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Post by Flowgli on Apr 3, 2015 12:00:27 GMT -5
Hi, everybody! This is Flo. 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. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had a blackout button? I would find it nice if I had a blackout button myself, because then, I would use it to mute anything I don't want to hear wherever I want, whenever I want to, and for as long as I want. Unfortunately, they could only be found on this short-lived game show from 1988 called Blackout. Like one of the game shows I covered here called Hit Man, Blackout was produced by Jay Wolpert and one of the game shows that only lasted one season consisting of 65 episodes. It replaced The $25,000 Pyramid in the 10:00 AM timeslot on CBS, and it ran from January 4, 1988 to April 1 on that same year before being replaced by The $25,000 Pyramid. This makes Blackout one of the shows to be replaced by a show it originally replaced. This show was hosted by Bob Goen and announced by Johnny Gilbert, except on the final two weeks of the show's run in which Jay Stewart was the announcer. This was the last show in which Jay Stewart had announcing duties before he committed suicide in 1989. Blackout is a word game played by two teams, each consisting of one contestant and one celebrity. One of the contestants is usually a returning champion. The two teams are shown a word puzzle that is in the form of a pun with four words missing. The celebrity on one of the teams has twenty seconds to describe one of the missing words, while the contestant on that same team wears headphones so they can't hear the celebrity's description of that word. While the celebrity is describing a word, they cannot repeat an important keyword related to that word being described. I'll explain why later. Also, the celebrity cannot say any part of the word in play in their description; but if they do, the time used to describe the word immediately stops, and the other team gets credit for the word by default. After the twenty seconds are up, the celebrity stops describing the word, the contestant removes the headphones, and the celebrity's description of the word in play--which was recorded--is played back for the contestant to hear. But the celebrity on the other team has a "blackout button", which they can use to mute up to seven seconds of the recorded description of the word in play plus one more second for every repetition of a keyword that the celebrity on the team in turn made in that description. So, the celebrity describing the word in play cannot repeat a keyword, because doing so adds more time to the opposing celebrity's muting time. Each team has a blackout button, and each blackout button has handles used to grip on and push the button down. A celebrity can have their blackout button pushed down for as long as they want. When the blackout button is no longer pushed down, more of the recording of the description is heard. If the total time of muting the recording runs out before the recording itself finishes playing, no more of the recording can be muted; by that point, the remainder of the recording is heard, even when the blackout button is pushed down. Now, there's a strategy that needs to be taken into consideration when it comes to using the blackout button to mute some of the recorded description of a word. The person using the blackout button should only push it down when the important keywords related to the word described are coming right up. When little words that don't describe much comes up, or when pauses or any stuttering comes up, they should release the blackout button. So, yeah, a blackout button should be pushed down on keywords that describe the word in play. After the recording of the celebrity's description is finished playing, that celebrity's contestant partner gets to guess the word based on what they heard in the recording of the description. If the contestant correctly guesses the word, they win $100, the word is placed on the game board, and that contestant and their celebrity partner gets five seconds to think about their guess on the puzzle and solve it afterwards. A contestant also wins $100 and earns them and their celebrity partner the right to solve the puzzle by default if the celebrity on the other team gives an illegal clue when describing the word. If the contestant on the team in turn fails to correctly guess the word, the contestant on the other team gets to guess the word. The way a team solves the puzzle is reading it while filling in the four blanks with all four correct words in the correct order. If a team correctly solves the puzzle, they win the round; but if they fail to correctly solve the puzzle, another one of the missing words in the puzzle is played in the same manner. If the team in turn fails to correctly solve the puzzle after all four missing words are placed on the game board, the other team gets a chance to solve it. The second round is played the same way the first round is played, but with a new puzzle and the roles in the teams switched. This time, it's the contestants who do the word describing and description muting, and it's the celebrities who do the word guessing. After this round, the team that wins two rounds wins the game, and the contestant on the winning team becomes the champion. If the game ends in a tie at one round won by each team, a tiebreaker word comes into play. In the tiebreaker, both celebrities put on their headphones, while the contestant who won the most money from the words played in the first two rounds--or the contestant who won a coin toss in case of a tie--is given the tiebreaker word and the option to either describe that word or pass it to the contestant on the other team. Whoever is describing the word only has ten seconds instead of twenty, while their opponent can use the blackout button to mute up to three seconds, not seven, of the description when it is played back. The contestant using the blackout button in the tiebreaker still gets one second added to their total muting time for each illegal repetition their opponent made in their description. After the recording of the contestant's description is finished playing, that contestant's celebrity partner has to correctly guess the word in order for the team to win the game. If the celebrity on that team fails to correctly guess the word, the other team automatically wins the game. The winning team plays the Clue Screen round. In this round, one member of the team is shown on the screen clues to a subject under a category, while the other team member has their back facing the screen. The category and clues for each subject is shown to the home viewers via superimposed graphics. A category is given, and the team member viewing the screen is shown up to six clues to a subject under that category. The clues appear on the screen one at a time, with each new clue appearing two seconds after the previous clue. When the team member viewing the screen thinks there are enough clues for their teammate to correctly identify the subject, they must shout the phrase "Solve it!", and the contestant must turn around to face the screen and correctly identify the subject using the clues given to them. After each subject, the guesser must turn their back to the screen again before the next subject comes into play. The guesser has 70 seconds to correctly identify five subjects. If the guesser correctly identifies five subjects before time runs out, the contestant wins $10,000. However, if time runs out before five subjects are correctly identified, the contestant wins $250 for every subject correctly identified. That's Blackout. I like the gameplay in this show. Part of the gameplay in the main game is similar to another equally short-lived game show that I already covered here called Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak. They both are word games where teams have to describe words without repeating any keywords related to them. Even though Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak came two years before Blackout, I think the game works better on Blackout more than it does on Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak. Unlike Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak, Blackout is not played in a battle of the sexes. Sure, there are some episodes of the show where there is one team consisting of males only and the other team consisting of females only, but that does not make this game show a "battle of the sexes" game show. I find the bonus round good, too, despite it not having any "blacking out" in it like in the main game. The time limit of 70 seconds in that round seems a bit random to me, but it's still a fair amount of time for a team to win that round in. The opening of the show in each episode can bring some laughs to the people watching it. It did just that to me the first time I saw it in a clip on YouTube. The opening is an animation of two women at a table, with the only parts of the women that are shown being their arms. The woman on the left was talking a lot, while the woman on the right was annoyed with all that talking going on and on. In fact, the woman on the right grew so annoyed with all that talking that she placed a blackout button on the table and pushed it down to mute the talking that the woman on the left was still doing. As the talking was muted, some light laughter could be heard, which was the same case as in the game itself sometimes. On the final episode, Bob Goen announced that Johnny Gilbert has been out for the show's final two weeks, including the day this episode was shot, because he was sick. After that, Pat Harrington, one of the guest stars who appeared on that episode signed off by singing "Auld Lang Syne", a song that is traditionally heard on New Year's Eve, even though this episode aired on April Fools' Day, and Bob Goen, Crystal Bernard, and the show's final champion joined in. The pilot episode was hosted by former Entertainment Tonight anchor Robb Weller. The opening of the pilot is shown on a television played in the background during the opening sequence of the ABC miniseries The Stand. Speaking of Entertainment Tonight, Bob Goen became an anchor on that show years after Blackout got cancelled. Also, this show had a short-lived Dutch version hosted by Bert van Leeuwen. In conclusion, Blackout was an interesting word game that was unable to get an audience, since people were angry that CBS had this show replaced The $25,000 Pyramid. Those people must have been really happy when Blackout was cancelled after 65 episodes and The $25,000 Pyramid was put back into its former timeslot, where it remained for the next 13 weeks until it got replaced by the Ray Combs-hosted revival of Family Feud. There's another game show that got replaced by a show it replaced, and it's a game show from 1975 called Blankety Blanks, not to be confused with the Australian version of Match Game of the same name. I'll be talking about Blankety Blanks next week. 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 Apr 10, 2015 12:00:50 GMT -5
Hello again, folks! 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. Last week, when I talked about a show called Blackout, I mentioned that the next game show that I will be talking about right here on Game Show Corner will be Blankety Blanks. So, that's just what I'm gonna do this week. Here's Blankety Blanks. Blankety Blanks is a production of Bob Stewart, the same guy who produced Pyramid. It aired on ABC from April 21, 1975 to June 27 on that same year. It was hosted by Bill Cullen and announced by Bob Clayton. Now, before I get into talking about the game, I'm gonna get into talking about Bill Cullen. Bill Cullen was one of the most well-known hosts in game show history. He had hosted more game shows than anyone else. Blankety Blanks was only one of the shows that he hosted. He also hosted the original run of Blockbusters, the original run of Chain Reaction, Child's Play, Place The Face after Jack Smith and Jack Bailey, Eye Guess, Three On A Match, Hot Potato, and more! Just about all of these game shows that Bill Cullen hosted are what I can consider rare, so I have a lot of these shows to cover here on Game Show Corner. Some of these game shows are more well-known than others, but none of them are as well-known as the game shows we have today, whether they're brand new or decades old that are still in production to this very day. Not only was Bill known for hosting many game shows, but he was also known for his very thick glasses and going through life with physical limitations from polio. Because of his physical disabilities, all the sets of the game shows he hosted were constructed in a way that he would only have to take a minimum amount of steps to get into hosting position. Okay. Now, I'll talk about how Blankety Blanks is played. The game is played by two teams, each one consisting of a contestant and a celebrity. The two teams are shown a puzzle under a category and a set of keywords. The puzzle has six clues that are hidden behind numbers ranging from one to six. To determine which member of which team gets a shot at solving the puzzle, Bill randomly picks out one of one hundred cards from a big, rotating wheel and places that card in an electronic reader. Each team member has exactly twenty-five cards on the wheel. After a card is placed in the electronic reader, a dollar value appears in front of one member of one of the teams, and that team member picks one of the hidden clues by number. Each hidden clue to a puzzle is one half of a sentence, so there are three sentences in a puzzle, and the three sentences describe a subject under the category and set of keywords in play. After a clue is revealed, the team member in turn must correctly identify the subject described in the puzzle without conferring with their teammate. If that team member correctly identifies the subject in the puzzle, the money is added to their team's bank, and that team earns the right to win the money for the contestant on that team by solving a puzzle called a "Blankety Blank", which is a puzzle in the form of a pun with at least two blanks at the end. However, if the team member fails to correctly identify the subject in the puzzle, the money is gone, and Bill randomly picks another card. On the Blankety Blank, the team member who earned themselves and their teammate the right to win the money in their bank for the contestant on that team is allowed to confer with their teammate before making a guess. The missing words at the end of a Blankety Blank each has a blank that is specifically lengthed to help out the team in control in solving that Blankety Blank. Also, when Bill reads a Blankety Blank, he refers to each blank as "blankety", except for the last blank, which he refers to as a "blank." Here are a couple of examples. One example is "When Roy Rogers shot his gun while riding his horse, he used his blankety-blank". The correct response to that Blankety Blank is "Trigger finger". Another example is "The sailor covered the floor of his boat with jacks, queens, and kings, because he wanted a blankety-blankety-blank". The correct response to that Blankety Blank is "deck of cards". Those two examples were shown in the opening spiel of the pilot episode. If the team in control correctly solves a Blankety Blank, the contestant on that team wins the money, and the contestant on the other team gets a strike. But if the team in control fails to correctly solve a Blankety Blank, no strikes are given, and a member of that team has to solve a new puzzle under a new category and set of keywords to add more money to that team's bank and earn another shot at winning the money for the contestant on that team by solving another Blankety Blank. The dollar values are as low as $100 and as high as $2,500. A contestant stays on the show until they get three strikes. Later in the show's run, the game changed a bit. This time, the dollar values are as low as $100 and as high as $750, correctly solving a Blankety Blank doubles a team's bank, and the first team to reach $2,000 or more wins exactly $2,000. And that's all there is to Blankety Blanks. Really, that's just about it. Bill Cullen did well as the host of this show, but the game is just uninteresting. I find the gameplay slow and the puns not a bit entertaining. The puzzles in the form of puns were done better on Blackout than they were done on Blankety Blanks. Both Blankety Blanks and Blackout have a lot in common. They are both short-lived word games played by two contestant-celebrity teams, who must fill in blanks on word puzzles that are in the form of puns. Not only that, but they also got replaced by a show it originally replaced after cancellation. Blackout replaced and got replaced by The $25,000 Pyramid. Blankety Blanks replaced and got replaced by reruns of The Brady Bunch. However, unlike Blackout, which got cancelled after 65 episodes, Blankety Blanks got cancelled after only 50 episodes. This show was to last a minimum of one season consisting of 65 episodes just like Blackout and other game shows back in the 1970s and the 1980s, but it got cancelled after 50 episodes because of how low the ratings were. Because of how this show got cancelled after ten weeks instead of thirteen, Bill Cullen was quoted in a magazine article that this show "didn't get a fair shake". This show is another game show that has almost all of its episodes destroyed due to the practice at the time called wiping. The only episodes of this show that are known to still exist to this day are the pilot episode and the premiere episode. Speaking of the pilot episode, the way the game is played in that episode is the same way it is played in the earlier weeks of the series. The only differences in gameplay in the pilot are that the dollar values are in increments of $25, unlike in the series where the dollar values are in increments of $10, and that the clues in a subject under a category and set of keywords are chosen by letters instead of numbers. There are either two or three letters in each sentence that describes the subject under a category and set of keywords, and each letter is part of a clue to the puzzle. No matter what format was used in the game, it's just not an interesting show. With the original format, the same two contestants can play on and on for days by failing to correctly guess the punch line of a Blankety Blank every single time a contestant earned the right to do so, thus not giving a strike to their opponent. With the format change, the game is better, but awarding a winning contestant only a flat cash prize of the exact winning goal rather than awarding that contestant the winning goal or more makes scoring cash actually pointless. If a contestant wins the game with, let's say, $2,360, then they should be awarded $2,360, not just a flat $2,000. You know, I'm glad that Blankety Blanks got cancelled after being aired for only ten weeks instead of thirteen and never saw the light of day again. And I'm glad that nearly all of the episodes were destroyed. To be honest, it didn't deserve to have a "fair shake". Bill Cullen was the only thing good about this show, while the rest of the show is just a drag. Enough 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 Flowgli on Apr 17, 2015 12:00:19 GMT -5
Hello. I'm Flo, and I welcome you to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Today, I'm going to talk about another game show that aired on Comedy Central. The first one I talked about was Beat The Geeks. This show was hosted by some guy who speaks in a monotone voice and is featured in commercials for a product called Clear Eyes. Yes, I'm talking about Ben Stein. And anyone at the time of this show that he hosted who is smart enough, fast enough, and who has the guts could Win Ben Stein's Money. Win Ben Stein's Money was produced by Valleycrest Productions and Buena Vista Television, the same companies that produced Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, and the latter company known today as Disney-ABC Domestic Television. This show ran from July 28, 1997 to January 31, 2003. This show had a co-host. In fact, there were three different co-hosts during the show's run. The first co-host was Jimmy Kimmel; he was also the co-host that people who watched this show remembered the most. He co-hosted the show from 1997 to 2000. The second co-host was Nancy Pimental. She co-hosted the show from 2000 to 2001. The third and final co-host was Jimmy Kimmel's cousin, Sal Iacono. He co-hosted the show from 2002 to 2003. The game is played by three contestants in a Jeopardy!-style trivia game for a chance to win the top cash prize of $5,000 from Ben Stein. Each time a contestant answers a question correctly during the main game, money is deducted from the $5,000 cash prize and added to that contestant's score. Now, before I go into further detail about the gameplay, I have to say that the money played for in this show is not Ben Stein's money; that money is really part of the show's budget paid to contestants by the show's producers. If a contestant fails to win the entire $5,000 cash prize in the final round, the remains of that cash prize is paid to Ben Stein at the end of a season. All of that was what a disclaimer said in the closing credits of every episode. So, now that I got that out of the way, let's go back to talking about the gameplay. At the start of the first round, the three contestants are shown five categories that are in the form of puns, and the contestant who won a drawing chooses one of the categories. Each category in this round has two questions. The first question in each category is a toss-up question worth $50, $100, or $150. The more difficult a question, the more money it's worth. Whoever rings in and answers the toss-up question correctly scores the money and gets to answer the second question in that same category without having to ring in. That question is a follow-up question worth $50 if answered correctly by the contestant who answered the toss-up question correctly. If the contestant answers the follow-up question incorrectly, the other two contestants get to ring in and answer that question. If the toss-up question is not answered correctly by any of the contestants, the follow-up question becomes a second toss-up question for all three contestants to ring in and answer for $50. After the two questions, the category is finished, a new category replaces that category, and the contestant who last answered correctly chooses the next category. Unlike Jeopardy!, there is no penalty for answering a question incorrectly, but there is a penalty for phrasing an answer in the form of a question. A contestant who phrases their answer in the form of a question is forced to wear a dunce cap for the rest of the round. The round is played until a cuckoo clock sounds. At that point, the contestant with the lowest score is eliminated, and all the money they scored is added back to the $5,000 cash prize. If the round ends in a tie for last place, the tied contestants are asked a tiebreaker question. Whichever tied contestant rings in and answers correctly advances to the next round. But if a tied contestant rings in and answers incorrectly, the other tied contestant advances to the next round. At the start of the second round, the two remaining contestants are moved down to the left and center podiums from the perspective of the home viewers, while Ben occupies the remaining contestant podium. From this point forward, the co-host takes Ben's place as host, and Ben becomes a common contestant to defend "his" money from being scored by the two remaining contestants. Also, Ben no longer has any advanced knowledge of the questions that are to be asked. This round starts off with five categories, and Ben chooses the first category to be played. Each category in this round has only one question, and that question is a toss-up question worth $200, $300, $400, or $500. If a contestant answers a question correctly, they score the money. However, if Ben answers a question correctly, there is no change in the scores. Ben's total is actually on the display that shows how much money is left in the $5,000 cash prize and not on the score display on the contestant podium that he occupies in this round, which only shows a dollar sign for the entirety of this round. After a question, the category is finished, and whoever last answered correctly chooses the next category after a new category replaces the category that was just played. Whichever one of the remaining contestants is in the lead at the end of this round keeps the money and advances to the final round, while all the money scored by the other contestant is added back to the $5,000 cash prize. The last contestant standing and Ben play head-to-head in the final round called the "Best Of Ten Test Of Knowlegde". The contestant and Ben each go into a soundproof booth and answer ten questions within 60 seconds. The contestant has the option to play first or second, and both the contestant and Ben are each asked the same ten questions. The booth for the contestant is a plain one that has a crack in the wall in the later episodes of the show's run, while the booth for Ben is a nicely decorated one. While either person is having their turn, they can pass on a question if they get stuck, but once they pass on a question, they can't go back to it. A person's turn ends when all ten questions are answered or passed, or when time runs out. After each person has a turn, whoever answers the most questions correctly wins. If the contestant wins, they win the entire $5,000 cash prize. If Ben wins, the contestant only wins the money they scored in the first two rounds. If this round ends in a tie, the contestant gets $1,000 added to the money they scored in the first two rounds. That's the show, but there are some special episodes. One of those special episodes is a "Ben Stein's Cup" episode. In that episode, contestants who won the $5,000 cash prize earlier returned to play for a cash prize of $25,000. The dollar values in that episode are $200, $400, and $600 for the toss-up questions in round one, $200 for the follow-up questions in round one, and $800, $1,200, $1,600, and $2,000 for questions in round two. Another special episode is where Ben and Jimmy switch roles on the show, with Ben taking Jimmy's place as co-host and Jimmy taking Ben's place as host. There are also special episodes where the game is played in locations outside the set, such as UCLA and Venice Beach. There is also an episode where Ben and Nancy are dressed up nicely, the set is decorated with balloons, and a cake is brought in to celebrate the show's 500th episode. One more special episode that I would like to point out is one that features all three contestants actually named Ben Stein! Yeah, no joke. What makes this show different from other game shows other than it having a host who plays the game as a contestant in the later half of the game is that it uses classical music for its main theme and music cues. I guess it works, since it fits the atmosphere of the show. This is a good trivia game with an interesting twist, which is the host becoming a contestant later in the game to keep the real contestants from scoring any more money, while the co-host takes place as host. If there's anything that I have a problem with this show, it's the top cash prize being $5,000. With a game show that's all about contestants competing to win all the money that the host is trying to defend, I can't help but think that the top cash prize should've been a five-figure amount. Well, before the show first aired, Ben Stien actually wanted the top cash prize to be $10,000, but it wasn't clear at the time on how often Ben would win. Other than that, it's a good trivia game. It's an interesting one, but not exactly as interesting as Beat The Geeks. This show had two foreign versions. One of them is a UK version called Win Beadle's Money, with Jeremy Beadle as the host and £1,000 as the top cash prize. Another is an Australian version called Win Roy & H. G.'s Money, with Roy Slaven and H. G. Nelson as the hosts and $5,000 as the top cash prize. Both of these foreign versions are short-lived, while the original American version called Win Ben Stein's Money lasted a good six years, making this show the longest-running game show that I've talked about so far here on Game Show Corner. There are other game shows that lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of just that long, and yet they are still less popular enough to be considered rare. I'll be getting to those in later editions. 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 Apr 17, 2015 12:33:48 GMT -5
Flo, I don't know how you manage to make these posts every Friday at the same time. Simply amazing!
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Post by Flowgli on Apr 17, 2015 13:03:55 GMT -5
I've had editions ready in advance before I posted them. Before I started doing this series, the first nine editions were completed. Between editions posted, I take the time to work on more editions and save them on Notepad.
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Post by Flowgli on Apr 24, 2015 12:00:12 GMT -5
Hi, there, people! 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. Are you a mindreader, yes or no? Well, if the show that I'm gonna talk about this week is still around, which it hasn't been for thirty-five years, then people would get to find out if you are a mindreader or not as you play a game of hunch and ESP called Mindreaders. Just like the two game shows I covered here before, which were Sex Wars and Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak, Mindreaders is a game played in a battle of the sexes. It ran from August 13, 1979 to January 11, 1980 on NBC. It is a production of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, even though Bill Todman died fifteen days before this show premiered. It was hosted by D ick Martin, who was best known for co-hosting Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In with Dan Rowan. Also, this show was announced by Johnny Olson, who was best known for being the announcer on many other shows that were produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, particularly The Price Is Right from 1972 to 1985 when he died from a cerebral hemorrhage. The game is played by two teams, each consisting of three contestants and one celebrity. The celebrities are the captains of their respective teams. Teams take turns playing questions, and each question has two answers to choose from. After the team in turn is asked a question, the contestants on that team each secretly locks in an answer, and the celebrity captain of that team has to predict how each contestant on that team answered that question. If a celebrity makes a correct prediction on how a contestant answered the question, the team wins $50, and that celebrity gets to predict how the next contestant answered that question. But if a celebrity makes an incorrect prediction, the other team automatically wins $50, and the celebrity on the other team gets to predict how each of the remaining contestants on the team in turn answered that question. The game is played until a team reaches $300, and the team that does just that wins the game and advances to the bonus round. The bonus round is played in two parts. The first part of the bonus round is called "Judge The Jury". One at a time, the contestants on the winning team face the "jury", which consists of ten members of the studio audience. The jury is asked three "yes or no" questions, one for each contestant to work with. After a question is read, the members of the jury each secretly locks in an answer, and the contestant in turn must predict how many members of the jury answered "yes" on that question. D ick then moves a marker in front of the jury to the number that the contestant guessed, and the correct number lights up afterwards. If the contestant guesses the exact correct number, they win $500 for their team. If the contestant is off by either one or two, they win $200 for their team. If the contestant is off by three or more, they win no money for their team. After the "Judge The Jury" portion of the round is over, the team plays the second half of the round called "Celebrity Turnabout". One question is asked to the celebrity on the winning team, and that celebrity picks up a card that either has "yes" or "no" on it. Each contestant on the team then makes an individual prediction on how that celebrity answered that question, and that celebrity turns the card around to reveal their answer. If the majority of the contestants correctly predict how the celebrity answered the question, the contestants' total winnings earned in the "Judge The Jury" portion of the round are multiplied by ten. A possible $15,000 can be won in the bonus round. After the winning team plays the bonus round, they play another game against the same team they played against on the last game. The same two teams play against each other for three games, and they both retire from the show afterwards. So, a team can win up to $45,900 on the show. And that's it. That's all there is to Mindreaders. The gameplay isn't too bad, but it's not really that interesting. It's simply all about locking in an answer to a "yes or no" question or any other "this or that" question, and then having someone else predicting how that question is answered. Another production of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman called Match Game has panelists writing down answers to questions and sliding them in slots, and contestants giving answers that will hopefully match the panelists. What makes Match Game different from Mindreaders, however, is that it's more entertaining. Match Game has fill-in-the-blank questions that can make good jokes and amusing results by how a panel of lively celebrities and the contestants fill in the blanks. Mindreaders has "yes or no" questions or any other "this or that" questions that are asked about the contestants and the celebrities themselves. I really don't find Mindreaders entertaining. Also, with each team consisting of three contestants and one celebrity, this show does have this one problem that I have in game shows, and I think you know what it is by now. It seems to me, however, that this show tries to make the total cash prizes won by teams equally divisible of three. I mean, $300 is the goal to winning the game, up to $15,000 can be won in the bonus round, and every team on the show plays exactly three games before retiring from the show. Also, with each guess worth exactly $50 in the main game, there's no way to exceed the $300 goal. Even though it looks as if the show is trying the best it can to make all total cash prizes equally divisible of three, the question I asked in the edition in which I talked about Yahtzee applies here: What are the chances that a team could win the exact same amount of cash three times? Mindreaders was originally intended to have a run of 26 weeks, but it got cancelled after only 22 weeks. NBC thought that D ick Martin would be good enough to get an instant audience for the show due to his legacy from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, his guest appearances on Match Game, and his hosting on The Cheap Show, with the last aforementioned show having premiered a year before Mindreaders premiered. Normally, a host for a game show is chosen by the person who created or produced the show. But in this case, the host was chosen by a network. It was NBC that chose D ick Martin to host Mindreaders, not Mark Goodson. Mindreaders is one of the last game shows to have most of its episodes erased due to the practice of wiping, and it is probably the only production of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman to have never been aired in reruns due to this practice. After the cancellation of Mindreaders, the original run of Chain Reaction replaced it the following Monday, and I'll tell you that Chain Reaction is a much better game show than Mindreaders. Mark Goodson and Bill Todman gave us good game shows with gameplay that's simple for people to follow. However, I would consider Mindreaders to be one of the weakest shows that Mark Goodson and Bill Todman had to offer, and I considered it that because of how the gameplay is a bit too simple, and if a game show has gameplay that's too simple, it will be a boring game show to watch. I've talked about a game show with gameplay that's too simple before I talked about Mindreaders, and that game show was Inquizition. Next week, I'll be talking about a game show that has simple gameplay yet is an interesting game show to watch. Keep an eye out for that. 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 May 1, 2015 12:00:27 GMT -5
Hello to all of you big music 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. MTV. Everyone who has ever watched that channel should know what those three letters stand for. Any person who doesn't know what those three letters stand for should really get some help. MTV stands for Music Television. In the early years of MTV, it was mainly about music, which is what the "M" in MTV stands for and should always stand for. In recent years, not much of the network's programming mainly focuses on music, which leads people to believe that the "M" in MTV should stand for something other than music. But like many other networks, MTV has original game shows of its own. The first and most well-known game show to be produced and broadcasted on MTV was Remote Control, which was also the first show on that network to not have music as its main focus. But I'm not even gonna talk about Remote Control. This week, I'm gonna talk about MTV's second game show called Turn It Up!Turn It Up! is a game show that has music as its main focus, unlike Remote Control, which has television as its main focus. It aired from June 30, 1990 to December 7 on that same year. It was hosted by Jordan Brady and announced and co-hosted by Stuffy Shmitt, with the latter having provided the music with his band, Zombo Combo. Also, it was packaged by Chauncey Street Productions. The game starts off with three contestants, each of whom are standing at a Casio keyboard with a microphone and a footlight. The three contestants play against each other in the first two rounds. Each of the first two rounds have four categories, and each category has three questions. I would say that this is another game show that has similar gameplay to that of Jeopardy!, but instead, I'm gonna say that it has similar gameplay to that of Remote Control. I say this because even though the values of the questions are displayed from top to bottom under each category, contestants only choose the categories and not the values of the questions; the values of the questions under each category are played for in order, and a contestant who rings in and answers a question correctly adds to their score and has the option to stick with the category currently in play or choose another category. The first question under a category is worth 10 points, the second question under that category is worth 20 points, and the third question under that category is worth 30 points. The point values are the same in both of the first two rounds. What really makes these rounds different from each other are the types of questions asked. All questions in both of these rounds are about music, but questions in round one are normal music questions, while questions in round two are audio clips of interviews of artists, clips of music videos, and portions of photographs of artists. Here are some of the categories in which questions like those in round two are featured: Total Recall - All questions are about one music video, which the contestants are shown thirty seconds of before the questions. Sing This - All questions are clips of music videos, and a music video stops after a verse in that music video is sung, and a contestant has to ring in and sing the next verse. Say What? - All questions are clips of music videos, each of which feature an artist singing some lyrics for a contestant to repeat after ringing in. Pick A Player - All questions are asked by the members of Zombo Combo, and each question under this category is about a musician who plays the same musical instrument as the member of Zombo Combo who asks that question. In each of these two rounds, a horn playing the "Charge" fanfare is heard when there is only one minute left in that round. Each round ends when either all the questions on the game board are asked or Zombo Combo plays the show's theme song, with the latter indicating that time for that round is up. At the end of round two, the contestant with the lowest score is eliminated. The two remaining contestants play the third and final round of the entire show called "Add-A-Track". This round is similar to the Build-A-Tune game from the short-lived 1977 daytime version of Name That Tune. Zombo Combo plays four songs, each of which is played for up to 30 seconds. Each song is started with only one instrument being played, and another instrument is added to the song in play every five seconds. What the contestants have to do is ring in and name the song in play. A correct guess scores a contestant points and wins them a prize, but an incorrect guess gives the other contestant a chance to name the song in play. The contestants' scores from the previous two rounds are cleared temporarily. In this round, the first song is worth 25 points, the second song is worth 50 points, the third song is worth 75 points, and the fourth song is worth 100 points. After the four songs are played, the round is over, and the contestants' scores from this round are added to their scores from the previous two rounds. The contestant in the lead at that point wins the game and the daily prize. However, if a contestant correctly names all four songs played in this round, they win the grand prize. And that's Turn It Up! I really like this show. The gameplay is simple to follow, but not too simple to bore people like the show I talked about last week called Mindreaders. The band on the show, Zombo Combo, did very well in providing the music. I find the set kinda cool, too, and I believe it to be faithful to what this show and the network it aired on was all about, which is music. It's a shame that this show lasted only six months. Just about all the other game shows that aired on MTV and its sister network, MTV2, have a lot less to do with music. Heck, some of those other game shows have nothing to do with music at all. Now, what would this show be like if it has a revival airing today? Maybe it would not be as good as it actually was years ago. It probably would have an even shorter run than it did years ago. It probably would feature a band that's not as good as Zombo Combo. It probably would be hosted by someone who is not as good as Jordan Brady. And it probably would only air one night a week on MTV2, just like Hip Hop Squares and Joking Off. Hopefully, MTV or MTV2 will one day come up with a game show that centers around music as much as Turn It Up! did, has the gameplay be good, and gives away prizes that are really worth playing for. 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 May 8, 2015 12:00:19 GMT -5
Hello, people! It's me, Flo! Welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. For the first time, I'm going to talk about a game show that is entirely in black and white. I have to say that on the edition in which I talked about Split Second, I've forgotten to mention that the earlier episodes were in black and white, while the rest of the run was in color. But this game show that I will be talking about this week had all of its episodes in black and white. In fact, this was the last American daytime show that aired in black and white, despite the Big Three television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, having converted to color in 1967. Yes, this show I'm going to talk about, ladies and gentlemen, is Everybody's Talking. Everybody's Talking aired on ABC from February 6, 1967 to December 29 on that same year. It was hosted by Lloyd Thaxton, who was best known for his syndicated pop music television show called The Lloyd Thaxton Show. Also, this show was announced by Wink Martindale and Charlie O'Donnell, produced by Jerome Schnur Productions and Screen Gems, and created by Jack Barry. Now, I have to explain Jack Barry's involvement with this show before I talk about how the game is played. Jack Barry created this show while working for Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for a short time. However, his name was kept off the credits due to many people having claimed that he was involved in the rigging of Twenty One and Tic-Tac-Dough, both of which he created with Dan Enright and hosted in the 1950s. Now, we can get to how the game is played. The game is played by three contestants. In this game, the contestants are shown a film of people on the street describing a person, place, or thing. The film has a starting value of 100 points, and the value of the film drops as the film plays on. The value of the film is stopped from dropping any further by the first contestant to buzz in. When a contestant buzzes in, the film stops, and that contestant gets to guess the subject that the people on the street in that film are describing. After the contestant makes a guess on what the subject is being described in that film, they are not told right away whether they are correct or incorrect. Instead, the contestant's guess is displayed in a speech bubble on a wall behind them, and the film continues, with the point value remaining frozen at where it is at the time the contestant buzzed in. For example, if the first contestant to buzz in buzzes in with the value of the film at 85 points, the point value remains at 85 points for that film. If any of the remaining contestants disagree with the contestant who buzzed in first, they can buzz in and make their guess on what the subject is being described in that film, but they have to do it before the film ends, since they don't know when the film will end with the point value frozen. The point value of the film drops at a certain speed, which depends on the length of that film. For example, if a film lasts exactly two minutes, its point value drops by one point every 1.2 seconds. Also, the film ends with the subject described in it revealed. The contestant who correctly guesses the subject described in the film scores the points. If no one correctly guesses the subject described in that film, no one scores the points. More films are played in the same manner until one contestant reaches 100 points or more, and the first contestant to do that wins the game, receives their winning score in cash, and advances to the bonus round. In the bonus round, the winning contestant is shown one film, and the subject being described in that film is shown to the studio audience and home viewers before the film is played. Just like in the main game, the film in the bonus round has a starting value of 100 points, and the value of the film drops as the film plays on. All the contestant has to do is buzz in to stop film and the point countdown, write down what they think the subject is being described in that film, and watch the rest of that film to find out if their guess is correct or incorrect. A correct guess on the subject described in that film wins the contestant double the point value of that film in cash, but an incorrect guess on the subject wins them nothing extra. Regardless of the outcome of the bonus round, the contestant plays another game against two new contestants. In the summer of 1967, the game started being played by celebrities, and the celebrities played for the home viewers. The show began with the celebrities each drawing a postcard before entering the studio to determine which home viewer they're playing for. The first celebrity to reach 100 points or more wins a prize for the home viewer whom they were playing for, while the other two home viewers whom the other two celebrities were playing for each receive a consolation prize. Other than all that, the game remains the same. That's it for the show, but there's another show based on this one that premiered in 1973 and also created by Jack Barry. That show is called Hollywood's Talking, and I'll go into further detail on that show on next week's edition of Game Show Corner. But going back to Everybody's Talking, I think that the gameplay is good. Having contestants watch films of people describing subjects and guess the subjects being described reminds me of a game show from the early 1980s called Child's Play. And you know what? I'll be talking about Child's Play in three weeks. This leaves a gap between Hollywood's Talking and Child's Play. What will I be filling that gap with? Well, I'll be filling it with the second game show that Lloyd Thaxton hosted, and that show premiered about ten months after the cancellation of Everybody's Talking. That show is called Funny You Should Ask!Okay, now, going back to Everybody's Talking once again, I find the gameplay good, like I said. If there's anything I find wrong with the show, it's the cash prizes. A contestant can win from $100 to $199 for winning the game and up to $200 for winning the bonus round. So, the cash prizes are low, even for 1967. I know that cash prizes played for in game shows back in the 1960s aren't huge, but there are some game shows from that time that had contestants win more than how much a contestant could win in one game of Everybody's Talking. There are some game shows in that time period where contestants could win up to $500 in one playing of a bonus round. So, the bonus round here could've been played for five times the point value of the film shown in it in cash. On the premiere episode, which can be found on YouTube, a contestant named Mike won the game with $131 and won $72 in the bonus round, making it a one-game total of $203. Also, having celebrities play for prizes for the home viewers is okay. I'm just hoping that that change only lasted a week or two and went back to having civilians play the game. I'm afraid I'll never know if that change lasted until the end of the show's run or not, because almost all the episodes are believed to be wiped. There are only two episodes that are known to exist, and they are the premiere episode and the episode that aired on June 2, 1967. There was also a board game based on the show, and it was released by Watkins-Starthmore in 1967. This makes me wonder how someone can manage to make a board game based on a game show that's all about watching films of people on the street describing subjects. Well, that's really all I have to say about this show. So, let's go over the shows that I'll be covering in the next three weeks again. They are Hollywood's Talking, Funny You Should Ask!!, and Child's Play. Those shows will be covered in that order. 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 May 15, 2015 12:00:21 GMT -5
Hello, people on the street. 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. Last week, I talked about a show called Everybody's Talking. At the end of that edition, I mentioned three game shows that I'll be talking about next. This week, I'll be talking about a show based on Everybody's Talking. Actually, this show that I'm about to talk about is a revival of Everybody's Talking. This show is called Hollywood's Talking. Like Everybody's Talking, Hollywood's Talking was created by Jack Barry. It ran from March 26, 1973 to June 22 on that same year on CBS. This makes this show one of the many shows at the time that lasted one season consisting of 65 episodes. It was hosted by Geoff Edwards and announced by Johnny Jacobs. This show was the very first game show that Geoff Edwards ever hosted. Geoff Edwards is best known for hosting Starcade, a revival of Chain Reaction that aired on USA Network and Global Television Network, and the NBC and syndicated runs of Jackpot. This is also the first show from Jack Barry that Geoff Edwards hosted; he hosted his second game show from Jack Barry called Play The Percentages in 1980. Like Everybody's Talking, the game is played by three contestants, who watch videos of people describing subjects and buzz in and guess what subject is being described. There are many differences from Everybody's Talking that are featured here, and I'll explain them along the way. The people describing the subjects in the videos are celebrities, not people on the street. Instead of points, each video is worth money. Each video has a starting value of $150, and for each third of a video that went by, the value of that video drops by $50. Also, a video's dollar value is not frozen by the first contestant to buzz in. And instead of having a contestant's guess on a subject displayed on a speech bubble on a wall behind that contestant, having that contestant's opponents buzz in when they disagree, and having contestants not told if their guesses are correct or incorrect until a video ends, a contestant is immediately told if their guess is correct or incorrect after they buzz in and make their guess. A correct guess earns a contestant the money, but an incorrect guess locks that contestant out for the remainder of the video. More videos are played in the same manner until one contestant reaches $200 or more, and the first contestant to do that wins the game. All three contestants keep whatever money they earned in the game. Originally, the winning contestant plays a bonus round called "Short Subjects". In this round, the contestant is shown a series of five videos, each of which lasts 15 seconds. On each subject, the contestant is allowed to buzz in as many times as they wish, meaning that they can make as many guesses as they want on a subject, and that there is no penalty for making an incorrect guess. Regardless of the outcome of this round, the contestant is awarded the same cash total won in the main game for each correct guess. But if the contestant correctly guesses all five subjects within one minute, they win an additional $1,000. So, a contestant can win the main game with $200 at least and $300 at most, meaning that each correct guess in this round is worth either $200, $250, or $300. Also, if a contestant runs out of time on one of the videos before they make a correct guess on a subject described in it, the $1,000 bonus is no longer played for. The more videos a contestant runs out of time on in this round, the less money they play for. Later in the show's run, Short Subjects was removed. So, instead of playing a bonus round, a contestant has a shot at winning a car and a cash bonus by winning three games. The first time a car and a cash bonus was won happened somewhere in the final week of the show's run. Now that I'm done talking about how the game is played, I'm going to say that I like this show better than I like Everybody's Talking. I like it when contestants are immediately told whether they are correct or incorrect after they make a guess on a subject. I also like the bonus round played early in the show's run; a contestant is shown up to five videos, not just one, in one minute, and they win hundreds of dollars for correctly guessing the subjects described in those videos. Too bad the bonus round was dropped just for a car and a cash bonus awarded to a contestant who wins three games, since such prizes were awarded somewhere in the final week of the show's run, meaning that they were awarded only once, I suppose. After the show's cancellation, it was replaced by a revival of Match Game, which, by that time, premiered the format that many game show fans know and love. The original format of Match Game, which is known as The Match Game and aired from 1962 to 1969 on NBC, was different from all the versions that came after that. Also, only four episodes of Hollywood's Talking are known to exist. One of those episodes is the series premiere, which can be found in two different accounts on YouTube. The other three episodes are those that aired on March 28, April 2, and April 9. It is unknown if the other sixty-one episodes were wiped or not. So, I just talked about Hollywood's Talking, a revival of a show I talked about last week called Everybody's Talking, which was the first game show that Lloyd Thaxton hosted. Next week, I will be talking about Funny You Should Ask!!, the second game show that Lloyd Thaxton hosted. Keep an eye out for that. 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 May 22, 2015 12:00:22 GMT -5
Hello, my funny friends! 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. Two weeks ago, I talked about the first game show that Lloyd Thaxton hosted called Everybody's Talking, and I talked about that show's revival called Hollywood's Talking the week after that. This week, I'll be talking about the second game show that Lloyd Thaxton hosted called Funny You Should Ask!!Like Everybody's Talking, Funny You Should Ask!! aired entirely in black and white. Even though I said two weeks ago that Everybody's Talking was the last show in America to be aired in black and white, just remember that I said that Everybody's Talking was the last American daytime show to be aired in black and white. So, Funny You Should Ask!! had to be a nighttime show, obviously. It wasn't made perfectly clear on what time of the day this show aired, but it did air on ABC from October 28, 1968 to June 27, 1969. This show is a production of Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley, the same people who produced many game shows whose key elements are, in some cases, magnified to larger than life; the best example of such a game show is Hollywood Squares with its gigantic tic-tac-toe board. The announcer of Funny You Should Ask!! was Kenny Williams, who was best known for being the announcer on many other shows that were produced by Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley. This show features a panel of five celebrities and two contestants. At the start of each round, the panel is asked a dilemma-type question, while the contestants are locked away in a soundproof booth so they can't hear the question asked and the answers given. Each celebrity gives a different answer to the question, and after all five celebrities give their answers, the two contestants are brought out of the soundproof booth and asked the same question. Lloyd reads four of the five answers in random order, one at a time. After an answer is read, each contestant secretly locks in which celebrity they think gave that answer by pressing a button corresponding to that celebrity on their podium. Each contestant then explained which celebrity they chose and why they chose that celebrity. The celebrity who gave that answer is then revealed, and each contestant who made a correct guess on which celebrity gave that answer scores a point. After four answers are played, the contestant with the most points wins the round and receives a $100 gift certificate from a catalog company called Spiegel. If a round ends in a tie, the contestants split the gift certificate equally. During a round, the contestants have a chance at winning a jackpot called the "Funny Money Jackpot". To win the Funny Money Jackpot, a contestant has to play a perfect round; in other words, a contestant has to make all four correct guesses in a round. The Funny Money Jackpot starts at $100 and increases by another $100 on each new round if it is not won. The contestants play as many rounds as time permits. If time runs out in the middle of a round, the contestant with the most points at that point of the round immediately wins the round and automatically receives the $100 gift certificate. After the game is over, the points scored by the contestants are added up, and Kenny announces which contestant has the most points in total. The contestant who scored the most points in the entire game is the winner, and the winner receives a prize. That's really all there is to the show. It has simple gameplay for people to follow, but for a panel game show, the gameplay is interesting. There are many panel game shows that have existed, and just about every single one of them have the panel either answering questions and giving wild information on specific subjects for contestants to decide who is telling the truth and who is lying, secretly locking in answers to questions for contestants to match, or taking turns answering questions to figure something out for contestants to stump them. This show, however, has each panelist giving a different answer to the same question for contestants to decide who said which. As of today, I don't know any other panel game show that has gameplay similar to that of Funny You Should Ask!! Another thing about this show that I like is the cash and prizes awarded. The prizes awarded to winning contestants are decent for their time, the way gift certificates are awarded to contestants at the end of the rounds are good, and the Funny Money Jackpot is the greatest feature I've seen on this show. That jackpot may start off too low, but it increased a lot during the show's run, making it really good enough to play for. I don't know how many times that jackpot was won or what the highest amount in that jackpot was won, but in one of the episodes of this show that I found on YouTube, Lloyd ended that episode by announcing that that jackpot would be at $4,700 at the start of the next episode. Considering that the Funny Money Jackpot was able to go up that high and possibly even higher from the starting point of $100, and that this show lasted only eight months, I'm assuming that the Funny Money Jackpot was won no more than two or three times during the show's run. So, that's all I have to say about Funny You Should Ask!! There's just one other show I promised before that I will cover here on Game Show Corner, and that show is Child's Play. That will be coming up next week. 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 May 22, 2015 14:00:22 GMT -5
This reminds me: The month is almost over! I should really start writing my next Commercial Corner!
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Post by Flowgli on May 29, 2015 12:00:21 GMT -5
Hello, children! 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. Okay, people. I mentioned in the editions in which I talked about Everybody's Talking and Funny You Should Ask!! that I will be talking about Child's Play, so here we go, now. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now going to be looking into Child's Play. Child's Play aired from September 20, 1982 to September 16, 1983 on CBS. It was the first game show produced by Mark Goodson alone due to his partner, Bill Todman, having died in 1979 before the premiere of Mindreaders, which I already talked about five weeks ago. This is one of the many game shows hosted by Bill Cullen. Not only that, but this is the last game show that Bill Cullen hosted for CBS and for Mark Goodson. Bill Cullen even plugged this show during his only appearance on the Bob Barker-hosted version of a game show that Bill himself hosted before, and that game show is--you guessed it-- The Price Is Right. This show called Child's Play is also one of the many game shows announced by Gene Wood. This show features a group of kids describing words, terms, and people for adult contestants to guess. The kids' descriptions were videotaped before the show, and each video features only one child describing an answer. Occasionally, there would be videos featuring more than one child describing an answer together each, particularly two. The game is played by two adult contestants, who play against each other in two rounds. Each round in the main game is played differently, but the object in both rounds is the same, and that is to correctly guess answers being described by children who had their descriptions taped before the show. In round one, up to three videos of children describing the same answer are played. Before a video is played, the answer in play is shown to the home viewers, and Bill announces the name and age of the kid about to have their description of the word in play in a video heard. While a kid's description of an answer is given in that video, the kid describing the answer can come up with an example on how that answer is used in speech or action, or they can come up with a literal meaning for an answer they do not know its true meaning of. For example, if a kid is describing the word "dumbwaiter", they would describe it as "someone who works in a restaurant, and is really stupid, because he keeps getting the orders mixed up". There are times when a child said the answer or any part of it while giving their description of it, and when that happens, the answer or any part of it is censored by being bleeped and having an oval with the word "OOPS!" in it placed over the child's mouth. This may came as a surprise to people who have seen it happen the first time, as they may have believed that a kid saying any part of who or what they're describing was using language that's inappropriate for someone their age. After the video is finished, the contestant in turn gets to guess who or what the child in it was describing. If the contestant makes a correct guess, they score one point; but if they make an incorrect guess, another video of another child describing the same answer is played, and the other contestant gets to make a guess after that video is finished. If an incorrect guess is made after the second video is finished, the third and final video featuring another child describing the same answer is played, and the contestant who made an incorrect guess on the first video gets to make a guess after the third video is played. If an incorrect guess is made after the third video is finished, Bill reveals the correct answer, and no one scores any points from that answer. Originally, whoever guesses a word correctly gets to make the first guess on the next word. Later, contestants take turns having control on the answers all through this round. The round is over after either four or five answers have been played. Sometimes, after an answer is correctly guessed, one of the remaining videos of children describing that same answer is played just for laughs. Actually, every video played in this round is for laughs, but the videos of children describing answers that are already correctly guessed are played for laughs only and not for points for contestants to score. Round two is a speed round called "Fast Play". In this round, only one video of a child describing an answer is played, the home viewers are not shown the answers, and the contestants have to buzz in to stop the videos and correctly guess as many answers as they can before school bell rings, with each correct guess worth two points. If a contestant buzzes in with an incorrect guess, the rest of the video in play is played, and the other contestant gets to make a guess after the video is finished. In the first three episodes, Fast Play is over when the school bell rings twice. At the start of this round, each correct answer is worth only one point. After the school bell rings the first time, each correct answer from that point forward is worth two points. After the school bell rings the second time, the round is over. Also, in those three episodes, if a contestant buzzes in with an incorrect guess, the video in play is played from the beginning again. After Fast Play is over, the contestant with the most points wins the game, receives $500, and advances to the bonus round. The bonus round has two formats, both of which require the winning contestant to complete the bonus round within 45 seconds, with the contestant winning $5,000 if they succeed and $100 for each correct answer if they fail. The first format of the bonus round is called "Triple Play". In this format, the winning contestant has to correctly guess six words within 45 seconds in order to win $5,000. Each word played in this format has three hidden definitions, each of which is written by a different child. None of the children who wrote the definitions for the words in this format are revealed who they really are; on each word, the children who wrote their definitions for it are referred to as "Child A", "Child B," and "Child C". The contestant picks a child, and a definition written for the word by that child is revealed and read to the contestant by Bill. The contestant then has to either make a guess on what the correct word is or pick another child to get another definition of that word. Making an incorrect guess on a word on either the first or second definition revealed forces the contestant to pick another child for another definition. On the third definition of the word in play revealed, the contestant has the option to pass if they still don't know the correct word. If, on the third and final definition of the word in play revealed, the contestant passes or makes an incorrect guess, the word in play is thrown out, and another word comes into play. If six words are correctly guessed before time runs out, the contestant wins $5,000. But if time runs out before six words are correctly guessed, the contestant wins $100 for every word correctly guessed. The second format of the bonus round is called "Turnabout". In this format, five of the children who described answers in the videos for the main game joined in, and the winning contestant has to describe seven words to them within 45 seconds. The five children taking part in this format introduced themselves, one by one, and the round begins. The contestant is shown the seven words they have to describe to the children, one at a time, and they begin by describing the first word to the child furthest to their left. After each word--whether a correct guess is made, the word in play is passed on, or an illegal clue is given--the contestant moves on to the next child to their right as the next word to be described comes into play. If a contestant gives an illegal clue such as using the word in play or any part of it in their description, the word is taken out of play, and their chance to win $5,000 is lost, but they can still use the remaining time to win as much consolation money as possible. If all seven words are correctly guessed before time runs out, not only does the contestant win $5,000, but the five children also split $1,000. But if time runs out before all seven words are correctly guessed, not only does the contestant win $100 for every word correctly guessed, but the five children also split $100 for every word correctly guessed. When the Turnabout format was introduced, Bill gave a quiz on how this format works to the five children taking part in it that day. During that quiz, one child complained that the contestant wins more money than the five kids do when the round is won. This does bring up a good point, as one contestant wins the entire $5,000 for themselves, and a group of five kids-- five kids, mind you--split only $1,000 among themselves, with each kid winning only $200. Bill added afterwards that the kids are on this show longer than one contestant is allowed, so the kids can still win as much as one contestant is allowed. Maybe more. The kids are regulars on this show, meaning that they can stay on the show for years until they outgrow their roles on this show, and all kids on this show are between ages 5 and 9. Seeing as how this show only lasted nearly one whole year, however, kids having outgrown their roles as regulars on this show and having to leave this show because of that is really not the case at all. Also, contestants can stay on this show for up to five days, meaning that the highest amount of money a contestant can win is $27,500, which is $2,500 more than the $25,000 winnings limit that CBS had at the time. I think having a winnings limit is pointless for the show, since the most money that a contestant can win in one episode of the show is $5,500, and a contestant there can win up to five games. The only way a contestant on this show can reach or exceed the $25,000 winnings limit is to win the bonus round on all five of their appearances, and a contestant's fifth and final appearance on this show is the only time they can exceed that limit if they are able to keep this up. And due to the way cash prizes are awarded on this show, there's no possible way for a contestant to hit the winnings limit right on the nose. This show shouldn't have two ways for a contestant to retire undefeated. This show should either have contestants retire undefeated after winning five games or have them retire undefeated after reaching or exceeding CBS's $25,000 winnings. This show should have one or the other, not both. Another CBS game show called Press Your Luck had both the five-game limit and the $25,000 winnings limit--the winnings limit was increased to $50,000 later in that show's run, of course--but there was no flat cash prize to play for on that show; contestants could win as much money in cash and prizes as they wish until there were no spins left to use in a Big Board round. After this show was cancelled, it was replaced by, heh, Press Your Luck. Of course, Press Your Luck performed much better for CBS than Child's Play did. Years after Child's Play was cancelled, some of the children who appeared on that show grew up to become famous celebrities. These children include Jeff Cohen, Breckin Meyer, Masi Oka, and Tara Reid. The most memorable child on this show is a boy named Sascha Segan, and he grew up to be a mobile technology expert and award-winning travel writer. This show has one memorable contestant, and that is actress and impressionist Anne-Marie Johnson, who is best known for her role as Althea Tibbs in the first six seasons of In The Heat Of The Night and being one of the cast members of In Living Color in its fifth and final season, but I know her best for her role as Donna Cabonna in the fourth and final season of That's So Raven. Two pilot episodes were taped before the series, and there are some differences between these pilots and the series. The show's logo is different, and there are some differences in gameplay. In round one, each contestant has a different symbol that indicates how many guesses they are allowed to make on an answer described by the children. One contestant has a bullseye, while the other contestant has two candy sticks. The contestant with the bullseye can only make one guess, while the contestant with the candy sticks can make two guesses. The contestant with the bullseye also has the advantage of deciding whether to take a guess on an answer or pass it to their opponent and hope that they make an incorrect guess. If the answer in play is not correctly guessed after three videos of children describing it were played, Bill gives the first letter of the answer and reads a fourth description of it, and the contestants have to buzz in and guess the answer. The symbols are switched after each answer. Each correct guess is worth one point, and the round ends as soon as one of the contestants reaches three points. From that point forward, Fast Play is played, with each correct guess worth one point, and it ends as soon as one of the contestants reaches six points; that contestant wins the game and plays the bonus round. The bonus round in the pilots is played in the Triple Play format, but it was named "The A-B-C Game". The bonus round is played the same way as it is played originally in the series, except the contestant has 60 seconds instead of 45 seconds to correctly guess six answers. This is an interesting and funny show. The gameplay is simple to follow but fun, the way the children describe answers in the videos is often funny and amusing, and Bill Cullen did well in hosting this show. Of the two formats of the bonus round used in this show, I like the Turnabout format better than The Triple Play format, because children get to win money to split among themselves in the Turnabout format, though I think it would've been better if the children win the exact same amount of money a contestant wins, regardless of the outcome of the bonus round. And I already talked about the limits of appearances and winnings, which is another one of the problems I have with this show. I'm glad they made some changes for the series from the pilots; if they had stuck with exactly how the game was played in the pilots, the series probably won't last even half as long as it did. Also, despite how short-lived Child's Play was, it has several international versions, particularly a UK version, an Australian version, and a Spanish-language US version. Most of the international versions use the Triple Play format for their bonus rounds, while the UK version doesn't have a bonus round at all. So, that's all I have to say about Child's Play. I'm not gonna say what game show I will be talking about on the next edition, this time. You'll have to wait and see what it is for yourself when it comes up next week. 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 Jun 5, 2015 12:00:20 GMT -5
Hey, 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. Well, I've heard months ago that GSN will be reviving Chain Reaction...again. Yeah, Chain Reaction will be the second game show to be revived by GSN twice, with the first one being Lingo. And for this new version of Chain Reaction that will be coming up this summer, I am hoping that it will be a huge improvement over the last version. This upcoming version will be hosted by Mike Catherwood, and there will be two members on each team instead of three, which leads me to think that the bonus round that will be played in this version is the one played in the version that aired on USA Network and Global Television Network with Blake Emmons and Geoff Edwards hosting--not both hosting at the same time--since it would be impossible to have the bonus round played in the version that aired on NBC with Bill Cullen hosting and the other version that aired on GSN with Dylan Lane hosting by a team of two people, because it takes a team of three people to play the bonus round that was played in the last two versions I just mentioned. Speaking of the bonus round played in the versions hosted by Bill Cullen and Dylan Lane, Chain Reaction had a spin-off that's based on it. Before I get to what that spin-off is, I'll explain how this particular bonus round is played. Two of the members of a winning team are shown a series of answers in secret screens, one at a time, but the third team member can't see those answers. The two teammates who are shown the answers take turns saying words that form a question for an answer in play. As soon as the two givers finish constructing a question, they hit a bell, and the guesser gets to answer that question. If a giver says more than one word in a single turn or says any part of an answer in play, a cuckoo sound is heard, that answer is thrown out, and the team moves on to the next word. Any member of the team can pass on an answer if they are stuck. If the guesser answers enough questions correctly within either 60 seconds or 90 seconds, depending on the version, the bonus round is won. There, that's how that bonus round is played. Now, I'll start talking about the spin-off of Chain Reaction called Go. Go aired on NBC from October 3, 1983 to January 20, 1984. It was created by Bob Stewart, who also created Chain Reaction. Also, it was hosted by weather anchor Kevin O'Connell and announced by Johnny Gilbert. The game is played by two teams of five--one team red, the other team blue--with each team consisting of four contestants and one celebrity captain, and they play against each other in four rounds. In each round, one team gets to choose whether they want to play a set of answers on the top packet or a set of answers on the bottom packet. Whatever packet the team chooses, the other team is left with the other packet. Four of the members of the team in turn are seated in front of secret screens in which they are shown answers they have to get the remaining team member to say. The guesser is seated between givers one and two, and a clock starts counting up from zero; that's when givers one and two construct a question for an answer in play for the guesser. After those two givers finish constructing a question, they hit a bell, giving the guesser a chance to answer that question. Those two givers, though, must know to take turns putting words into a question they are constructing and not have more than one word said by a giver in a single turn or have any part of an answer in play by a giver. If either one of those illegal clues is given by either one of those givers, a cuckoo sound is heard, and those two givers are shown another answer to construct a question for. If the guesser answers the constructed question correctly, Kevin shouts the word "Go!", and the contestant moves on to the seat between givers two and three. The contestant then moves on to the seat between givers three and four, and then back to the seat between givers two and three, and finally back to the seat between givers one and two. What the guesser has to do is give five correct answers as fast as possible. The team's turn ends when either the guesser on that team gives five correct answers or the clock reaches 99 seconds, since the clock only holds two digits. After that team has their turn, the other team plays the remaining packet in that round, and the clock starts counting down from either the time it stopped at when the guesser on the first team gave the fifth correct answer or the maximum time of 99 seconds if the guesser on the first team fails to give five correct answers before that 99-second maximum was reached; either way, the clock counts down for the second team. After the second team has their turn, the team that wins the round scores points. If the guesser on the second team gives five correct answers faster than the guesser on the first team, the second team scores the points. But if the guesser on the second team runs out of time before five correct answers are given, the first team scores the points. Each round is worth a different amount of points. The first round is worth 250 points, the second round is worth 500 points, the third round is worth 750 points, and the fourth round is worth 1,250 points. The first team to reach 1,500 points or more wins the game, and the contestants on the winning team receives their winning score in cash. The winning team advances to the bonus round. The bonus round has two names, and they are the Jackpot Round and the Double Jackpot Round. It is called the Jackpot Round, because the winning team has won the game after all four rounds have been played, and $10,000 is played for. It is also called the Double Jackpot Round, because the winning team has won the game after winning the first three rounds in a row, and a possible $20,000 is played for. In this round, one member of the winning team is seated with their back facing the other four members, who all take turns putting words into a question and hit a bell when the question is completed. If the contestant answers that question correctly, the fourth giver runs off stage, and the remaining three givers construct questions until a correct answer is given, after which the third clue member runs off stage, leaving only givers one and two to construct questions. After the third correct answer is given, only the first giver remains, and that giver simply asks questions. After the fourth correct answer, the second, third, and fourth givers come back on stage in that order, one at a time for each correct answer. The guesser has 60 seconds to give seven correct answers, and doing so wins the contestants on the winning team $10,000, while running out of time wins them $200 for each correct answer. If the team wins the game by winning the first three rounds in a row, they play this round twice for a possible $20,000. For the first five weeks, teams can stay on the show for up to five days. After those five weeks, the same two teams stay on the show for an entire week. Either way, one team can win up to $107,500; this can be achieved by winning the first three rounds of the main game in a row in every single appearance and win every single playing of the bonus round. During two weeks of the show's run, a "Battle Of The Daytime Soaps" took place. Cast members of Days Of Our Lives, Another World, and Search For Tomorrow play the game to win money to donate to their charities. Jack Clark filled in for Johnny Gilbert as announcer during those two weeks. After sixteen weeks of being on the air, Go was taken off the air due to poor ratings caused by having been put in the 12:00 Noon Eastern timeslot, which has been a longtime problem for NBC, CBS, and ABC back then, since their local affiliates often aired local news in that timeslot. Before Bob Stewart created Go, he created an unsold pilot with similar gameplay called Get Rich Quick! I am not going to go into further detail about Get Rich Quick!, because here at Game Show Corner, I don't talk in great length about unsold pilots or runthroughs. I think I said enough in this edition anyway. All I have to do, now, is give my thoughts on Go. I like how the game is played here. I like how they take the bonus round of the original version of Chain Reaction and use that as the concept of Go. To be honest, I think the idea of contestants constructing questions by taking turns putting words into them and hitting a bell when they are finished so their teammate can answer works better on Go than it does on Chain Reaction. I also like how teams can earn the right to play the bonus round by shutting out their opponents by reaching the winning goal within the first three rounds. I think that's very good. And that's Go. Now, going back to Chain Reaction, I'm going to be keeping an eye out for more information on the upcoming version of it, and when that version premieres, I'm hoping that it will do very well. Actually, I'm hoping that this new version of Chain Reaction will do even better and last even longer than the Dylan Lane-hosted version. And maybe if this new version of Chain Reaction does well enough, then GSN will probably consider making a revival of Go. I really hope that will happen. 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 Jun 12, 2015 12:00:17 GMT -5
Hello, class! I'm Flo, your teacher, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. There are school-themed game shows out there, and they have contestants answer questions about stuff they were taught in a variety of subjects in school. And since school is out for kids to either enjoy themselves or go to summer school at this time, I'm going to talk about a school-themed game show this week. This school-themed game show is a GSN original called WinTuition. I mentioned WinTuition when I was talking in great length about Friend Or Foe?, but it's now time to talk about WinTuition in great length. It ran from December 9, 2002 to April 1, 2003 on GSN. The show was hosted by Marc Summers, except on the final episode, where at that time, all the hosts of the GSN originals that were current back then each hosted another host's show just for April Fool's Day. In the case of WinTuition, Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, who was the host of Friend Or Foe at that time, hosted on the final episode, while Marc Summers appeared on that same episode as the male model who gives out assignments at one point of that episode, not to mention that he hosted on that day's episode of Cram, which was hosted by Graham Elwood. The announcer was Burton Richardson, who is known for announcing on many game shows such as the versions of Family Feud hosted by Louie Anderson, Richard Karn, And John O'Hurley. The male model on Wintuition was "Gorgeous" George Davidson. As just about everyone knows, Marc Summers is best known for hosting a Nickelodeon game show called Double Dare. The game starts off with three contestants, each of whom are playing for a $50,000 college fund for either themselves or a family member of theirs. There are three rounds in the main game. Round one is the "Elementary School Round", round two is the "Middle School Round", and round three is the "High School Round". In each round, the contestants are asked one question in each grade level, and the grade levels are all played in order. Each correct answer scores points, while each incorrect answer causes a penalty. The three contestants are started off with 500 points apiece. In the Elementary School Round, the contestants are asked questions in first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade, in that order. In grades one through four, contestants get to buzz in and answer the questions. In the fifth grade question, "Gorgeous" George Davidson comes in with some kind of prop and three assignments labeled "A", "B", and "C" pertaining to that prop. The buzzers are not used in the fifth grade question. Instead, each contestant chooses an assignment and gets to give a correct answer to that question. In all questions in this round, each correct answer adds 100 points to a contestant's score, while each incorrect answer deducts 100 points from their score. In some episodes, a kid called "The Answer Kid" asks a question to the home viewers after this round before the show goes into its first commercial break and gives the correct answer after the show comes back from that commercial break. Right before the Middle School Round begins, the contestants tell Marc about some crazy and interesting things about what they did as kids in school and who they are playing for. In the Middle School Round, the contestants are asked questions in sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade, in that order. In each grade, contestants take turns giving correct answers to a question starting with the contestant who buzzes in first and going down their left. In grades six and seven, each question has four correct answers. In the eighth grade question, there are seven correct answers. In all questions in this round, a correct answer adds 250 points to a contestant's score, but there are no point deductions for an incorrect answer in this round. In each question in this round, an incorrect answer locks a contestant out for the remainder of that question. With the way this round is played, in each question, a contestant who buzzes in first has a chance to score in it at least twice. In the sixth grade question, the contestant who buzzes in with a correct answer receives a bonus prize worth $200. In some episodes, the bonus prize is a Domino's Pizza gift certificate. In other episodes, the bonus prize is a bunch of quarters used for washing machines in a laundromat. Also, at the end of this round, the contestant with the lowest score is eliminated. In the High School Round, the two remaining contestants are asked questions in ninth grade, tenth grade, eleventh grade, and twelfth grade, in that order. The buzzers are not used in this round. Instead, contestants take turns answering questions, with one contestant answering questions in ninth grade and eleventh grade, and the other contestant answering questions in tenth grade and twelfth grade. But each contestant has the option to "cut class", and I'll get to how that works in a bit. In each grade level in this round, a contestant is given a school subject and the option to either play it or cut class. In all questions in this round, whoever is asked a question either gets 500 points added to their score for a correct answer or gets 500 points deducted from their score for an incorrect answer. Now, here's how the "cut class" option works. If the contestant in turn chooses to cut class, their opponent is forced to answer a question in the announced school subject. So, a contestant's strategy of cutting class pays off if their opponent is forced to answer a question and loses the points by giving an incorrect answer, but a contestant in turn is out of luck if their opponent is forced to answer a question and scores the points by giving a correct answer. The High School Round ends with a challenge called the "Senior Year Showdown". In this part of the round, the contestant in the lead is given two categories to choose from, and, starting with that contestant, the contestants take turns answering questions under the chosen category. Each correct answer is worth 500 points, but if a contestant misses just one question, they are out for the remainder of the round. If the leading contestant misses a question, the trailing contestant has a chance to make a comeback by answering enough questions correctly to take the lead. If the trailing contestant misses a question, the leading contestant immediately wins the game. The contestant with the most points after the Senior Year Showdown wins the game, receives a prize package, and advances to the bonus round. The other contestant recieves the World Book Encyclopedia and a CD audio system from Fisher Electronics. In the bonus round, the winning contestant is seated at a small, wooden school desk called the "Desk Of Destiny" where they take the $50,000 Final Exam. The way this round is played is simple and straightforward. The contestant is asked questions from a variety of school subjects, and they have to answer ten of these questions correctly within 60 seconds in order to win the $50,000 college fund, otherwise they will receive $250 for each correct answer if time runs out. During this round, the contestant can pass on a question if they get stuck, but they can't go back to a question once they pass on it. Like some of the game shows I covered here and many others that I will soon cover, this show lasted only one season that consists of 65 episodes. Out of all those episodes of the show, the bonus round was won only four times, and I will say it's because of the high difficulty of the questions asked in that round. This seems like a good game show for anyone who likes to have their knowledge on what they were taught at school tested for a scholarship to college. There should be a show like this on television today, as I like the idea of contestants competing in answering school-based questions to win money for college. There are two things that I would like to have changed on this show, however. One of them is how the Senior Year Showdown is played. This part of the game could go on and on with the contestants answering so many questions in a row correctly. And yes, a contestant is bound to answer a question incorrectly, but if this part of the game drags on long enough, the home viewers would get bored by it. They could've had this part of the game played with each contestant playing a different category for one minute, with each correct answer adding 500 points to a contestant's score and each incorrect answer deducting 500 points from their score. The other thing that I would like to have changed is what a contestant receives for winning the game before advancing to the bonus round. Instead of a prize package, the winning contestant should've received their winning score in cash, with a minimum of $2,500. A majority of the show's episodes have winning contestants failing to win the $50,000 scholarship, and the highest amount of money a contestant can win without winning the bonus round is $2,250, and I feel that the winning contestant should've received their winning score in cash and have their consolation winnings added to that if they fail to win that scholarship. Other than that, I think it's a good show. And that's WinTuition. And now that I'm done talking about a school-themed game show, I would like to announce that I will spend the next two editions of Game Show Corner doing something, well, fun. On the next two editions, I will be talking about two game shows that premiered on Disney Channel in 1998. Those game shows I'll be talking about are Off The Wall and Mad Libs. I will be talking about Off The Wall next week, and I'll be talking about Mad Libs the week after that. By the way, these are the last two shows that I will be covering in year one of Game Show Corner. After that, I will put the series on hiatus for the summer, and I'll start year two on the first Friday of fall. So, that's it for today, kids. Class dismissed! 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 Jun 19, 2015 12:00:16 GMT -5
Hey, people! What's up? This is Flo, welcoming you to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. I made an announcement about this at the end of last week when I talked about WinTuition. I'll announce this right here, right now. This week's edition and next week's edition are the last two editions for year one of Game Show Corner. After these two editions are done, this series will be put on hiatus for the summer, and it will continue in the fall when year two of it begins. These two game shows that I will be talking about are shows that aired on Disney Channel from 1998 to 1999. These shows are Off The Wall and Mad Libs. These two shows aired back-to-back weekday afternoons. I've seen these shows as a kid when they were on, and I liked them. I think those shows are fun. I still like those shows today. A few episodes of each of these shows can be found on YouTube. This week, I'm gonna be talking about Off The Wall. Off The Wall was packaged by Media Arts Entertainment and Vin Di Bona Productions, with the latter company best known for producing America's Funniest Home Videos. It was hosted by a crazy guy with crazy hair named Larry Zeno and co-hosted by Kelli Kirkland. Playing the game in the studio are two teams of three. I have complained about it when I talked about nearly all the other game shows that had this in previous editions, but I'm not going to complain about it here. Why? There's no money to play for. In fact, none of Disney Channel's game shows were played for money as far as I know. So, because of this, I won't have to complain about teams receiving cash prizes that are often not equally divisible of three. Anyway, team one is blue, and team two is yellow. For some reason, the yellow team was referred to as the gold team. Yeah, um, gold and yellow are not exactly the same color. I just thought I'd let everyone know that. Now, not only are there contestants in the studio, but there are also contestants on the street, all of whom are found at Disneyland. Like Everybody's Talking, this show has videos of people on the street. But unlike Everybody's Talking, the people on the street are not describing subjects for contestants to guess. What the people on the street did for the show was play games and have them recorded in advance. There are nine people on the street displayed on a video wall, hence the name of the show. In round one, one kid from each team picks a person on the street by number to play against. The two studio contestants playing this round play it separately and not against each other. After a kid picks a person on the street, a video of that person on the street being interviewed by Kelli is played. After the video, a game is set up for the kid taking their turn, and Larry says what the name of the game is. Every game played on the show has a name, and the way Larry says the name of a game is getting a close-up of his face to the camera, echoing the name of the game, and making a face afterwards. Larry then explains how the game is played, and he and the audience started the following countdown: 5...4...3...2...1...GO! That's when the game and the video of the person on the street playing the same game begin. What the studio contestant has to do is win against the person on the street by either making more success than them or completing the game before they do. If the studio contestant wins against the person on the street, they score 100 points for their team. But if the person on the street wins or the game ends in a tie, no points are scored. After a kid from one team plays a game, a kid from the other team plays against one of the eight contestants on the street remaining on another game for 100 points. Round two is played the same way as round one, but with another kid from each team playing the round, the round starting off with seven people on the street remaining, and each game worth 200 points. During the first two rounds, one of the street contestants is dubbed the "Double Trouble" contestant, and if that street contestant is picked, the studio contestant who picked them plays for double the points, meaning that a game could be played for 200 points in round one or 400 points in round two. In round three, which is called the "Head-To-Head Challenge", the last member of each team play against each other and against one of the remaining five street contestants who was chosen for them. If a studio contestant wins against the street contestant, they score 300 points for their team. If a studio contestant wins against the member of the other team, they score 250 points for their team. No points are awarded if the game ends in a tie between the two studio contestants. After the Head-To-Head Challenge, the team with the most points wins the game and advances to the bonus round called the "Ultimate Showdown". In the Ultimate Showdown, one member of the winning team picks a name of a member of the studio audience at random out of an antique fish bowl, and Larry reads that name. The winning team plays against that member of the studio audience in one more game. While the team is playing the game in the studio, the audience member is shown playing that game on the video wall. If one member of the winning team wins against the audience member, all three members of the team each receive a grand prize. But if the audience member wins against the winning team, all three members of the team each receive a consolation prize. And that's Off The Wall. The games played in this show are okay, but far too many of them have contestants use their physical skills, and very little of them have contestants use their mental skills. The prizes played for such as a portable mini TV and a Nintendo 64 are okay, but they don't seem valuable enough to be passed off as grand prizes, especially when losing contestants receive passes to Disneyland. The way Larry says the name of a game can get kind of annoying, too. I can look past these minor problems and see this show as a good and fun one. Not as good and fun as Mad Libs, which, as you may know by now, is the show that I will be talking about next week in the year one finale of Game Show Corner. I am really looking forward to talking about Mad Libs. I find that show even more fun than Off The Wall. Join me next week when I talk about Mad Libs. It's really going to be a great way to end year one of Game Show Corner. 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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