The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Argo on June 01, 2015, 09:50:00 PM
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Hi All,
I have been watching a lot of classic TPIR on youtube and thought that I would ask a question about hosting styles. Throughout Bob's TPIR, I noticed at least 3 different styles, almost split directly by decade. The first style started from 1972 until about 1980 or so. He would usually have a fairly short generic speech at the beginning of an episode. Also, things seemed to be not as relaxed at times. From about 1980 to the early 1990s, he would usually wait for the applause to die down, then have bit of chat with the audience/staff or tell a joke, etc. From the mid 1990s - end, it would be the almost scripted "Thank you for that wonderful welcome. Here is the first item up for bids". It seemed his and the show's most relaxed and best years were during the early 1980s - mid 1990s. He seemed to joke more and be more playful with contestants. Has anyone else noticed this? Could it have been just that the show was becoming more familiar and the pace of advertising allowed more playtime? Was age a factor in later years? (ex. chat with the models after pricing games, chat with contestants during the intro and after commercials, etc.)
I know it's probably easy to notice this with Barker since he hosted for so long, but anyone else notice any other differences in hosting styles? Any other hosts that seem to change their hosting style as well? I think maybe Dick Clark on pyramid, but the ABC / CBS episodes seemed to differ more. ABC shows seemed to have more spontaneous excitement, while CBS shows almost had a Jeopardy feel in comparison.
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I can try to break it down further. Between 1972-1973 Bob was just getting the feel of the show. His interactions with contestants was brief and he would play through the at the time limited library of pricing games. By 1974, the audience had more freedom to shout out prices and the level of excitement was enhanced, which I think improved Barker's hosting, and he was more conversational with the contestants. However, the show also had a glaring problem that there was too much "show" for a half hour, so thankfully the show was expanded to an hour (which translates to maybe 50 minutes of airtime with commercials).
By the time the show went to a full hour, Bob had the show down, and having more time to play with the contestants made him more relaxed. When Dorothy Jo died in 1981, you could notice a slight difference in Bob's demeanor. The episode where he acknowledges Dorothy Jo's death, he's conducting the show as normal, but you can still see a dark cloud over his head. However, he eventually gets past the sad event and things seem normal.
One key ingredient that made the show work so well was Johnny Olson. His immense talents and williness to get into funny costumes and do various dialects, made him a perfect second banana. During the 1984-1985 season, it's noticeable that Johnny's announcing voice is starting to sound tired. It wasn't because of boredom, but because of old age, as he was in his 70s. As we all know Johnny died in 1985.
During the audition process, it was jarring to see TPIR without much interaction between Bob and the announcer, however they found as close to a perfect replacement as they could with Rod Roddy. Rod was funny, and also willing to get into funny costumes, and while it would be unfair to compare his onstage talent to Johnny's, I think Rod still did a splendid job. However, Rod's involvement with the showcases would decrease over time as well as his appearances on camera.
However, in the wake of the Dian Parkinson scandal, Bob's demeanor changed drastically. He became more impatient with the slower contestants, he stopped flirting with the female contestants, and also stopped interacting with the models (which was no surprise knowing what we know now) but he still had his good days.
By the show's 30th year, Bob skipped doing any opening monologue and went straight to "here's the first item up for bids". He also almost stopped talking to Rod Roddy altogether, and Rod's overall presence was limited to the show's closing credits, then he didn't appear on camera at all with the exception of the 32nd season premiere.
When Rich Fields came into the picture, Bob's interaction with him was limited, but it seemed to me that his demeanor was more positive. I would dare say that Bob's hosting was the best it could be during his last year as host. I think since he knew the end was coming, he had more fun, which is far better than pulling a Richard Dawson and having a dark cloud over his head.
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Sounds about right to me. By the mid 80s - early 90s, the show seemed to have that family feel. It didn't feel just like the Bob Barker show, it was the Bob, Beauties, Olson/Roddy, and even some of the staff would be introduced too.
Yes forgot about Dawson. His hosting style changed drastically too. I never really watched Family Feud all that much. Did his style change drastically or slowly over time? I know as the show got more popular the ego started showing, then things slowed down after the show was losing viewers.
Apologies for putting this post in the video section.
Argo
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It goes without saying that Dawson on Match Game was quite different from Dawson on Family Feud. Richard was genuinely interested in people, and in the early Feud episodes, sometimes he'd take a full 10 minutes chatting it up with the families before starting the game. Then, ABC stepped in and said that Dawson was taking too long before actually starting the game, so GT responded by adding more rounds and making the game go to 300 points. However, that didn't necessarily stop Dawson from doing what he had been doing. So, much like Ste. ve Harvey does with Family Feud today, Richard would frequently go way past the time allotted and some editing would need to be done. By 1983 though, Richard started to tire of Family Feud and for the remaining two seasons, frankly, he's phoning it in, especially in the final season when the game went to 400 points.
There was some evidence of ego throughout the run... Richard's squabbles with Howard Felscher, and openly protesting when a mistake was made. (Granted he was doing what was right for the contestants, but he could've saved it for after the show) Reportedly Richard was given some pull to make judgment call on his own later in the run, telling losing families they're being brought back and such. Richard would also occasionally get on a soapbox and speak his mind on some issues, something you almost never see another host do. I've said before that with Richard, you KNEW what he was feeling and he didn't hide it.
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I always chalked Bob's reduced interaction to the increased amount of commercial time. I don't even think TPiR was running 40 minutes by the time Bob retired. They prolly lost a good five to seven minutes of content from when the show first went to an hour.
Pat's humor on Wheel has become drier over the years it seems. He's always been laidback, but was more......"loose" in the 80s. It's hard to explain.
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MODS- perhaps a move is in order here, to the "big board"
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MODS- perhaps a move is in order here, to the "big board"
Done.
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was there any difference between Bob Barker and Jim Perry? granted their styles were different but Jim seemed to be more suited for a show like $ale or Card Sharks where as Bob seemed more suited to a show like TPIR
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was there any difference between Bob Barker and Jim Perry? granted their styles were different but Jim seemed to be more suited for a show like $ale or Card Sharks where as Bob seemed more suited to a show like TPIR
Um, then it's probably a good thing they were hired for those respective jobs?
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i have to agree with you on that i think Jim was more suited to a faster pace of a show like SOTC or CS while Barker also was suited to that type of show in TPIR
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A professional host is a professional host. Jim Perry used to MC the Miss Canada Pageant just as well as Bob Barker did the various pageants he did. A good host should be able to host any show well.
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A professional host is a professional host. Jim Perry used to MC the Miss Canada Pageant just as well as Bob Barker did the various pageants he did. A good host should be able to host any show well.
Perhaps... but the personal hosting style can have a profound effects on the trappings. Consider the three hosts of The Joker's Wild (Peck, not Finn), and what their various games felt like. I mean, having Bill Cullen run that show made it feel like a different animal altogether.
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A professional host is a professional host. Jim Perry used to MC the Miss Canada Pageant just as well as Bob Barker did the various pageants he did. A good host should be able to host any show well.
Perhaps... but the personal hosting style can have a profound effects on the trappings. Consider the three hosts of The Joker's Wild (Peck, not Finn), and what their various games felt like. I mean, having Bill Cullen run that show made it feel like a different animal altogether.
Another example I'll call upon is Dick Clark, re: his hosting styles.
Pyramid? Good. Challengers? Didn't seem to fit.
Some guys just work better with less to do.
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Hi All,
I have been watching a lot of classic TPIR on youtube and thought that I would ask a question about hosting styles. Throughout Bob's TPIR, I noticed at least 3 different styles, almost split directly by decade. The first style started from 1972 until about 1980 or so. He would usually have a fairly short generic speech at the beginning of an episode. Also, things seemed to be not as relaxed at times. From about 1980 to the early 1990s, he would usually wait for the applause to die down, then have bit of chat with the audience/staff or tell a joke, etc. From the mid 1990s - end, it would be the almost scripted "Thank you for that wonderful welcome. Here is the first item up for bids". It seemed his and the show's most relaxed and best years were during the early 1980s - mid 1990s. He seemed to joke more and be more playful with contestants. Has anyone else noticed this? Could it have been just that the show was becoming more familiar and the pace of advertising allowed more playtime? Was age a factor in later years? (ex. chat with the models after pricing games, chat with contestants during the intro and after commercials, etc.)
I know it's probably easy to notice this with Barker since he hosted for so long, but anyone else notice any other differences in hosting styles? Any other hosts that seem to change their hosting style as well? I think maybe Dick Clark on pyramid, but the ABC / CBS episodes seemed to differ more. ABC shows seemed to have more spontaneous excitement, while CBS shows almost had a Jeopardy feel in comparison.
i have to say that what made me like Dick Clark was that he was very formal like telling the audience to be quiet that only added to the tension when someone was going for $100,000 id also add Mike Adamle on AG when a Grand Championship was on the line like in the 1991-92 finale that finale was very exciting and Adamle and Csonka only added to the excitement in my opinion i saw that finale at least 3 times once on my ABC station WLOS in orginal broadcast and 2 times on USA Network in reruns
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A professional host is a professional host. Jim Perry used to MC the Miss Canada Pageant just as well as Bob Barker did the various pageants he did. A good host should be able to host any show well.
Perhaps... but the personal hosting style can have a profound effects on the trappings. Consider the three hosts of The Joker's Wild (Peck, not Finn), and what their various games felt like. I mean, having Bill Cullen run that show made it feel like a different animal altogether.
Another example I'll call upon is Dick Clark, re: his hosting styles.
Pyramid? Good. Challengers? Didn't seem to fit.
Some guys just work better with less to do.
I think The Challengers was more entertaining when they brought the judge on camera. Seemed Dick Clark needed someone to bounce off of, and it gave the show more distinction from Jeopardy!
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I can try to break it down further. Between 1972-1973 Bob was just getting the feel of the show. His interactions with contestants was brief and he would play through the at the time limited library of pricing games. By 1974, the audience had more freedom to shout out prices and the level of excitement was enhanced, which I think improved Barker's hosting, and he was more conversational with the contestants. However, the show also had a glaring problem that there was too much "show" for a half hour, so thankfully the show was expanded to an hour (which translates to maybe 50 minutes of airtime with commercials).
By the time the show went to a full hour, Bob had the show down, and having more time to play with the contestants made him more relaxed. When Dorothy Jo died in 1981, you could notice a slight difference in Bob's demeanor. The episode where he acknowledges Dorothy Jo's death, he's conducting the show as normal, but you can still see a dark cloud over his head. However, he eventually gets past the sad event and things seem normal.
One key ingredient that made the show work so well was Johnny Olson. His immense talents and williness to get into funny costumes and do various dialects, made him a perfect second banana. During the 1984-1985 season, it's noticeable that Johnny's announcing voice is starting to sound tired. It wasn't because of boredom, but because of old age, as he was in his 70s. As we all know Johnny died in 1985.
During the audition process, it was jarring to see TPIR without much interaction between Bob and the announcer, however they found as close to a perfect replacement as they could with Rod Roddy. Rod was funny, and also willing to get into funny costumes, and while it would be unfair to compare his onstage talent to Johnny's, I think Rod still did a splendid job. However, Rod's involvement with the showcases would decrease over time as well as his appearances on camera.
However, in the wake of the Dian Parkinson scandal, Bob's demeanor changed drastically. He became more impatient with the slower contestants, he stopped flirting with the female contestants, and also stopped interacting with the models (which was no surprise knowing what we know now) but he still had his good days.
By the show's 30th year, Bob skipped doing any opening monologue and went straight to "here's the first item up for bids". He also almost stopped talking to Rod Roddy altogether, and Rod's overall presence was limited to the show's closing credits, then he didn't appear on camera at all with the exception of the 32nd season premiere.
When Rich Fields came into the picture, Bob's interaction with him was limited, but it seemed to me that his demeanor was more positive. I would dare say that Bob's hosting was the best it could be during his last year as host. I think since he knew the end was coming, he had more fun, which is far better than pulling a Richard Dawson and having a dark cloud over his head.
i remember Jay Stewart starting to sound tried on SOTC around 87-88 so it is not limited to Johnny O i was glad when they brought in Don Morrow
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Apparently Jay left Sale to try his hand as an agent. One of his clients is someone we all know very well.
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Pat's humor on Wheel has become drier over the years it seems. He's always been laidback, but was more......"loose" in the 80s. It's hard to explain.
He's 30 years older, and he's been standing there through 30 years of episodes. It's the longest continuous gig any host as ever had. Practically nothing happens on that show that hasn't happened before, and they choose contestants to ensure it. Pat was great in the recent speed-up round clip, but that just doesn't happen very often.
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One key ingredient that made the show work so well was Johnny Olson. His immense talents and williness to get into funny costumes and do various dialects, made him a perfect second banana.
Perhaps another topic, but did anyone really like the drawn-out skit showcases? Heavens, Johnny Olson is the best of the best, but having watched a couple lately, they don't seem all that funny. It's the kind of thing a staff would do when they're bored.
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What's left to happen on Wheel of Fortune? A contestant who removes an article of clothing after every Bankrupt or Lose a Turn, or every time he tries to solve in the speed-up round he says "Crack Cocaine!" instead? I'm not sure the show needs to cast contestants to ensure that the show hardly ever veers off the reservation--I think most people who would go on a game show are clueful enough to know what to do, what not to do and what might make them look silly/a viral sensation.
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Practically nothing happens on [Wheel of Fortune] that hasn't happened before,
To be fair, Wheel's been on for 40 years, and personally I think all the really fun stuff happened in its first 25 or so. I agree with Brandon, Pat was a lot "looser" in the 1980s, although I'd add Season 7 and especially Season 12.
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Pat's humor on Wheel has become drier over the years it seems. He's always been laidback, but was more......"loose" in the 80s. It's hard to explain.
He's 30 years older, and he's been standing there through 30 years of episodes. It's the longest continuous gig any host as ever had.
I don't think that's so much it; the show itself has been on cruise control for a good 10 or 15 years. Outside of the occasional puzzle blooper nowadays, the show was much looser in the 80s and 90s, and seemed more spontaneous. Look at some of the bonus round wins from the mid-80s and you'll see what I mean, along with Pat's ad-libs. Most of his reactions now are pretty canned, so to speak (i.e. his jokingly overreacting to a bad puzzle solve, "frisking" a contestant who solves a puzzle with only two or three letters showing).
But to your point of longest continuous gig, unless I misunderstood you, doesn't Barker still hold the record for another couple of years, or are we counting number of episodes? Regardless, even though he'd obviously slowed down in the final years, Bob still exhibited more energy towards the end.
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But to your point of longest continuous gig, unless I misunderstood you, doesn't Barker still hold the record for another couple of years, or are we counting number of episodes? Regardless, even though he'd obviously slowed down in the final years, Bob still exhibited more energy towards the end.
You are correct. I'd forgotten about Bob's 10-12 year head start.
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What's left to happen on Wheel of Fortune? A contestant who removes an article of clothing after every Bankrupt or Lose a Turn, or every time he tries to solve in the speed-up round he says "Crack Cocaine!" instead? I'm not sure the show needs to cast contestants to ensure that the show hardly ever veers off the reservation--I think most people who would go on a game show are clueful enough to know what to do, what not to do and what might make them look silly/a viral sensation.
That's my point. There's good reason Pat's lethargic. I would contend, though, that Wheel could find contestants who might be interesting on camera if they wanted. TPIR gets a roomful of them every morning.
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That's my point. There's good reason Pat's lethargic. I would contend, though, that Wheel could find contestants who might be interesting on camera if they wanted. TPIR gets a roomful of them every morning.
Interesting how, though? And I contend quite vigorously that TPIR's contestant chooser was derelict in his duty quite a lot in the last few years or so.
Wheel of Fortune is a pleasant game played on television by pleasant people. If they've traded homogeneity for excitement that's their dime. I know that on the job I don't want interesting in the fortune cookie sense--I want to do my tasks and GTFO.
/maybe they should have the show on a remote island and every puzzle is a prize puzzle and the reward is something to either help you leave or to make the stay a little more bearable.
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If they've traded homogeneity for excitement that's their dime. I know that on the job I don't want interesting in the fortune cookie sense--I want to do my tasks and GTFO.
True, I don't imagine Sajak cares a whole lot if the contestants are dull.
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Thing one: well done there, smearing several members of our board with that whitewash.
Thing two: You still haven't answered the question "what would you have the contestants do differently?" If Let's Make a Deal/Treasure Hunt levels of emotion is a ten, how much do you want the contestants to emote? If that's not what you want, please be as specific as humanly possible in answering the question put to you.
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Thing one: well done there, smearing several members of our board with that whitewash.
Thing two: You still haven't answered the question "what would you have the contestants do differently?" If Let's Make a Deal/Treasure Hunt levels of emotion is a ten, how much do you want the contestants to emote? If that's not what you want, please be as specific as humanly possible in answering the question put to you.
I would hope that any members who've appeared on WoF figured I'm writing in a very broad sense as a TV viewer who knows none of them personally. If any feel smeared, my sincere apologies. I envy you.
On the scale you suggest, I'd put current WoF contestants at about a three. Let's bump them to 7 and see how it works.
It's not strictly enthusiasm level, though. On the original WWTBAM, Regis was dealing largely with culled but randomly selected people from the phone. That was more interesting to me. They weren't kooks, but it was more natural, and Regis, to his credit, drew them out.
Maybe Wheel promotes a week where they get contestants that way, maybe a local contest when they're on the road, say, in NYC. You play an online game well enough, you go into a drawing to win tickets. Win that, you show up, and they either pick from the crowd at random or screen them like TPIR. They get called onto the stage five minutes before cameras roll, set up the apple crates, let them spin a couple of times, then see what happens.
Either that, or make changes to the show that actually add excitement. Yes, it's a pleasant show, but even Concentration, a pleasant show with organ music for heavens' sake, occasionally put winners in a glass box to lunge at paper money. It doesn't have to involve screwing over (or screwing) the other contestants, but this pleasant show is now runner up to Family Feud, and the host and hostess look older and more bored than ever.
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I still say my favorite period of WoF came in the 90s when, like Pyramid, contestants got so good at the game that they actually had to try and make the game harder. It was around this time that intellectual categories like Clue and Where Are We? came along, along with shorter, more basic bonus round puzzles (and yes, Megaword).
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I still say my favorite period of WoF came in the 90s when, like Pyramid, contestants got so good at the game that they actually had to try and make the game harder. It was around this time that intellectual categories like Clue and Where Are We? came along, along with shorter, more basic bonus round puzzles (and yes, Megaword).
My take on that era was it was their attempt (see: Nancy Jones, et al) to update the show, much the way Harry Friedman did later with the mystery round and whatever else. Rather than figuring out to write puzzles with less frequent letters for the bonus, they decided to just go with super short puzzles. Instead of coming up with a concept that weaves into the game, we got Charlie's awkward $1,000 question, and the not-well-thought-out Megaword. This is purely my conjecture, but it's another possible explanation why things were changing.
-Jason
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My take on that era was it was their attempt (see: Nancy Jones, et al) to update the show, much the way Harry Friedman did later with the mystery round and whatever else. Rather than figuring out to write puzzles with less frequent letters for the bonus, they decided to just go with super short puzzles. Instead of coming up with a concept that weaves into the game, we got Charlie's awkward $1,000 question, and the not-well-thought-out Megaword. This is purely my conjecture, but it's another possible explanation why things were changing.
All good points. I do, however, notice a drastic improvement in the quality of play right around this time. Players seemed really good at puzzle management, and it wasn't too uncommon for players to rack up $12-17,000 in a round without the help of the gimmicky spaces we have now.
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My take on that era was it was their attempt (see: Nancy Jones, et al) to update the show, much the way Harry Friedman did later with the mystery round and whatever else.
Season 12 in particular doesn't seem to have been so much "updating" Wheel as it was raising the difficulty somewhat. As Kevin noted above, players were really good at racking up big hauls, which seems to have been the case for pretty much all of the show's six years at Television City.
Rather than figuring out to write puzzles with less frequent letters for the bonus, they decided to just go with super short puzzles.
In fairness to Nancy et al, the super-short puzzles made leaps and bounds more sense than Harry's "add an obscure adjective" hard bonus puzzles do these days.
Instead of coming up with a concept that weaves into the game, we got Charlie's awkward $1,000 question, and the not-well-thought-out Megaword.
I'll agree with you on the latter (Pat near-endlessly snarking about it even on episodes where it wasn't used is gold), but I thought the former was a good way to have Charlie be a bit more involved with the gameplay itself. Even then, I suspect Megaword might have been a mandated addition, since I don't think it would've lasted six-and-a-half months otherwise.
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what i liked about the shopping format is you got to hear Jack Clark a lot(and this was on both daytime and nighttime, i watched daytime Wheel over TPIR)
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I would hope that any members who've appeared on WoF figured I'm writing in a very broad sense as a TV viewer who knows none of them personally. If any feel smeared, my sincere apologies. I envy you.
My point there was to say that every contestant is someone's mom, dad, son or daughter, whether we like them or not, and just because they're dull to someone doesn't mean they're dull.
On the scale you suggest, I'd put current WoF contestants at about a three. Let's bump them to 7 and see how it works.
It's not strictly enthusiasm level, though. On the original WWTBAM, Regis was dealing largely with culled but randomly selected people from the phone. That was more interesting to me. They weren't kooks, but it was more natural, and Regis, to his credit, drew them out.
I would prefer the muted enthusiasm of the current crop of contestants to the shouting and carrying on that seemed to be the hallmark of ten years ago. (For reference, Catch 21, Lingo and Chain Reaction contestants are similarly irksome.) I'd also say that Doug van Gundy should be the patron saint of game show contestants but he's not dead yet.
Maybe Wheel promotes a week where they get contestants that way, maybe a local contest when they're on the road, say, in NYC. You play an online game well enough, you go into a drawing to win tickets. Win that, you show up, and they either pick from the crowd at random or screen them like TPIR. They get called onto the stage five minutes before cameras roll, set up the apple crates, let them spin a couple of times, then see what happens.
I've advocated for this too, specifically an audience draw once per road trip.
Plus we now have a floor for the winners of $10,000, and lots of times the winner more than doubles up after a bonus round victory. If contestants aren't going to scream and shout like it's Let's Make a Deal over winning $91,000 in the main game what can you do? Million Dollar victories get canned applause like it's a golf tournament. (Though on the other side of the coin, I would love to see waving around the prize wedges die in an inferno.)
Either that, or make changes to the show that actually add excitement. Yes, it's a pleasant show, but even Concentration, a pleasant show with organ music for heavens' sake, occasionally put winners in a glass box to lunge at paper money.
I thought this was a promotion that was apart and separate from the show itself. Was it a prize on the board, or what? And wasn't it slightly different than the standard money volcano?
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Another host's style that changed noticeably and more so because of the show, was Alex Trebek. Growing up in the 80s-90s, I only saw him on Jeopardy and Classic Concentration. He was "slightly" more laid back on Concentration, however not as fun as the earlier shows he hosted that I never saw until youtube. It's too bad Jeopardy doesn't allow for as much fun as say High Rollers. Mind you, Concentration was a bit of a dull game too unfortunately for Narz and Trebek,
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Million Dollar victories get canned applause like it's a golf tournament.
Canned applause has been added for the past decade regardless of how well the Culver City audiences react, although from everything I've read they generally don't have too much to get excited over.
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Canned applause has been added for the past decade regardless of how well the Culver City audiences react, although from everything I've read they generally don't have too much to get excited over.
Maybe not, but when you've been to the show, you quickly realize just how frequently they call for applause during the show. I can't blame people for getting tired arms quickly thus resulting in audience sweetening. Far different from he days of yore where the audience wasn't asked to applaud during every spin.
However, one of the things that seems counter-intuitive is they specifically ask for no applause while the bonus wheel is spinning, so that applause you hear on the show is canned. So... asking for no applause where they want it, so since they don't get it naturally they have to add it in. That makes a lot of sense.
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Having been to several Wheel road tapings, there's a reason that before the 1st show starts they do several minutes recording the audience applauding. It's because people leave throughout the shows and it's pretty empty before the tapings end. Matter of fact, they insert those panned audience shots into other tapings for the week. I know I spotted myself in the audience for a show I did not attend.
Not saying this happens everywhere they go, but it's happened twice for the recent NYC tapings (2007 & 2013). For the 2013 tapings in the Paramount theater, so many people were leaving in droves it caught me by surprise.
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Having been to several Wheel road tapings, there's a reason that before the 1st show starts they do several minutes recording the audience applauding. It's because people leave throughout the shows and it's pretty empty before the tapings end. Matter of fact, they insert those panned audience shots into other tapings for the week. I know I spotted myself in the audience for a show I did not attend.
Not saying this happens everywhere they go, but it's happened twice for the recent NYC tapings (2007 & 2013). For the 2013 tapings in the Paramount theater, so many people were leaving in droves it caught me by surprise.
This was happening as early as 1997, applauding for several minutes, recording the audience applauding as filler, the whole 9 yards. I saw myself in the audience of an Ohio State Fair episode which I didn't attend.
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I'm not sure if they started doing this as a precaution since day 1 or it took them a few road tapings to realize they needed to do this. Kudos to them either way.
Would their first road trip be considered the 1988 Radio City Music hall shows?
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Would their first road trip be considered the 1988 Radio City Music hall shows?
I believe so. IIRC, it was either that or Seattle, but I really think it was NYC.
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I'm not sure if they started doing this as a precaution since day 1 or it took them a few road tapings to realize they needed to do this. Kudos to them either way.
I think they realized they needed to do it during the Radio City Music Hall tapings. A couple of contemporary articles noted that less than half of the original audience was left by the time the tapings ended.
Would their first road trip be considered the 1988 Radio City Music hall shows?
I believe so. IIRC, it was either that or Seattle, but I really think it was NYC.
Pretty sure Radio City Music Hall would be considered the first, yeah. The [City] Weeks done from about 1980-82 were only for location footage and contestants, and the Ohio State Fair shows of '83 were "unofficial" nighttime episodes that only aired locally and didn't use the Burbank set.
when you've been to the show, you quickly realize just how frequently they call for applause during the show. I can't blame people for getting tired arms quickly thus resulting in audience sweetening. Far different from he days of yore where the audience wasn't asked to applaud during every spin.
Yeah, and here's the weird thing -- the tapings ran much longer during the days of the trilon-based puzzle boards, and yet those seem to have more "lively" and genuine audiences than the ones since the '97 overhaul.
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sometimes one host does a better job than the other for example i have seen both Wink Martindale and Patrick Wayne both host TTD at different times(Patrick both in orginal broadcast and on USA and Wink on GSN) and Wink was the best also his style fit the show better than Patrick i could say the same thing about Pat Finn and Jack Barry on TJW Jack Barry could be very formal and so could Pat Finn i thought their styles were different but they fit the show
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I believe so. IIRC, it was either that or Seattle, but I really think it was NYC.
Their first trip to Seattle was in Fall 1995--they had done plenty of road trips before that.
*--went to some of the shows, was taking a particular class in sophomore year in HS that pinpoints it to that quarter.
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I believe so. IIRC, it was either that or Seattle, but I really think it was NYC.
Their first trip to Seattle was in Fall 1995--they had done plenty of road trips before that.
*--went to some of the shows, was taking a particular class in sophomore year in HS that pinpoints it to that quarter.
Ah gotcha. Dunno why I thought it was far earlier.
/Still bummed I wasn't able to attend the taping when they came to Norfolk
//Also 1995, but that spring
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the thing about Jack Barry was like when Hal shear was going for his 8th win Jack said "Ladies and Gentlemen in the audience, please, very quiet" of course i have heard Dick Clark do that too and of course Pat Sajak and i remember a few times during Thom Mckee's run on TTD Wink said that too that made them very formal and i always liked that
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I thought this was a promotion that was apart and separate from the show itself. Was it a prize on the board, or what? And wasn't it slightly different than the standard money volcano?
I always figured "The $100,000 Shower of Money" was a prize on the board. They wore a raincoat and stuffed the money into a little box if that's different.
I'm not wild about Dream Car Week on TPIR, but maybe that's something Wheel could use. Put a Lamborghini, a Rolls and three other cool cars on the bonus wheel. Or take the cash off the wheel and play for one, two or three cars. Or play for a house. Or a race horse. Or your own Caribbean island. They're not afraid to hand out money, but they do it in the least suspenseful, least exciting ways possible.
When the show started in prime access, it was a big deal when someone hit the $5000 space and picked a multiple letter. Despite increasing the stakes, they haven't topped that since. Maybe it's time the $10,000 space works as a regular space.
Winning $50,000 instead of $35,000 in the bonus, while it's nice for the contestant, adds nothing to the show. Instead of the million, they could give the $100,000 ten times more often.
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When the show started in prime access, it was a big deal when someone hit the $5000 space and picked a multiple letter. Despite increasing the stakes, they haven't topped that since. Maybe it's time the $10,000 space works as a regular space.
I dunno...anytime Pat hits the $5,000 space on the Final Spin, it still allows for a chance for someone to comeback pretty easily. If someone has hit Bankrupt all game and is down by 20K, I'm not so sure I'd be as excited to see him or her make a magical comeback just because they manage to pull $22,000 (don't forget the $1,000 per letter bonus) off two Rs.
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When the show started in prime access, it was a big deal when someone hit the $5000 space and picked a multiple letter. Despite increasing the stakes, they haven't topped that since.
Have they really increased the stakes, though? Seems more like they've just chopped down how many different values appear on the Wheel. The current layout's kinda boring, especially since vowels still cost $250.
As for your comments on the Bonus Round, I agree they should go back to the "variety of prizes" method they did through Season 18. This past season, it was kinda boring and dull seeing $32,000 pop up more than anything else on the Bonus Wheel (and probably more than all the other spaces put together, not sure on that).
[EDIT: Confirmed. (http://buyavowel.boards.net/thread/7665/season-bonus-round-wheel-stats) $32,000 was hit 143 times this past season, with a win-loss record of 56-87.]
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When the show started in prime access, it was a big deal when someone hit the $5000 space and picked a multiple letter. Despite increasing the stakes, they haven't topped that since.
Have they really increased the stakes, though? Seems more like they've just chopped down how many different values appear on the Wheel. The current layout's kinda boring, especially since vowels still cost $250.
Back then, the biggest thing on the wheel in Round One was $1,000.
Now, there's $2,500, a gift tag, a prize, a car, and ONE MILLION DAMN DOLLARS.
Yeah, the stakes are a bit higher.
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I feel like this is the same discussion we were having about Wheel this time last year...
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What comes around goes around...
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I feel like this is the same discussion we were having about Wheel this time last year...
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
I'm not wild about Dream Car Week on TPIR, but maybe that's something Wheel could use. Put a Lamborghini, a Rolls and three other cool cars on the bonus wheel. Or take the cash off the wheel and play for one, two or three cars. Or play for a house. Or a race horse. Or your own Caribbean island. They're not afraid to hand out money, but they do it in the least suspenseful, least exciting ways possible.
When the show started in prime access, it was a big deal when someone hit the $5000 space and picked a multiple letter. Despite increasing the stakes, they haven't topped that since. Maybe it's time the $10,000 space works as a regular space.
Winning $50,000 instead of $35,000 in the bonus, while it's nice for the contestant, adds nothing to the show. Instead of the million, they could give the $100,000 ten times more often.
This is almost an argument that the money is what makes the show good instead of the game. (One thing I noticed is that in the old days the money would build from round to round, so not only did the top dollar value increase as the show progressed, but the middling values did as well, which meant that the game was rarely locked away.)
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Have they really increased the stakes, though? Seems more like they've just chopped down how many different values appear on the Wheel. The current layout's kinda boring, especially since vowels still cost $250.
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Inflation doesn't exist in a closed-market economy powered by Cyberial Dollars.
Have you ever considered that they want contestants to buy Lots-O-Vowels?
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Have you ever considered that they want contestants to buy Lots-O-Vowels?
I'm honestly not sure whether this is the case. It seems to be more sticking to tradition ("It's always been $250 for vowels!") than anything else, which if so is probably one of the few things I wouldn't cling to.
I do know that Lots-O-Vowels is liberally suggested by the Wheelmobile tryout people if you land on Free Play, for whatever that's worth.
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I do know that Lots-O-Vowels is liberally suggested by the Wheelmobile tryout people if you land on Free Play, for whatever that's worth.
$250 fake dollars, apparently.
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I do know that Lots-O-Vowels is liberally suggested by the Wheelmobile tryout people if you land on Free Play, for whatever that's worth.
250 fake dollars, apparently.
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I know we are talking about host styles but announcer styles cant be excluded Johnny Olsen for example fit TPIR perfectly but Rod was great at that too(Johnny was great at saying "Come On Down!" or "A New Car!" but Rod was great at saying those phrases too) I would add Jack Clark on Wheel as well- he fit the shopping era too id add Jay Stewart on LMAD- like Price it was copy heavy but Jay was great at that kind of show
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but announcer styles cant be excluded
Since this thread is about host styles, yeah, they can be.
What you're doing is called "thread hijacking" and annoys people even more than you already are.