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Post by Flowgli on Jan 2, 2015 13:00:26 GMT -5
Hello, ladies and gentlemen! I'm Flo, your host. It's nice to see you, to see you--NICE! Welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Are any of you familiar with Bruce Forsyth? He is an English television personality who is known for hosting game shows in the UK. Some of the shows he hosted had his name in the beginning of their titles, like Bruce Forsyth's Play Your Cards Right, Bruce's Price Is Right, Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game, Bruce Forsyth's Big Night, and the only game show he hosted in the US, which is the subject of this week's edition, called Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak. Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak is one of the game shows in the 1980s that lasted only one season consisting of 65 episodes. It ran from January 6, 1986 to April 4 on the same year on ABC. Like I said, this is the only game show that English television personality Bruce Forsyth hosted in the US. The show was produced by Reg Grundy Productions and originally announced by Gene Wood, who was known for announcing many game shows, particularly those produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. On the final weeks of this show, Gene Wood was replaced by Marc Summers. And yes, it is the same Marc Summers who hosted Double Dare six months after this show was cancelled, not the Marc Summers who was the original announcer on $1,000,000 Chance Of A Lifetime, which I already talked about last week. At the time Bruce Forsyth was in the US to host his only game show there, he was originally considered to be the host of a revival of Card Sharks, since he hosted the UK version of that show called Bruce Forsyth's Play Your Cards Right. But because Bruce Forsyth was working on Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak that time, he was unable to host the revival of Card Sharks, so that show went to Bob Eubanks for the CBS daytime version and Bill Rafferty for the syndicated version. Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak is a word game that is played in a battle of the sexes. There are five members on each team, and what the teams have to do is describe words to their teammates like in the many versions of Pyramid. One of the teams is a championship team, but there would be times when an episode begins with two new teams. The two teams play three rounds, and the challenging team, or the team that won a coin toss before the show, plays first in round one. Rounds two and three each have the team with the lower score, or the team that did not play first in the previous round, play first. Each round has two words, one for each team to play. In each round, one member on each team is the captain for their team, and the captain of the team going first is shown two words to choose from, while their teammates face away and wear headphones so they won't know what the words are. While the team captain is shown the two words, the studio audience and the home audience were shown the words, as well. The team captain then chooses a word by pointing at it, and that word is put into play. The clock is then set at 40 seconds, and it starts when the team captain taps the second team member in line on the shoulder, signaling them to remove their headphones and turn around to face them. From there, the team captain will describe the word in play to the second team member in line. After the second team member in line correctly guesses the word, they do the same thing with the third team member in line, and so on. Each correct guess adds money to the team's score. If all four of the team captain's teammates correctly guess the word before time runs out, then that's a hot streak. But if a team member gives an illegal clue while describing the word, then their turn immediately ends, and Bruce will hear from Burt Wheeler, the off-screen judge on the show, of what illegal clue was given. The illegal clues in this game are saying any part of the word, using gestures, and repeating important keywords that were given by another team member. Now, about the keyword repetitions, Bruce would clarify that while explaining the rules of the game to the team that was about to play first in round one. He said that a team will only be charged with words that describe the word in play, like the word "pay" used for describing the word "alimony", for example, and not little words like "he", "she", or "it", just to name a few. Keyword repetitions happen a lot in the game, and with the team captain's teammates wearing headphones and not knowing what keywords were already given until they were notified that they repeated a keyword when it was their turn to describe the word in play, there is some challenge into the game. Also, when a team member gives an illegal clue, the light on their team's podium blinks, and the face-off buzzer sound effect from Family Feud is heard. In rounds one and two, each correct guess is worth $100. In round three, each correct guess is worth $200. So, a possible $1,600 could be won in the main game. The team in the lead after three rounds wins the game, keeps the money, and advances to the bonus round. If the game ends in a tie, then the next member of each team to be the captain will both be shown one more word. I also have to mention that in rounds two and three, and in the tiebreaker, the contestants who were team captains in the previous round go to the backs of the lines, and the next team members in line become the new team captains. Now, the team captains in the tiebreaker are shown one more word, and the captain of the championship team decides whether to play the word or pass it to the other team. The team playing the tiebreaker word must make a hot streak happen. If they fail, the other team automatically wins the game. In the bonus round, the winning team plays three subjects. One of the members will be given the three subjects, while their teammates are at the back podium, wearing headphones and facing away. On a subject, the remaining team member must come up with four words for their teammates to guess. When all four of the given words are accepted and locked in, the contestant's teammates are called up to the front podium and given the subject. The clock is then set at 20 seconds, and when it starts, each of the contestant's teammates gets five seconds to come up with as many words as they can for that subject, starting with the teammate on the studio audience and home audience's right and going down to the teammate on their left. Each time a word given by the contestant is correctly guessed by any of their teammates, the team wins money. Each correct guess on the first subject is worth $200, and each correct guess on the second subject is worth $300. However, on the third subject, all four words are needed. If all four words on the third subject are guessed correctly, the money won on the first and second subjects is multiplied by five. So, a possible $10,000 could be won in the bonus round. Regardless of what happens in the bonus round, whatever they won there is added to the team's total winnings. A team can stay on the show for up to five days. For a game that's played in a battle of the sexes, it's really good, unlike that other game show of its kind that I already talked about called Sex Wars. Instead of being asked questions about men and women, teams describe words. Just one word for each team in each round may seem too little to work with on a word game, but the challenge of describing the same word differently and trying not to repeat an important keyword without knowing what it is makes up for it. The bonus round is played like Outburst, and that Outburst mechanic would later be featured on Rodeo Drive and Talk About. I like the overall gameplay, though I can't help but feel that a team should have received a bonus of some kind for getting a hot streak. There's also a prop that is lowered from the ceiling after the bonus round is played, and what that prop does is display the championship team's total winnings. No other game show has something like that, nor did any of this one's international versions, as far as I know. While I'm on the subject of this show's international versions, I will say that Germany has the most known version of it. The German version is called Ruck Zuck, and it's original run lasted for 12 years, starting in 1988 and ending in 2000. That version of the show also had a revival that started in 2004 and ended in 2005, not to mention that in 1992, it had a children's version called Kinder Ruck Zuck. I really am surprised that a game show that originated in the US and wasn't succesful like Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak would have many international versions, some having lasted longer than it. Also, at the end of just about every episode when the show came back from its final commercial break, Bruce would ask a couple of the members of the winning team what they would do with their share of the money, ask them if they are going to come back on the next episode, and the team would answer "YEAH!" The audience responded the same way when Bruce asked them the same thing. After all that, he ended the episode by saying to the home viewers, "You don't want to feel left out, do you? So, if you're feeling hot and want to streak, join us here every day of the week on Hot Streak!" Really? "If you're feeling hot and want to streak"? Wow! What an interesting way to use the words in the title of the show! That, the show's theme music, and Bruce and the winning team dancing to it after that closing line makes the show like it's a party. Speaking of party, there were some pilots of the show taped before the series, and the first pilot is called Party Line. That pilot was hosted by Gene Rayburn, who was best known for hosting Match Game. The game is played the same as it is in the series, except with some differences. First, each correct guess is worth points instead of money. Each correct guess in each round is worth one point, and if a team makes four correct guesses before giving an illegal clue or running out of time, they win a cash bonus of $500. Second, if this pilot sold, teams would've stayed on the show until they lost twice. Third, the bonus round is a lot different from the one used in the series. In the bonus round on this pilot, the winning team faces a line of nine people, and one of the members of the winning team holds a baton. This round is played pretty much like the rounds in the main game. However, the winning team does all the describing, and the nine members in line do all the guessing. The team is given a word to describe to the people in line, and the clock is set at 40 seconds. When time starts, the team member holding the baton describes the word to the first person in line. When the first person in line correctly guesses the word, the second person in line is described the same word, but like in the main game, no keywords can be repeated. The nine people will go down the line the same way a team does in the main game. If the team member holding the baton runs out of clues, they can pass the baton to one of their teammates. The team must get all nine of the people in line to correctly guess the word, and play of the word ends when all nine of the people went down the line, an illegal clue was given, or time ran out. The first correct guess earns the team $100, and each correct guess thereafter doubles the money, so the team could win up to $25,600. If that didn't happen, the team has the option to keep the money or turn it down and play another word. If they decided to play another word, then they keep whatever they won on that word after it is played, regardless of how play of the word ends. The rest of the pilots were hosted by Bruce Forsyth, and the game in those pilots were played the same as it was in the series, but with a few differences. In Bruce's first pilot, the trailing team automatically loses the game if they were still trailing after their turn in round three, while the other team gets a full turn's worth of cash in that round added to their score and wins the game. Also, in that pilot, each correct guess on the first two subjects is worth $300, and making all four correct guesses multiplies the bonus round money by ten, meaning that a team could win up to $24,000 in the bonus round. In the final pilot, the game was played almost exactly as it was played in the series. The only difference is that gestures are allowed, but they can't be repeated. So, that's the game. Those are the pilots. That's...everything. After the show was cancelled, Bruce Forsyth went back to the UK and continued hosting shows there. Hot Streak really looks like a fun game, and I can't believe how short-lived the show is in the US. I'm happy to see that other countries have their own versions of the show, past or present, though. It's a shame, though, that the UK wasn't one of the countries that ever had its own version of the show, considering the original US version was hosted by a television personality who is well known in the UK. I don't think there will ever be another "battle of the sexes" game show that would be nearly as good as Hot Streak. Nope. Never. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Jan 9, 2015 13:00:27 GMT -5
Hello, everybody! Flo here, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Who doesn't like watching TV and movies? I like watching movies. I like watching TV. If I didn't, I wouldn't be liking the movies and shows that I've liked for years and still like today. If I didn't like watching TV, then I wouldn't be a fan of game shows. And if I wasn't a fan of game shows, I wouldn't be doing anything related to them, including this series. Now, there are trivia game shows about movies and television, and I'll be talking about one of them this week. The show is called The Hollywood Game. The Hollywood Game is a primetime game show that aired weekly from June 19, 1992 to July 10 on the same year on CBS. It was hosted by Bob Goen, who also hosted Blackout, Home Shopping Game, Born Lucky, That's The Question, Perfect Match, and the daytime version of Wheel Of Fortune. It was announced by John Cramer, who also announced on the 2000 revival of Twenty-One, the 2002-2004 version of Pyramid, the NBC version of The Weakest Link, Big Deal, Trivia Unwrapped, Family Brainsurge, and The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game in the late 1990s. In this game, two teams of two play against each other in answering trivia questions about movies and television. The game is started off with nine categories, each one attached to a letter in the word "HOLLYWOOD". In round one, each team chooses a category to play in that round. After a team chose a category, they were shown two clips of movies or TV shows, and they were asked a question after each clip. Each time a team answers a question correctly, they get money added to their score. But if the team in turn gets a question wrong, the other team gets to answer that question to steal the money. In each category, the first question is worth $100, and the second question is worth $200. Rounds two and three are played the same as round one, except that each of these two rounds have three clips on each category instead of two. Round two is started off with seven categories remaining. In each category in round two, the first question is worth $200, the second question is worth $400, and the third question is worth $800. Round three is started off with five categories remaining, and in each category in this round, the first question is worth $500, the second question is worth $1,000, and the third question is worth $2,000. Sometimes, during these three rounds, teams are shown a poster or a still image before a question instead of a clip. Also, during those rounds, some of the questions require more than one correct answer, and a team must give a required amount of correct answers in order to score. If that team gave one wrong answer, the other team gets to give the remaining correct answers. After three rounds, the two teams play one more round called the Double Feature round. The two teams are shown two clips, and they are asked one question that pertains to both of the clips. Before the clips, the two teams were given a category, and they each must write down whether they want to wager either all, half, or none of the money in their score. After the two clips were shown and the question was asked, the teams each wrote down their answer. The teams then each revealed their answer and their wager, which were all written down on a two-sided slate that resembles a clapperboard. A team's answer is revealed first, and that team turns their slate around to reveal their wager. A correct answer adds the wager to their score, while an incorrect answer deducts the wager from their score. Both teams keep their money, but the team in the lead wins the game and advances to the bonus round. The bonus round is called the Fast Picture round. The winning team is given two categories to choose from, each one having a series of nine photos for the team to correctly identify. After the team chose a category, one of the team members faced the Hollywood sign, while their teammate went up the steps to play the first part of the round. This round is played in two parts, and each part has a team member identifying photos in a chosen category within 15 seconds. Each photo is attached to a letter in the word "HOLLYWOOD", and the photos are shown one at a time. Another photo is shown when a member of the team correctly identifies the one before it or passes on it. Each time a photo is correctly identified, its corresponding letter in the Hollywood sign will light up white. And each time a photo is passed on, its letter will light up blue. After the first team member had their turn, their teammate went up the steps to play the second part of the round. On the second team member's turn, they must correctly identify the remaining photos, starting with the first photo that the first team member didn't see. After working with the photos that the first team member didn't see, the second team member must work with the photos that the first team member passed on if any. If all nine of the letters in the Hollywood sign are lit up white before the team member playing the second half of the round runs out of time, the team wins an additional $25,000. But if the second team member runs out of time, the team wins an additional $1,000 for each letter lit up white. To me, this looks like a good game show for people who know a lot about movies and television. I myself couldn't come up with any other way to make a trivia game show about movies and television, though I don't know why only two questions were asked on each category in round one instead of three. I'm assuming that all nine categories in the first three rounds each have three questions, but the third question on each category played in round one was left out to save time and make the game move a bit faster. Other than that, there's just one thing about the show that really bothers me, and that's the choices of wager in the Double Feature round. There are game shows that use the wagering mechanic where contestants are limited to certain bets, like the Money Cards round on Card Sharks where all wagers had to be in increments of $50, except on the version of the show hosted by Pat Bullard, where all wagers had to be in multiples of $100. But no matter which version, there is always variety in the wagering on that show. But in The Hollywood Game, teams can only choose to wager either all their money, half their money, or none of their money. Maybe this was done because the Double Feature round is similar to the "Final Jeopardy!" round on Jeopardy!, the wagering mechanic was done the way it was to make it different. Still, it's best if the teams on that game had more wagering options. All the dollar values in the three rounds before this round were in increments of $100, so they could've at least had the teams make wagers in $100 increments. And while I'm on the subject of cash prizes on this show, I'd like to say that the cash awarded in the Fast Picture round is very good. The consolation cash prize of $1,000 for each letter in the Hollywood sign lit up white may seem too much with $25,000 as the top cash prize, but it's always good to see a winning team on the show end up with a good amount of cash to take home with them, regardless of the outcome of the round. There is a pilot that was taped before the series. It was hosted by Australian songwriter and entertainer Peter Allen, who died from an AIDS-related illness at age 48 on the day before the series began. The only difference in gameplay here is that all categories in the first three rounds are selected at random by teams hitting the buttons on their podiums, which is something I believe should've been carried over to the series rather than having the teams select the categories verbally. Instead, in the series, the buttons on the teams' podiums were used for buzzing in on a tiebreaker question, which I never saw happen in the episodes I found on the Internet. Not counting the pilot, only four episodes of the show aired before its run ended. This doesn't make it the shortest-lived game show in the history of television, but this does make it the shortest-lived game show that Bob Goen ever hosted. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Jan 16, 2015 13:00:17 GMT -5
Hi, guys! This is Flo, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Fifteen weeks ago, I talked about a spin-off of Jeopardy! called Jep!, which featured kids as contestants. The reason why I'm bringing this up is that Jeopardy! has more than one spin-off. Jep! is just one of them. Another one of the spin-offs, which I'll be talking about this week, is Rock & Roll Jeopardy!Rock & Roll Jeopardy! is a music-themed game show that aired from October 8, 1998 to May 12, 2001 on VH1. The show was hosted by the host of Survivor, Jeff Probst. The original announcer on the show was Loretta Fox, and she was replaced by Stew Hererra for the rest of the show's run. Unlike Jep!, the gameplay on Rock & Roll Jeopardy! is exactly the same as that on Jeopardy!, except all the clues are all about music. I could leave it at that, but that would make this week's edition too short. Besides, there's more to talk about this show than just the clues being all about music. So, let's go into further detail on this show, shall we? In each of the first two rounds, there are six categories and five clues under each one. Each clue has a point value, and there is one Daily Double clue in the " Jeopardy!" round and two Daily Double clues in the "Double Jeopardy!" round. Round one is started by the contestant furthest away from the host making the first selection instead of the contestant closest to the host, and Round two is started by the contestant with the lowest score. The point values in the " Jeopardy!" round are 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500, while the point values in the "Double Jeopardy!" round are 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1,000. The contestant in control picks both a category and a point value verbally, and the three contestants get to signal in after a clue is read in its entirety. A correct response adds the value to a contestant's score, while an incorrect response deducts the value from their score. On each Daily Double clue, the contestant who picks it is the only one who gets to answer it and must make a wager before the clue is given. A correct response adds the wager to their score, while an incorrect response deducts the wager from their score. Regardless of what happens in the Daily Double clue, the contestant who finds it gets to make the next selection. The show doesn't go into its first commercial break until the " Jeopardy!" round is over, and Jeff interviews the contestants right before the "Double Jeopardy!" round begins when the show comes back from its first commercial break. After the first two rounds, the "Final Jeopardy!" round is played. A category is revealed, and during the commercial break, the contestants make their wagers, and barriers are placed between the contestants so that there won't be any cheating. After the clue in the category is revealed, the contestants have 30 seconds to write down their responses. The contestants' responses and wagers are revealed afterwards, starting with the contestant with the lowest score and ending with the contestant in the lead. Each contestant either gets their wager added to their score for a correct response or deducted from their score for an incorrect response. The contestant with the most points after this round wins the game and $5,000 in cash. Later in the show's run, the values in the scoring is changed from points to cash. So, the dollar values are $100, $200, $300, $400, and $500 in the " Jeopardy!" round and $200, $400, $600, $800, and $1,000 in the "Double Jeopardy!" round. The winner keeps the money in their final score, with a minimum of $5,000. This scoring was used until the end of the show's run. For the entire run, losing contestants each receive a consolation prize, and all consolation prizes are non-monetary, unlike Jeopardy! today, where second place contestants receive $2,000 and third place contestants receive $1,000. Some of the episodes feature celebrities playing for charity, and the second place contestant receives $2,500, while the third place contestant receives $1,000. The winner still receives $5,000 or whatever they have in their final score, with the aformentioned amount still being the minimum. Also, in the celebrity episodes, a contestant who ends up with zero or a negative score after the "Double Jeopardy!" round gets their score increased to 500, just like in Jep! But unlike Jep!, where all three contestants have their scores increased to keep the differences the same, only contestants with zero or negative scores at the end of the "Double Jeopardy!" round get their scores increased. Just like in Jeopardy, contestants on regular episodes of Rock & Roll Jeopardy! who ended up in that exact situation are eliminated from the game before the "Final Jeopardy!" round begins. All right. That's the game. When it comes to Jeopardy spin-offs, I prefer this one over Jep! Even though I said before that I find Jep! more faithful to Jeopardy! than Wheel 2000 is to Wheel Of Fortune, I find Rock & Roll Jeopardy! more faithful to Jeopardy! than Jep! is to Jeopardy! Unlike Jep!, Rock & Roll Jeopardy! is a great spin-off of Jeopardy! that was played the way it was supposed to be played. It doesn't have a penalty system to go with the value deductions for incorrect responses, there are a total of 36 monitors on the game board that display the categories, values, and clues instead of just 11, each contestant has one signaling device instead of two red plungers, there is no randomizer, and best of all, Scott Sternberg is not involved in this show in any way, shape, or form. $5,000 is a good amount of money awarded on this show, but I really like that the scoring was changed during the show's run so that contestants can win more than that. The consolation prizes awarded on this show are good, too. They were trips, CDs, watches, and home theater speaker systems, just to name a few. These consolation prizes are not too cheap, but they are not expensive enough to be worth more than the cash awarded to winning contestants. So, every contestant on the show would leave with good stuff. Rock & Roll Jeopardy! premiered on the same year that Jep! did, and that year was 1998. But Rock & Roll Jeopardy! had a longer run than Jep! did, and boy, did it deserve it. Also, just like Jep!, the entire run of Rock & Roll Jeopardy! aired somewhere during the time that Jeopardy! used the sushi bar set, and the contestant podiums looked like those used on Jeopardy! at that time. The sound effects used on this show are the same ones used on Jeopardy!, but this show had its own versions of the music cues used on Jeopardy! Years after Rock & Roll Jeopardy! got cancelled, its music cues were used on Jeopardy! during the Kids Week episodes, the Teen Tournaments, and the College Championship tournaments. The crew on this show also consisted of most of the same people that worked on Jeopardy! at that time. Well, that's it. That's all there is to say about this show. I now have covered two spin-offs of Jeopardy! here on Game Show Corner. But there's another spin-off of Jeopardy! That spin-off is called Sports Jeopardy!, and all the clues in it are all about sports, of course. I won't be talking in full detail about it, though. Why? Because it's a new series that began back in the fall just months ago, and it's an online series, not a TV series. So, I'm just gonna stop right here. I have already said all that there needed to be said. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Belchic on Jan 18, 2015 17:00:37 GMT -5
Thanks for doing Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, Flo! In case anyone is wondering, this is one of the game shows I requested her to do.
One thing I might want to add: In one episode of Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, "Weird Al" Yankovic was a featured contestant. He didn't win, and as a result, during the show's credits, they played the music video to Al's 1984 hit parody, "I Lost On Jeopardy!"
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Post by Flowgli on Jan 23, 2015 13:00:16 GMT -5
Hello, there! I'm your host, Flo, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. You know about the show called Let's Make A Deal, right? You know, the show where members of the studio audience are dressed up in costumes, and can either win great prizes if they make the right decisions or end up with Zonks if they make the wrong decisions. It is now hosted by Wayne Brady, but the person who is best known for hosting the show is the original host, Monty Hall. Not only did Monty Hall host that show, but he, along with Stefan Hatos, created that show. Monty Hall and Stefan Hatos formed a company called Stefan Hatos-Monty Hall Productions, where they produced Let's Make A Deal and other game shows. Only two of that company's game shows were successful. Let's Make A Deal was one of them. The other, which is what I'll be talking about this week, was Split Second. Split Second had two runs. The original version aired from March 20, 1972 to June 27, 1975 on ABC. It was hosted by Tom Kennedy and announced by Jack Clark. The revival aired from December 15, 1986 to September 11, 1987 in syndication. It was hosted by Monty Hall and announced by Sandy Hoyt. Each version of the show features contestants being asked three-part questions and buzzing in as fast as they can to answer them. Each correct answer from a contestant wins them cash, and a contestant wins the game by winning the final round of the main game. The winning contestant is then given a chance to win a car. Now, it's time to break this down and get into further detail. Each question is split in three rows, and after the three parts of a question appeared on the game board, the three contestants buzz in as fast as they can, choose a part of a question they want to answer, and answer that part of the question. The three contestants get to answer in the order they buzz in. In the original run, each contestant has an asterisk-shaped light on the front of their podium, and those lights light up in the order the contestants buzz in. In the revival, each contestant has a number display that shows the numbers one, two, and three, making it easier to tell the order of the contestants buzzing in. An example of a question asked in the game would be this: Joseph Stalin Winston Churchill Franklin Roosevelt The question in this case would be "Each of these ally leaders was famous for the particular thing he smoked. Give me the smoke for each." For Joseph Stalin, it was a pipe. For Winston Churchill, it was a cigar. And for Franklin Roosevelt, it was a cigarette. On each episode in the original run, there was a "Memory Buster". What happens in the Memory Buster is that Tom would read a list of answers, but only three of them are correct. After the list of answers is given, the contestants will each pick an answer they think is correct. Just like in all the other questions, the contestants answer in the order they buzz in. Now, for the scoring. Money is awarded to contestants for correct answers in the first two rounds. The value of a question is determined by how many contestants gave a correct answer in that question. The less contestants who answered correctly, the more money the question is worth to each contestant who gave a correct answer in that question. In the original run, Tom Kennedy refers to having a correct answer given by only one contestant on a question as scoring a "Singleton", and in each of the first two rounds in that version, the first contestant to score a "Singleton" receives a bonus prize. This "Singleton" rule was not included in the revival. Anyway, here's how the scoring works in round one in the original run. If all three contestants answer correctly, they all receive $5 each. If two contestants answer correctly, those two receive $10 each. And if only one contestant answers correctly, that contestant alone receives $25. In round two in that run, the dollar values are increased to $10, $25, and $50, respectively. In the revival, the dollar values in round one are $10, $25, and $50, and they are doubled in round two to $20, $50, and $100. While this show is all about contestants buzzing in as fast as they can in order to choose which part of a question to answer and then answer it, there's a different rule on each run about that. In the original run, the three parts of a question are revealed first, and the contestants are allowed to buzz in before the question is read in its entirety. In the revival, the question is read first, and the three parts of it are revealed afterwards. And the contestants are not to buzz in until after the three parts of the question are revealed. If a contestant buzzes in before the three parts of the question appear on the game board, they will be forced to sit out the question until the other two contestants each got their chances to answer. Also, the answers given by contestants are judged differently on each run. In the original run, Bob Synes, who was the show's producer in that run, required contestants to have every given answer pronounced correctly; if a contestant on that version gave a mispronounced answer, they are counted incorrect, even if the given answer is correct. In the revival, host Monty Hall acted as his own judge, and he would count a contestant correct if that contestant gave a mispronounced answer or an answer that sounded close enough to the correct answer. The third round in both runs is called the Countdown Round. In this round, no money is awarded for giving correct answers. Each contestant is given a different number of correct answers needed to win the game. Also, instead of each contestant giving an answer to just one part of each question, a contestant gets to answer as many parts of a question as they can. A contestant in turn answers until all three parts of a question are answered correctly, or until they miss one part of the question. Just like in the first two rounds, each contestant takes a turn in the order the three contestants buzz in. If the contestant in turn missed one part of a question, the contestant who gets the next turn has a chance to answer the remaining parts of the question, unless the contestant in turn who missed one part of a question was the person who got the last turn on that question. In the original run, the contestant in first place needs to give three correct answers, the contestant in second place needs to give four correct answers, and the contestant in last place needs to give five correct answers. With this structure, the contestant in first place can win the game by giving all three correct answers on just one question. In the revival, the contestant in first place needs to give four correct answers, the contestant in second place needs to give five correct answers, and the contestant in last place needs to give six correct answers. Either way, each correct answer counts a contestant's number of correct answers needed down by one, and the first contestant to count down to zero wins the game. All three contestants keep the money they scored in the first two rounds, but the winning contestant becomes the champion and advances to the bonus round. Each run has a bonus round where a winning contestant has a shot at winning a car. To win a car, the contestant has to make right decisions. If they win a car, they retired from the show undefeated, and three new contestants appear on the next episode. If they don't win a car, they return on the next episode and play against two new challengers. Each return trip to the bonus round a contestant takes increases their chances of winning a car. A contestant can stay on the show for up to five days, and if a contestant wins the game on their fifth and final appearance, they win the car automatically. Here's how the bonus round works in the original run. There are five cars, and before the show, one of them is picked at random to be the winning car. The winning contestant is handed a car key and uses it to start one of the cars. If the car that the contestant chose starts, they win that car. If the car doesn't start, it is out of play for the remainder of the contestant's championship. If the contestant wins their fifth game, they choose whichever one of the five cars they want by walking up to it and touching it, and that's the car they win. Winning a car in this run's bonus round also wins the contestant a cash jackpot. On the earlier episodes of this run, the cash jackpot started at $200 and increased by another $200 each time it's not won. Later in this run, the jackpot started at $1,000 and increased by $500 each time it's not won. On the final episode of this run, three new challengers played the game. The winning contestant on that episode did not win the bonus round, but he was awarded the car he tried to start anyway, because it was the final episode, so he wouldn't get another chance to win a car by earning it himself. The cash jackpot, which was at $1,000 on that episode, was split between that contestant's opponents, one of whom was Judd Rose, who later became an investigative reporter for ABC News and died from a brain tumor in 2000. Now comes how the bonus round in the revival works. There's only one car on stage instead of five, and the winning contestant is not given a key to start the car. Instead, there are five numbered screens. One of the screens have the word "CAR" behind it, while the other four each have a cash prize of $1,000 behind them. All a contestant has to do to win the car is pick the screen that has the word "CAR" behind it. If the contestant picks one of the screens with the $1,000 cash prize behind it, they win that cash, and that screen is out of play for the rest of the contestant's championship. This would leave the contestant with only one screen left on their fifth and final win, so the contestant wins the car on their final win without having to pick a screen. Later in this run, the bonus round was changed. This time, a contestant has to pick three screens. Three of the screens each have the word "CAR" behind them, while the other two each have a smaller prize behind them. If all three screens picked have the word "CAR" behind them, the contestant wins the car. If at least one of the screens picked has the smaller prize behind them, the contestant is offered the smaller prize and must decide whether to take the prize or not. If they decide to take the prize, they retire from the show undefeated, and three new contestants appear on the next episode. But if they decide not to take the prize, they get to come back on the next episode and play against two new challengers. Regardless of how far a contestant goes on their championship, no screens are out of play after a failure to win the car. For each return trip to the bonus round a contestant takes, a cash prize that increases by $1,000 each time during their championship is thrown in with the smaller prize if the contestant fails to win the car. On a contestant's fourth win, four of the screens each have the word "CAR" behind them, while the other one has the smaller prize behind it. This makes it a bit easier for the contestant to win the car. Like before, a contestant automatically wins the car on their fifth and final win without having to pick any screens. During this run, multiple-choice questions were shown to the home viewers when the show returns from the first two commercial breaks. After a few seconds, the two incorrect answers disappear, leaving only the correct answer. Okay, I said all there is to be said about the game, so it's now time I give my thoughts on it. It's a great fast-paced trivia game where all three contestants have a chance to score on the same question. I like it when prizes are won in the main game for being the first to score a "Singleton" in the first two rounds of the main game in the original run, but I don't like it when it was not carried over to the revival. The bonus rounds are good; the way each of them work gives contestants some time to rest their hands and breathe from all that quick buzzing in and answer giving on so many questions. The bonus round I prefer is the one used in the revival before it was changed. I like that there's only one car on stage, and all a contestant has to do is pick one screen that has the word "CAR" behind it. Having five cars to choose from in the original run is nice, but I think it would've worked better if a contestant was shown as many keys as there are remaining cars during their championship, and they chose one of the keys, found the matching car, and used that key to start the car; a bonus round like that, however, came about years later on the John Davidson-hosted revival of Hollywood Squares. The change made in the bonus round in the revival is the bonus round I like the least on this show. The chances of winning the car remain the same the first three times a contestant plays the bonus round; I like it when a contestant's chances of winning the car increases every single time they make a return trip to the bonus round. Another thing that bothers me about the change made in the bonus round is that when a contestant doesn't win the car, they must choose to either take a smaller prize and leave the show or not take that smaller prize and return to the show on the next episode. I like it when a contestant who does not win the car receives a smaller prize and return to the show on the next episode. No smaller prizes were awarded for failing to win the bonus round in the original run, and I felt that it should have. This leads me to just one more thing that I had a bit of a problem with. That problem is that a winning contestant can advance to the bonus round with less money than one or both of the losing contestants; this can happen by ending up in second or last place after round two and winning the game by winning the Countdown Round. If the main game has to be played the way it was, then I prefer that either only the winning contestant keeps the money or all the contestants score points for every correct answer in the first two rounds, with the winning contestant receiving their final point score in cash. But at least this was compensated with prizes awarded or offered in the bonus round, depending on the outcome of the bonus round and the run that the bonus round is seen in, and accumulating more money on the next episode if the car is not won. But with all that aside, I still find this game a great one. After the cancellation of the revival, Stefan Hatos-Monty Hall Productions disbanded. With Split Second and Let's Make A Deal being the only two hits produced by Stefan Hatos-Monty Hall Productions, and with Let's Make A Deal currently in production after its most recent return in 2009, I don't see why Split Second can't get a 21st century revival. Split Second has great gameplay, and with higher cash values, more valuable cars, and some elements used on the show that actually made it work before, I think a 21st century revival of this show is possible. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Jan 30, 2015 13:00:20 GMT -5
Hello, young lovers, wherever you are! Flo here, welcoming you to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. At one point, I mentioned The Newlywed Game and how there were other game shows that had similar gameplay. I've talked in great length about just one of those other game shows, and it's Three's A Crowd. The edition in which I talked about Three's A Crowd is the same edition in which I first talked about game shows that focus on relationships. Now, not only were there relationship game shows that have gameplay similar to that of The Newlywed Game, but there was a relationship game show that has gameplay similar to that of To Tell The Truth. I'm going to talk about that show, right now, and that show is called Sweethearts. Sweethearts is based on a UK game show of the same name. It aired in syndication from September 12, 1988 to September 8, 1989. It was hosted by Charles Nelson Reilly, who was best known for being a regular panelist on Match Game, and there were times in the show's run when Richard Kline, who is best known for playing Larry Dallas on Three's Company, substituted for him. It was announced by Jim McKrell, who is best known for hosting Celebrity Sweepstakes and The Game Game. It was produced by Richard Reid Productions and distributed by Multimedia Entertainment. The show is all about a panel of three celebrities being introduced to three couples and figuring out which couple is telling the truth about who they are and how they first met. Examples of celebrities who appeared as panelists on the show are Sinbad, Sally Struthers, Tony Orlando, Zsa Zsa Gabor, McLean Stevenson, Phyllis Diller, Tom Poston, and Richard Simmons. Now, let's get into further detail about the gameplay. One at a time, three couples appear on stage and tell their stories on how they first met. Only one of the couples is a real couple and telling the truth about how they first met, while the other two couples are just people randomly paired up before the show and lying about how they first met. After a couple is done telling their story, each panelist asks that couple questions within an unspecified amount of time. The couple then takes their seat after the interrogation. After all three couples have been interrogated, the panel votes for which couple they think is the real one. The votes are revealed, one at a time, and the real couple reveals themselves by not standing up like in To Tell The Truth, but by giving each other a big hug and a kiss. For every incorrect vote from the panel, the real couple and the chosen fake couple each receive $500. If the entire panel voted incorrectly, the real couple receives not only the maximum cash prize of $1,500, but also a second honeymoon vacation. Just like in To Tell The Truth, the two fake couples reveal who they really are and what they really do after the reveal of the real couple. However, unlike To Tell The Truth, where two games are played in each episode, only one game is played in each episode of Sweethearts. And that's it. That's the game. Well, I don't really know what to say. I mean, this is a relationship game show that ripped off To Tell The Truth, a production of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and this show is a production of Richard Reid. And no, I'm not talking about the British man who is sentenced to three consecutive life terms and 110 years without parole for crimes that I will not be getting into. Anyway, I find it surprising that Charles Nelson Reilly was the host of this show. I will always associate him with Match Game, and probably so will many other people who have heard about him, because that's the show he was best known for. And even though this show called Sweethearts ripped off To Tell The Truth, I will say that I'm happy that this show is not another one with gameplay similar to that of The Newlywed Game, since enough shows like that were made before this one. You know, going back on the subject of game shows with gameplay similar to that of The Newlywed Game makes me want to talk about one of them on next week's edition of Game Show Corner. I've already covered one of those shows, and it was Three's A Crowd. So, I'll be talking about another one of those shows next week, and that show is what I once said is one in particular that I really want to talk about here. Yes, that time for it is coming really soon. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Feb 6, 2015 13:00:27 GMT -5
Hello, my brothers and sisters. I'm Flo, and welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Okay, this is it. On last week's edition, I mentioned that there's a particular game show with gameplay similar to that of The Newlywed Game that I really want to talk about here on this week's edition. I've been holding on to it since the end of the edition in which I talked about Three's A Crowd. So, here it is. The show is I'm Telling!I'm Telling! is the only clone of The Newlywed Game to be played by children instead of adults. It aired Saturday mornings on NBC from September 12, 1987 to March 5, 1988. It was hosted by Laurie Faso and announced by Dean Goss. It was produced by Saban Entertainment and DIC Entertainment. The game is played by three brother/sister teams instead of married couples. The three teams play two rounds. In each round, one sibling from each team is "teleported" to their "Iso-Zone"--in other words, they are taken off stage where they can't hear any of the questions asked or any of the answers given, while graphics were added to make the kids watching the show at home believe that they are really being teleported--while the other sibling from each team are asked questions from categories that are selected at random by hitting a red plunger that Laurie calls a "random selector". Each contestant remaining on stage is shown three categories and hits their random selector to select a category. After a category is selected, the contestants are asked the same question from that category, starting with the contestant who stopped the randomizer on that category. All questions asked on this show test how well contestants do know their siblings. After all the contestants' answers are recorded, their siblings are "teleported" back on stage and asked the same questions, and they must try and match the given answers. A correct match scores a team points, while an incorrect match scores that team no points and, more often than not, causes them to argue with each other. Unlike in The Newlywed Game, the recorded answers are not written on cards and held up by the contestants; they were displayed on a monitor off stage to the contestants and shown as superimposed graphics to the home viewers. In round one, the brothers are "teleported" to their "Iso-Zones", while the sisters are asked questions about them. The point values in round one are 25 points for the first question, 50 points for the second question, and 75 points for the third question. In round two, the sisters are "teleported" to their "Iso-Zones", while the brothers are asked questions about them. The point values in round two are 50 points for the first question, 75 points for the second question, and 150 points for the third question. If, in round two, it was impossible for a trailing team to catch up with the team in the lead on the remaining questions, the game automatically ends for that team, and they don't get to play those questions. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins a $1,000 savings bond and advances to the bonus round called the "Pick-A-Prize Arcade". If there's a tie for the lead at the end of the game, a prediction tiebreaker is played. Unlike the tiebreaker on The Newlywed Game, where couples tied for the lead reveal their predictions on what their final scores would be, teams tied for the lead on I'm Telling! reveal their predictions on how many of a particular item are in a large jar called the " I'm Telling! Fun Box". After the tied teams revealed their predictions, the correct number is revealed, and the team that's closest to the correct number without going over wins the game. The set revolves 180 degrees for the Pick-A-Prize Arcade bonus round, just like the set for The Newlywed Game would do for the "Goldywed" bonus round on Carnie Wilson's first season as the host years later. The Pick-A-Prize Arcade has twenty prizes to be won. Ten of the prizes are for the sister, while the other ten prizes are for the brother. The prizes for the sister are on pink platforms, while the prizes for the brother are on yellow platforms. Before the show, each contestant on each team chose which six prizes they think their sibling would want. Now, the members of the winning team each gets to choose the prizes they want, with the sister going first and the brother going second. Before each turn, the six chosen prizes out of ten for each sibling is shown to the home viewers. Each sibling chooses a prize by pressing a button next to it. Each prize not only has a button, but also a light. Each time a sibling presses a button next to a prize that was chosen for them by the other sibling, that prize's light lights up, and a siren sounds, meaning that a match is made. Each prize matched correctly is won. If the team makes ten correct matches out of twelve, they win all twenty prizes in the Pick-A-Prize Arcade. Some episodes feature teams of siblings of the same gender, and they are known as "Brothers' Week", where all siblings are boys, and "Sisters' Week", where all siblings are girls. There are also a couple of episodes where child celebrities and their real-life siblings play the game for charity, and those episodes are known as "Celebrity Week". In the "Celebrity Week" episodes, $500 in cash is awarded to a winning team instead of a $1,000 savings bond. Also, on the first aired episode, Paul Walker appeared on the show with his younger sister, Ashley. Paul Walker was best known for playing Brian O'Conner in The Fast And The Furious and its sequels, and on November 30, 2013, he died at age 40 in a single-car accident. Well, that's the show, and I think it's a really bad one. It's a clone of The Newlywed Game played by little kids, and it's a bad idea to make a game show like this. If a clone of The Newlywed Game is going to be made, then it should be saved for adults, not played by little kids. When we see children as contestants on a game show, we want to see them play the game, win cash and prizes, and most importantly, have fun. We don't want to see them act like a married couple and argue with each other over wrong answers. We don't want to see them embarrass themselves like that on television. It's enough that contestants on The Newlywed Game embarrass themselves like that. It's too much where clones of The Newlywed Game before this one were made so that even more people embarrass themselves like that on television. A clone of The Newlywed Game that's made for kids is not needed. It was never needed to begin with. Saban Entertainment and DIC Entertainment were good production companies that made many children's shows that are a lot better than this. Yes, I really hate this show that much. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Feb 13, 2015 13:00:17 GMT -5
Hello, I'm Flo. I remember obscure game shows so you don't have to! Welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Now, you're probably thinking, "Flo, why are you ripping off the Nostalgia Critic's introduction?" Why? Because the game show that I will be talking about this week has everything to do with nostalgia. Not only is this game show all about nostalgia, but it's also a game show produced by Scott Sternberg. Yes, we're back to good old Scott Sternberg. I already talked about two of the other game shows he produced on the first two editions of Game Show Corner, and they were Wheel 2000 and Jep!, in that order. But this one show about nostalgia came before Wheel 2000 and Jep! This show is called Let's Go Back. Let's Go Back was not only produced by Scott Sternberg, but it was also hosted by him. The announcer was Charlie O'Donnell, who was best known as an announcer on Wheel Of Fortune, a position he held until his death in 2010. This show ran from July 8, 1991 to May 28, 1993 on a network originally called Nostalgia Channel, then later called Nostalgia Television, then later called GoodLife TV Network, then later called American Life Network, and finally currently called Youtoo TV. Three contestants play three rounds. In the first two rounds, there are five categories on a game board, each one having four decades in it. The decades in this game are the '50s, the '60s, the '70s, and the '80s. A contestant picks a category and a decade, and a question about something that occured in that decade from that category is asked. Whoever signals in and answers the question correctly scores points and gets to make the next selection. But if a contestant signals in and answers the question incorrectly, they lose points, and their opponents get a chance to signal in and answer that question. Each question is worth 10 points in round one and 20 points in round two. One question in each of the first two rounds is a special question called the "Time Capsule". Only the contestant who picked the "Time Capsule" question gets to answer it. If that contestant answers that question correctly, they score double the point value of a regular question in that round, and they win a memorabilia-type prize. There's no penalty for answering a "Time Capsule" question incorrectly, but regardless of what happens on that question, the contestant who picked it gets to make the next selection afterwards. The "Time Capsule" question is worth 20 points in round one and 40 points in round two. Round three is the third and final round in the entire show, and it's called the Decades Round. The game board is not used in this round. Each contestant is given a different number of correct answers needed to win the game. The contestant in the lead needs to give four correct answers, the contestant in second place needs to give five correct answers, and the contestant in last place needs to give six correct answers. The contestants are read events, and they have to signal in and guess which decade a given event occured in. Like before, the decades are the '50s, the '60s, the '70s, and the '80s. Each correct answer counts a contestant's number of correct answers needed down by one. The first contestant to count down to zero wins the game and $500. And that's the show. Judging by my explanation on how the game is played, this show is nothing more than a ripoff of Jeopardy! and Split Second. The first two rounds are a ripoff of the " Jeopardy!" round and "Double Jeopardy!" round on Jeopardy! First, we got a set of categories with a set of questions, and a contestant makes two choices to have a question fully exposed; those two choices are a category and a number, but the numbers on the game board in this game are decades instead of dollar values or even point values. Second, the contestants have signaling devices that only turn on a light on a contestant's podium when that contestant signals in to answer; no sounds are made when a contestant signals in. Third, contestants add to their scores for correct answers and deduct from their scores for incorrect answers, and each question has the same value, regardless of which decade a question pertains to, except for the "Time Capsule" question. And fourth, speaking of which, the "Time Capsule" question is a ripoff of the "Daily Double" clue; only the contestant who picked it can answer it, and they get to make the next selection, whether they got that question right or wrong, but there's no wager to be made or penalty for an incorrect answer. The third round is a ripoff of the Countdown Round on Split Second, particularly the revival of that show. Each contestant has to give a required amount of correct answers to win the game--four, five, or six--depending on what place each contestant is in at the end of round two. A contestant has the number of correct answers needed to win the game counted down by one each time they gave a correct answer, and they win the game by being the first to reach zero. The prizes are cheap, too. What were offered on the "Time Capsule" questions were cheap junk that hardly anyone wants to win on a game show, and those things include a David Cassidy dress-up set, a John Travolta superstar doll, an Eight Is Enough jigsaw puzzle, Farrah's glamour center, and an "Ike" set consisting of a button, a tie clip, and a pair of earrings. And the cash prize a winning contestant receives, which is $500, is too low. Another one of the game shows that Scott Sternberg produced called Everything Goes offered either a cash prize of $1,000 or a vacation worth more than that, and that show is from the 1980s. But this show called Let's Go Back is a show from the 1990s. Couldn't they offer more valuable prizes and higher cash prizes? I know that this game is all about nostalgia, but that's no excuse for it to be so cheap and not offer better prizes. Oh, how typical of Scott Sternberg. He just has to show off how cheap of a game show producer he is every chance he gets. Making a game show about nostalgia is a good idea, but it can only work well if you don't heavily rip off other game shows and offer prizes that are so cheap that nobody will want to receive them. That's all I gotta say about the whole thing. I'm Flo. I remember obscure game shows so you don't have to! Yeah, I'm ripping off the Nostalgia Critic's ending line, too. Big deal. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Belchic on Feb 13, 2015 13:08:02 GMT -5
Oh geez! I really need to make a new Commercial Corner before this month is over, but I don't have any ideas! Does anyone have any suggestions for me?
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Post by Flowgli on Feb 20, 2015 13:00:22 GMT -5
Hi, there, people! Welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Since I started this series, I have been talking about rare game shows that many people may have or may not have heard of. So, if you think I'm gonna talk about a popular, long-running game show on this week's edition...THEN YOU DON'T KNOW JACK!Yes, this week, I'm gonna be talking about You Don't Know Jack, the show based on the computer game series of the same name where high culture and pop culture collide like sumo wrestlers playing musical chairs. This show had a very short run; it ran in the summer of 2001 on ABC. The show was hosted by Troy Stevens, which is actually a role played by Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens. The announcer was Cookie Masterson, a role played by Tom Gottlieb and one of the most well-known hosts in the computer game series. The show was produced by Carsey-Werner-Mandabach Productions and Jellyvision. Now, I never played any of the computer games, but I've seen a bit of one of them played by someone else years ago. But I've looked up some imformation about the computer games to find out how much different the show is from them. So, let's just get right into the show. Each episode begins with Troy Stevens doing something before he is ready for the show, and then telling the home viewers that if they think so-and-so, then they don't know jack. Then, we get the show's opening spiel, and after that, Troy takes a ride on a conveyor belt on the floor to where the contestants are so he can cheat them--I mean, so he can meet them. We then find out some really strange and interesting things about the contestants, and the game begins. There are four rounds in total in the game. The first three rounds are played by three contestants. Most of the questions in the first three rounds each have four answers to choose from, just like in the computer games. However, there are some questions where three titles with blanks needed to be filled in, and all the correct missing words must be given in order, which make up a phrase when a contestant answers that way. Other questions are ridiculously easy ones like "What's the name of the first person to buzz in?" or "What is the fifth word in this question?" Contestants buzz in and answer the questions, with each correct answer adding cash to a contestant's score and no penalty for an incorrect answer. After each of the first three rounds, a mini-game is played. In round one, questions are worth $1,000 apiece, except for one question in one episode in which that question is worth $250, and that question is about its dollar value. At the end of the round, the contestants play a mini-game called "DisOrDat", which is featured in almost all of the computer games that this show is based on. Two answers are shown, and the contestants are given a series of clues. On each clue, only the contestant who buzzes in first gets to answer it. Most of the time, the correct answer is only one of the two answers; but on a few clues, both answers are correct. A correct answer adds $1,000 to a contestant's score, while an incorrect answer deducts $1,000 from their score. In round two, questions are worth $2,000 apiece. The mini-game at the end of this round is called "The $2,000,000 Question". Now, a contestant does not get $2,000,000 added to their score by buzzing in with the correct answer, because if they did, then it would be impossible for the other two contestants to catch up, making this mini-game unfair to them. What really happens is that the question has a starting value of $2,000,000, and the value of the question rapidly drops as soon as Troy begins reading the question. While reading the question, Troy gets interrupted by some kind of distraction, like a dog coming by and grabbing the card with its teeth, or a group of ninjas coming in and attacking Troy, or Troy faking a sneeze, causing the card to float off his hands and around the set. After the distraction is over, there are only hundreds of dollars remaining in the value of the question. As soon as Troy finishes reading the question and the four answer choices, the value of the question is somewhere under $200. The money stops counting down when a contestant buzzes in to answer the question. If a contestant buzzes in with the correct answer, they score the remaining money; but if they get the question wrong, the value of the question continues to drop, and the other two contestants get a chance to buzz in and answer the question. The highest amount scored on this mini-game was $191, and the lowest amount scored on this mini-game was $4. At the start of round three, a consolation prize is revealed, and the contestant with the lowest score at the end of this round receives that consolation prize. Questions in this round are worth $3,000 apiece. In this round's mini-game, the contestants are given a math problem to solve. For the math problem, the contestants install anti-cheating panels between themselves. There are four numbers in the math problem, but the contestants are not given the numbers outright; a clue to each number for the math problem is given, and each clue is based on an element of pop culture or fact. An example of such a math question would be: Take the number of lives a cat has according to the cliche, Multiply that by the number of George Bush, Sr.'s "points of light", Subtract the number of times Madonna has been married, And add the number of calories in Pepsi One. After the math problem is given, the contestants have 30 seconds to solve it. During the 30 seconds, a distraction occurs, such as a marching band, a mariachi band, a baby crying, and three barbers trimming the contestants' hairs. The contestants stop working on the math problem when time is up, and each contestant reveals what answer they have written down, starting with the contestant in the lead and ending with the contestant in second place. By the way, here are the correct numbers to the math problem I just gave here: Number of lives a cat has according to the cliche - 9 Number of George Bush, Sr.'s "points of light" - 1,000 Number of times Madonna has been married - 2 Number of calories in Pepsi One - 1 So, the math problem and correct answer is: 9 times 1,000 minus 2 plus 1 equals 8,999. Yes, this is an actual problem from one of the episodes, so excuse me if there's anything in the math problem that is dated. Each contestant who solves the problem correctly gets $5,000 added to their score. The contestant with the lowest score at the end of this round not only gets the revealed consolation prize, but also is eliminated and shown disappearing via a CGI effect. The two remaining contestants advance to the final round called the "Jack Attack". The "Jack Attack" is another element of gameplay that is featured in the computer games. Troy's head appears in a very large size on the game board, and what happens is that Troy gives a category and a series of clues in that category. After a clue is revealed, a series of answers fly onto the screen, one at a time, and what the two remaining contestants have to do is buzz in and shout out an answer before it leaves the screen. A correct answer adds $5,000 to a contestant's score, but an incorrect answer deducts $5,000 from their score. The round is over after six clues are played, and the contestant in the lead at that point wins the game and keeps their money, while the remaining contestant receives the same consolation prize that the contestant eliminated at the end of the previous round received. After the game, we see Troy go off stage, where we see a situation pertaining to what happened earlier at one point in that episode play out, like the army of ninjas from the $2,000,000 question in one episode chasing after Troy for a ring that he was given at the start of that episode by a hag. This show lasted only six episodes. Not only was that revealed on a couple of articles on the Internet, but all the episodes are uploaded on YouTube. Yes, I've found all six episodes uploaded on YouTube by cirothungol, and I've watched them all. Despite never having played the computer games myself, I think the show was okay. It's not the greatest I've ever seen, but it's not bad. I myself can't come up with another way to make a game show version of the bestselling computer game series, but if there's anyone here who can, they should feel free to let me know. There are two reasons why this show had a short run. One is low ratings. The other is that fans of the computer games that this show was based on were not aware of this show's existence until it's too late. Well, it's been years since the show was cancelled, and we got places on the Internet like YouTube, where fans of the computer games can find the episodes of the show and watch them. I wonder what they think of the show, that is, if they did find and watch any of the episodes of the show on the Internet? Well, that's really all I can say about this show. That's another rare game show covered, and if you think I'm gonna talk about a popular, long-running game show on next week's edition of Game Show Corner, then you don't know jack! So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Feb 27, 2015 13:00:27 GMT -5
Hello, people! I'm Flo, and welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Here's what I'm gonna do first. I'm gonna give a list of four items. One of those items does not belong. Here we go. Below The BeltStanding Eight CountNewspaper DecisionsKnockoutWhich one of those items does not belong? Well, the item that does not belong is Knockout. What do the other three have in common? Well, they are not names of game shows. Yes, people, there's a game show called Knockout, and that's the game show that I'll be talking about this week. Knockout is a production of Ralph Edwards that aired from October 3, 1977 to April 21, 1978 on NBC. It was created and produced by Mark Maxwell-Smith, hosted by Arte Johnson, and announced originally by Jay Stewart but later John Harlan. Now, usually, at the start of a game show, we see the show's logo and hear the announcer on the opening spiel. We don't get those on this show. This show starts with Arte Johnson already on the set and asking the announcer to introduce the first three contestants of the day. The main game is played by three contestants. In the main game, the contestants are shown a list of four items, one of which does not belong. The four items on the list appear one at a time, and the contestants must buzz in and correctly guess which item shown on the list does not belong. If a contestant buzzes in and correctly guesses which item does not belong, they get a letter in the word "KNOCKOUT" lit up on their podium, and they get to decide whether to guess what the remaining items on the list have in common or dare one of their opponents to make that guess. If the contestant decides to make the guess on what the remaining items have in common themselves and they're correct, they get one additional letter lit up on their podium. But if the contestant decides to dare one of their opponents to make the guess on what the remaining items on the list have in common, and the dared contestant fails to make a correct guess, the daring contestant gets two additional letters lit up on their podium, and they get to decide whether to make the guess on what the remaining items have in common themselves for one additional letter or dare their remaining opponent to make that guess for two additional letters. A contestant who is dared to guess what the remaining items have in common gets two letters lit up on their own podium if they're correct, but if the daring contestant successfully stumps both of their opponents, they get to make that guess themselves for one more letter. Now, if a contestant buzzes in with a correct guess on what item doesn't belong, dares both of their opponents to make a guess on what the remaining items have in common and successfully stumps them, and then makes that guess themselves and they're correct, then they score a "six-letter play". A contestant who scores a "six-letter play" receives a bonus cash prize of $300, all in $50 bills. All letters on a contestant's podium are lit up in the order they spell "KNOCKOUT". Also, if a correct guess on what item on a list does not belong is made before all four items on that list are revealed, then the unrevealed items remain unrevealed until play of that list is over. More lists are played until a contestant has lit up all eight letters in the word "KNOCKOUT" on their podium; the first contestant to do that wins the game, receives a prize, and advances to the bonus round. The bonus round is played in two parts. In the first part, there are three clues to a category, and all the clues are hidden on the game board. One clue is revealed, and the winning contestant must correctly guess what all the clues on the board have in common. If the contestant makes a correct guess after a clue is revealed, they win cash, and they get a chance to multiply it by ten in the second half of the bonus round. However, if a contestant fails to make a correct guess after a clue is revealed, another clue is revealed, and a correct guess on the next clue is worth $200 less than a correct guess on the previous clue. A correct guess on the first clue is worth $500, a correct guess on the second clue is worth $300, and a correct guess on the third clue is worth $100. In the second part of the round, a new set of three hidden clues to a new category is put up on the game board, but this time, the winning contestant gets to see only one clue. The contestant gets to choose whether they want to see the top clue, the middle clue, or the bottom clue, and the chosen clue is revealed. The contestant has to correctly guess what all the clues on the board have in common using that one revealed clue. If their guess is correct, the money won in the first part of the round is multiplied by ten. So, a contestant can win either $1,000, $3,000, or $5,000. After the bonus round, the contestant plays another game. A contestant gets to stay on the show until they either win five games or lose two games. A contestant who wins five games receives a car. Also, this show has a straddling format, meaning that an episode ends at any point of the game when time for that episode is up, and the game continues right where it left off at the start of the next episode. Okay, so, that's the game, and I will say that it is great. A game show where you are shown a list of items and have to guess which item doesn't belong seems like a good one. The main game reminds me of the main game of Double Dare, and I mean the CBS show from 1976, not the Nickelodeon show. What reminds me of Double Dare when I took a look into the main game of Knockout is that when a contestant buzzes in and answers correctly, they have the option to dare another contestant and hope that they answer incorrectly in order to score even more. The bonus round reminds me of the Super Match round of Match Game. The bonus round has two parts. In the first part, the winning contestant has up to three chances to win money, and in the second part, they have a chance to win ten times what they've won in the first part. The game is played very well, and the cash prizes are good for the time. This is one of the shows that got wiped after it aired. Back then, NBC had the wiping practice, which was done to save money on tapes. Only a few episodes of the show still exist. The UK version of this show called Odd One Out, which aired from 1982 to 1985 and was hosted by Paul Daniels, can still be watched today. I've found some full episodes of Odd One Out before on YouTube, but most of the episodes of that show were removed, probably because the YouTube account in which those episodes were uploaded into was deleted. Maybe another person on YouTube will upload some episodes of that show so they can be watched by people on the Internet today. As for Knockout, though, I'd really like to see a new version done; maybe GSN can make it happen. Some of GSN's original shows are revivals to shows that came before the network was launched, after all. And because the practice of wiping has been used less and less often as the years go by thanks to advanced technology, if a new version of Knockout ever comes around, it will be one of the many shows that will be here to stay. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Mar 6, 2015 13:00:23 GMT -5
Hey, people! I'm Flo, and welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Twenty weeks ago, I talked about a game show based on a game made by Hasbro called Yahtzee, and that show is called... Yahtzee. This week, I'll be talking about another game show based on another game made by Hasbro. That game made by Hasbro is a game of unspeakable fun...TABOO! The game of Taboo has a game show version called, well, Taboo, and the show was very short-lived. It aired in 2003 on Spike TV, which was back then known as The New TNN. This show was packaged by Radio...With Pictures and The Greif Company, and it was hosted by comedian Chris Wylde. There were also two announcers, both of whom are unnamed. One of the announcers was a male announcer who introduced Chris Wylde with some kind of joke at the start of the show. The other announcer was a female announcer who talked about the prizes offered on the show. The game is played by two teams of three. And yes, there's money involved in this one, too. Even though I complained before about how a game show has teams of three playing against each other, and the cash awards on that show are less often equally divisible of three, I'm not going to complain about it here. You'll find out why later. After introducing the teams, Chris plays a word with each team to determine which member of each team will be the team captain. Chris describes a word to a team while avoiding the use of any of the five additional words listed; those listed words are "taboo". The first team member to shout out the correct answer becomes the captain for their team. After a team captain has been decided on for each team, the opening title plays, and the game begins. The two teams then play three rounds. In each round, a team captain picks which member of that team will be giving clues to words to their teammates. Each correct guess on a word scores the team points. But each word has a list of "taboo" words, meaning that none of those words can be used in a contestant's description. Rules from Pyramid apply in this game. When a contestant describes a word, they can't say the word, say any part of the word, say what letter the word starts with, or say what word the word rhymes with. If a contestant says any of those things or say a taboo word, a voice shouting "TABOO!" is heard, and that word is taken out of play. Unlike Pyramid, a word does not come back into play if a contestant passes on it. Each team has 45 seconds on each turn to get as many words right as they can. The team with the most points at the end of the game advances to the bonus round. In round one, each team has two turns, and each turn has up to eight words. In round two, each team has just one turn, and just like in round one, each turn has up to eight words. Each word in both rounds is worth one point. Round two goes by two names, and they are "Celebrity Taboo" and "Danger Round". This round is named "Celebrity Taboo", because all words in this round are names of celebrities. And this round is also named "Danger Round", because each time a contestant gives an illegal clue when describing a name, that contestant gets put into some kind of "danger". The kinds of "danger" that a contestant gets put into include getting beach balls thrown at them, having Chris play the cymbals right at them, and getting sprayed with silly string. So, yeah, the contestant isn't put into any real danger. These "dangers" were just there for laughs and to make a contestant lose concentration on describing the next name that comes into play. Round three is played the same as it is in round one more than it is in round two. In this round, which is called the "Catch-Up Round", each turn has up to ten words, and each word is worth two points. Also, to make things more difficult, each word has six taboo words. Just like in round two, each team has just one turn. All contestants each receive a Croton watch with the Taboo logo on it and a copy of the board game that this show is based on, but the winners each receive VTech cordless phones. In the bonus round, the winning team is shown three trips to choose from. Each trip has a couple of prizes and $1,000 for each team member thrown in. After a trip is chosen, a category is revealed, and all the words fit into that category. The three team members take turns describing the words in the category, with the two guessing team members sitting on stools. After a correct guess is made, an illegal clue is given, or a team member passes on a word, the three team members rotate positions before the next word comes into play. The team has 60 seconds to correctly guess six words. If the team gets six words right before time runs out, they win the chosen trip, the prizes, and the cash. But if they run out of time before they can get six words right, they receive a DVD player for each team member. So, that's Taboo, the game show. Now, I think the game would've been better if the "Celebrity Taboo" round wasn't a "Danger Round", because there really isn't any "danger" going on when a contestant gives an illegal clue in that round. The "dangers" were added into this game just for laughs, but I don't find any of these "dangers" the least bit funny. These "dangers" are just annoying, and they do nothing to make the game more watchable. Also, most of the words to be guessed in this game are movie titles, TV show titles, and brand names, whereas in the board game that this show is based on, all words to be guessed are just words. And from what I've found out about the board game, gestures and sound effects are not allowed to be used when describing a word. A contestant is allowed to use gestures and sound effects when describing a word on the show, though. I also think that the game would've been better if each team is given a choice of packet of words to work with instead of just being given a packet of words outright. I like how members of a winning team take turns describing words in the bonus round, and six is a good enough number of correct answers needed to win the bonus round, considering that teams hardly got at least six correct answers in a single turn in the main game. The trips played for in the bonus round are okay. They're all locations in North America, such as Las Vegas, New York, Mississippi, and the Canadian Rockies. There are two full episodes that can be found on YouTube, and on both of them, the trip to Mississippi was chosen. The prizes that come with a trip do seem kind of cheap. For the trip to Mississippi, the prizes are a $100 gift card from Borders and a Metrokane wine tool kit. $1,000 doesn't seem much for a cash prize in 2003, but I'm not going to complain about it here. The cash is awarded along with the trip and the smaller prizes, not to mention that each team member receives the full amount of the money; they don't split it in three ways. And I just find Chris Wylde a bit too annoying to be the host of this show. I remember seeing a commercial for this show where guys were at an audition for the job as the host of the show, and Chris Wylde was the last to come into the audition. I'll bet that if any of those guys at the audition before Chris were for real and they got the job as the host of the show, then they would've done a much better job on the show than Chris did. And that's Taboo. That's another Hasbro game with a game show version that could've been done well and instead ended up falling flat on its face. Maybe the next game show based on another Hasbro game that I'll be covering here will not be like that. Maybe it'll be a great show. We shall see. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Mar 13, 2015 12:00:18 GMT -5
Hello, my fellow game show fans! This is Flo, and welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Do you know about the game show from the UK called Catchphrase? If you've seen that "Snake Charmer" blooper that has been shown on various specials where funny moments in game show history are shown, then you have heard of the game show from the UK called Catchphrase. As you may already know, Catchphrase is one of the longest running game shows in the UK. The second longest running, I might add, right behind the UK version of Family Feud called Family Fortunes. I don't know for sure. But Catchphrase had a long run with Roy Walker as the host. Roy Walker hosted the show from 1986 to 1999. In 2000, Nick Weir took over as the host. On Nick Weir's first season as the host of the show, he broke his foot while walking down the steps to the set. Kind of reminds me of Jim Peck falling down on the stairs during the opening spiel on The Big Showdown, except Jim didn't break any part of his body. But Nick Weir hosted the show on crutches and with his broken foot in a cast. In 2002, the show was moved from nighttime to daytime, and Mark Curry took over as the host. The show was cancelled in 2004, but it was revived in 2013 with Stephen Mulhern as the host, and this revival that started in 2013 is still running to this day. Now, Catchphrase may be a long-running and popular game show in the UK, but it actually originated in the US. Yes, there was a version of Catchphrase in the US, and that's what I'll be talking about this week. So, let's dig deep into the version of the show that started it all. This is the US version of Catchphrase. The US version of Catchphrase isn't as successful as the UK version. In fact, this version only lasted as long as many other short-lived game shows in the 1980s. It lasted only one season that consists of 65 episodes. I already covered some of those shows that lasted exactly that long on here, and those shows were Hit Man, Just Men!, and Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak. This show ran in syndication from September 16, 1985 to January 10, 1986. It was hosted by Art James and announced by John Harlan. It was produced by Pasetta Productions and distributed by Telepictures Corporation. The main game is played by two contestants, with one of them usually being the returning champion. At the start of each round, one of the contestants uses their buzzer to randomly select a dollar value on the game board. Afterwards, an animation is shown on the game board. All animations in this game represent famous phrases, titles, people, and places. For example, the word "Bermuda" appears on the game board three times, and each appearance of "Bermuda" is shown as a side of a triangle. When an animation is completed, a bell will sound, and that's when the contestants get to buzz in and correctly guess what catchphrase the animation represents. But if a contestant buzzes in before the bell sounds, their opponent immediately gets a free shot at the animation. The correct answer to the example, by the way, is "Bermuda Triangle". This show has a mascot, and it is a yellow robot named Herbie. Herbie is featured in some of the animations, and he plays an important role in each animation he's featured in. The UK version has a yellow robot as its mascot, as well, except his name is Mr. Chips. Each time a contestant buzzes in and correctly identifies the catchphrase that the animation represents, the pre-selected dollar value is added to the bank, and that contestant gets a chance to score the money by solving the "Super Catchphrase", which is behind nine squares, with each square bearing the show's logo. The contestant who earned the right to solve the Super Catchphrase uses their buzzer to randomly select one of the squares, and the square that is randomly selected is removed to reveal a part of the Super Catchphrase. The contestant has five seconds to think it over and make a guess. If the contestant correctly guesses what the Super Catchphrase is, the round ends, and that contestant scores all the money in the bank. But if the contestant fails to correctly guess the Super Catchphrase, the round continues, and both contestants are shown another catchphrase to buzz in and solve. All catchphrases in which both contestants buzz in and solve are toss-ups. In round one, the challenger or the winner of a coin toss randomly selects a dollar value, and the dollar values are as low as either $50 or $100 and as high as $200. In each round thereafter, the contestant who is trailing randomly selects a dollar value, and the dollar values are all increased from the previous round. All dollar values in each round are in increments of $25. The contestants play as many rounds as time permits. If time runs out while a Super Catchphrase is in play, all the remaining squares are removed, revealing the Super Catchphrase in its entirety, and the contestants get to buzz in and solve it. Afterwards, the game is over. Both contestants keep the money they scored, but the contestant in the lead becomes the champion and advances to the bonus round. In the bonus round, the winning contestant is shown twenty-five squares on the game board, with each square labeled with a letter from A to Y. Behind each square is a catchphrase, and the contestant gets to make as many guesses on a catchphrase as they like after they choose its square. If the contestant correctly guesses a catchphrase, that catchphrase's square is marked. Behind the square labeled with the letter "M" is the most difficult catchphrase in the round. The object of this round is to get five marked squares in a row, and the contestant can make that row either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The contestant has 60 seconds to make a complete row of five squares. If the contestant makes a complete row of five squares without the square labeled with the letter "M" included in that row, they win a prize worth over $5,000. But if the contestant makes a complete row of five squares with the square labeled with the letter "M" included in that row, they win a prize worth over $10,000. However, if the contestant runs out of time before a complete row of five squares is completed, they win $200 for every square earned, and the total is doubled if one of the earned squares is the square labeled with the letter "M". A contestant can stay on the show for up to five days. Also, a contestant who wins five games receives a bonus prize, such as a car, a ski boat, or $10,000 in cash. This is a great show. Too bad it didn't do well in the US. But it did well in the UK, as well as in Australia. The Australian version is more successful than the US version, but it's not as successful as the UK version. The Australian version had three runs, all of which were hosted by John Burgess, who is best known for hosting the Australian version of Wheel Of Fortune. But getting back to the US version of Catchphrase, this show was the last game show that Art James hosted before he retired from television. The UK version premiered two days after the cancellation of the US version. In 2006, a pilot for a revival under the name All New Catchphrase was taped, but it never sold. The pilot was hosted by Todd Newton, who hosted game shows like Hollywood Showdown, Whammy! The All New Press Your Luck, and Family Game Night. The game in this pilot is played the same way as it was played in the series before it, but with two differences. First, each correct guess on a toss-up catchphrase does not add money to a bank and can only be scored by solving the Super Catchphrase; it adds money to a contestant's score, and solving the Super Catchphrase adds to a contestant's score a cash bonus, which is worth more than the value of a single toss-up catchphrase in that round. Second, the prizes in the bonus round are all cash. Each square earned is worth $1,000. But if the winning contestant makes a complete row of five squares before time runs out, they receive $10,000 if the square labeled with the letter "M" is not included in that row, or $20,000 if the square labeled with the letter "M" is included in that row. There are a few things in the show that I don't like. One is that the contestant podiums do not have any score displays; they only display the contestants' names. Sure, people watching the show can follow the game to figure out for themselves what the contestants' scores are, and they are reminded of what the contestants' scores are by Art, but it still would be nice to see the contestants' scores throughout the game. Another is that each correct guess on a toss-up catchphrase adds money to a bank and not a contestant's score, and solving the Super Catchphrase is the only way to score money. This was changed in all versions that came later, as far as I know, including the unsold pilot from 2006 to adding money to a contestant's score for each correct guess on a toss-up catchphrase and adding a bonus to a contestant's score for solving the Super Catchphrase, which is simply called a bonus catchphrase. Finally, not many rounds are played in the main game within the permitted time. Often, the game would be over after only either two or three rounds. If that was going to be the case for this show, then it would have made more sense to have contestants score cash by solving both toss-up catchphrases and Super Catchphrases, and not by solving Super Catchphrases only. Other than those things, I still find this show a great one. I just wished that the pilot for the 2006 revival had sold. That pilot looked like a good one to me; it looked like a revived series is possible, and I would've been interested in watching it had a revived series happen and be aired on a channel that I have. It really would've been a great experience. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Mar 20, 2015 12:00:24 GMT -5
Hello, juniors and seniors! I'm Flo, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Bob Eubanks is best known for hosting The Newlywed Game. But if you are a huge game show fan like I am, you would know that he had hosted more game shows than just The Newlywed Game. I'm gonna be talking about one of those shows this week. The show that I will be talking about this week is Trivia Trap. Trivia Trap was the last production of Mark Goodson with an original format. From then on until Mark Goodson Productions folded, every show produced by that company after that is a revival of a previous show. This show ran from October 8, 1984 to April 5, 1985 on ABC. The announcer of the show and the pilot was Bob Hilton, except on the first two weeks of the show's run when the announcer was Gene Wood, and on the third week when the announcer was Charlie O'Donnell. The game is played by two teams of three, and they answer trivia questions to win money. Yeah, this is one of those game shows that have teams of three play for cash that more often than not add up to amounts that are not equally divisible of three. If you've taken a look at the editions in which I talked about Yahtzee, Sex Wars, and the original version of Three's A Crowd, then you know how much of a pet peeve of mine that really is. Taboo, however, has a cash prize that is always awarded fully to each member of the of the bonus round winning team. Anyway, going back to Trivia Trap, one of the teams is called the Juniors. Each member of the Juniors team is under 30 years of age and wears a blue sweater. The other team is called the Seniors. Each member of the Seniors team is at least 30 years of age and wears a red sweater. The main game had two formats during the show's run. The original format of the main game had two rounds, while the revamped format of the main game had three rounds. I'll explain the first round under the original format and the first two rounds under the revamped format before I explain the second round under the original format and the third round under the revamped format, because the second round under the original format and the third round under the revamped format are both the same round, while the first round under the original format and the first two rounds under the revamped format are all different rounds. Man, I sure said a big mouthful there, didn't I? In the first round under the original format, the teams are shown two rows of four answers each. A team in turn chooses one of the two rows of answers, and they are asked a question pertaining to the chosen row of answers. Each team member must choose a wrong answer to eliminate. The team scores $50 for every wrong answer eliminated, and if all three wrong answers are eliminated before the right answer called the "Trivia Trap" is chosen, the cash total on that question doubles to $300. But if the "Trivia Trap" is chosen before all wrong answers are eliminated, play of the question ends immediately. After a row of four answers is played, a new row of four answers replaces it. The round ends after each team plays two rows of answers, and Bob asks a question pertaining to the remaining row to the home viewers right before the show goes into its second commercial break, and then reveals the right answer to that question after that commercial break. A game show that premiered years later called Sex Wars ripped off this round, and I already talked about how it was played there. In the first round under the revamped format, which is called "Fact Or Fiction?", the teams are asked true-or-false questions. At the start of the round, the championship team chooses from two sets of questions. One set is marked with a black dot, while the other set is marked with a red dot. Each set has three true-or-false questions. After a team chooses a set of questions, each member of that team is asked a question from that set. The team scores $25 for every right answer. After a team plays the set of questions they have chosen, the other team plays the remaining set of questions. After the first two sets of questions are played, two more are played, with the challenging team choosing a set for themselves and the championship team playing the remaining set. The round ends after each team played two sets of questions. In the second round under the revamped format, which is called "The Trivia Trap Round", the teams each have two categories to choose from. After a team chooses a category, four answers are shown, and a question is asked. One member of the team in turn chooses an answer they think is the right one, and the other members of that team each decides whether to agree or disagree with them. A team member who disagrees with the team member who answered first gets to choose which one of the remaining answers is right. If the right answer is chosen by at least one team member, the team scores money. The dollar value of a question in this round is determined by how many members of a team has chosen the right answer. If the right answer is chosen by only one team member, the team scores $50. If the right answer is chosen by two team members, the team scores $100. And if the right answer is chosen by all three team members, the team scores $200. After a team plays a category they have chosen, the other team plays the remaining category. After the first two categories are played, two more categories are given and played in the same manner. The round ends after each team plays two categories. Like I said, the second round under the original format and the third round under the revamped format are both the same round. That round is called the "$1,000 Trivia Race". This round has three slots with ten questions in each one, and every single question is under a category. A member of a team in turn chooses a category, and that team member gets the first shot at answering a question in that category. If they get the question right, the team scores $100 and chooses another category. But if they get the question wrong, the next team member gets to answer that question. If the second team member gets that question wrong, the last team member gets to answer that question. If the last team member gets that question wrong, control of the round passes over to the other team. Starting in the third week of the show's run, only the first ten questions are worth $100 apiece, and every question thereafter is worth $200. The round ends as soon as one team reaches $1,000 or more, hence the name of the round. The first team to reach $1,000 or more wins the game and advances to the bonus round. Both teams keep the money. The bonus round is called the "$10,000 Trivia Ladder". What the winning team has to do is answer questions correctly to move up to the "Pot Of Gold" worth $10,000. Unlike in the main game, where the team members work together, the team members each play the bonus round on their own. Each team member stands behind a numbered podium, depending on how they did in the "$1,000 Trivia Race". The team member who did the best in the "$1,000 Trivia Race" stands behind podium number one, the team member who did less good in that round stands behind podium number two, and the team member who did the least good in that round stands behind podium number three. The trivia ladder consists of four rungs. On the trivia ladder, there is a row of four answer monitors that goes up the ladder by one rung before a question. On the first question, the contestant standing at podium number one has the option to either answer it or pass it to the contestant standing at podium number two. If the contestant standing at podium number one passes the question to the contestant standing at podium number two, the contestant standing at podium number two has the option to answer the question or pass it to the contestant standing at podium number three. If the contestant standing at podium number two passes the question to the contestant standing at podium number three, the contestant standing at podium number three must answer the question. Whoever is answering the question must choose the right answer. If the contestant gets the question right, they receive $1,000, and they are qualified to answer the $10,000 question; but if they get the question wrong, they receive no money on that question, and they are eliminated from further play in the round. On the second question, the contestant standing at either podium number one or podium number two, depending on what happened on the first question, has the option to either answer it or pass it to the remaining contestant. On the third question, the remaining contestant must answer it. After each contestant answered their question, Any remaining contestants get to answer the fourth and final question. If either two or three contestants remain, then each contestant secretly locks in an answer by pressing that answer's corresponding button. The answer buttons are hidden under a cover on each contestant's podium. But if only one contestant remains, then that contestant verbally answers the question. If only one contestant gets the final question right, they win the entire $10,000 cash prize; but if more than one contestant gets the final question right, they split the $10,000 cash prize. Regardless of what happens in the bonus round, all three of the contestants play as a team again in the main game on the next episode, unless either that team has played the bonus round for the fifth time or the episode they just played the bonus round in is the series finale. Before I can give my thoughts on this show, I'd like to talk about the pilot. The game in the pilot is played under the original format, but with some differences. In round one, a team member has the option to either "go for it" and choose the right answer or "play it safe" and eliminate a wrong answer. If a team member chooses to "go for it", and they choose the right answer, the team scores $100; but if they choose to "go for it", and they choose a wrong answer, the other team scores the money. If a team member chooses to "play it safe", and they choose a wrong answer, the team scores $50, and the next team member gets the option to "go for it" or "play it safe"; but if they choose to "play it safe", and they choose the right answer, the other team scores the money. The third team member, however, does not get to choose whether they want to "go for it" or "play it safe"; they must "go for it" and choose the right answer. If that team member chooses the right answer, the team scores $100; but if they choose a wrong answer, the other team scores the money. The round ends after each team plays three questions. The "$1,000 Trivia Race" is played the same way as it is played in the series. There are no differences here. The "$10,000 Trivia Ladder" is played the same way as it is played in the series, but with some differences. First, the order the members of the winning team play in is determined at random. Second, there is no option to pass a question; each contestant must play a question that they are given. Third, on each of the first three questions, a contestant must eliminate all three wrong answers. Eliminating a wrong answer the first time is worth $100, eliminating a wrong answer the second time increases the money to $500, and eliminating a wrong answer the third time increases the money to $1,000 and qualifies the contestant to play the final question. Choosing the correct answer, however, eliminates the contestant from further play in the round. Just like in the series, however, any contestants who are qualified to play the final question must choose the right answer in order to win the $10,000 cash prize. There are also some differences to the look of the show. The set is darker, the seniors' side of the team area is green instead of red, and the teams are not wearing specifically colored sweaters. The graphics in the pilot are also different from the graphics in the series. In the pilot, we see a red circle with a red X inside it when a contestant makes a wrong choice of answer and a black donut on a green background when a contestant makes a right choice of answer. In the series, they are replaced by red sharp teeth-like things and targets, respectively. Also, the series displays a dollar sign when the right answer to the final question of the bonus round is chosen, while the pilot did not. This seems like a decent trivia game. I like how contestants are teamed up according to age. It's like two generations competing against each other, though the ages between contestants in two separate teams could be very close together, since the only thing that separates a contestant in one team from a contestant in another team is the age of 30 years. I've watched a handful of episodes of this show on YouTube long before I worked on this edition; I haven't watched all episodes of it. So, because of this, I wouldn't know if there is an episode where all the juniors are in their late 20s and all the seniors are in their early 30s. The gameplay is good, and if I had to choose which format I like better than the other, I would choose the original format. What I like the most about the game is how it went from the members of the winning team playing together in the main game to them each playing on their own in the bonus round. I like that the bonus round determines how many members of the winning team gets to play for the top cash prize. Something like this can be seen on The Chase, though I think it's better done on that show than it's done on Trivia Trap, since contestants on The Chase play for cash prizes that are determined by how many right answers they give in the cash-builder rounds and what offers they may take before trying to outrun a chaser in order to bank the money and advance to the Final Chase, while contestants on Trivia Trap play for a flat $10,000 cash prize. And about the "$1,000 Trivia Race", I've always wondered what would've happened if all the questions in all three slots were asked and neither team has reached the $1,000 goal. There are more game shows that Bob Eubanks have hosted, and I'll be covering them soon. Just like Trivia Trap, the other game shows that he hosted did not last as long as The Newlywed Game did, nor did any of them even come close to lasting that long. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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Post by Flowgli on Mar 27, 2015 12:00:57 GMT -5
Greetings, geeks! Flo here. Welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. If you've been looking into this series since the beginning of it, then you'd know by now that I am a game show geek. I know a lot about game shows that not many people have heard of, and I talk about them at a great length. The game show that I will be talking about this week is no exception. People, the game show that I will be talking about this week is Beat The Geeks. Beat The Geeks ran for two seasons from November 7, 2001 to October 7, 2002 on Comedy Central. It was hosted by J. Keith van Straaten in season one and Blaine Capatch in season two. It was also co-hosted by Tiffany Bolton-Hendra, created by Mark Cronin and James Rowley, and packaged by Mindless Entertainment and Fox Television Studios. Three contestants play against not only each other, but also four other people called "geeks". There's a movie geek, a music geek, a television geek, and a guest geek. The regular geeks on the show are Mark Edward Heuck, a movie geek, Paul Goebel, a television geek, Andy Zax, a music geek for most of both seasons, Michael Jolly, a music geek for part of season one, and Michael Farmer, a music geek for part of season two. A guest geek could be a Michael Jackson geek, a comic book geek, a horror geek, or a Star Trek geek, just to name a few. What the contestants have to do is outsmart a geek at their own expertise. The questions asked to the geeks are always more difficult than the questions asked to the contestants. In round one of season one, a total of eight toss-up questions are asked to the three contestants. The geeks do not play this round at all. For the first four questions, each one is under a different subject, and the subjects are always movies, music, television, and the guest geek's subject, and each question is worth 5 points. For the last four questions, each one is under a different geek's subject just like on the first four questions, and each question is worth 10 points. Contestants buzz in and answer a question to score points. After the eight questions, the contestant with the lowest score is eliminated. This round is played differently in season two. Like before, there are eight questions, but the questions are asked in pairs, with each pair of questions under a different geek's subject. The first question of each pair is a toss-up question for the contestants to buzz in and answer. A correct answer on a toss-up question scores a contestant 10 points and has that contestant play against the geek that corresponds to the subject in play on a follow-up question. A follow-up question is the second question of each pair, and on a follow-up question, the contestant and the geek have to buzz in and answer. If the contestant buzzes in with the correct answer or the geek buzzes in with an incorrect answer, the contestant scores 10 points. But if the geek buzzes in with the correct answer or the contestant buzzes in with an incorrect answer, the contestant loses 5 points. Just like in season one, the contestant with the lowest score after the eight questions is eliminated. Regardless of the season, a tiebreaker question with a numerical answer is played if the round ends in a tie for last place. Each contestant tied for last place locks in their guess and reveals it by hitting their buzzer. Whoever is closest to the correct number without going over advances to round two. In round two of season one, each remaining contestant plays against a geek in a head-to-head challenge. Each geek has a medal for a contestant to play for. The contestant with the highest score, or the winner of a toss-up question if this round begins in a tie for the lead, plays first. A contestant chooses a geek to play against, and that contestant is asked an easier question under that geek's subject. If the contestant in turn answers their question correctly, the geek will be asked a harder question and have to answer it correctly to defend their medal. But if that contestant answers their question incorrectly, they lost the head-to-head challenge, the geek defends their medal, and the other contestant gets a chance to answer that missed question for 10 points. If the geek fails to answer their question correctly, the contestant wins that geek's medal and wears it for the rest of the game. Winning a geek's medal scores a contestant 20 points, unless the medal won is the guest geek's medal, which scores a contestant 30 points. There are four questions in each head-to-head challenge, two for the contestant and the geek each. Once a geek loses their medal, they cannot be challenged again. If both the contestant and the geek each answer both of their questions correctly in a head-to-head challenge, a "Geek-Off" is played to determine who will win that head-to-head challenge. In the "Geek-Off", the contestant has 15 seconds to give as many correct answers to a given category as they can, and the geek has to do the same with a different category afterwards. Whoever gives the most correct answers wins the head-to-head challenge. This round is played with just a few differences in season two. First, if either the contestant or the geek answers their own question incorrectly, the other person in the head-to-head challenge gets a chance to answer it, so the other contestant doesn't get to answer a question missed by the contestant in the head-to-head challenge. Second, winning the guest geek's medal scores a contestant 40 points. Third, a "Geek-Off" is also played if both the contestant and the geek in a head-to-head challenge miss the same question. Round three is played the same as it is played in round two, depending on the season, but with only the geeks who still have their medals chosen to be challenged, the trailing contestant playing first, and the point values increased to 40 for each regular geek's medal won and 50 for the guest geek's medal won in season one; the point value for the guest geek's medal won is increased to 60 points in season two. After two head-to-head challenges are played in round three, a "Geek-qualizer" is played. In the "Geek-qualizer", each contestant is given a list of up to fifteen titles in season one and sixteen titles in season two. What a contestant has to do is decide if a title is then-currently best known for movies, music, or television. Each correct answer is worth 10 points, but if a contestant either gives an incorrect answer or fails to give an answer within two seconds after a title is given, their turn is immediately over. The trailing contestant plays first, and if they are still trailing after their turn is over, the other contestant automatically wins the game without having to take their turn, because it is the contestant with the most points after the "Geek-qualizer" who wins the game and advances to the final round. The final round is called the "Geek To Geek Showdown". This is where the winning contestant gets to choose a geek to play against for a prize package worth $5,000. Each geek has a different prize package for the contestant to play for. After a geek has been chosen for the "Geek To Geek Showdown", a category is given. On each category, the contestant chooses whether to play for one point, two points, or three points. A question is then asked to the contestant, and the contestant must answer that question correctly in order to score the points. The more points the contestant chooses to play for, the harder the question. After the contestant's turn in a category, the geek gets their turn in that category, but the geek cannot choose a point value that is lower than the point value the contestant chose to play for in that same category. The first person to reach seven points wins. If the contestant wins, they win the prize package related to the challenged geek's subject. So, that's Beat The Geeks. Well, what can I say? This show is great! It has to be the greatest show that Comedy Central has ever had. Yes, even better than Win Ben Stein's Money. It's the perfect show for people who classify themselves as "geeks" to play. But with some changes made in the gameplay from season one to season two, I like the way the game is played in season two better than how it's played in season one. For round one, I prefer seeing contestants earning the right to play against a geek on a follow-up question over seeing them just answering toss-up questions and not seeing the geeks take part in that round at all. And for rounds two and three, I prefer seeing a contestant's missed question being given to the challenged geek to answer over seeing it being given to the remaining contestant to answer. Oh, I almost forgot to mention exactly what Tiffany Bolton-Hendra did on that show as a co-host. Not only did she introduce the host, the contestants, and the geeks at the beginning of the show, but she also held up a tablet to show images related to some of the questions asked to the contestants and the geeks in head-to-head challenges and explain the prizes in a prize package that relates to the geek chosen for the final round. And that's the show. I've covered yet another rare game show, and I'll be covering a lot more. This just shows how much of a game show geek I really am. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.
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