The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: aaron sica on October 17, 2012, 03:59:19 PM
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Here's what might be an interesting topic...
Were there ever any shows that you were excited about seeing when they premiered, but once you saw it, you were disappointed? One show comes to mind for me, and it was the first "$100,000 Pyramid". Now keep in mind I was only 11 at the time :) I figured with a title that had $100,000 in it, the first trip to the WC would be worth $50,000 and then $100,000 the second. I was quite disappointed that the WC amounts were exactly like the daytime version and that the $100,000 was only for tournament play...
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Whammy.
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MG98. Yes, I am serious. I guess it was because outside of Wheel, J!, and TPIR, the other "major" titles had been gone for years, and I was watching GSN at the time and wishing for some of the classic series to come back. We got the Bergeron HS, which was as true to the original format as you could be in the late '90s, so I thought this might be the start of something big. And believe it or not, there WAS positive feedback about the show when people attended the first tapings/watched the first episodes. Needless to say, that didn't last long.
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Temptation.
CS 2001 as well, believe it or not.
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Temptation.
CS 2001 as well, believe it or not.
Both of these. I actually tolerated the first few weeks of "Temptation" before I realized how many corners they cut.
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Deal or No Deal. The show promos were all over the place, and I knew nothing about the format — but hey, game show with lotsa hype, must be good, right? Then I realized it was basically $1,000,000 Hit the Buzzer, Win a Cookie.
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I was jazzed in 2002 to hear that Pyramid was coming back. Not having been a viewer of MG98 or CS01, it didn't occur to me that a format could be hacked up like that.
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The Magnificent Marble Machine. I was a huge pinball fan, pinball was big in 1975 (it was the summer of Tommy the movie, which I saw without my parents at age 12 - not necessarily a bright idea), so what wasn't to like? Plenty.
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MG98. Yes, I am serious. I guess it was because outside of Wheel, J!, and TPIR, the other "major" titles had been gone for years, and I was watching GSN at the time and wishing for some of the classic series to come back. We got the Bergeron HS, which was as true to the original format as you could be in the late '90s, so I thought this might be the start of something big. And believe it or not, there WAS positive feedback about the show when people attended the first tapings/watched the first episodes. Needless to say, that didn't last long.
At GSC8 in '98, Jay Wolpert called in to us for a Q&A session and he talked about MG98. He made it sound promising, but like you said, that feeling didn't last long, unfortunately..
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Mindreaders.
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Second for Temptation. I had just started getting into $ale of the Century at that point and had seen a few clips on the former Australian website on ninemsn, so I assumed it would be like that.
How wrong I was.
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Temptation, sure. Also Million Dollar Password.
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Three immediately came to my mind:
-Temptation (This was the biggest disappointment of the three I'll list, especially since I was a huge fan of $OTC. I think the description of "gutted" and "cheap" certainly described it best)
-Merv Griffin's Crosswords (I was really excited to have a quiz show grace us, especially with the guy that created two of the greatest game show formats behind it, but the flawed gameplay and extremely static Ty Treadway just did nothing for me)
-Who's Still Standing (A fast-paced quiz in prime time with Ben Bailey as host did get me excited, but the game was so biased toward the "one" and couldn't settle on which rules they were using that week)
Anthony
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The Magnificent Marble Machine. I was a huge pinball fan, pinball was big in 1975 (it was the summer of Tommy the movie, which I saw without my parents at age 12 - not necessarily a bright idea), so what wasn't to like? Plenty.
That was what I was gonna say. To me, the front game was dull & sorta made the machine itself THE only good thing about that show. Everything else was just, meh.
As for Temptation, I was super-excited about the potential. What I saw was, WHAT? That made me realize they should've looked at the Austraillian format & went with that instead of the dreck that I went through with Rossi what's-his-name.
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Most everything that's come out in the past 10 years or so. "Temptation" and LMAD were probably tops among them.
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Deal or No Deal. The show promos were all over the place, and I knew nothing about the format — but hey, game show with lotsa hype, must be good, right? Then I realized it was basically $1,000,000 Hit the Buzzer, Win a Cookie.
The first week from December 2005 was actually pretty good. I loved Howie's intro to the show, where he'd walk from the vault and into the studio, talking about how someone could win a million bucks. It was a great dramatic preamble that shows just don't use anymore. When it returned in February (?) 2006 as a regular series, it became the circus that it did...and started using all the gimmicks that so many other shows started emulating.
I seem to remember having high hopes for Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, only to be greatly disappointed.
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Here's what might be an interesting topic...
Were there ever any shows that you were excited about seeing when they premiered, but once you saw it, you were disappointed? One show comes to mind for me, and it was the first "$100,000 Pyramid". Now keep in mind I was only 11 at the time :) I figured with a title that had $100,000 in it, the first trip to the WC would be worth $50,000 and then $100,000 the second. I was quite disappointed that the WC amounts were exactly like the daytime version and that the $100,000 was only for tournament play...
I was disappointed for much the same reason. I didn't necessarily expect $25,000 in the first game and $100,000 in the second, althought that idea did occur to me, but I figured I'd be able to watch a $100,000 winner every week.
I was also disappointed in Million Dollar Pyramid.
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TTTT2K. John O'Hurley was the only good thing about that show; the producers made no effort to understand why the game worked.
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Deal or No Deal.
The first week from December 2005 was actually pretty good. I loved Howie's intro to the show, where he'd walk from the vault and into the studio, talking about how someone could win a million bucks. It was a great dramatic preamble that shows just don't use anymore. When it returned in February (?) 2006 as a regular series, it became the circus that it did...and started using all the gimmicks that so many other shows started emulating.
I'll add DoND to my list as well. In Palace, we were watching the live stream of Holland's DoND before the show came to the US. I was hoping for something kind of resembling that, which is a very well-done show IMO.
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"To Tell The Truth" and "Feud" -- Hurley versions. Loved him in "Seinfeld", but the character is not a real person.
Also hated "Million Dollar Password". Americans are just no longer smart enough for word games, and "Password" doesn't need "think" music to raise the tension.
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Most everything that's come out in the past 10 years or so. "Temptation" and LMAD were probably tops among them.
I knew Temptation was sunk when they announced Rossi Moreale would host (haw, haw, cause he was on Temptation Island! How clever!). Not that other unlikely hosts never surprised us, but I guess my expectations are lower given many of today's entertainers. And yeah, there's the Fremantle (nee Pearson) stigma, even though Feud was improving at the time (O'Hurley premiered a season before, no?)
LMAD I don't mind at all. Yeah yeah, "it's not Monty," "they can't use Pricing Games," "one-person Big Deal," "Improv sketches!," "Mike Richards raped my childhood!" etc. etc. Whatever, I still enjoy the show. After Big Deal and Bush LMAD, I can't complain. At least it doesn't gut the format like a, say, CS2001.
The first week from December 2005 was actually pretty good. I loved Howie's intro to the show, where he'd walk from the vault and into the studio, talking about how someone could win a million bucks. It was a great dramatic preamble that shows just don't use anymore. When it returned in February (?) 2006 as a regular series, it became the circus that it did...and started using all the gimmicks that so many other shows started emulating.
Yep. I don't remember contestants being as overcaffinated and obnoxious as they got there. And the trend has leaked into other shows indeed. Plus it got old when everyone tried to imitate the "I will do so-and-so...after these messages" tagline.
I was also disappointed in Million Dollar Pyramid.
Did you mean $1M Password? (Cause I can see how one would be confused). Or the $1M Pyramid pilot?
TTTT2K. John O'Hurley was the only good thing about that show; the producers made no effort to understand why the game worked.
The format was there, the host was there, but they tried to be too 2000s at times. And don't get me started on Paula Poundstone. I didn't expect much out of it anyway seeing as Pearson's reign of terror was just beginning with one mediocre show (Anderson FF) and one bad show (MG98).
"To Tell The Truth" and "Feud" -- Hurley versions. Loved him in "Seinfeld", but the character is not a real person.
Also hated "Million Dollar Password". Americans are just no longer smart enough for word games, and "Password" doesn't need "think" music to raise the tension.
Yeah I hated the Hurley version. It got on my nerves how he called everyone "dude," plus... we all know him, the contestants, etc. are really meant to be in purgatory
(Bad) joking aside...TTTT thoughts are above. As for Feud, I appreciate the classic elements and competent hosting that John brought to the show. Maybe he was vanilla compared to Steve Harvey, but I think he did OK. Now how about adding HARVEY Feud to our list? Yes the ratings are good and Steve fits the bill as the humorous host of Feuds past. But the show was never perfect, from little things like the microscopic introduction (thanks in part to Joey Fatone Soundboard) to the Refuge in Vulgarity questions.
MDPW doesn't hold up at all, really. I liked it cause it was different from the DOND type shows, and hey, they cared enough to bring back Betty White, always a good thing. But there's the elephant in the room; namely, IT WAS NOT PASSWORD. It was just Pyramid without the pyramids. Plus the point made above...as I said before, there were too many "Oh noes, I can't has opposite! Must pass!" moments. I haven't gotten my tapes of The Pyramid yet, so I haven't seen much beyond the first week, but the reason I wanted the revival to do well was to re-educate people on word games. Still, I don't know if anyone has gotten Chain Reaction (say, who produced that again?) bad yet.
Given the anti-hype it's gotten this week, can MG Canada fit here too?
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I was also disappointed in Million Dollar Pyramid.
Did you mean $1M Password? (Cause I can see how one would be confused). Or the $1M Pyramid pilot?
Whoops. I thought I fixed that. Yes, I meant Million Dollar Password. Although, even with my disappointment, I still thought it was a better revival of Pyramid than Pyramid.
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I was also disappointed in Million Dollar Pyramid.
Did you mean $1M Password? (Cause I can see how one would be confused). Or the $1M Pyramid pilot?
Whoops. I thought I fixed that. Yes, I meant Million Dollar Password. Although, even with my disappointment, I still thought it was a better revival of Pyramid than Pyramid.
Aha...I assume by the lack of "The" you mean Donnymid, of course.
Not that the footage of the 2009 pilot was without its disappointments. But just cosmetic ones. It seemed generally good (with things I admit to wishing made it to The Pyramid), but TP improved on set space and settling on a host.
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Not that the footage of the 2009 pilot was without its disappointments. But just cosmetic ones. It seemed generally good (with things I admit to wishing made it to The Pyramid), but TP improved on set space and settling on a host.
Am I the only one who thinks the host is one of the major issues with The Pyramid?
To me it seems he's just way too robotic and stiff.
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Am I the only one who thinks the host is one of the major issues with The Pyramid?
To me it seems he's just way too robotic and stiff.
Probably not, but if you haven't seen any other complaints, then that's a safe bet too.
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Am I the only one who thinks the host is one of the major issues with The Pyramid?
To me it seems he's just way too robotic and stiff.
Probably not, but if you haven't seen any other complaints, then that's a safe bet too.
So it is then.
To me, it just seems like he's working from a script...and I mean in the Ty Treadway style of doing it. The only difference is that Mike is trying too hard to not make it noticeable.
YMMV, of course.
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My let-downs:
* Game Show Marathon: it worked elsewhere in the world, so how could they...oh. Bad editing, mediocre hosting, and relegating the six good, funny, and very recognizable celebrities to being the Match Game panel (come on, you had Betty White right there!).
* Chain Reaction (2006): it's Chain Reaction, complete with Instant Reaction bonus game. How could they possibly screw this up? Well, they did...mainly with the contestants (really, you couldn't get the connecting word of TEN PIN DROP?!). And Instant Reaction changed about as many times it did in 1980.
* Temptation: "The New Sale of the Century", which made me think "Oh, it's Sale, it's going to be good." Aside from the use of Instant Bargains, Instant Cash, and the shopping endgame...pick something, it was "off" at the very least: Instant Cash capping at $5,000, the vast majority of the contestants being female (and the prizes almost always for them), the five-day limit, "Temptation Dollars", no ability to buy all the shopping prizes, etc. When you air out-of-order despite using returning champs, you're doing that wrong as well.
* Merv Griffin's Crosswords: it was Merv's last game, damn right I was going to watch on Day 1. Jeez...Treadway was just robotic, the "Spoiler" mechanism was broken (among other things, you shouldn't have to deliberately get a question wrong to have any chance of winning!), and sometimes it was damn near impossible to win the bonus round. And the cheapness. And the lack of returning champs. And an audience. And any sense of order to the airing schedule.
* Duel (Season 1): great idea, but then I saw the clear use of caricatures ("The Fireman", "The Alligator Wrestler", etc.) and the fact the contestants acted like tools when greeting each other. Plus the fact all the buildup to the big final duel for more than Two Million Damn Dollars was rendered anticlimactic on the first question.
* Million-Dollar Password: see JMFabiano's thoughts on it, because I agree wholeheartedly. Add to that the generic music and sounds, the obvious dubbing, the rule against giving two guesses in a row, and the fact that Password really doesn't need a million-dollar prize. Jimmy Fallon since proved you don't need glitz or even prizes to make Password work -- just five people having a good time with a variant of the late-60s format and set.
* Family Feud (Harvey): see JMFabino's comments, again. I had high hopes from seeing the YouTube clips, but then the show began clearly seeking out those kinds of moments by getting vulgar questions and answers, throwing out questions for "not enough points", making a solo Fast Money win impossible, and...well, just what is Fatone doing anyway that he can't actually be present in the studio?
* Million-Dollar Money Drop: it's solid elsewhere, why not in the Sta.......oh, right -- FOX.
* Million-Dollar Mind Game: not so much the show itself (which was great) but how ABC treated an actual hard quiz based around logical thinking -- sitting on it for a long time, then shoving it to Sunday afternoons against football.
* Who's Still Standing?: an actual rapid-fire quiz on NBC! Oh, wait, it has caricatures and inconsistent rules that favor the "Hero", commercial breaks during questions (that should be illegal), and thinks viewers are goldfish. And it's by the geniuses behind Minute To Win It. The "after the Hero leaves" rapid-fire last-man-standing game among the remaining Strangers was better than everything else about the show, and really should've been the format -- winner stays on, faces a new group of challengers, games can straddle if need be (but only after someone falls out of the game or a full game is completed); possibly have a stipulation that losing means forfeiting half of what you've accumulated (and hence have the option to quit upon seeing the next group of challengers).
* Match Game (Canada): I was hoping it'd be in the "goofy" vein of the 1973-82 era, but instead the show opted to use the 1990-91 format that IMO had too much "game" because the Match-Up doesn't really fit and basically gives less room to goof off. And then there's the cheapness, the crappy announcer ("Get ready to make a match!"? Really?), and the inconsistent panel.
Yep. I don't remember contestants being as overcaffinated and obnoxious as they got there. And the trend has leaked into other shows indeed. Plus it got old when everyone tried to imitate the "I will do so-and-so...after these messages" tagline.
And the "suspenseful" aka "abrupt" commercial outros (The Moment of Truth and especially Who's Still Standing?), the trend of dark sets, generic music, and million-dollar prizes, the apparent necessity to edit the show within an inch of its life...and gimmicks. Holy crap the gimmicks.
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The Magnificent Marble Machine. I was a huge pinball fan, pinball was big in 1975 (it was the summer of Tommy the movie, which I saw without my parents at age 12 - not necessarily a bright idea), so what wasn't to like? Plenty.
I was also a huge pinball fan and actually liked this show. Also, pinball was so big in 1975 our family actually bought a used pinball machine for our rec room. Gave us many good years of service through the early 2000's.
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Mindreaders.
Viewers in our city were not excited about Mindreaders from day one. Our station aired it by tape delay at 3 in the afternoon due to local programming in the 11 am-12 noon hour. Complaints were so strong, the station pulled it after just two days and replaced it with a tape delayed Password Plus.
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When I saw that they were bringing back "The Joker's Wild" in 1990, I was excited. The promotional clips looked good, the logo looked okay, and even Pat Finn looked promising...until the moment in the premiere episode when he reminded us that TJW was a game of definitions.
By the time they brought back the classic category format, it was too late.
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I can agree with that were named on here, but mine (if half of it counts) Pictionary.
In 1989 I saw what was completely different from what I saw in the promos. Then in 1998ish again now with Alan Thicke. The show's ok but the excitement just fizzles after a while, and just becomes what could be a Win Lose or Draw clone.
I guess throw in 2006's Chain Reaction as well
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I can agree with that were named on here, but mine (if half of it counts) Pictionary.In 1989 I saw what was completely different from what I saw in the promos. Then in 1998ish again now with Alan Thicke. The show's ok but the excitement just fizzles after a while, and just becomes what could be a Win Lose or Draw clone. I guess throw in 2006's Chain Reaction as well
Maybe the ads were using footage from the pilots and elements were dropped before making to air.
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Exactly, just for the show itself it was just getting uninteresting quickly being the same game over and over (my thought was that they'd rotate games) and Fun House was on at the same time at that point.
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I thought the 1998 Pictionary was light and enjoyable.
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NYSI89. Thought the computerized graphics and chyroned scoreboards paled in comparison to the original. And Chuck Henry. Oy.
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My votes are for "Duel" (because the show shouldn't have been an hour long and the contestants were jerks) and "Temptation" (Rossi annoys me).
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My votes are for "Duel" (because the show shouldn't have been an hour long and the contestants were jerks) and "Temptation" (Rossi annoys me).
Should it have been half an hour or two? How does that improve things?
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My vote has to be for the U.S. version of "The Cube."
When I first heard that CBS had picked up this amazing show -- and that none other than NPH himself was going to host -- I couldn't help but think we'd finally found a new champion of the prime-time, big-bucks game show. It started good enough: NPH stared directly into the camera and uttered the catchphrase, "Do you have what it takes ... to beat The Cube?" But just about everything after that during the show's dismal four-week run was a disaster.
Sure, the show was recorded in Fountain Studios with a bona fide cube. But that was about the only similarity. Casting Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of The Cube was not the smartest move, and the American cube was simply far too sassy and confrontational to be enjoyable. Remember when our first Barrier contestant tried to emulate the famous British moment by taking off his pants ... and Gottfried/Cube bellowed, "Love the legs, bozo."
And the producers couldn't resist the American siren song of sob stories and tear-jerker moments. What about that time in Direction when, while that young woman was trying to cross the cube while blindfolded, the producers opened the doors to the cube and reunited her with her long-lost childhood pony? At least the outtake of the pony pooping on the high-tech floor provided a fresh clip for Bob Eubanks' next "America's Most Funnest Game Show Moments Evar." And maybe it was cute the first time we had a "surprise" phone call from a family member or friend to the player while they were in the cube, but like everything else, it became a weekly occurrence that quickly grew stale.
Let's not even get started on how badly they mucked up the rules to deal with stupid American contestants. Swap the game? All those "extra life" balls scattered throughout the games? And even with all the producers' attempts to have a big winner, seven of the eight contestants we saw still went for broke and went home with nothing. America doesn't like losers.
After the fourth episode came in next to last in the Nielsens -- with a dismal 0.3 rating and a 1 share -- the remaining episodes were shelved, and America mercifully got an early premiere of CBS's next great white hope: "CSI: Torchwood."
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Wait, what? This actually happened?
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Wait, what? This actually happened?
No, it didn't. Kniwt thinks he's being funny.
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Temptation, Merv Griffin's Crosswords and Trivial Pursuit: America Plays...the last one they absolutely messed up the whole show with the host. You got a Brady to host that show...REALLY??? What happened to Mark Wahlberg...HE COULD HAVE DID THAT SHOW! It was syndicated, it wasn't a network show. Those idiots at Fox kept him from getting to do it. I saw the demo and it was better than Christopher Knight hosting it. YOU SERIOUS?
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What happened to Mark Wahlberg...HE COULD HAVE DID THAT SHOW!
I think he was doing a movie around that time.
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I think he was doing a movie around that time.
That's no excuse. The Funky Bunch totally could have stepped in for him.
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It's already been said but the last game show I was really excited for was CS'01. Feud came back and was decent despite Anderson hosting like he had a gun pointed in his back and TTTT'00 was good enough IMO so I thought Fremantle was on an upward trend (Feud was going on its 3rd season, TTTT it's 2nd). Then CS'01 debuted, threw out everything about the Perry and Eubanks versions that worked and...well, you all know how the story goes. Every other revival/import that's been announced since then I can't get excited for until it actually airs because I always find myself saying "God I hope they don't f**k this up...".
I'll add one to the list...NBC's Weakest Link. I saw the promos and thought, "A host that actually calls out contestants for their stupidity? This is going to be AWESOME!" And at first, it was. Then the contestants started snapping back at Anne and she wouldn't have a comeback for it, which basically killed the entire premise of the show. Then the theme weeks...then the celebrity shows...utter disappointment. The show bounced back tenfold when it went into syndication with George Gray. He was perfect for the format.
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TTTT2K. John O'Hurley was the only good thing about that show; the producers made no effort to understand why the game worked.
I totally agree, and to add one more thing; when Kitty Carlisle was on (for her only appearance), her questions sounded like she knew what she was doing. She wasn't coming off as some smart-assed comedian wannabe, she played the game as it was meant to be played. No other panelist could even come close, which was a spoiler for me.