible.
Family Game Night-Burton Richardson was not as active in the first season. All they relegated him to was the intro and the prize plugs. Glad in the second season they had him doing more. Introducing the contestants doing a play-by-play on one of the games and the ticket and contestant plugs.
I also do not like how the announcers were not recognized and not as active as much. No “Thank you Burton” from Louie on Feud no “Thank you such and such” Also no live in-studio anymore and the announcers are not doing warm-up’s anymore like they used to. With the big three it is a different story but I’m just saying
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To me, the headline solving element looked too much like Wheel
Those were my feelings exactly about $1M COAL. Reminded me of Wheel too much.
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Match Game 1998-wow where do I start? I was expecting a version like the 70s version and the theme song a reworking of the 70s theme like they had in 1990 but the categories, no A &B and technology instead of the sliding door method and well you get the idea.
I can still see the WTF looks and hear the gasps in the GSC '98 audience during our phone conversation with Jay Wolpert when Jay was giving us the details of the "revamped" show. This was a few months before the show premiered.
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Tic Tac Dough disappointments include for me the overuse of the red boxes. One per game would have been okay, then they went to two which was tolerable, but then when it went to three it was too much.
I realize they wanted to try to give the O player (the challenger) a bit more equal footing since the X player (the champion) always got to play first, and TTD had their fair share of super champions Lord knows...
I would rather the game start with a toss up question and the player who got it right first would get to start that game. Do the same after each tie game too.
Was disappointed when Wink left. More so that he did not say anything about leaving the show. I can't help but wonder if the show might have lasted longer had he remained. Jim Caldwell was so so, and I really hated how they changed the set during the final season...the original set was very cozy and warm and bright, the new one was dreadful to me.
And as much as I adored Bill Cullen, he will forever be #1 host in my eyes, I was disappointed when Dan Enright replaced the deceased Jack Barry with Bill to host The Joker's Wild instead of Jim Peck. Bill was the very very best host but his final assignment with Joker was just such a mismatch. A game that was fast paced was dragged to a halt by Bill. His style worked on Blockbusters, Child's Play, Three on a Match (he kept things going on that show) but with Joker it was just a square peg into a round hole...I was disappointed that Jim Peck didn't take over, and was disappointed FOR Jim as much as I was for my own self.
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Match Game 1998-wow where do I start? I was expecting a version like the 70s version and the theme song a reworking of the 70s theme like they had in 1990 but the categories, no A &B and technology instead of the sliding door method and well you get the idea. At least the Alec Baldwin version was an interesting mix of old and new
Family Feud (Louie Anderson version)- I was hoping it would be like the previous two versions but it was not. At least subsequent hosts slowly but surely got it close to the original version as possible.
Seconded. MG '98 had five celebs instead of six, a cheaper payout and questions where answers had to be bleeped out by the censors. As for FF, at times, Louie looked like he didn't want to be there and he mumbled sometimes so I couldn't understand the questions. Both are disappointments to me.
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I was thrilled that Card Sharks was revived in 1986....only to see it hosted by Bob Eubanks. I realize that Jim Perry was engaged in several projects, but Bob's attitude came off as too obnoxious at a contestant's expense all too often, and just rather obnoxious in general--especially in the last year and change. There's my 1.5 cents.
I always thought Bill Rafferty did a better job hosting Card Sharks.
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Tic Tac Dough disappointments include for me the overuse of the red boxes. One per game would have been okay, then they went to two which was tolerable, but then when it went to three it was too much.
Was disappointed when Wink left. More so that he did not say anything about leaving the show. I can't help but wonder if the show might have lasted longer had he remained. Jim Caldwell was so so, and I really hated how they changed the set during the final season...the original set was very cozy and warm and bright, the new one was dreadful to me.
And as much as I adored Bill Cullen, he will forever be #1 host in my eyes, I was disappointed when Dan Enright replaced the deceased Jack Barry with Bill to host The Joker's Wild instead of Jim Peck. Bill was the very very best host but his final assignment with Joker was just such a mismatch. A game that was fast paced was dragged to a halt by Bill. His style worked on Blockbusters, Child's Play, Three on a Match (he kept things going on that show) but with Joker it was just a square peg into a round hole...I was disappointed that Jim Peck didn't take over, and was disappointed FOR Jim as much as I was for my own self.
I'm with you on all of the above. I thought Dan Enright should have gotten Jim Peck to replace Wink on TTD since Jim missed out on hosting Joker. Since Wink had a hand in producing Headline Chasers, he wanted to be involved in that. I also think the current version of TTD is too "dumbed down" for my personal liking. It's disappointing considering the terrific job GSN did with Split Second.
As much of a fan as I was of Uncle Bill, I agree that Joker was not the best fit for him at the time. Bill was a better known name than Jim Peck but a couple of times, even I said "Let's move this along" as I was watching it. I didn't know about Jack planning to retire and handing the show over to Jim Peck until years after the fact.
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Tic Tac Dough disappointments include for me the overuse of the red boxes. One per game would have been okay, then they went to two which was tolerable, but then when it went to three it was too much.
I realize they wanted to try to give the O player (the challenger) a bit more equal footing since the X player (the champion) always got to play first, and TTD had their fair share of super champions Lord knows...
I would rather the game start with a toss up question and the player who got it right first would get to start that game. Do the same after each tie game too.
Was disappointed when Wink left. More so that he did not say anything about leaving the show. I can't help but wonder if the show might have lasted longer had he remained. Jim Caldwell was so so, and I really hated how they changed the set during the final season...the original set was very cozy and warm and bright, the new one was dreadful to me.
And as much as I adored Bill Cullen, he will forever be #1 host in my eyes, I was disappointed when Dan Enright replaced the deceased Jack Barry with Bill to host The Joker's Wild instead of Jim Peck. Bill was the very very best host but his final assignment with Joker was just such a mismatch. A game that was fast paced was dragged to a halt by Bill. His style worked on Blockbusters, Child's Play, Three on a Match (he kept things going on that show) but with Joker it was just a square peg into a round hole...I was disappointed that Jim Peck didn't take over, and was disappointed FOR Jim as much as I was for my own self.
If Wink stayed it would not have made much a difference. WOF and J! were knocking TTD and TJW out of the park at the time.
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I was disappointed for a Wheel contestant who had something like $61,000 and was unable to solve the puzzle THE THRILL OF VICTORY AND THE AGONY OF DEFEAT...that was just brutal to watch.
I was also disappointed when Thom McKee was finally beaten on Tic Tac Dough. He has to be, to me, my all time favorite contestant of any game show ever. He was a role model for me back in 1980.
Very disappointed with MG/HS Hour when Peter Marshall was not selected for Hollywood Squares. Very disappointed with Jon Bauman's hosting but I did like him as a Match Game panelist. Also hated that any missed question in Squares resulted in the other player getting the square by default as opposed to having to earn the win.
Also disappointed with how lackluster Drew Carey was when the perfect showcase bid occurred. That would have been something to see if Bob were still hosting back then.
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Sorry just thought of yet another, the Wayne Brady Let's Make A Deal (I seldom ever watched it as it's kind of meh to me), having only one player for the Big Deal round.