Tag Archives: game shows

Jul 08

Not a match; the board goes back

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Dave Letterman went through a little phase where he would occasionally use the non sequitur “Not a match; the board goes back.” I knew exactly where that phrase came from; it was one of the game shows I remember from my game-show-loving childhood. In fact, even though I was only 7 years old when he gave it up, I remember Hugh Downs hosting it.

Somehow, I thought of “Concentration” tonight, and after looking up the Wikipedia entry, I learned that there were, as you might expect, clips on YouTube:

One of the returning champions has an incredibly unpleasant expression, as if she’s terribly unhappy about having to play for prizes.

I remember having the home game version, with all the rebuses on a little newsprint scroll. The numbers and prizes were little plastic tabs that fit into a clear window, with the rebus underneath.

Oct 05

TV’s big dealer

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Well, Drew Carey has apparently worked out well as the host of “The Price Is Right,” so now CBS has hired one of his old “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” chums to resurrect another game show staple. Wayne Brady is now hosting “Let’s Make A Deal.”

Brady’s announcer/sidekick on LMAD, Jonathan Mangum, is yet another improv comic, a veteran of the ill-fated “Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show.”

What’s next: Ryan Stiles hosting “Truth or Consequences”? Colin Mochrie on “Name That Tune”?

Of course, now that I think about it, Brady was last seen hosting “Don’t Forget The Lyrics,” or maybe that other show that came on about the same time and had a suspiciously-similar format. So it’s not like this is his first game show.

It’s still an interesting landmark. When I was a kid, there were all kinds of game shows on daytime network TV. I was a complete game show geek, especially when I was on summer vacation during the first half of the 1970s. Over the years, the network game show roster gradually dwindled down to just “The Price Is Right,” with soap operas, expanded network morning shows, and syndicated daytime talk shows taking up the slack. There are, of course, syndicated game shows, and some stations, especially independent or emerging-network stations, run those during the day. But the heyday of the daytime game show is long gone.

According to Wikipedia, the new LMAD is “the first new network daytime game show since NBC’s ‘Caesar’s Challenge’ in 1993.”

I taped the first episode of LMAD today and I’m watching it right now. The original LMAD was fun sometimes, but it was never one of my favorites. But Brady seems to be doing a pretty good job. He’s slicker than Drew over on TPIR, but he still has a good rapport with the goofily-costumed contestants.

When Drew Carey started hosting “The Price Is Right,” I’ve read that they ran the episodes out of order — they picked a good strong episode to air first and make a first impression, even though it hadn’t been the first episode taped. Since TPIR doesn’t feature returning champions or anything like that, it doesn’t matter in what order the episodes air.

I’m guessing that they did the same thing with “Let’s Make A Deal.” Otherwise, I would have liked to have seen some mention of Monty Hall. Hall is still alive and appeared on “Good Morning America” as recently as a year ago, again according to Wikipedia.

There have been two other hosts of short-lived LMAD revivals since the original run: Bob Hilton and “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, but Hall is the original long-time host and co-creator of the show, and if I were starting a new version I’d pay him tribute as quickly as possible.

Dec 20

The Price is (exactly) Right

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This post, from writer Mark Evanier, is fascinating. I had not heard about the incident in question. You should go read Evanier’s account and watch the YouTube clip at his site, but to summarize: a rabid fan of “The Price Is Right” has memorized the prices of many of the show’s frequently-used prizes. Based on that knowledge, he shouted out a suggested bid to one of the contestants in the “Showcase” at the end of the program. It’s not clear if he had any connection to the contestant or was just being helpful. At any rate, what happened next (after a long and un-televised delay for producers and host Drew Carey to analyze the situation) was unprecedented in “Price Is Right” history.

It’s a close parallel to the case back in the 1980s when a viewer figured out a seemingly-random pattern of lights on the game show “Press Your Luck” and trained himself to beat the system. In both cases, what was done may have seemed like cheating but was completely legal under the rules as they existed at the time. Producers will no doubt have to make some sort of change to make sure it doesn’t happen again — such as taking more care to include at least some non-repeat prizes in any showcase. As Evanier says, they would be ill-advised to try to do away with audience kibbutzing — it’s part of the fun of “The Price Is Right.”

Sep 10

Deal

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If, like me, you originally enjoyed “Deal or No Deal” but have become tired of the increasingly gimmicky tone and the way in which the show sometimes seems to mock its colorful-character contestants, you might want to check out the half-hour daytime version, which started this week. Here in Middle Tennessee, it runs Monday through Friday at 6:30 p.m. on WUXP (broadcast channel 30).

It’s a scaled-down but much faster-moving version of the show, and after having seen one full episode and parts of two others I have to say I like it better.

Here are the changes:

There are only 22 cases, with a top prize of $500,000, as opposed to 26 and $1 million in the nighttime version.

Although there are two models, the briefcases are held by contestants waiting to play the game. The two models operate a wheel numbered from one to 22, and generally stand by throughout the game so that the camera can show them clapping and looking sympathetic. The game begins by spinning the wheel. The contestant whose case number is chosen comes forward, bringing their own case with them. (Because they did not choose that case, Howie gives them the opportunity to switch it for one of the other cases before the game starts in earnest.)

The same basic contestant pool stays on the show all week, so that you can get to know and root for them, and the contestants-in-waiting are good sports about rooting for whomever is playing the game at a given moment. So you don’t have family members standing by giving advice as in the nighttime version.

The game moves much, much faster. The banker offers aren’t drawn out for 10 minutes, there are (so far) no gimmicky moments based on the contestant’s favorite celebrity or sports team, and there seem to be far fewer “colorful” contestants with Scarlett O’Hara, Marge Gunderson or Tony Soprano accents. A lot of times on the nighttime version, you feel like the producers and/or Howie are making fun of the contestant; I don’t get that vibe in the daytime version.

I like this version so far. It could end up sticking around after the nighttime version has thrown in the towel.

Dec 23

Duel

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I will be surprised if it turns out that the “Duel” game show mini-series did well in the ratings this week. I enjoyed it, but the rules are hard to pick up at first, and I’m not sure enough people will make the effort to figure them out. (I came in in the middle of a game and actually went to the ABC web site to look up the rules.)

It’s a head-to-head quiz that involves strategy as well as knowledge. As I indicated, it’s hard to explain, but here’s my attempt.

Each of the two contestants gets 10 chips. A multiple choice question is asked, with four possible answers. In order to stay in the game, you must place a chip on top of the correct answer every time — but you may place as many chips as you like. If you can’t decide between answer A and answer C, for example, you can place chips on both of them. If you are completely clueless, you can place chips on all four answers, which guarantees you have covered the right answer and will survive until the next question.

The trouble with covering up more than one answer is that you will get back the chip covering the right answer, but you will lose any chips which are covering wrong answers. Since you start out with only 10 chips, they can disappear quickly if you cover all the answers on every question.

The first player to decide where to place his chips and lock in his choice triggers a seven-second timer on the other player to lock in his answers. Neither player can see what the other is doing, and there’s sometimes an advantage in trying to bluff the other player into a panic by locking in your choice quickly, making the other player think you know the answer when you’ve really just covered all four answers.

Eventually, as the players lose their chips, one or the other will end up failing to cover a right answer and lose the game. The winning player then gets to choose his or her next opponent from the contestant pool. The original plan was that the four players with the best records from last week’s episodes would compete in the finals tonight. However, there was a tie for fourth place, so tonight’s finale will start off with a sudden-death playoff between two players for that last seat in the finals.

The jackpot for the eventual winner of the week-long tournament is based on the number of wrong chips collected — each time a chip is lost, the jackpot increases. It’s already nearly $1.5 million going into tonight’s finale.

Oct 16

The Password is … Regis

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Being a “Password” fan, I can’t wait to see this, although I fear they’ll use something more like the gimmicky “Super Password” or “Password Plus” rules rather than the original, elegant rules.

Regis is a great choice as host, however.

Speaking of classic Goodson-Todman game shows, I taped Drew Carey’s debut on “The Price Is Right” yesterday and watched it last evening. He obviously had a few jitters, but I can already see he’s going to do a great job with the show, as I had predicted he would.