The Game Show Forum

The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: ChuckNet on December 12, 2005, 12:25:09 AM

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: ChuckNet on December 12, 2005, 12:25:09 AM

Looks like 5 eps of Blankety Blanks (Australia's MG) from the 70s have been released on DVD, along w/a movie that featured a number of popular Aussie GS panelists...

The Blankety Blanks Collection (http://\"http://shock.com.au/releases/info.asp?release_ID=130377\")

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: clemon79 on December 12, 2005, 12:55:45 AM

Wow. After this break, a boatload of posts from people wanting to figure out how to region-free-ify their DVD players....

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: pyramid100 on December 12, 2005, 12:57:06 AM

lol read it again, its 30 episodes!

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: JakeT on December 12, 2005, 01:53:48 AM

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Dec 11 2005, 11:25 PM\']Looks like 5 eps of Blankety Blanks (Australia's MG) from the 70s have been released on DVD, along w/a movie that featured a number of popular Aussie GS panelists...

The Blankety Blanks Collection (http://\"http://shock.com.au/releases/info.asp?release_ID=130377\")
[/quote]

Actually, it isn't 5 eps...it is 5 DVDs, containingTHIRTY episodes!  This truly would be an incredble addition to any collection...I envy anyone who is lucky enough to find this goody in their Christmas stocking.

Jake

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: Brig Bother on December 12, 2005, 02:33:57 AM

Graham Kennedy's Blankety Blanks was frankly, pretty ace. Thanks for the heads up!

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: tvmitch on December 12, 2005, 11:01:00 AM

Wow. Quite a find.

*puts on list*

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: Matt Ottinger on December 12, 2005, 12:29:13 PM

Keep in mind that it's pretty pricy.  Seventy-five Aussie dollars is about fifty-eight US.  I'd consider two bucks an episode if I was getting a smorgasbord of thirty different series, but I've just got a feeling that thirty of these --with stars and references that won't be familiar -- might be a bit of overkill for the money.

(However, if anyone's generous, my DVD is already regionified...)

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: Ian Wallis on December 12, 2005, 12:37:08 PM

Quote

(However, if anyone's generous, my DVD is already regionified...)

Regionified...is that a word?  :)

I know that Shokus has had some game show episode releases in the past, but do you think the floodgates will eventually open for US shows - or will we get them few and far between like the recent "Jeopardy"?

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: Matt Ottinger on December 12, 2005, 01:26:17 PM

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Dec 12 2005, 01:37 PM\']I know that Shokus has had some game show episode releases in the past, but do you think the floodgates will eventually open for US shows - or will we get them few and far between like the recent "Jeopardy"?[/quote]
Definitely the latter, and absolutely not "floodgates", at least without a dramatic change in the way the marketplace works.  Maybe someday a Wheel DVD, and maybe someday a TPIR one, but expect something like the Jeopardy one, where somebody decides on a few interesting episodes and features on a disc or two.

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: dzinkin on December 12, 2005, 03:11:29 PM

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Dec 12 2005, 12:55 AM\']Wow. After this break, a boatload of posts from people wanting to figure out how to region-free-ify their DVD players....

[snapback]104470[/snapback]

[/quote]
Before that happens, let me point out that Videohelp.com (http://\"http://www.videohelp.com\") is an excellent resource for various means of viewing otherwise inaccessible DVDs and video files.

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: ChuckNet on December 12, 2005, 08:37:05 PM

My bad...yeah, I thought 5 eps wasn't much for a box set...LOL

Anyway, there's currently a coupla sets available on eBay...will pass on them, though...I'll wait until I can get one for a more affordable price.

Chuck Donegan (The Hopeful "Chuckie Baby")

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: Robert Hutchinson on December 12, 2005, 08:59:26 PM

Not that it means much, since it's DVD box copy, but note the "volume one".

I think the marketplace in the US might (*might*) allow for something like this in a few years, but it depends how far the current "get everything with clear ownership rights onto disc" mentality will go.

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: Jay Temple on December 13, 2005, 10:50:45 AM

If you want to know how far the "everything with clearance rights" mentality has already gone, consider these items that I've seen:  1. Pink Lady and Jeff, the complete series.  2. Tru Calling, Season 1 (Season 2 was only six eps, one of which was pulled in favor of extra footage of The Simple Life.)

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: uncamark on December 13, 2005, 04:16:20 PM

Question:  Does anyone know about this "Celebrity Game" mentioned on the DVD blurb?  Was it based on the U.S. H-Q format, another U.S. format or was it an original Australian format?  The only thing I could find was that it had two brief runs in 1969 and in 1976 and 1977 (when "Blankety Blanks" had started up).

And for those asking, I already knew that "No. 96" was a rather racy soap opera that caused a sensation Down Under.  NBC tried to Americanize it sometime in the late 70s, but like so many other Fred Silverman projects, it went down to defeat (and it didn't help that the show was turned into more of a serialized sitcom, complete with laugh track).

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: dzinkin on December 30, 2005, 10:45:42 AM

Moving this thread up because... my Blankety Blanks DVDs arrived yesterday!

So far I've only perused the menus and played the first episode, but I have a few early observations nonetheless.  The set's almost a dead ringer for the first MG7x set, save for the obvious change from a "Match Game 7x" sign to one for "Blankety Blanks" and a few other smaller details such as the chase lights.  Game play is the same as in the CBS daytime run, with two rounds and each celebrity available to match only once in a game; I haven't yet seen what they do if a tiebreaker is needed.  The Super Match amounts are considerably lower, at 25/50/100 instead of 100/250/500.  At least in the first episode, there was no music to accompany the transition from the main game to the Super Match, and no sound effect to indicate a match in the main game.  The music was definitely different from the U.S. run; I thought I heard hints of the MG7x music in the end theme but I'm no expert so I'll defer to those who are. :-)

The first episode in the set appears to be the first episode in the series, as Graham Kennedy makes reference to "the first show" (at first I thought he meant first of the year since he also refers to "a new year") and there's no returning champion.  He starts by giving the rules to Celebrity Squares, the audience laughs, and then he goes right on talking to the celebs much as Gene did.  The celebs in the first show are Jon English, Noeline Brown, Ugly Dave Gray, Carol Raye, Stuart Wagstaff, and Kate Fitzpatrick.  At least this show was self-contained; I suppose I'll see if that was normal when I go through the remaining episodes.

EDIT: Just started playing the last episode in the set and it starts with a Super Match, so clearly at least some of the games straddled.

EDIT 2: Just watched an episode with a tie game.  Just as in the U.S. version, a regular round was played as a tiebreaker... but when that round ended in a tie, they played another regular tiebreaker round rather than a sudden death tiebreaker.  Also, just noticed that the "Blankety Blanks" sign isn't a sign at all -- it's handled like the credit crawl.  Shows you what I get for watching halfway across the room, only partly paying attention to the screen while imaging a bunch of computers. :-)

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: dzinkin on December 30, 2005, 04:13:03 PM

Since I've gotten a couple of emails and IMs about this: yes, unless you're in Australia, you will need a multi-region DVD player of some sort to play the Blankety Blanks DVDs, as they're Region 4.  I'd rather not turn this into a tech support board, so here are a few pointers to at least get people started...

As I said earlier in this thread, Videohelp.com (http://\"http://www.videohelp.com\") is an excellent source of information regarding which DVD players are already multi-region and which ones can be customized to that end, either via hidden codes or firmware upgrades.  As software players go, VideoLAN Client (http://\"http://www.videolan.org\") works fairly well; it's not perfect but it's free and it's available for numerous platforms.  The aforementioned Videohelp.com site also has very informative discussion boards where you can ask all the questions you like about any of this. :-)

Title: It's more fun than a BLANK, mate!
Post by: Brig Bother on December 30, 2005, 04:13:35 PM

Something you'll probably notice over time is that Kennedy really *hates* it when a game finishes on a tie.


GK's BBs has a really nice atmosphere to it, I find.