That's basically been it. Each main game, the first 3 acts of the show, took around 45 minutes to tape because they let Carnie have fun with the contestants. She had ear pieces and stage managers and all of that ready to tell her to move it along, but they let her poke and prod the contestants. Plus some of the contestants took a long time to answer to some really embarrassing answer. When I get the OK to talk more about material I will, but there was one answer that sent everyone into hysterics for a few minutes and started a new catch phrase backstage. It's the first time I've ever had to walk off the set I was laughing so hard. They were good about letting Carnie riff and editing out what they don't need later.
They taped three main games in a row, then the three end games after that. The end game is the only part of the show where the ball is dropped. The front game is light, fun, and funny, like the classic version, and played for a second honeymoon. The end game (which is played the same way as the main game, but with a couple from the older version. We had a couple from the 60s last night) gets more moody with the stereotypical blue lighting, no laughing or applause, and all that stuff. And that yesterday was played, for instance, for a Sony Cybershot digital camera and printer. Just defeated a lot of the fun of the first 25 minutes with the far-too-serious last five minutes.
