The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: GameShowGuru on September 08, 2014, 07:11:54 PM
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One thing I learned in my years of watching game show is that certain producers have a distinguishing feature in their shows that serve as their "trademark" if you will. So assuming a new game show came out, could you tell who produced it just by watching the game, or even listening to the theme music? For example, the distinguishing features of:
Mark Goodson & Bill Todman: I don't have a specific distinguishing feature per se, but I noticed that they have the uncanny knack to revamp an otherwise solid game format into something radically different and the revamp is usually more successful than the original format (Match Game, Price is Right, Password)
Jack Barry & Dan Enright: Bonus game always have an "avoid the [devil/dragon/lightning/Bust Card]" feature attached, plus the theme songs are typically composed by Hal Hidey
Merrill Heater & Bob Quigley: Celebrity and Vegas themed games
Merv Griffin Productions: Not really sure offhand, but I'm sure someone here knows or can describe it more eloquently than I can.
Bob Stewart Productions: There's some rather clever variation of "Pyramid" as it's own game (I saw the "Raise the Dead" marathon, and I wasn't surprised that a number of the unsold pilots that were presented were Bob Stewart shows, though I think a few of them should have sold).
Chuck Barris Productions: There's either an anti-something element (Gong Show is the anti-talent show, $1.98 Beauty Show is the anti-pageant show, Cheap Show is the anti-big prize show), or a social relationship element (Dating Game, Newlywed Game, 3s A Crowd)
Jay Wolpert Productions: Games has some variation of a "Blind Item" element (Double Dare, Whew, Rodeo Drive, Blackout).
There's more, but I think you get the picture.
Please folks, I know there will be shows that are exceptions for every producer, but I'm just looking for "the rule" (lest this thread get derailed by those wanting to qualify a distinguishing feature with a show that didn't fit the norm).
Most importantly, have fun!
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I would change H-Q to making game shows out of either simple games (Gambit, High Rollers) or larger than life sets (Marble Machine, Video Village, Hollywood Squares, and so on).
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Bob Stewart Productions: There's some rather clever variation of "Pyramid" as it's own game
This wants to be simplified to "*Really* likes word-communication games, because the content is far cheaper to produce." Jackpot being the exception, but even then 1,001 Childhood Riddles could be had for a comparative song at the local bookstore.
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This wants to be simplified to "*Really* likes word-communication games, because the content is far cheaper to produce." Jackpot being the exception, but even then 1,001 Childhood Riddles could be had for a comparative song at the local bookstore.
Certainly the case after Pyramid picked up steam and he could write his own ticket, but Eye Guess, Three on a Match and TPIR fall outside the word game umbrella, and there was actually a prize budget on those shows so the frugality wasn't for his entire career as a producer, and that seems to be his trademark, second to He Gave Us Pyramid.
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If a game show used trilons, then it was very good chance that it was Bob Stewart game.
If it was a remake of an old classic show, and they butchered the hell out of a perfectly good format, then it's definitely a Fremantle show. :o
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I think what set G/T shows apart from many others was the liberal use of chaser lights, lots of moving set pieces and stuff like that...by the 70s, their shows tended to be much brighter and flashier than the competition...and I liked that a lot!
JakeT
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Barry-Enright had quite a few variants on popular games of the era.
With Merv Griffin, variants on popular board or newspaper games.
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Chuck Barris Productions: There's either an anti-something element (Gong Show is the anti-talent show, $1.98 Beauty Show is the anti-pageant show, Cheap Show is the anti-big prize show), or a social relationship element (Dating Game, Newlywed Game, 3s A Crowd)
While it is true Barris and Chris Bearde both had a hand in GONG and they worked together a couple of times as a packager/producer combo, Barris had no involvement in "The Cheap Show."
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Reg Grundy--Copy formats from America and replicate them as closely as possible.
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He also did a couple of formats here as well, y'know. And it's not like you could identify "Blankety Blank" as from Grundy's if you didn't know that ahead of time, which is the point of the "trademark," such as it was (like how on every B&E show the champion would walk across the stage to join the host near the game board to win stuff by dodging the resident bad guy, or Jay Wolpert's games are too clever by five-sevenths.)
/as a youth I associated the cold open with announcer over a timpani roll as the Grundy trademark.
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Barry-Enright awarded an inexpensive compact car for every five wins, and outside of Joker's Wild, it seems most of their syndicated shows allowed for unlimited reigns, although I think TJW dropped the winnings limit policy c. 1983.
Each producer seemed to have its stable of announcers, except for maybe Bob Stewart...
Goodson(-Todman)
-Johnny O.
-Gene Wood
-In the 80s, Rich Jeffries picked up a few gigs
Barry-Enright
-Jay Stewart
-Charlie O'Donnell
Chuck Barris
-Johnny Jacobs
Heatter-Quigley
-Kenny Williams
There were exceptions, obviously, but it seems those were the main guys from the 60s to mid-80s.
/I did think of Mark's one-liner about Reg Grundy
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On the old GSN boards I used to go to, someone characterized production companies by these trademarks:
Goodson-Todman: Simple premises with lots of play-at-home, "yell at the TV" qualities to them.
Bob Stewart/BASADA: Celebrity word games played on chintzy-but-attractive sets.
Barry & Enright: Straight-up Q&A formats steeped in the tradition of the '50s quiz shows, with only a few minor twists to them.
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On the old GSN boards I used to go to, someone characterized production companies by these trademarks:
{snip}
Barry & Enright: Straight-up Q&A formats steeped in the tradition of the '50s quiz shows, with only a few minor twists to them.
And overwritten questions...especially if a brand new Chevette was on the line. :-P
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On the old GSN boards I used to go to, someone characterized production companies by these trademarks:
{snip}
Barry & Enright: Straight-up Q&A formats steeped in the tradition of the '50s quiz shows, with only a few minor twists to them.
And overwritten questions...especially if a brand new Chevette was on the line. :-P
And the host building artificial suspense into asking the question if it was for a win....
"If you answer this question correctly, you'll have Tic Tac Dough, you'll win your 8th game, and added to your prior winnings, you'll have $34000, including a car."
One thing I would attribute to B&E games more than any other production company was their mic'd judge, who would correct the host or make a ruling over the PA, rather than just telling the host.
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Each producer seemed to have its stable of announcers, except for maybe Bob Stewart...
Disagree strongly; Jack Clark did a bit of his shows in the 60s and 80s. Bob Clayton was, undoubtedly, Stewart's preferred announcer in the 70s [unless the show was on NBC, in which case, he'd likely use Pardo]. In the 80s, it was usually [unless Jack Clark was available] Johnny Gilbert [though "Pyramid", as we all know, went through announcers like the Ninja Turtles went through pizza].
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How about Nickelodeon game shows? What would their characteristics be (aside from the fact that they all featured kids)?
Not all of them was about getting messy, like Double Dare was.
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How about Nickelodeon game shows? What would their characteristics be (aside from the fact that they all featured kids)?
Not all of them was about getting messy, like Double Dare was.
Music by Edd Kalehoff?
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How about Nickelodeon game shows? What would their characteristics be (aside from the fact that they all featured kids)?
Not all of them was about getting messy, like Double Dare was.
Music by Edd Kalehoff?
Too many that he didn't do.
I was gonna say objectives in the endgames to find something, but that doesn't really work either.
Don't think there's an overlaying connection between Nick shows.
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Each producer seemed to have its stable of announcers, except for maybe Bob Stewart...
Disagree strongly; Jack Clark did a bit of his shows in the 60s and 80s. Bob Clayton was, undoubtedly, Stewart's preferred announcer in the 70s [unless the show was on NBC, in which case, he'd likely use Pardo]. In the 80s, it was usually [unless Jack Clark was available] Johnny Gilbert [though "Pyramid", as we all know, went through announcers like the Ninja Turtles went through pizza].
I think my memory was clouded by the 80s Pyramids...for some reason I thought the same applied to the 70s shows, and didn't realize Clayton was more or less a regular.
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How about Nickelodeon game shows? What would their characteristics be (aside from the fact that they all featured kids)?
Not all of them was about getting messy, like Double Dare was.
Music by Edd Kalehoff?
Too many that he didn't do.
I was gonna say objectives in the endgames to find something, but that doesn't really work either.
Don't think there's an overlaying connection between Nick shows.
........The kids wore custom clothing?
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Reg Grundy: Copyright? Who's that?
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How about Nickelodeon game shows? What would their characteristics be (aside from the fact that they all featured kids)?
Physicality. Kids don't want to watch people stand around and talk for a half hour.
(I'm going to argue that bombarding the panelists with clues and slime gave "Figure It Out" physicality.)
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(I'm going to argue that bombarding the panelists with clues and slime gave "Figure It Out" physicality.)
I wouldn't even go that far, citing Make the Grade, Get the Picture and Nick Arcade as games where the moving about wasn't the point but the means to get to a new event or back to home base. Yes, Arcade had the green screen round, but other'n that, nothing.
The "trademark" (such as it is) is that the network was putting on game shows specifically for kids; that they can watch and play along with and enjoy. Not adult game shows taking two weeks at Christmas, Easter and summer break to feature young players in a watered-down version of the game, but game shows that were designed specifically for youth consumption.
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Not adult game shows taking two weeks at Christmas, Easter and summer break to feature young players in a watered-down version of the game,
To be honest, I hated that - even as a kid watching these shows. I'd get so into watching adults play and when they interrupted the flow for a kids' contest during Christmas week, I lost a bit of interest.
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I wouldn't even go that far, citing Make the Grade, Get the Picture and Nick Arcade as games where the moving about wasn't the point but the means to get to a new event or back to home base. Yes, Arcade had the green screen round, but other'n that, nothing.
The Fire Drills in "Make the Grade" had the kids performing stunts. The Power Surge in "Get the Picture" wasn't always cerebral (example (http://youtu.be/ZPnMygan5nQ?t=13m)). And personally, I'd say that having the entire bonus round of "Nick Arcade" be physical would qualify it. And even if not, watching Sonic the Hedgehog race across the landscape meant that the home audience was watching physicality, even if the contestants themselves weren't moving around.
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To be honest, I hated that - even as a kid watching these shows. I'd get so into watching adults play and when they interrupted the flow for a kids' contest during Christmas week, I lost a bit of interest.
On the contrary, I *loved* watching kids play TTD, HS, CS when I was a kid. I don't think TTD did it very long as I only remember it in the early seasons.
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How about Nickelodeon game shows? What would their characteristics be (aside from the fact that they all featured kids)?
Not all of them was about getting messy, like Double Dare was.
Music by Edd Kalehoff?
Too many that he didn't do.
I was gonna say objectives in the endgames to find something, but that doesn't really work either.
Don't think there's an overlaying connection between Nick shows.
........The kids wore custom clothing?
Hmmm....I might start there. At least for a good chunk of the shows.
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And I'd say that's really reaching. Was it the trademark that the contestants wore logo unis?
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And I'd say that's really reaching. Was it the trademark that the contestants wore logo unis?
Or some form of identifying clothing. Examples.
Double Dare- colored unis
Get the Picture- colored unis
Guts- colored unis
Finders Keepers- tees
Legends- colored tees
Nick Arcade- colored tees
Think Fast- colored unis
I don't think it's as far a reach. I don't know of very many Nick games other than BrainSurge and Figure It Out that didn't do this.
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Not adult game shows taking two weeks at Christmas, Easter and summer break to feature young players in a watered-down version of the game,
To be honest, I hated that - even as a kid watching these shows. I'd get so into watching adults play and when they interrupted the flow for a kids' contest during Christmas week, I lost a bit of interest.
I tended to hate it too...especially when the B&E shows did it because they tended to gravitate to those overly cutesy overly precocious kids that never knew how to shut up...seemed like Jack Barry was trying to turn every show into Juvenile Jury (which I DETESTED!)
JakeT
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To be honest, I hated that - even as a kid watching these shows. I'd get so into watching adults play and when they interrupted the flow for a kids' contest during Christmas week, I lost a bit of interest.
I tended to hate it too...especially when the B&E shows did it because they tended to gravitate to those overly cutesy overly precocious kids that never knew how to shut up...seemed like Jack Barry was trying to turn every show into Juvenile Jury (which I DETESTED!)
JakeT
It never bothered me as a kid obviously (I was simply jealous of the contestants), but in my adult years, I realized just how bad Kids Weeks were. I first realized it while watching a Kids Week...umm, excuse me, "Young Peoples Week" of Eubanks' Card Sharks. It was bad enough hearing the adults BS their rationale behind their guesses; having ki...young peoples do so was just grating.
Same sentiment for when Bergeron's Hollywood Squares offered a kids week c. Christmas 2001. Hearing cutesy child stars give gag answers just doesn't have the same effect.
And yeah, anytime I watched one of TJW's specials or Joker! Joker! Joker!, he seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else, esp. with the smartass who kept cutting Jack off to name every host/game show he liked that wasn't Jack Barry or The Joker's Wild.
Where were we? Oh yeah...Endemol USA - pregnant pauses, zooming through the letters, countless standing ovations, unemployed actors as contestants.
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Each producer seemed to have its stable of announcers, except for maybe Bob Stewart...
Disagree strongly; Jack Clark did a bit of his shows in the 60s and 80s. Bob Clayton was, undoubtedly, Stewart's preferred announcer in the 70s [unless the show was on NBC, in which case, he'd likely use Pardo]. In the 80s, it was usually [unless Jack Clark was available] Johnny Gilbert [though "Pyramid", as we all know, went through announcers like the Ninja Turtles went through pizza].
An exception on the NBC/Pardo thing was "Shoot For The Stars", Stewart's last NBC show in NY where Clayton did announce.
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Leave us not forget.....
Wink Martindale might have tended to copy off of others when creating his shows. Second Honeymoon looked like something Chuck Barris would have done (Oh, wait; he did do The Family Game.) Headline Chasers kinda mixed in elements of Merv Griffin's Wheel Of Fortune (headlines with missing letters) and Jeopardy (questions about said headlines).
Walt Framer went for human interest; as evidenced by Strike It Rich and The Big Payoff.
Harry Salter was more musically-inclined (Name That Tune and Music Bingo).
John Guedel...definitely into humor (You Bet Your Life and People Are Funny).
Cordially,
Tammy
P.S. I, for one, did enjoy those "Young People's Weeks" on Card Sharks.
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Although I can think of only two examples (Twenty-One and Tic Tac Dough), did any other B&E games involve the tie-game marathon mechanism?
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From the 21 pilot thread, it seems Barry-Enright normally superimposed an eggcrate tote to display a champion's winnings or value of a prize package*. And as I noted on that thread, it looked creepy as hell. Alternately, at the top of the show, whenever a contestant was about to win a 5th/10th/15th/etc. game, a Windsor-like font (http://s28.postimg.org/46cn2dfgt/thom.jpg) was used.
*The one exception appears to be Joker's Wild. From all the episodes I saw, it was Helvetica (http://s22.postimg.org/w6shuaoe9/joker.jpg), via art card.
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P.S. I, for one, did enjoy those "Young People's Weeks" on Card Sharks.
Yeah...but that's 'cause you're a GIRL...and GIRLS like stupid things!
<Now, Jakey pulls Tammy's pigtails and then pushes her down before running away across the playground like a wussyboy> :)
JakeT
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And I'd say that's really reaching. Was it the trademark that the contestants wore logo unis?
Or some form of identifying clothing. Examples.
Double Dare- colored unis
Get the Picture- colored unis
Guts- colored unis
Finders Keepers- tees
Legends- colored tees
Nick Arcade- colored tees
Think Fast- colored unis
I don't think it's as far a reach. I don't know of very many Nick games other than BrainSurge and Figure It Out that didn't do this.
Brainsurge contestants wear colored logo tees (like Legends), and you could make an argument that Figure it Out would count due to the panel.
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OK, super. Does that make it Nickelodeon's "trademark," moreso than the fact that the games feature kids playing games designed to be played by kids?