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Post by Flowgli on Jun 26, 2015 12:00:22 GMT -5
Hey, y'all! How's it going? I'm Flo, your host, and welcome to the year one finale of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Yes, folks, this is it. After talking about a Disney Channel game show that premiered in 1998 and ended in 1999 called Off The Wall in last week's edition of Game Show Corner and waiting for this day to come, I get to talk about one of the greatest game shows I've ever seen as a kid. This game show is another Disney Channel game show that premiered in 1998 and ended in 1999. This show is where your imagination--or creativity--fills in the blanks. It's Mad Libs! Mad Libs is based on a series of books of the same name published by Price Stern Sloan where each page has a short story with blanks that need to be filled in for one person by another according to the categories provided, and the given words make the story sound crazy and funny. This show was packaged by Slam Dunk Productions and D ick Clark Productions, and it was hosted by Roundhouse star and Wheel 2000 host David Sidoni. In the series premiere of Game Show Corner, I talked in great length about Wheel 2000, and at the end of that edition, I mentioned that David Sidoni hosted Mad Libs a year after he hosted Wheel 2000. Now, there are are many things that Wheel 2000 and Mad Libs have in common. They are both game shows played by children, they are both short-lived, they were both hosted by David Sidoni, they each premiered in one year in the 1990s and ended in the next year that is in the same decade, they are both word games, and they both use the same sound effect. The sound effect in question was first used for the 750-point website space on the wheel in Wheel 2000 when that space was explained in the explanation of the rules and landed on after the wheel was spun, and it was later used for the start of each episode of Mad Libs when the show's logo was formed. So, after David is introduced by an unnamed female announcer, he claims this show to be the world's greatest word game, explains that a mad lib is a story that's missing a few words and it's up to us to fill in the blanks with our own crazy and unusual words, and says that two teams are going to play physical and mental games that are designed to lift a mad lib right off the page and bring it to life. Then, the two teams are brought down onto the set from the studio audience, and each team member of each team is asked one question about themselves. One team is red, and the other team is blue. Each team consists of one girl and one boy. After finding out what we can about the teams, David tells us about the grand prize trip that the teams are playing for. Then, the game begins. Round one is called the "Viewer Mad Lib". At the start of this round, everyone in the studio and the home viewers are shown a clip on a video wall of a kid reciting a mad lib that they filled in the blanks with their words. The mad lib has four blanks, and an example of a mad lib is this: "Time To Make The Doughnuts" My brother works at the doughnut (building). His job is to mix the (noun), then bake it in the (on your feet), and finally sprinkle them with (reptile). The mad lib would be filled out like this: My brother works at the doughnut hospital. His job is to mix the silverware, then bake it in the tennis shoe, and finally sprinkle them with frogs. After the clip is finished, the two teams play a game based on that mad lib. In some episodes, the game played in this round is played in a time limit of 45 seconds, and the teams have to make as much success as possible within that time limit. In other episodes, the game played in this round is a race, and the teams compete to see which team will complete the game before the other does. In the case of the mad lib I just provided as an example, the game based on it is a race. The way that game is played is that each team has five frogs filled with slime, five tennis shoes, and five pieces of silverware, and each team has to put a tennis shoe and piece of silverware both under one of the frogs, get the tennis shoe and piece of silverware covered in slime by popping the frog using their butts, and repeat the process four more times using the other four tennis shoes, pieces of silverware, and slime-filled frogs. After the game, the first team to complete it, or the team that made the most success within 45 seconds, scores 20 points. If, in a game where the teams compete to see which team will make the most success within 45 seconds, the game ends in a tie, the two teams score 20 points each. Round two is called "Madder Than You". This round tests how many words the teams know, which is important when it comes to being an expert mad-libber. To start, one member in each team is given a category, and the two contestants take turns giving words that fit in that category, starting with the blue team for some reason. Each time a contestant gives a word that fits in a category, they pass a glowing ball called the " Mad Libs Hot Potato" to the other contestant. The two contestants keep passing the hot potato back and forth after each acceptable word given until one of those contestants does something that will end play of the category. Play of a category is ended when a contestant fails to give an answer within a few seconds, passes the hot potato without giving an answer first, gives an answer that does not fit in that category, or repeats an answer that was given earlier in that category or gives a different form of that same category. When a contestant does any of those things, the other contestant scores 5 points for their team, and the team that scores the points from that category gets to go first on the next category. After each category, the two contestants who just played it switch places with their teammates for the next category. The round is played this way until time runs out. In the first few episodes, the round lasts for two minutes and thirty seconds, each team chooses which team member would play the first category, and the timer for that round is not shown to the home viewers. For the rest of the show's run, the round lasts for only two minutes, the first category is played by the girls, and the timer for that round is shown to the home viewers. Round three is called the "Mega Stunt". The game played in this round features items with words on each one, and the words are printed on those items in red, blue, green, and black. The teams have to get the items in a specific way, depending on how the game in this round is played, and match each word to the category it fits in on their shelves on either side of the video wall. Regardless of how the game is played in this round, each item has to be retrieved and matched to its category on a team's shelf one at a time. All words are matched to their categories by color. The first team to get four words, each one in a different color, and match them all to their respective categories on their shelf scores 20 points, and a mad lib is shown with the blanks filled in by that team's words. Just like the mad lib recited by a kid in the "Viewer Mad Lib" round, the mad lib in this round has four blanks. An example of a game played in the "Mega Stunt" round would be that the teams catapult balls to knock down big toes from corn stalks, with the two members of each team taking turns knocking down the toes and matching the words on them to their respective categories on their shelf. Round four is the round that decides which team will win the game. It's called "Mixed-Up Mad Libs", and the way it's played is similar to the "Shopper's Challenge" round of Shop 'Til You Drop. One member in each team is given a statement with a crazy word at the end of it, and that statement is called a mixed-up mad lib. Here's an example of a mixed-up mad lib: The body of water that separates France from Great Britain is called the Disney Channel. What the contestants have to do is buzz in an give the word that corrects that statement. The correct answer in the example provided is the English Channel. If a contestant buzzes in and gives the correct answer, they score 10 points for their team; but if they buzz in and give an incorrect answer, the contestant on the other team gets a chance to answer. The first mixed-up mad lib is given to the girls. After each mixed-up mad lib, the two contestants who just played it switch places with their teammates for the next mixed-up mad lib. The round lasts for one minute and thirty seconds. When time runs out, the round is over, and the team with the most points wins the game and advances to the bonus round, while the other team receives a couple of consolation prizes, one of which is a copy of Mad Libs books for each member. If the game ends in a tie, one more mixed-up mad lib is given. Whoever buzzes in with the correct answer wins the game for their team, but buzzing in with an incorrect answer automatically gives the win to the other team. The bonus round is called the "Maximum Mad Lib". Before the show's final commercial break, one member of the winning team chooses to give clues to five words to their teammate, and the team member who chooses to give the clues is given an envelope that contains the five words that they will be giving clues to, with each word on a different card in that envelope. That team member then goes to five clue areas and places one card in a card holder in each clue area. What the giver has to do is give a clue to a word to their teammate in a specific way, depending on which clue area they're in. A category to a word that the giver is giving a clue to in a clue area is announced to the guesser as soon as the giver goes to that clue area. These are the clue areas that are constructed in order from top to bottom: Stuff It - The giver stuffs a handful of marshmallows in their mouth and shouts out the word with their mouth full. Lick It - The giver uses some pink icing to write the word on a glass board with their tongue. Draw It - The giver uses fingerpaint to draw the word, but they can't draw letters or symbols. In earlier episodes, pens were used for drawing instead of fingerpaint. Act It - The giver acts out the word, but no talking is allowed; only pantomiming can be done. Mold It - The giver takes parts of a man made out of clay and mold it to make it look like the word. Now, not all the episodes have exactly those five clue areas in this round. In some episodes, one or two of them are replaced with different clue areas, and they are as follows: Spell It - Featured in the same spot as "Lick It", the giver uses either a bottle of ketchup or a bottle of mustard to write the word on a glass board. Rip It - Featured in the same spot as "Mold It", the giver rips up a piece of paper to make it look like the word. Sing It - Featured in the same spot as "Mold It" and "Rip It", the giver sings a description of the word, but they can't sing the word or any part of it, and they can't sing what letter that word starts with. The guesser has one minute and thirty seconds to correctly guess as many of the five words as possible. The more words correctly guessed, the better chances the team has of winning the grand prize trip, because that grand prize trip is hidden behind one of those five words. After the round is played, David and the team went over the words that were in play in that round, and a mad lib is shown with the blanks filled in by those words. Unlike the "Viewer Mad Lib" round and the "Mega Stunt" round, the mad lib in this round has five blanks. After the mad lib is read aloud by David, all the words guessed correctly by the guesser are checked out one at a time. If one of the words guessed correctly has the grand prize trip behind it, the team wins that grand prize trip. But if the word with the grand prize trip is not guessed correctly, the team receives a consolation prize. However, if all five words are guessed correctly, the team wins the grand prize trip instantly. Well, that's Mad Libs. So, what can I say? Out of both game shows that David Sidoni hosted, this one is obviously the better one. Yes, I think that Mad Libs is better than Wheel 2000. Unlike Wheel 2000, which is a cheap children's spin-off of Wheel Of Fortune that is made to be educational, has many things in gameplay that just slows the game down, and is produced by Scott Sternberg, Mad Libs is a fun and creative show with fast-paced gameplay, challenges that test the teams' vocabularies, and two great game show hosts who produce this show, D ick Clark and JD Roth. Also, while both Off The Wall and Mad Libs are both good game shows, I would say that out of those two Disney Channel game shows that premiered in 1998 and ended in 1999, I will say that Mad Libs is the better one. Off The Wall has teams play physical games against people on the street who had their games pre-taped. Mad Libs has teams play games that test both their physical and mental skills, but mental skills mostly, as it is a word game. I really don't find anything wrong with this show, though I think it would help if the time in the "Madder Than You" round stops after a category is over and starts counting down again after David announces the next category and says "Go"; that way, time is conserved, and it isn't wasted by David's comments on a given answer that caused play of a category to end. I also think that it would've been cool if the winning team receives a prize for each and every single word guessed correctly, and receives the grand prize trip on top of that for winning the "Maximum Mad Lib" round. This show was billed as "the world's greatest word game", and I agree with that, because as far as I know, there isn't any other word game as fun as this one that challenges contestants physically and mentally. This show was done very well. Unfortunately, this show and Off The Wall each lasted only 65 episodes due to the 65-episode policy that Disney Channel had at the time. Yeah, that sucks. But Mad Libs is still a great word game. JD Roth and D ick Clark did well in producing the show, and David Sidoni did well in hosting it. Sometime after the run of Mad Libs ended, David Sidoni became a real estate agent. I really never saw that coming. It really surprises me that someone would go from starring in a show on Nickelodeon to hosting two game shows that are word games and played by children to working as a real estate agent. It really does, but whatever. I'm now finished talking about Mad Libs. To conclude this edition, I will have to say that it has been great exposing rare game shows here and talking in great length about them every Friday at noon for 40 weeks. That may really sound like a lot, but that's really nothing. There are hundreds of rare game shows out there, and they all need to be talked about here on Game Show Corner. I'll continue to talk about rare game shows starting on the first Friday of fall when year two of Game Show Corner begins. I already have some editions for year two ready in advance, so I'll be taking the summer off to relax and do other things outside this series. I've begun year one of Game Show Corner with a game show hosted by David Sidoni and ended year one with another game show hosted by David Sidoni. Not only that, but I've begun it with a pair of children's game shows and ended it with another pair of children's game shows. Maybe I'll begin and end year two of Game Show Corner in a specific way, as well. You never know. But anyway, I'll see you in the fall for year two of Game Show Corner. I'll still be releasing editions Fridays at noon. Just wait until you see what I have in store for you by then. So, that does it for not only this week's edition of Game Show Corner, but for also year one of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great summer.
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Post by Flowgli on Sept 25, 2015 12:00:37 GMT -5
Hello, everybody! This is Flo, hoping that you all had a good summer and returning to host my series. Welcome to the year two premiere of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Ryan Seacrest is best known for hosting American Idol, which will soon be airing its fifteenth and final season. I'm not surprised at this. I don't even watch the show. I don't care about that show. Ryan Seacrest is also known for hosting a game show two years ago called Million Second Quiz. But there was another game show that he hosted, and that was back in the late 1990s when he was lesser-known. That game show is Click. Click is a children's game show created by Merv Griffin. It aired in syndication for two seasons from September 1997 to August 1999. It was taped at The Production Group Studios in Los Angeles, California in season one and Jonas Jensen Studios in Seattle, Washington in season two. In each season, host Ryan Seacrest was accompanied by a co-host. The co-host in season one was Amber Bonasso, and the co-host in season two was Amber Willenborg. The show was also distributed by Kelly News & Entertainment. The game is played by three teams, each consisting of two teenagers. Team one is green, team two is red, and team three is yellow. The three teams play three rounds. In each round, the teams answer questions in various topics from one of three stations that is selected at random by a click of a mouse, which is actually a big, red button on a blue podium in the center of the set. Each correct answer is worth cash. In season one, the three stations are Website, Word Wizard, and "The Motherboard". "The Motherboard" is where the teams are all asked general-knowledge questions in that season. In season two, "The Motherboard" is used only to click the mouse on a station, Word Wizard is renamed to Chat Room, and another station called Hard Drive is added. Hard Drive is where the teams are all asked general-knowledge questions in that season. I'll explain how the rounds are played later. Right now, I'll explain the topics featured in the stations. I'll start with "The Motherboard" and Hard Drive. They both have general-knowledge questions asked to the teams, with "The Motherboard" having those questions asked in season one and Hard Drive having those questions asked in season two. The topics included in these stations are Health, Math, Animals, History, Dictionary, TV and Film, Religion, Culture, and Geography. Next, we move on to Website. The topics included in that station are as follows: E-Mail - A fictional e-mail is shown, and a team has to correctly identify the famous person who wrote it based on what the e-mail says. Click Pix - As a question, a picture is shown. Click Video - As a question, a video clip is played. Sound Bytes - As a question, an audio clip is played. Home Page - A series of clues that are grouped into a "home page" format, and a team has to correctly identify the subject based on the clues. The E-Mail topic is featured in this station in season one only, and it is moved to Chat Room in season two. The Home Page topic isn't featured until season two. Finally, we go to Word Wizard/Chat Room. The topics included in that station are as follows: Spell Check - In season one, three different spellings of the same word are shown, and a team has to choose the correct spelling of that word. In season two, a sentence with a misspelled word in it is shown, and a team has to find the misspelled word. Dictionary - A word is given and three answers are shown, and a team has to choose which answer best fits the definition of that word. Funetics - A team has to correctly identify a license plate-type puzzle or a word that is spelled phonetically. Instant Message - A fictional instant message is shown, and a team has to identify the person online based on what the message says. The Dictionary and Funetics topics are featured in this station in season one only. The Instant Message topic isn't featured until season two. All right. Those are the stations, and those are the topics. Now, let's get to the rounds, or levels, as they call them on the show. I'll just call them "rounds". In round one, each team has 60 seconds to score as much money as they can by answering as many questions correctly as they can. The team in turn comes up to the mouse and clicks it to select a station. After a station is selected, the team runs to that station and is asked a question from there. After a question, the team runs back to the mouse and click it again. The only time no running to a station and back to the mouse is when a topic from "The Motherboard" is selected in season one. Each question has one of four dollar values attached to it. Questions in this round are worth $25, $50, $75, and $100. In earlier episodes, each team plays this round for 90 seconds. Also, in season two, in this round and in the next round, one member of the team in turn does all the mouse-clicking, while their teammate does all the running from one station to another. One of the icons on "The Motherboard" is called "Double Click", which is represented by the show's logo appearing twice. The "Double Click" is also where no running is involved. If the team in turn answers the Double Click question correctly, their current score is doubled. If a team in turn answers a Double Click question correctly while their current score is $0, they score $100. Each team's turn ends after their 60 seconds--or 90 seconds--are up, and that's when the round ends. Round two is started off with the team with the lowest score in control of the mouse. This round is played the same way as the previous round, except the team at the mouse gets to keep control of the mouse by answering questions correctly and scoring cash for each correct answer, and if that team misses a question, the other two teams get to buzz in and answer that question. A team who buzzes in and answers a missed question correctly not only scores the cash, but also steals control of the mouse from the team who missed that question. One of the icons in this round is called "Virus" in season one and "Crash" in season two, and if the team in control of the mouse clicks on that, the other two teams are asked a question without the team in control of the mouse getting a chance to answer it. Buzzing in and answering the question from the Virus/Crash icon scores the team cash and steals control of the mouse. Regardless of where a question is asked from, the team at the mouse stays in control of it if no one answers correctly. The round ends after an unspecified amount of time runs out. Just like in the previous round, questions in this round are worth $25, $50, $75, and $100. Round three is the Speed Round. In this round, one member of each team stands at a different station, while their teammates remain at their podiums. Also, in this round, Ryan does all the clicking, with his back turned to "The Motherboard" in season two. After a station or topic is clicked on, the contestant at that station is asked a question. If that contestant fails to answer correctly, the contestants at the podiums buzz in to answer. Every single question in this round is worth $100. At a few points in this round, the sound of someone saying "SWITCH! SWITCH! SWITCH!" is heard, and that's when the contestants each switch places with their teammates. Just like in the previous round, this round ends after an unspecified amount of time runs out. All three teams keep the money they scored, but the team with the most money at the end of this round wins the game and advances to the bonus round, while the other two teams receive consolation prizes. The bonus round is played differently in each season. Either way, the winning team has to answer three questions correctly from the stations within a time limit, and doing so wins the team a pair of new computers. In season one, the winning team has 45 seconds to win. Each correct answer is worth a prize. To win the computers, the team has to answer three questions total correctly before time runs out. In season two, the time limit is increased to 60 seconds. Each correct answer is worth $100, regardless of the outcome of the round. This time, to win the computers, the winning team has to answer three questions in a row correctly before time runs out. And that's Click. After reading a few articles of this show on the Internet and watching any episodes of this show I could find on YouTube, I will say that this is a really great game show. A computer-themed game show played by teenagers, who win money and computers by answering questions correctly, is a really good idea for a children's game show. The gameplay is great, the set looks good--even after it changed for season two--Ryan Seacrest looks like he is really having fun with the show when hosting it, and the cash scored by the teams is good for a children's game show in the late 1990s. In every episode I was able to find and watch so far, every winning team ended up with at least $1,000 in their score. The game is played differently in each season, and if I had to choose which season I like the game being played in better than the other, it would be season two. Why do I prefer the way the game is played in season two better than the way it is played in season one? Well, for a start, adding Hard Drive to the game and having it as one of the three stations, and having "The Motherboard" as only a way to select a station, is all better than having "The Motherboard" both as a way to select a station and as a station itself. I prefer each section of the set being used for one purpose over one section of the set being used for two purposes, with one of those purposes being the same as that of the other two sections. The stations are the sections of the set that should only be used for running to and answering questions from, while "The Motherboard" is the section of the set that should only be used for clicking a mouse to select a station in. Clicking the mouse on a category at "The Motherboard" and being asked a question from there without needing to do any running just doesn't feel right. The next thing I like in season two is that while a team is in control of the mouse in rounds one and two, each team member has a different job to do; one member clicks the mouse at "The Motherboard", while their teammate runs from one station to the other and answers questions from them. I think that's better than having both members of a team clicking a mouse at "The Motherboard" and running to a station and back together. Another thing I like in season two is that in round three, Ryan has his back facing "The Motherboard" so he won't see what he clicked on until after it is clicked on. I think having each icon clicked on by Ryan be a surprise to him works better for that round than having Ryan see "The Motherboard" even before he clicks on an icon. Finally, I like that in the bonus round, they have winning teams answer three questions in a row within 60 seconds instead of three questions total within 45 seconds. With the way the bonus round is played in season two, winning teams can win more money by answering as many questions as they can correctly within 60 seconds, whether they win the computers or not, unlike the way the bonus round is played in season one, where winning teams can win up to three prizes within 45 seconds, with the third prize won being the computers. Other than the stuff from season one that I mentioned, which were changed for the better in season two, I don't see anything wrong with this show. Well, maybe except for the fact that in the bonus round, regardless of the season, time was not conserved when winning teams run to a station and back to the mouse. With time in the bonus round still counting down while the winning team is running to a station and back to the mouse doesn't give that team that much of a good chance to win the computers. If the winning team misses just one question, it is likely that their shot at winning the computers is ruined, and it would make it impossible for them to answer enough questions correctly within the remaining time in order to win the computers. Click was paired up with another children's game show called Peer Pressure. Speaking of Peer Pressure, that show got a spin-off called Pressure 1, which replaced Click after its run ended. I'll be talking about Peer Pressure and Pressure 1 in the next two weeks 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 Oct 2, 2015 12:00:33 GMT -5
Hey, kids! What's up? This is Flo, 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, I talked about a Ryan Seacrest-hosted game show called Click. At the end of last week's edition, I stated that Click was paired up with another children's game show called Peer Pressure, and that that would be the show that I will be talking about in the next edition. Well, guess what? The next edition is here, right now! So, what are we waiting for? Let's take a wild trip around the life-size game board as we try to survive Peer Pressure. Like Click, Peer Pressure was distributed by Kelly News & Entertainment. However, unlike Click, Peer Pressure was created by Burt Wheeler and Sharon Sussman. The show aired in syndication from September 1997 to September 1998. It was hosted by Nick Spano, who is best known for playing Donnie Stevens in the Disney Channel show Even Stevens. Just like Ryan Seacrest on Click, Nick Spano is accompanied by a co-host on Peer Pressure. The co-host was Valerie Rae Miller. Three contestants between ages 12 and 17 play the game. In this game, the three contestants take turns taking part in activities in order to move a specific amount of spaces forward on a giant game board. On each turn, a Magic 8 Ball reveals an activity and a number of spaces that the contestant has a chance to move. There are four activities, and they are "Decision", "Odd Job", "Fast Track", and "Temptation". In "Decision", a contestant is asked a moral dilemma-type question by Valerie. An example of such a question is "You just got a brand new car for your birthday. When you pick up your friends and take them out on your first trip, they have a bunch of fast food with them. You don't want them staining up your new seats, but you don't want to sound like your parents, either. Do you tell them that they can't eat in your car?" The contestant then has to predict whether a majority of the audience--or the "peer group", as they are called--answered "yes" or "no". Each member of the peer group holds up either a yellow sign with the word "yes" on it or a blue sign with the word "no" on it. If the contestant makes a correct prediction on how the majority of the peer group answered that question, that contestant moves forward the given number of spaces on the game board. But if the contestant makes an incorrect prediction on how the majority of the peer group answered that question, that contestant stays put. In "Odd Job", a contestant is given a task to do within a time limit, which is usually 20 seconds. An example of such a task is finding enough change in a couch to pay for pizza. If the task is done in time, the contestant moves forward the given number of spaces on the game board. But if time runs out before the task is done, the contestant stays put. In "Fast Track", a contestant is given a task to do that is more difficult than a task done on "Odd Job". An example of such a task is following ballet steps without upsetting a temperamental ballerina. If the task is done, the contestant moves forward eight spaces on the game board. But if the task is not done, the contestant still moves forward a consolation of two spaces on the game board. In "Temptation", a contestant is offered a prize by Valerie, and that contestant has to decide whether to take the prize or not. If the contestant decides to take the prize, they get that prize, and it is theirs to keep, regardless of the outcome of the game. However, taking the prize means that the contestant has to move back two spaces on the game board. But if the contestant decides not to take the prize, they don't get that prize, and they move forward two spaces on the game board. After every few turns, a bell rings, meaning that a "Pop Quiz" takes place. In this part of the game, the contestants are asked one question, and they have to run to a buzzer and buzz in to answer. There are two buzzers on the set, one on either side of the game board, and the smart thing for the contestants to do is run to the buzzer that is closest to them. The contestant who buzzed in first is the only one who gets to answer the question. If that contestant answers the question correctly, they move forward three spaces on the game board. But if they answer the question incorrectly, they move back three spaces on the game board. There are a few spaces on the game board that instructs a contestant who lands on it to move two or three spaces either forward or back. The only times a contestant does not move a certain amount of spaces in a certain direction after landing on a space like that are when they either accept a prize in "Temptation" and move two spaces back to that space, or buzz in with an incorrect answer to a question in "Pop Quiz" and move three spaces back to that space. The game is played this way until a guitar sound is heard, meaning that time is up. The two contestants who are furthest along on the game board advances to the final round called "Pressure Cooker", while the other contestant is eliminated and has to serve hot dogs or other kinds of food to the peer group. In the "Pressure Cooker" round, the two contestants remaining each have their back facing one half of the peer group, and they are asked moral dilemma-type questions like in "Decision", except that the questions in this round are asked by Nick and not Valerie. The contestants take turns making predictions on whether a majority of their own halves of the peer group, starting with the contestant who was the furthest along on the game board when time was called earlier. Each correct prediction is worth one point. The first contestant to reach three points wins the game and receives a grand prize. And that's how Peer Pressure is played. Now, what I have to say about the gameplay is that it's not so great. The idea of contestants moving spaces forward and back on the game board like pieces in a board game is okay, but it is something done better on Video Village and The Mad Dash. In each of those two shows, a die is used to determine an amount of spaces for a contestant to move instead of a Magic 8 Ball, and the game is played by teams of two people instead of individual contestants, with one member of each team rolling the die and the other member of each team moving a determined amount of spaces on the game board. The "Odd Job" activity, the "Fast Track" activity, and the "Pop Quiz" are parts of the reason why it's better for the game to be played by teams of two people instead of individual contestants; those activities require the contestants to step off the spaces they are currently on, and they might not remember which space they were just on after any of those activities are played. There's really nothing in the game that marks exactly which spaces the contestants are on except for the contestants themselves and the prizes they accepted in "Temptation", that is, if any of them do win any prizes in that activity. Also, sometimes, in "Decision" and "Pressure Cooker", the way the members of the peer group reveal whether they each say "yes" or "no" makes it difficult to tell which answer was said by the majority when the votes are so close. This was helped, however, by Nick announcing the percentages of the votes, but that only happens in "Decision"; that doesn't happen in "Pressure Cooker". Speaking of "Pressure Cooker", it is just a rehash of "Decision", one of the four activities played earlier in the game. I was thinking that they would do something different in this round. Now, on to the other problems I have with this show. The set is one of the sloppiest put together; it looks as if it was put together in just minutes in a garage, and I mean literally, since there's the front half of a truck in one corner. The theme music sounds boring and repetitive, and part of it sounds as if it was done by kids playing kazoos. Nick Spano is not the worst game show host out there, but he can get annoying at times with his loudness. The same thing can be said about co-host Valerie Rae Miller; she is not the worst co-host out there, but she can get annoying at times with her loudness. But the worst thing about this show is that after the show's one and only season, the episodes were all edited twice to make two more "seasons". The first time they were edited, the Magic 8 Ball was replaced with different graphics, since they lost the rights to the Magic 8 Ball, not to mention they added commentaries in the style of VH1's Pop-Up Video. The second time they were edited, the graphics and logo were changed, and the title of the show was changed to Pressure 2 to coincide with it's spin-off, Pressure 1, which replaced Click. Also, the word "Peer" was censored everytime the show's title was mentioned. Despite all these changes, the original logo consisting of the original title could still be seen on the show's monitor and other parts of the set. Yeah, it's really cheap and lame editing episodes of a show's one and only season to make "new seasons". Really cheap and lame, indeed. In conclusion, Peer Pressure is a sloppy game show with sloppy gameplay, a sloppy set put together, and sloppy editing done on the episodes just to make more "seasons". Is Pressure 1 as sloppy as Peer Pressure? Join me next week when I talk about Pressure 1, and I'll talk about it, revealing whether it is as sloppy as Peer Pressure or not. 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 Oct 9, 2015 12:00:10 GMT -5
Hello to all my peers! 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. All right, folks. Here it is. I'm gonna talk about the spin-off of Peer Pressure that replaced Click. The show is Pressure 1. Pressure 1 is a children's game show that is based on general trivia, and there is no game board for contestants to move a certain amount of spaces forward or back on, no Magic 8 Ball to determine an activity and amount of moves, no crazy tasks for contestants to perform, no moral dilemma-type questions for contestants to predict whether a majority of the peer group answered "yes" or "no" to it, and no peer group at all. Pressure 1 was created by Burt Wheeler and Sharon Sussman, and it was distributed by Hearst-Argyle Television, which is known today as Hearst Television, Inc. It was paired up with its parent show, Peer Pressure, after Click got cancelled, and it aired in syndication from September 1999 to September 2000. During that time, Peer Pressure was airing its re-edited episodes under Pressure 2, a new name for that show to coincide with Pressure 1. Pressure 1 was hosted by Mark Long from Road Rules. There was no co-host, and the theme music was the same as the boring and repetitive theme music for Peer Pressure. The game starts off with four contestants. In round one called "Four's A Crowd", the contestants choose from two categories and buzz in to answer questions correctly from them. Each correct answer is worth one point. The round ends when three of the four contestants each score two points, and the remaining contestant is eliminated. After this round and each round thereafter, a clip of a contestant who is eliminated at that point sharing their most embarrassing moment to the home viewers is played. This part of the show is known as the "Wall Of Shame". The three remaining contestants play round two called "Take That!", and it begins with the contestant who scored two points first in round one choosing from two categories, leaving the remaining category to the other two contestants. The contestant in control is asked a question in the category they chose. If they answer correctly, they keep control and choose from another two categories. However, if they answer incorrectly, the other two contestants are asked a question from the remaining category, and they have to buzz in to answer in order to steal control. Each correct answer is worth 10 points, but the scores in round one are not carried over to this round and added to by correct answers in this round. This round is played until time runs out, and the contestant with the lowest score at that point is eliminated. Round three is the third and final round in the entire show, and just like the final round in Peer Pressure--or Pressure 2, in this case--the final round in this show is called "Pressure Cooker". In this round, the two remaining contestants are asked five questions. The contestants play this round separately. One contestant plays first, while the other contestant is locked away in an isolation booth so they can't hear the questions and answers. During the first contestant's turn, a clock called the "pressure gage" counts up until all five questions are answered correctly, or until the pressure gage itself reaches the maximum time of one minute. The second contestant is then brought out, and the pressure gage counts down from either where it stopped after the first contestant answered all five questions correctly or the maximum time of one minute if the first contestant runs out of time before answering all five questions correctly. The contestant who either answers the most questions correctly or answers all five questions correctly in faster time wins the game and receives a grand prize package. And that's all there is to Pressure 1. Well, I have to say that it is a much better show than Peer Pressure...or Pressure 2. The gameplay is okay, but I wouldn't really consider it the best. The part of the game I like best is the "Take That!" round. That part of the game seems the most interesting to me, because when the contestant in control chooses a category, they choose what they think is the better category and give the category they think is the worse one to their opponents. I think that this mechanic can work well as a stand-alone game show. The only problem I have with this round is that the buzzers from the "Four's A Crowd" round are used, but the contestants don't stand behind the podiums like they did in the "Four's A Crowd" round. Instead, the contestants sit on chairs that are placed in front of the podiums. The set doesn't look much like a game show set; it looks more like either a factory or the area underneath a sink, since there are pipes all around it. The boring and repetitive theme music from this show's parent show makes this show itself more boring than it should be. I really don't have much more to say, but I will say that this show has an okay format, but there's really nothing exciting about it. At least the episodes were never edited to make "new seasons" after its one and only season like Peer Pressure did. Also, I tried to find an episode of Pressure 1 on the Internet while working on this edition, but no episodes could be found, so I had to rely on information on a few written articles on this show, including Robert Q. Seidelman's induction of this show on Game Show Garbage to make this edition possible. So far, all the game shows I talked about since the start of this year on Game Show Corner have been children's game shows. So, next week, I'll talk about a game show that is played by adults. 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 Oct 16, 2015 12:00:38 GMT -5
Hello, everyone. 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. Have you ever watched a game show in which a contestant gets scared, especially to the point where they start having a heart attack? Well, there are a couple of game shows that are like that. I'll be talking about one of them this week. The other one is sort of a rip-off of this one, and I'll talk about that one next week. The game show that I am gonna be talking about this week is The Chair. The Chair aired on ABC from January 15, 2002 to March 19 on the same year. It was packaged by Touchdown Television and Trailopolis Entertainment Group, and it was hosted by former tennis champion John McEnroe. Before the show, contestants have to have their heart rates monitored, and they have to face a series of physical and mental tests in order to qualify. Contestants are tested not only their knowledge, but also how they deal with stress and how they react to certain shocks. It's important that a contestant keeps their pulse as close to their resting heart rate as possible when they take on the Chair. A contestant who is qualified to advance to the game is seated at the Chair and faces a monitor that displays John and information for a question. The contestant starts off with $5,000 in their total, and they are asked seven multiple-choice questions, each of which has a dollar value and four answers to choose from. The dollar values of the questions are $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $25,000, $40,000, $50,000, and $100,000, in that order. During the game, the contestant's heart rate is measured, and they must keep their heart rate under the redline value, which starts at 60% above the resting heart rate--later 70%--and lowers by 5% of that resting heart rate after every question. If a contestant "redlines"--in other words, exceeds the redline value--money is deducted from their total for every second they redline, and they are not allowed to answer the question in play until they get their heart rate back below the redline value. The redline penalty is $100 a second for the first two questions each, $200 a second for the third question, $300 a second for the fourth question, $400 a second for the fifth question, $500 a second for the sixth question, and $1,000 a second for the seventh and final question. The redline penalty does not occur between questions and while a question is read. Each time the contestant answers a question correctly, they get the money added to their total. If they answer all seven questions correctly, they win all the money in their total. But if they answer one question incorrectly or lose all the money by redlining, the game is over, and they leave with nothing. A possible $250,000 can be won. Actually, that possible amount was won once, and the contestant who won it was Steven Benjamin. The third, fifth, and seventh questions are played differently from the rest. On the third question, a series of images are shown, one at a time, and the contestant is asked a question about one of the images afterwards, so a good memory is needed here. On the fifth question, the contestant has to give a list of a specified number of answers, one at a time, and all the given answers have to be correct in order for the money to be added to the contestant's total. On the seventh question, the contestant is given a series of events, and they are asked which one of them occured either first or last. A couple of times during a contestant's game, an event called the "heartstopper" occurs. The heartstoppers take place between questions, and they are designed to raise the contestant's heart rate. Examples of heartstoppers are electric sparks coming from the sides of the Chair and flames around the contestant get a lot bigger. The contestant has to endure a heartstopper for 15 seconds in order for it to end. If the contestant redlines during a heartstopper, money is deducted from their total for every second they redline, and the heartstopper continues until they get their heart rate back below the redline value. The amount of money deducted from the contestant's total for redlining on a heartstopper is the same amount of money deducted from the contestant's total for redlining on the question that was answered correctly right before it. Starting after the third question, the contestant is given the option to "stabilize" after a correct answer. If the contestant chooses to use the "stabilize" option, and they answer a question incorrectly later on, they leave with the amount of money that was in their total at the time the "stabilize" option was used. There is just one more thing in the game that needs to be explained, and that is the countermeasure rule. This rule is important, as contestants are required to always stay alert. This rule is broken when a contestant attempts to lower their heart rate illegally by closing their eyes or performing some other tasks. If the contestant performs such a task, they receive a warning from John. If they receive three warnings, the game is over, and they leave with either nothing or the stabilized amount of money if the option to stabilize is used. And that's The Chair. So, what do I think of this show? I think this show is an interesting one that can keep people on the edge of their seats. It's interesting to see contestants answer questions to win money while they're trying their best to keep their cool during questions and heartstoppers. I really like that the contestants have their heart rates monitored and go through a series of tests that test their knowledge and reactions to certain shocks before being decided on whether they are qualified to play the game or not, because if the contestants are just put right into the game, then things in the game would have gone wrong for them; the contestants would get shocked easily in certain heartstoppers, and they wouldn't know how calm they have to be in order to be able to answer the questions and prevent getting any money deducted from their total. It also amazes me that this show was hosted by a big name tennis player, and it amazes me more that that big name tennis player hosted a British version of this show that went by the same name. There were several international versions of this show, and the last ones had their runs ended as late as 2012. Thirteen episodes of The Chair were recorded, but only nine of them were aired. After the show's cancellation, writer and actress Teresa Strasser, who was one of the writers of this show and served on the primetime version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, went on to host While You Were Out. Also, during the show's run, Fox aired a game show that is considered to be a rip-off of The Chair and one of the worst game shows ever. That game show is called The Chamber, and that is the other game show I have planned to talk about in next week's edition. When I talk about The Chamber, we will see how bad it really is, so be ready 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 Oct 23, 2015 12:00:49 GMT -5
Hello to all you brave people out there. 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 game show on ABC called The Chair. When I talked about that show, I mentioned that another show is sort of a rip-off of that show, and I will be talking about that show this week. That game show is called The Chamber. The Chamber ran from January 13, 2002 to January 25 on the same year on Fox. It was packaged by D ick Clark Productions and hosted by Rick Schwartz. The game starts off with a pre-game faceoff, which is played by two contestants. One contestant is a male, and the other contestant is a female. In the pre-game faceoff, Rick gives the contestants a category, and the contestants take turns giving answers that fit in that category. If a contestant gives one answer that doesn't fit in that category, repeats an answer, or takes too long to come up with an answer, the other contestant gets a chance to score a point by giving one more answer that fits in that category. If that other contestant fails to give another answer that fits in that category, as well, no points are scored from that category, and that category is thrown out. The pre-game faceoff is played this way until one contestant scores two points; that contestant wins the right to play the game, while the other contestant leaves with nothing. As the contestant who won the pre-game faceoff makes their way to the chamber, Rick explains the rules of the game to the home viewers, and a computer selects what kind of chamber the contestant has to play against. Only two chambers are known to have been played against in all the episodes that were aired during the show's very short run. Those chambers are the "hot" chamber and the "cold" chamber. During the game, the contestant will be wearing only exercise clothes in the chamber, no matter what kind of chamber they are put in. The contestant is set up for the game by not only stripping down to exercise clothes, but also being strapped into a chair with their arms raised next to their head, having electrodes, muscle contractors, and medical equipment attached to them, and being tested to have their "Danger Zone" set according to their "stress quotient" by a doctor. Also, before being strapped into the chair, the contestant has to sign a release form, understanding the dangers they will be up against in the chamber and stating that they are willing to play the game on their own free will. On top of that, the contestant is offered $500 to leave the show immediately and not play against the chamber. Every contestant who earned the right to play against the chamber declined the $500 buyout. After making the decision to play against the chamber, the contestant is sealed in the chamber, and the game begins. While in the chamber, the contestant has to go through seven levels, with each level more hellish than the last. In each level, the contestant has one minute to answer as many questions as they can correctly, with each correct answer worth $1,000. Some questions are multiple-choice with four answers to choose from, some are yes-or-no or other dual-choice, some have more than one correct answer with only one correct answer needed to be given, some are simply just questions in which the contestant has to come up with the correct answers without the aid of a set of answers to choose from, and some are even personal questions. After the contestant completes a level, the danger in the chamber is lowered a bit so Rick can tell the contestant all about their status in the game and sometimes ask them if they want to continue on in the game. After that, the danger in the chamber is increased in the next level. There is no penalty for answering a question incorrectly, but if the contestant answers two questions in a row incorrectly, the chamber will shut down. As the contestant continues on in the game, the danger in the chamber gets so high that it could cause the contestant's stress quotient to enter the Danger Zone. No money is deducted from the contestant's total for entering the Danger Zone like in The Chair, where contestants get money deducted from their totals for every second they "redline", but the chamber will shut down if the contestant stays in the Danger Zone for 20 seconds. Not only that, but there is also a medical staff that ensures the contestant's safety. If the medical staff feels that the contestant is in condition that is so bad that the contestant will not be able to continue on in the game, the chamber will shut down. The contestant has the option to end the game by saying "Stop the chamber!", and the chamber will shut down if the contestant says that phrase, which no contestant ever did. If the chamber shuts down for any of the reasons I just stated, the game is over, and the contestant loses half their winnings. But if the contestant completes all seven levels before the chamber shuts down for any of the reasons I stated, they beat the chamber and keep all their winnings. If the contestant answers at least 25 questions correctly and completes all seven levels, their winnings are tripled. Whether the contestant answers at least 25 questions correctly or not, the chamber beaten by the contestant is retired and replaced by another chamber for the next game. Now, the only thing left to talk about in terms of gameplay is the chambers themselves. In the "hot" chamber, the temperature goes up from 110°F to 170°F, flames get bigger as the game progresses, muscle contractors tighten the contestant's nerves, a simulated earthquake goes up from 5.0 to 9.0 on the Richter scale, the chair rotates back and forth, moves up and down, and spins around, wind gusts are blown at 40 mph, the oxygen level drops from 90% to 70%, air cannons blast at up to 140 mph, and, on the final episode, foul odors are piped in. In the "cold" chamber, the temperature goes down from 30°F to -20°F, muscle contractors tighten the contestant's nerves, a simulated earthquake goes up from 5.0 to 9.5 on the Richter scale, water jets squirt the contestant, causing ice to form on the contestant, wind gusts are blown at 40 mph, the oxygen level drops from 95% to 70%, air cannons blast at up to 140 mph, and an ice storm occurs. So, that's the gameplay of The Chamber. Man, where do I even begin? This show is just terrible! I mean, the dangers that lie in the chamber could have fatally injured contestants, or, even worse, kill them! The heartstoppers on The Chair don't do that to contestants; they are only designed for scare. The dangers on The Chamber, however, are designed to actually harm contestants. That's no good! I really am surprised to find out that every single contestant who won the right to play against the chamber did not take the $500 buyout and walk away. They all must have been really gutsy people to play against the chamber for thousands of dollars. If I was a contestant on that show, and I won the right to play against the chamber, I would have immediately chosen to take the $500 buyout and walk away. I wouldn't care about all the money I could win by playing against the chamber. I just wouldn't want to get injured or nearly killed in the chamber. No one has ever answered enough questions correctly to have their winnings tripled. In fact, the highest amount of correct answers given was 21, and they were given by Jennifer Basa. Jennifer had a good chance at completing all seven levels and tripling her winnings, but her game ended at level six when she answered two questions in a row incorrectly. The correct answer to the question in which she gave a second consecutive incorrect answer on was John Glenn, but she wasn't able to get that answer out of her mouth. She knew that "Glenn" was part of the correct answer, but the answer she blurted out was Glenn Armstrong, and she ended up with $10,500. The chamber she was playing against was the "hot" chamber, by the way. There was only one contestant who completed all seven levels, and that was Scott Brown. Scott played against the "cold" chamber, and he ended up with $20,000. After he played the game, he was hospitalized, and he sued Fox and the producers of the show for what happened to him there. Despite signing a release form that means that he understood the dangers that he had to go through and stated that he is willing to play the game on his own free will, filing a lawsuit against Fox and the show's producers was the right thing that Scott did. I think anyone would file a lawsuit against Fox and the show's producers for coming up with this show in the first place, for not only did it cause serious harm on people and even cause Scott to be hospitalized, but it also was considered to be a rip-off of The Chair. Scott won the lawsuit and was paid $100,000. Six episodes of The Chamber were recorded, but only three of them were aired. It has been said that the chambers in the unaired episodes consist of water torture, a swarm of insects, and electric shocks. On the first two aired episodes, the questions were not asked by Rick Schwartz himself, but they were asked by him on the third and final aired episode. The questions in the first two aired episodes were asked by an unknown male voice. Also, in the show's introduction, it has been stated that a contestant can win over $100,000, but the highest amount of money ever won on the show is $20,000, which was won by Scott Brown. I just talked about Scott Brown, so I'm not going to repeat myself. The Chamber was rushed to the airwaves to beat The Chair. This just proves that the people who came up with The Chamber didn't put much thought and any care into it. Now, even though The Chamber is considered to be a rip-off of The Chair, The Chamber premiered days before The Chair did. Something similar happened when two movies about pigs becoming famous came out in 1995, with Gordy being considered a rip-off of Babe, even though Gordy came out before Babe, and Gordy wasn't well-received like Babe. But this is Game Show Corner, not The Movie Corner, so I should stick to talking about game shows here, not movies. Speaking of The Movie Corner, I have a feeling that someone may start a series like that. Anyway, The Chamber is considered to be one of the worst game shows ever aired due to it being rushed to be put on television to compete against The Chair and literally nearly ending lives of contestants. Now, I am done talking about The Chamber, but before I end this week's edition, I have something else that I want to talk about. Last year, Halloween was on a Friday, and on the edition released that day, I talked about a game show called Debt when I should've talked about a game show that actually fits the Halloween theme. Halloween is on a Saturday this year, but I'll be making that up by talking about that game show next week, on the day before Halloween. You'll see what that game show is when the day to talk about it comes. 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 Oct 30, 2015 12:00:40 GMT -5
Hello, trick-or-treaters. I'm Flo-enstein. Welcome to a special Halloween edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. At the end of last week's edition, I mentioned that Halloween was on a Friday last year, which is the day of the week I release new editions of this series. And on the edition I released on Halloween last year, I talked about a game show on Lifetime called Debt when I should've talked about a game show that actually fits the Halloween theme. So, because I didn't talk about that game show on Halloween last year, I will be talking about it this week. That's exactly what I should be doing, right now, while it's the day before Halloween. This game show that I will be talking about on this week's edition is Secrets Of The Cryptkeeper's Haunted House. Secrets Of The Cryptkeeper's Haunted House is a show in a franchise called Tales From The Crypt. In fact, Secrets Of The Cryptkeeper's Haunted House is the last show in that franchise. Like Wheel 2000, this show aired on Saturday mornings on a former block called CBS Kids. However, this show premiered a year before Wheel 2000 did. It aired from September 14, 1996 to August 23, 1997. It was packaged by Keller Productions, The Wohl Company, Tales From The Crypt Productions, and Goldwyn Entertainment Company. John Kassir was the announcer of this show as the voice of the Cryptkeeper, and the host of the show was Steve Saunders. The game is played by two teams of two kids. Members of one team wear red shirts, and members of another team wear black shirts. Each team also has a creature commonly considered scary as their team name. For example, members of the red team are the sloths, and members of the black team are the hogs. The two teams play against each other in a series of five challenges, and in those challenges, they have to score points. The team with the most points after those five challenges wins the game and receives Apple computers, while the other team receives a set of The New Book Of Knowledge from Grolier. The first, third, and fifth challenges are the same for the entirety of the show's run, while the second and fourth challenges change occasionally. Most of these challenges look somewhat dangerous for kids to compete in, and they take place in CGI sets. Teams go inside a room of the haunted house through a door or an opening bookshelf against a wall to compete in a challenge, and in most of the challenges, the two teams play, one at a time. The first challenge is called Fireball Alley. In this challenge, one member of a team stands in the middle of a bridge and faces a CGI skull named Digger, who shoots balls at six headstones behind that team member. What that team member has to do is defend the headstones from being knocked down while maintaining balance on the bridge. If that team member falls off the bridge, they get vaporized via CGI effects, and the challenge ends for that team immediately. If all six headstones are knocked down, the challenge ends for that team immediately, but that team member does not get vaporized. If any headstones remain after Digger stops shooting balls, that team member's teammate joins them, and both team members are given by Digger a list of four items that have something in common for each remaining headstone. Each time the team correctly guesses what the four listed items have in common, they score 5 points. The challenge is officially over after both teams have played. In some episodes, the second challenge is called Worminator. But in other episodes, the second challenge is called The Swamp From Hell. In Worminator, each team has 35 seconds to retrieve three balls and deposit them into either of two bins by crossing a wind tunnel. Each time a ball is deposited into either bin, the team scores 10 points. If a ball falls off the platform, it gets vaporized, and it's out of play. If either team member falls off the platform, that team member gets vaporized, and the challenge ends for that team immediately. If all three balls fall off the platform or none of them are deposited into either bin within the time limit, both team members get vaporized. In The Swamp From Hell, one member of one team is in a cage in the haunted house, while their teammate begins on a trampoline outside the haunted house. At the start of the challenge, the team member outside the haunted house jumps on the trampoline to remove skulls from hooks for 15 seconds. After the time is up, that team member runs into the haunted house and crosses a balance beam over a CGI lava pit between two platforms to transport bags of skulls. The maximum number of bags of skulls that the team member can transport is determined by how many skulls they removed from hooks on the trampoline within the 15 seconds. For example, if the team member removes five skulls from hooks within the 15 seconds, they can transport up to five bags of skulls. That team member has 60 seconds to transport the required number of bags of skulls from one platform to the other, and the time begins counting down as soon as they step on a platform. Each bag of skulls transported scores the team 5 points. As the team member transports the bags of skulls, the cage that their teammate is in gets lowered towards the lava pit. If the team member transporting the bags of skulls falls off the balance beam, they get vaporized, and the challenge ends for that team immediately. If time for transporting the bags of skulls runs out before the maximum number of bags of skulls are all transported, the team member in the cage reaches the lava pit and gets vaporized. The third challenge is called The Incredible Shrinking Room. In this challenge, each team has 40 seconds to find the missing letter to each of six words. Digger reveals the category that the six words fall under to the home viewers only. Both teams play the same category, but they each have a different list of words to work with. The six words are on a wall on one side of the room, while tiles containing the missing letters and extra letters that don't belong are on a wall on the opposite side of the room. The team has to take the tiles with the letters that correctly complete the words, place them in the proper slots on the words, and shout the word at the top of the list, all while the walls and ceiling close in on them. Each word completed with the correct letter filled in is worth 5 points. If the team completes all six words with all the correct letters filled in and shout the word at the top of the list, they score a bonus 10 points. There are four challenges that are played as the fourth one. Those challenges are Ghost Battle, The Abyss, Endless Hallway, and Vampire's Lair. In Ghost Battle, only one member of each team plays. Each contestant takes part in a 90-second jousting match against Digger, who is in full-skeleton form. What a contestant has to do to win against Digger is strike his shield five times. If the contestant does that, Digger flies up into the air and explodes, and the contestant scores 5 points. It is presumed that a contestant gets vaporized if they fall off the platform that a jousting match takes place on, but no contestant has ever fallen off in this challenge, and Digger never actively strikes at the contestant to try to force them back. In The Abyss, one member of a team starts at a wall above a virtual abyss, hanging on to a rope, while their teammate sees them on a monitor on a mausoleum outside the haunted house and guides them throughout the round by communicating with them using a headset. The team member at the monitor asks their teammate up to five questions, each of which has a numerical answer. All the answers to the questions are each displayed on a button on the wall, and the team member at the monitor guides their teammate to the correct answer to a question. The team member in the abyss has to not only listen to their teammate's instructions, but also swing on three rope ladders to get to the correct answer. The moment the team member presses the numbered button, the number either lights up white if it is the correct answer or lights up red if it is an incorrect answer. The challenge ends for a team when all five questions have been answered, time runs out, or the team member in the abyss falls off, with the last one mentioned causing that team member to get vaporized. Each team has 90 seconds to answer up to five questions, and each correct answer is worth 5 points. In a couple of episodes, this challenge is played as the second one instead of the fourth one, with Worminator played as the fourth challenge in those episodes. In Endless Hallway, one member of a team walks on a treadmill through a hallway and encountering a variety of items along the way, while their teammate, who is at the monitor on the mausoleum outside the house, is shown a series of five fill-in-the-blank phrases like those given in the Super Match round of Match Game. When the team member in the hallway encounters an item, they shout it out, and their teammate has to fill in one of the blanks using that item. Each blank correctly filled in is worth 5 points. Each team has 75 seconds to fill in up to five blanks. In Vampire's Lair, one member of a team goes into a room, which lights up via strobe lights for a few seconds and go dark afterwards, while their teammate sees them on a video feed from a night vision camera and uses it to guide them to the middle of the room, where there is a switch that must be thrown to activate the lights, which causes a vampire in the room to wake up. Each team has one minute and forty-five seconds to wake the vampire. Whichever team wakes the vampire in faster time scores 20 points. If only one team wakes the vampire, they score the points. If neither team wakes the vampire, no points are scored in this challenge. There's just one more challenge left to talk about, and that is the fifth challenge called Skullduggery. In this challenge, one member of each team goes into the haunted house and search four rooms for skulls. Each contestant searching for skulls has a sack with them to put the found skulls in. These two contestants are told by Steve which room to search. Each search in a room lasts for an unspecified amount of time, after which a buzzer sounds, and the contestants are told which room to search next. After all the rooms are searched, the contestants race out of the haunted house and to two skewers, where their teammates are waiting to help take all the skulls collected out of the sacks and stack them onto the skewers. Whichever team stacks enough skulls to fill their skewer scores 50 points. If neither team has enough skulls stacked to fill their skewer, then the team with the most skulls stacked onto their skewer scores the points. If both teams have the same number of skulls stacked onto their skewers, then the team that has all their skulls stacked onto their skewer faster scores the points. After all five challenges in an episode have been played, the team with the most points wins the game and receives the Apple computers, and the other team receives the set of The New Book Of Knowledge from Grolier, as I mentioned earlier. That is how the game is played. Now, I think that the challenges are okay, but there are so many of them that have contestants get vaporized for failing in some way that it isn't funny. The sets for the challenges are mostly CGI, but since this is a children's game show that aired on Saturday mornings, little kids watching the show at the time could have gotten scared enough to watch the show anymore while it was still on television or ended up having nightmares about it. The Cryptkeeper gets a fair amount of screen time. When he's seen, what he does is pester the host and teams to get on with a challenge, show fake sympathy to a failing team, and making a challenge more difficult for a team by pressing a button or throwing a switch. There has been a complaint about how the amount of points scored in Skullduggery often gives the team that scored them the win. I have no problem with the points scored in that challenge, to be honest. There are more points scored in the four challenges before this one put together, so it is possible for a team to lose the game even after they score the points in this fifth challenge. It should not be left unmentioned that this show was taped at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, just like some Nickelodeon game shows were. Speaking of Nickelodeon game shows, whether or not they were taped at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, I should get to talking about some of them in the future. I'm not going to talk about a Nickelodeon game show in next week's edition; I'm going to save that for later when we get close to the end of the year. I have a couple of other game shows that I have planned to talk about in the next two weeks, but I'll reveal what those game shows are when we come to them. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day and a Happy Halloween.
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Post by Flowgli on Nov 6, 2015 13:00:47 GMT -5
Hi, there, people! I'm Flo, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. This week and next week, I will be talking about two game shows that aired on USA Network back in the 1990s. Both game shows are short-lived, but one had a longer run than the other, and the one with the longer run is the one I'll be talking about this week. That game show is Quicksilver. Quicksilver aired on USA Network from July 27, 1994 to October 13, 1995. It was produced by Stone Stanley Productions and hosted by Ron Maestri. The game is played by three contestants. In this game, pun-laden questions are asked to the contestants, and while the questions are asked, Ron takes a pause on each question, giving the contestants a chance to buzz in and answer before a question is read in its entirety. Sometimes, buzzing in and answering a question before hearing it entirely pays off. Sometimes, it doesn't. Either way, a contestant who buzzes in too early will miss some important information on a question. Most of the questions in this game either have pun answers or are worded in a way that can mislead a contestant to an incorrect answer. Round one is started off with a set of four answers displayed on a screen. Three questions are asked, and on each question, a contestant can ring in as early as they want and choose the answer they think is the correct one. If they choose the correct answer, they score 25 points. But if they choose an incorrect answer, more of the question is read, and the remaining two contestants get a chance to ring in. If one of the remaining two contestants rings in and chooses an incorrect answer, the remainder of the question is asked, and the remaining contestant gets to choose an answer afterwards. After the three questions are played, a new set of four answers is displayed on the screen, and three more questions are asked. The round is over after five sets of four answers--with three questions asked on each set--are played. Before I talk about the rest of the game, however, I'd like to give an example of a question and set of answers so you can understand it better in case the way I described it wasn't good enough. An example of a set of answers is as follows: Pick It, Powder, Bobbit, Stolen Property. An example of a question on that set is as follows: Some people do it to their nose...to make it smaller. The correct answer to this question is "bobbit", which is a pun on "bob it", which is what a person does to their nose if they want it shortened of reshaped. A contestant buzzing in before the question is read in its entirety, however, may choose "pick it", thinking that the second part of the question would be "...which is a disgusting habit." Round two is started off with a set of five answers displayed on the screen. Each time a contestant rings in and chooses the correct answer to a question, they score 50 points, and the correct answer to that question is replaced with a new answer. Also, one of the five answer spaces is marked "Quicksilver". There are three Quicksilver answers in total, but there is only one of them in this round. If a contestant thinks that the correct answer to a question in play is not shown on the screen, then what they have to do is ring in and say "Quicksilver" and give an answer that they think is correct. If they do all that and they are correct, they score 100 points, receive a prize, and get to wager some of the points in their score on a question related to the Quicksilver answer. That contestant can wager up to 200 points, and only that contestant gets to answer that question. A correct answer adds their wager to their score, while an incorrect answer deducts their wager from their score. The round is over after twelve questions in total are played. Round three is played in two halves. In the first half of the round, no set of answers is displayed on the screen, so the contestants have to ring in and come up with the correct answers to the questions themselves. Each time a question in this half of the round is answered correctly, the contestant who rang in and answered that question correctly scores 75 points, and the correct answer to that question is displayed on the screen. After eight answers are displayed on the screen, the second half of the round is played. In the second half of the round, more questions are asked, with each answer displayed on the screen the correct answer to a question. Each time a contestant rings in and chooses the correct answer, they score 100 points, and the correct answer is removed from the screen. Also, in the second half of this round, there are two Quicksilver answers. They both work the same way as the one in the previous round did, except that saying "Quicksilver" after ringing in and giving the correct answer after that scores a contestant 200 points and allows that contestant to wager up to 400 points on a question related to that Quicksilver answer. Also, the prize for giving the correct Quicksilver answer is available in this round if it wasn't won in the previous round. Once the prize for giving the correct Quicksilver answer is won, no prizes are available in later questions with Quicksilver answers. Anyway, this round is played until all eight answers on the screen are cleared off it, or until time runs out. The contestant with the most points at the end of this round wins the game, receives a prize, and advances to the bonus round. The bonus round called Silver Streak is started off with a set of fifteen answers displayed on the screen. All the answers on the screen fit into a theme. The winning contestant is asked fifteen questions and has 45 seconds to choose the correct answers to ten of those questions, except in earlier episodes, where the winning contestant has 60 seconds to choose the correct answers to ten questions. If a contestant gets stuck on a question, they can pass on it and come back to it later if there is still time remaining. Regardless of the outcome of the bonus round, the contestant receives $50 for every correct answer they choose. If the contestant chooses the correct answers to ten of the questions before time runs out, not only do they receive the maximum cash of $500, but they also win a grand prize trip. So, that's how the game of Quicksilver is played. I'll say that the gameplay is really clever with the way the questions are written and some of the answers are in the form of puns. This game also shows the contestants and the viewers that it sometimes pays to ring in early and choose the correct answer before a question is asked in its entirety, while it pays to listen to the entire question before it can be answered at other times. The cash payouts won in the bonus round are kinda low, but other than that, eveything else in the game altogether is good. The other game show that aired on USA Network that I'll be talking about next week premiered on the same day that Quicksilver premiered, but it got cancelled eleven months before Quicksilver did. That game show is called Free 4 All. You'll get to see what I have to say about Free 4 All next week. 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 Nov 13, 2015 13:00:18 GMT -5
Hey, people! I'm Flo, your host, welcoming you to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. This show that I am about to talk about in this week's edition was paired up with the game show that I talked about in last week's edition called Quicksilver. I said what the name of the show is last week, and I'm going to say what it is this week. The show is Free 4 All. Free 4 All aired on USA Network from June 27, 1994 to November 4 on that same year. It was produced by Stone Stanley Entertainment and hosted by Mark L. Walberg, who, prior to this, was the announcer and on-air assistant on another production of Stone Stanley Entertainment called Shop 'Til You Drop back when it aired on Lifetime. This show has a recurring pet peeve of mine in game shows, which I have complained about in a few editions of the previous year of Game Show Corner, and that is the fact that two teams of three are playing for a chance to win cash prizes that are often not equally divisible of three. Anyway, the game is called Free 4 All because all six contestants get a chance to buzz in on a question and answer it. In round one, teams are asked toss-up questions. Each time a contestant buzzes in and answers a toss-up question correctly, they get to choose one of four categories and answer a bonus question in that chosen category. But if a contestant buzzes in and answers a toss-up question incorrectly, a contestant on the other team gets a chance to answer it. The contestant who answers the toss-up question correctly can confer with their teammate on the bonus question, but only that contestant can answer it. After a bonus question is played, its category is replaced with another one. Each correct answer in this round is worth 25 points, and this round is played this way until time runs out. Round two is started off with the trailing team, or the team that has won a coin toss if the previous round ends in a tie, choosing one of four categories. Whoever buzzes in and answers a question correctly in the chosen category gets to choose the next category after the category just played is replaced with a new one. All questions in this round are toss-up questions. Each correct answer in this round is worth 50 points, and this round is played this way until time runs out. Round three is the only round in the main game that has a specified time limit; it lasts for 90 seconds. In this round, a specific category is given to the two teams, and all questions are asked in that category. On each question, the contestant who buzzes in is the only one on their team who gets to answer it, with an incorrect answer giving the contestant on the other team who buzzes in afterwards to answer that question. Each correct answer in this round is worth 75 points, and the team in the lead at the end of this round wins the game, receives a prize package, and advances to the bonus round. In the bonus round, the three members of the winning team line up and face a list of ten categories. The team member in the front of the line chooses a category, and they are asked one question in that category. After the question, its category is removed from the list, that team member goes to the back of the line, and the next team member in line steps forward and chooses one of the remaining categories. Regardless of the outcome of the bonus round, the team receives $100 for every question answered correctly. The team has one minute to answer as many of the ten questions as they can. After time runs out, all categories that each have a question in it answered correctly are highlighted. One of the ten categories has a grand prize trip hidden behind it, and that category reveals that trip. If the trip is hidden behind one of the categories that has a question in it answered correctly, the team wins that trip on top of the cash accumulated. But if all ten questions are answered correctly before time runs out, the team wins the trip instantly, and they receive the maximum cash of $1,000. Well, that's Free 4 All, and I will say that I am just not impressed with this show. This show is a generic question-and-answer game that doesn't have anything interesting in terms of gameplay. I am disappointed the most by the low cash payouts won in the bonus round and the fact that whatever cash won has to be split in three ways by the winning team. More cash is awarded for correct answers in the bonus round on this show than in the bonus round on Quicksilver, but since all cash awarded on this show has to be split in three ways, that only makes it $33.33 to each member for each correct answer, with one or two cents left over for the team to fight over, depending on how much money they ended up with. If the team ends up with either $300, $600, or $900, then there will be no leftover cents for the team to fight over. Anyway, with the money paid out on this show like it did, each team member receives less money than a contestant does on Quicksilver, and that is just really pathetic. No wonder this show got cancelled eleven months before Quicksilver did. Free 4 All is a game show with generic gameplay and a poor way of winning teams splitting money. Free 4 All may not have been that good of a game show, but it does have a capable game show host that is Mark Walberg. After hosting this show, he went on to host other game shows like Russian Roulette on GSN, On The Cover on PAX--later known as i: Independent Television, now known as Ion Television--and The Moment Of Truth on Fox. The theme music sounds okay, too. In fact, the theme was good enough that it was adapted to a theme for a Sonic The Hedgehog hack called The S Factor: Sonia And Silver. That's all I'm gonna say about this show. Maybe next week, the game show that I will be talking about will be even more interesting. 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 Nov 20, 2015 13:00:56 GMT -5
Howdy, y'all! 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. Country music is a nice kind of music to listen to. It's one of the most popular music genres in America. In fact, it's so popular that there used to be a cable television network that was country music-oriented. That network was TNN, also known as The Nashville Network. That network was around from March 7, 1983 to September 25, 2000 when it was renamed The National Network, also known as The New TNN. As you probably know, in the previous year of Game Show Corner, I talked about a game show that aired at the time the network was known as The New TNN, and that game show was Taboo. Well, that network aired original game shows back when it was originally known as The Nashville Network, as well. In fact, there's one game show on TNN that premiered the day after the launch of that network and lasted a good six years. I'll be talking about that game show this week. That game show is called Fandango. Fandango was the first game show to have aired on TNN. It ran from March 8, 1983 to March 31, 1989. It was hosted by country singer Bill Anderson. Bill Anderson's best friend, Bill Robinson, was there as the voice of "Edgar the Talking Jukebox", and Blake Pickett was added to the show as the co-host in 1986. The show was taped in Nashville, Tennessee and produced by Reid/Land Productions. The game is played by three contestants, with one of them usually a returning champion. The main game has two formats. In round one of the first format, the contestants are asked toss-up questions, and each time a contestant rings in and answers a toss-up question correctly, they score 10 points, and they get to decide on how many points in their score they want to wager and choose one of nine categories that are on a on a 3x3 grid on a board. Each category has one bonus question in it. If the contestant who answered the toss-up question correctly answers the bonus question in the chosen category correctly, their wager is added to their score. But if that contestant answers the bonus question in the chosen category incorrectly, their wager is deducted from their score. Some of the questions are just audio clips of songs, and the contestants have to identify the person or group who sings it. Other questions are lyrics to a song sung by Bill, and the contestants have to sing the next lyrics to that song. If a contestant rings in before Bill finishes singing the lyrics, that contestant has to continue exactly where Bill has left off and then sing the next lyrics. Also, the category in the center space of the game board is always the "Star of the Day", and one of the categories is the "Secret Square". The "Secret Square" category is revealed to the home viewers before the round, and if that category is chosen, the contestant who chooses it and answers the question in it correctly gets double their wager added to their score. The round ends after all nine categories have been played, or until time runs out. Either way, one final question is asked to the contestants afterwards. The contestants each write down an answer on a card, and the written answers are revealed, one at a time. Each contestant who answers it correctly gets 50 points added to their score. Round two is played exactly the same way as round one is played, except that in this round, each toss-up question answered correctly is worth 20 points. The categories in this round are the same ones in round one. After two rounds, the contestant with the most points wins the game, receives a prize, and advances to the bonus round. I'll explain how the bonus round is played after I explain the format change in the main game. In the second format, the three contestants each stand behind a podium of a different color. Contestant one stands behind the red podium, contestant two stands behind the yellow podium, and contestant three--usually a returning champion--stands behind the blue podium. The three contestants play two rounds. Also, Edgar the Talking Jukebox is part of the category board, unlike in the first format, where Edgar is a prop that is separate from the category board. The toss-up questions are played exactly the same way as in the first format, but there are some differences at the category board. There are eight categories on the board instead of nine, and in the center space is a monitor that displays Edgar's name. Behind each category is a point value, which is revealed by Blake. The point values behind the categories range from 20 to 100 points in round one and from 40 to 200 points in round two. All three contestants get a chance to answer a question in a chosen category, with the contestant who answered the toss-up question correctly and chose the category getting the first shot at the question in that category. If that contestant answers that question incorrectly, the lower-scoring contestant of the remaining two gets the second shot at that question, and if that contestant answers that question incorrectly, as well, the last contestant remaining gets the last shot at the question. Whoever answers that question correctly scores the points. There is also a prize offered by Edgar in the middle of each round, but not before he interrupts the game with a joke or a riddle for Bill. The prize is awarded to the contestant who rings in and answers the next toss-up question correctly. Finally, on the final question in round two, if the difference between two or all three contestants is more than 100 points but less than 200 points, the final question in that round is worth 100 points, with those points being deducted from a contestant's score for an incorrect answer. But if the difference between the contestant in the lead and the contestant in second place is more than 200 points, the final question is not played. Now, I can talk about the bonus round, which is called "Meet the Stars". In "Meet the Stars", the winning contestant is asked a series of four questions about celebrities, with the questions having been answered by those celebrities in an interview that was taped before the show. In the show's first format, all four questions were answered by the "Star of the Day", but in the show's second format, the questions were answered by four celebrities, with each question answered by a different celebrity. Each question has two answers for the winning contestant to choose from. After choosing the answer they think a celebrity gave on a question, a clip of the interview that that celebrity is in is played, revealing how that celebrity answered that question. Each correct prediction wins the contestant a prize, with each prize won more valuable than the last. After a correct prediction, the contestant has the option to stop and take the prizes they won up to that point, but if they make the decision to continue and make one incorrect prediction, the round is over, and the contestant loses all the prizes they won up to that point. If the contestant makes an incorrect prediction on the first question, they can still win the first prize by making a correct prediction on the second question, but no additional prizes can be won. But if the contestant makes an incorrect prediction on the second question, as well, the round is over, and the contestant receives a consolation prize. If all four questions are correctly predicted on, the contestant receives a vacation as a grand prize. At the time of the format change in the main game, which was made somewhere in the halfway point of the show's run, by the way, changes are made in "Meet the Stars", as well. First of all, the winning contestant is shown eight spaces numbered from 1 to 8 on the category board from the main game, and they have to choose three of those numbered spaces. Each numbered space has a prize behind it, and the prizes behind the three numbered spaces chosen can be won by the contestant making correct predictions on the first three questions. Second of all, on the fourth question, the contestant chooses one of eight envelopes presented by Blake. Inside each envelope is a name of a grand prize that the contestant can win by making a correct prediction on the fourth question. After choosing an envelope and revealing what is inside it, the contestant has the option to risk all the prizes they won up to that point and go for that grand prize. Either that, or they can return the envelope and choose a fourth space on the board, after which they receive the prize behind it without having to make a correct prediction on that question. If the contestant wins the grand prize, they retire from the show undefeated. If the contestant wins five games without winning the grand prize on their first four trips to this round, they automatically win the grand prize regardless of the outcome of this round. The grand prizes that can be won in this format of this round are not just vacations, but also cars, boats, and fur coats. In some episodes, Bill took part in the "Meet the Stars" round, and Edgar hosted that round. In other episodes, country music stars played the game, and the bonus round was changed to "Meet the Fans". In this version of the bonus round, winning stars have to predict how fans answered questions, and they do not have the option to stop after a correct prediction, but the prizes they won up to that point are not lost by an incorrect prediction. Whatever prizes won all go to the fans involved and not the stars themselves. So, that's Fandango. I'll say that for a country music-themed game show--especially the first one like it that aired on a network that was country music-oriented, starting on the day after that network launched--it is a good one. This game's got basic gameplay, but unlike Free 4 All, which I talked about last week, this show has some things that makes it interesting, making it last a good six years. If I had to choose which format I like better than the other, I would choose the second format. The wagering of the scores in the main game in the first format is okay, but I think that would work better on the final question of each round than on the questions in the categories on the board, as that would give trailing contestants a good chance to catch up with the contestant in the lead. And Edgar the Talking Jukebox should've remained a separate prop from the board, and instead have a ninth category added to the board so that all point values in a certain increment would be in play and up for grabs. In some cases, two categories have the same point value; there's one episode I found on YouTube where two categories in round one each have 100 points. Sometimes, in round two, there would be a category or two that each have a point value that's in an increment of 10 instead of 20; in that round on the same episode I found on YouTube, one of the categories has 90 points. The change in the bonus round is good, too. I like seeing contestants making their own random choices of what prizes to play for, especially the grand prize. Speaking of grand prizes, I like that there's a variety of grand prizes to play for and not just vacations. What I don't like in the change in the bonus round is that a contestant retires from the show undefeated after winning a grand prize when there are a variety of grand prizes waiting to be won and not just one grand prize, and that a contestant receives a grand prize on their fifth and final day as champion on the show regardless of how they finish the bonus round. I feel that a grand prize should only be awarded to a contestant if they win the bonus round, not lose it or stop after a correct prediction. Returning a chosen envelope with the name of a grand prize inside it and receiving a prize behind a fourth space chosen on the board without having to make a correct prediction on the fourth question after making the decision to stop after a correct prediction on the third question doesn't fit well here to me, either. I still find this game show a good one regardless of the format and what it has in it. I'd like to see this show get a revival, and if it does, I hope that the game will be played for cash instead of just prizes. This show does look and sound like it can be played for thousands of dollars in cash. Hey, if they can have prizes worth over $75,000 be played for, they can revive this show and have over $75,000 in cash be played for. As soon as Fandango ended, it got replaced by TNN's second game show called Top Card, which in turn got replaced by TNN's third game show called 10 Seconds after that show ended. Now, about TNN itself, not only did it get renamed The National Network--or The New TNN--and have its format completely changed from country music in 2000, but it also got renamed Spike TV and had its format changed again in 2003, making it a completely different network from what it used to be from the very beginning. However, with this network currently known as Spike TV still around, a revival of The Nashville Network was launched separately as a digital broadcast television network in 2012. A year after the revival of The Nashville Network was launched, it was renamed Heartland, and it is still known as Heartland today. But getting back to Fandango, that show and the other two that follow that are Top Card and 10 Seconds are all not only game shows that aired on TNN during the first eleven years of that network's original existence, but also produced by Reid/Land Productions. I'll be talking about Top Card and 10 Seconds back to back sometime later, but for next week's edition, I'll be talking about another game show that Bill Anderson hosted. I'll tell you what that game show is when we come to it. 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 Nov 27, 2015 13:00:37 GMT -5
Howdy, folks! 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 hope y'all had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday. Now, have I got a real turkey for you people right here on Game Show Corner. It's a show that I said last week that I will talk about this week. The show that I talked about last week was Fandango, a country music-themed game show hosted by Bill Anderson. This game show that I said last week that I'll be talking about this week was also hosted by Bill Anderson. And I consider this show a real turkey, because it is a game played in a battle of the sexes, which is one of the kinds of game shows that, for the most part, I don't find good. I've talked about three game shows that were played in a battle of the sexes, and those game shows were Sex Wars, Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak, and Mindreaders, in that order. Sex Wars was awful, Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak was good, and Mindreaders was uninteresting. How is the game show that I'm gonna talk about this week? You'll see as I talk about this one game show called The Better Sex. The Better Sex is actually a game show that Bill Anderson hosted years before he started hosting Fandango. This show ran from July 18, 1977 to January 13, 1978 on ABC. Just like Sex Wars, this show had two people co-hosting it, with one being a man and the other being a woman to fit the "battle of the sexes" theme. Bill Anderson is the male host, of course, and Sarah Purcell is the female host. This show is a production of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and seeing as how this show is just that, it's quite obvious that the announcer of this show was Gene Wood. The game is played by two teams of six, and each host acts as the leader of the team that corresponds to that host's gender. One member of a team comes up to the center podium and is asked a question by the host of the same gender. The question asked is either general knowledge or survey, and the team member in turn is shown a card that has two answers for them to choose from on it. One of those answers is the correct answer, while the other answer is a bluff, and those two answers are not read aloud or shown to anyone. That team member can either choose the correct answer if they think the other team doesn't know the correct answer to that question, or they can choose the bluff to fool the other team. After that team member makes their choice of answer, the other host asks two members of the opposing team whether they agree or disagree with the member of the controlling team. If one member of the opposing team agrees and the other member of that same team disagrees, then a third member of that same team gets to decide whether to agree or disagree. Only the two members of the opposing team who made the same judgment have their decisions locked in. The choice to agree is indicated by a green triangle pointing up, and the choice to disagree is indicated by a red triangle pointing down. After the choice to agree or disagree was made by the two team members of the opposing team that both went with that same choice, the correct answer is revealed by the host whose gender corresponds to that of the controlling team. If the two members of the opposing team made a correct judgment, the member of the controlling team who was asked that question is eliminated from the game along with another member of that team of the opposing team's choice, and the opposing team steals control of the game. But if the two members of the opposing made an incorrect judgment, they are eliminated from the game, and the controlling team keeps control of the game. As soon as a team is down to two members, the second member to decide whether to agree or disagree with a member of the controlling team is given the chance to convince the first member to make their decision that the former team member is correct if one agrees and the other disagrees. If the two team members still disagree with each other, then the decision made by the first member of the two is taken. The game is played until all six members of one team are eliminated. The other team then wins the game, receives $1,000, and advances to the bonus round. In the bonus round, the winning team faces thirty members of the studio audience, all of whom are of the gender opposite of that of that team. The six team members play this round, one at a time, and each member is asked a different question by the host of the same gender and shown a card that only has the correct answer on it. Each team member still has the option to either give the correct answer or use a bluff, but if a team member decides to use a bluff, they must come up with one on their own. After a team member gives their choice of answer, the members of the studio audience facing the team each use a paddle-shaped voting indicator to decide whether to agree or disagree with that team member. The correct answer is then revealed, and each member of the studio audience facing the team who made an incorrect judgment sits down and is eliminated from further play. The bonus round is played until all six team members each played a question or until all thirty members of the studio audience facing the team are eliminated. If all thirty members of the studio audience facing the team are eliminated, the team wins $5,000. But if there are any members of the studio audience facing the team left standing after six questions, those members of the studio audience split $500, and the team wins nothing extra. Regardless of the outcome of the bonus round, the team plays another game afterwards. There's no limit on how many games or how much money a team can win. A team can stay on the show until they lost two games. So, that's The Better Sex. When I take a look at this show, I like to compare it to Sex Wars. Compared to Sex Wars, The Better Sex is a masterpiece. The gameplay is much better in this show, and the cash prizes are actually good for the time. This show is not a blatant rip-off of several game shows with only a few thousands of dollars or less won by each winning team like Sex Wars. This show has elements from two shows in its gameplay, and those shows are Family Feud and Hollywood Squares, with the former game show also being a production of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. The maximum amount of money that can be won in one game is $6,000, which is a fair amount of money for a team of six people as long as they win the bonus round everytime, as a team receives $1,000 for winning the game and another $5,000 if they win the bonus round. Winning $1,000 alone and having it split among six people makes it only $166.66 for each team member, for a total of $999.96. Well, maybe it shouldn't really be that much of a big deal, since a team can keep winning money on this show as long as they keep winning games, with the exception of just one game, as a team's championship ends when they lose two games. Though, I think the game could've worked even better if each team has either four or five members instead of six. The team member elimination after each question seems to be a good idea, but why do two members of a team have to be eliminated after a question? It seems to me that the game can work just as well with one team member being eliminated at a time. The biggest problem I really have with this show other than its title is the thirty members of the studio audience splitting $500 among themselves if the winning team fails to win the bonus round. If the bonus round is lost with all thirty members of the studio audience facing the team still standing, that makes it $16.66 for each of those studio audience members, for a total of $499.80. That seems kinda cheap. I think it would work better if members of the studio audience facing the team still standing after six questions receive $500 apiece, or maybe $100 apiece if $500 apiece seems too much. There's a pilot episode of this show that was taped before the series. The game in the pilot is played the same way it is played in the series, but there are some differences. Each team has seven members instead of six. Just like in the bonus round in the series, each question in the main game has only the correct answer on a card, and a team member at the center podium has the option to come up with a bluff of their own if they choose not to give the opposing team the correct answer. What a team member at the center podium has to do is eliminate at least half the opposing team instead of just two members, and the members of the opposing team who made correct judgments do not have a choice of additional team member to eliminate. Also, a team does not receive any money for winning the game. The bonus round is played the same way as it is played in the series, except that the winning team faces seventy members of the studio audience--with those audience members being men and women, regardless of which team is playing the bonus round--the winning team receives $7,000 for winning the bonus round, and the winning team receives $10 for each audience member eliminated. Members of the studio audience left standing after each and every member of the team played a question still split $500 among themselves. On the show's series finale, Bill Anderson made an announcement after the final playing of the bonus round, and that announcement was that the show was going to be put on hold, and the two soap operas that were airing at the time on ABC, One Life To Live and General Hospital, each expanded from 45 minutes to one hour. He gave thanks to the people who made this show possible, and some members of the staff that worked on this show joined him and Sarah Purcell on stage. Afterwards, Bill played a song on his guitar for everyone in the studio. Unfortunately for Bill and Sarah, this show was officially cancelled and not put on hold. However, there were foreign versions of the show that premiered after its cancellation. The countries that had their own versions of The Better Sex are France, Australia, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and the UK, with the last one mentioned having two versions of that show. After the cancellation of The Better Sex, Sarah Purcell went on to host a show on NBC called Real People, and Bill Anderson went on to continue his country music career and host the previously talked about game show on TNN called Fandango. The pair of hosts of The Better Sex appeared together again on Password Plus as guest stars for a week. So, in the end, The Better Sex is one of the shows that I actually have mixed feelings with. Maybe this won't be that kind of feeling that I will be having with the show that I will talk about 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 Dec 4, 2015 13:00:38 GMT -5
Hey, there, gossipers and non-gossipers! 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. There's a game show that's all about celebrity gossip, and if you heard a lot of gossip about celebrities from other people, or if you did any gossiping about celebrities yourself, then you might be able to break the bank and win cash and prizes on Rodeo Drive. Rodeo Drive premiered on Lifetime on the same day that another game show called Supermarket Sweep premiered on that network, February 5, 1990. However, Supermarket Sweep had a longer run. Rodeo Drive ran until August 31, 1990. This show was taped at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California, hosted by comedienne Louise DuArt, announced by Burton Richardson, and produced by Jay Wolpert, who also produced Hit Man and Blackout, two of the shows that I covered in the previous year. Rodeo Drive is based on the famous Beverly Hills street of the same name, and it is played by three contestants, one of which is usually a returning champion. In round one, each contestant is given a celebrity to talk about. After a contestant in turn is given a celebrity to talk about, a monitor behind the three contestants shows seven hidden words that pertain to that celebrity, and that contestant chooses one of those seven words by number without looking at the screen. The other two contestants look at the screen to see what the chosen hidden word is, and they each secretly lock in a prediction on whether or not the contestant in turn will say that word when talking about that celebrity. The contestant in turn has 15 seconds to talk about that celebrity. If that contestant says the chosen word before time runs out, they score that word's point value. Each word has a different point value between 100 points and 250 points, depending on how difficult it may be for a contestant to say that word when chosen; the more difficult a word is, the more points it is worth. If the contestant in turn runs out of time before the chosen word is said, they score 5 points for each of the other six hidden words they said. After a contestant's turn, the other two contestants each have their predictions revealed, and each contestant who makes a correct prediction scores 50 points. The round ends after each contestant has a turn in talking about a celebrity. After round one, the three contestants are rearranged and seated from left to right from the perspective of the home viewers according to their scores at the end of that round. The contestant in the lead is seated at the leftmost podium, the contestant in second place is seated at the middle podium, and the contestant in last place is seated at the rightmost podium. Those are the contestants' positions for round two. However, if any contestants are tied for either the lead or second place, a statement about a celebrity is given, and the tied contestants have to buzz in and correctly guess if that statement is a fact or a rumor. Buzzing in with a correct guess scores a contestant 1 point, while buzzing in with an incorrect guess scores the other tied contestant 1 point. That point scored from the tiebreaker not only breaks the tie, but also keeps the winner of that tiebreaker from being tied with the contestant they were tied with for the rest of the game. In round two, after the contestants are rearranged and seated in order from the highest-scoring contestant to the lowest-scoring contestant, the three contestants are given statements about celebrities, all of which are facts and rumors. This round begins with the contestant in the lead at the end of the previous round. That contestant has to guess whether a given statement about a celebrity is a fact or a rumor. Making a correct guess keeps that contestant in control of the round, but making an incorrect guess passes control of the round to the contestant in second place at the end of the previous round. When the contestant in second place makes an incorrect guess, control of the round is passed to the contestant in third place at the end of the previous round. When the contestant in third place makes an incorrect guess, control of the round is passed back to the contestant in the lead at the end of the previous round. The three contestants take turns that way in this round until approximately seven minutes expire. Each correct guess is worth 100 points. In some statements given in this round, Louise makes impressions of celebrities that she is talking about. Also, in this round, there's a bell that rings twice. When the bell rings the first time, it means that there are only two minutes left in the round. When the bell rings the second time, it means that the round is over. The contestant in the lead at the end of this round wins the game and becomes the champion. The winner receives $500 and advances to the bonus round. Before the bonus round is played, the winning contestant is given names of two celebrities and five questions about either one of those two celebrities or both of them in order to increase a bank that will be played for in this round. On each question, the contestant has to guess if the correct answer is one of those celebrities, the other one of those celebrities, or both of those celebrities. The bank starts at $1,000, and each correct answer adds $200 to the bank, meaning that up to $1,000 can be added to the bank by the contestant answering all five questions correctly. After those five questions, the contestant plays the bonus round for a chance to win the bank and four prizes on top of that. The bonus round is set up to look like Rodeo Drive. The setup for the bonus round consists of four stores and a bank. The winning contestant starts at a store at one end of Rodeo Drive and listens to a person at that store gossiping about a celebrity to a cardboard cutout person. The contestant then has to guess what celebrity is being gossiped about at that store. The contestant gets to make as many guesses as they need to until they make a correct guess, after which they move on down to the next store and hear another celebrity being gossiped about. Each store has a prize displayed on a monitor on that store. After making a correct guess on what celebrity is being gossiped about at the fourth store, the contestant moves on down to the bank, where they get to hear gossip about one more celebrity from the bank teller to someone on the phone. The amount of money in the bank is indicated by cardboard bags of money, with the smaller ones labeled with $200 apiece and the larger ones labeled $1,000 apiece. The contestant has 60 seconds to make a correct guess on a celebrity gossiped about at every store and the bank. If the contestant correctly guesses all five celebrities gossiped about before time runs out, they win all four prizes and all the money in the bank. If time runs out before all five celebrities gossiped about are correctly guessed, the contestant only receives a prize from a successfully passed store of their choice, and all the money in the bank is carried over to the next episode. Regardless of the outcome of the bonus round, the contestant returns on the next episode to play against two new challengers, and they can win up to five games before retiring from the show undefeated. That's Rodeo Drive. I think this show is fun, except for round two, which just drags on and on for approximately seven minutes. That's too long for a round like that. They could've shortened that round, made it the third round, and used the extra time for another round that is played the same way as it is in round one but with the point values doubled. And while I'm still on the subject of round two, not only do I think it should have been played as round three and in a shorter time, but I also think that it should have been played without the contestants being arranged and seated according to their scores going into that round. The contestants could have stayed in the positions they were seated at the start of the game, and because they had buzzers, which were used to break a tie at the end of the first round, they could have used those buzzers in round two to buzz in and guess whether a given statement is a fact or a rumor, with a correct guess adding 100 points to a contestant's score and an incorrect guess deducting 100 points from their score. The cash payouts are kinda low, but not as low as that in Let's Go Back, a game show I talked about in the previous year that premiered a year after Rodeo Drive premiered. It just makes sense for me to bring up Let's Go Back while talking about Rodeo Drive, as they both are cable game shows from the early 1990s. However, unlike Let's Go Back, Rodeo Drive has returning champions, the prizes played for in the bonus round are actually good for the time, and the money in the bank is carried over to the next episode and added to it there each time it's not won on the episode preceding it. Round one uses the Outburst mechanic like Talk About and Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak did, with the latter game show having been covered the previous year, and I think it's fun with that round being played in that way. The bonus round is one of the most interesting bonus rounds I've ever seen, despite how much money in the bank is played for, and it really had me excited when a winning contestant makes it to the bank and has less than ten seconds left on the clock to correctly guess the last celebrity being gossiped about. As far as I know, Rodeo Drive is the only game show on Lifetime that has returning champions. All the other game shows on that network have a new set of contestants competing on every episode. So, that's all I really have to say about Rodeo Drive. So far, I have covered three game shows produced by Jay Wolpert here on Game Show Corner. Those game shows are Hit Man, Blackout, and Rodeo Drive. I'll be talking about another game show produced by Jay Wolpert next week, and that game show will be Shopping Spree. 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 Dec 11, 2015 13:00:41 GMT -5
Hello, shoppers! 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. Well, after talking about Rodeo Drive last week, I have announced that time that the next game show I will be covering will be another game show produced by the same person who produced Rodeo Drive and two other game shows I covered here in the previous year called Hit Man and Blackout. The person who produced those shows is Jay Wolpert, and the other game show he produced that I am going to cover here this week is Shopping Spree. All of the game shows that Jay Wolpert produced are short-lived, but out of all of them, Shopping Spree had the longest run. This show lasted two seasons from September 30, 1996 to August 14, 1998 on The Family Channel--currently known as ABC Family. This show was hosted by actor and comedian Ron Pearson, announced by Burton Richardson, and packaged by Jay Wolpert Enterprises and MTM Enterprises. The game is played by two teams of two, with both members of each team never having met each other until one member is brought into the set after the other member strikes a pose for them on a pedestal in the "town square" in the center of the set. More on that in a minute. The set features not only a pedestal in the "town square", but also a town that consists of six stores, with each store featuring four prizes for one member of each team to choose from before the show. The prizes that these contestants have chosen are the prizes they want to win. During the game, these contestants wear a variety of objects on their bodies that will act as clues for their teammates to the prizes they chose. The two contestants wearing the objects on their bodies play the game, one at a time, with the contestant playing second being isolated off stage so they can't see or hear what's going on on stage. After Ron and the contestant in turn have gone over the worn objects, someone who was randomly selected from the studio audience helps out in revealing the six stores and the four prizes in each of them by posing next to them like Vanna White as Ron explains the prizes. This audience member is referred to as either "Dennis DuJour" if this person is a man or "Denise DuJour" if this person is a woman. Either way, that audience member wears a ribbon on their front that says either of the two names I just mentioned. Now, we can get to how the game is played. The contestant in turn strikes a pose that will act as a clue for their teammate. That contestant stays in the pose they are in as their teammate comes on stage and goes over the worn items and pose for 20 seconds without the posing contestant communicating with their teammate by either word or gesture. Any illegal communication causes a ten-second penalty on that team. Afterwards, the contestant is released from their pose and steps off the pedestal to meet their teammate for the first time, and their teammate runs to the first store on Ron's cue, chooses one of the prizes they think the contestant wants from that store, and brings it to the "town square". If the teammate makes a correct match, a bell rings, and the teammate puts the chosen prize in a shopping bag. If the teammate makes an incorrect match, Ron reads a clue to the correct prize, and the teammate takes the chosen prize back to the store, chooses one of the remaining prizes in that store, and brings it to the "town square". After the correct prize is put in the shopping bag, the teammate advances to the next store. The process repeats until the correct prizes in all six stores are put in the shopping bag. As the teammate does the shopping for the contestant, a clock counts up from zero and stops when the shopping is completed. The show then goes into a commercial break, and after the show comes back from that commercial break, the second team plays the game in the same manner, but with the clock counting down from the time it stopped at when the shopping on the first team was completed. If the shopping on the second team is completed before time runs out, the second team wins the game. But if time runs out before the shopping on the second team is completed, the first team wins the game. The contestant on the winning team keeps all the prizes they have chosen, while their teammate receives a $500 shopping spree. Also, the winning team advances to the bonus round. The bonus round is called the "Birthday Party". In this round, the winning team has to wrap gifts and deliver them to seven fictional characters or celebrities to win a vacation package and a $1,000 shopping spree for each member. Right before this round is played, a game called either "Dennis DuJour's Double Up Derby" or "Denise DuJour's Double Up Derby" is played. At the start of the game, Burton announces Dennis's or Denise's real name and some other stuff about that person. Based on what they just heard about Dennis or Denise, the winning team has to choose which prize from one of the stores that they think Dennis or Denise chose. If the team makes the correct choice, Dennis or Denise wins the chosen prize, and the shopping spree to be played for in the Birthday Party is doubled to $2,000. If the team makes an incorrect choice, Dennis or Denise does not win the chosen prize, and the shopping spree to be played for in the Birthday Party remains at $1,000. Regardless of the outcome of the game, Dennis or Denise receives a $100 salary for helping out in the show that day. This game is not featured until halfway through season one. Now, we can get to the Birthday Party. Dennis or Denise shows all the prizes and the money that are to be played for in this round, while Burton tells the winning team all about them. The set then changes for the Birthday Party; it now consists of a party table showing caricature cutouts of fictional characters or celebrities at the back end, a birthday cake representation, and a wall of various items on it called the "Birthday Board". What the winning team has to do in this round is shop for seven items--one for each guest of honor--wrap them, and deliver them. One member of the team goes to the Birthday Board and does the shopping, while their teammate goes to the party table and does the wrapping and delivering. Ron goes over the items on the Birthday Board while making jokes on some of them. Afterwards, the team shops for the correct items, wraps them, and delivers them. One of the guests of honor appears at the back end of the party table, and the team member at the Birthday Board has to take the item they think is associated with that guest of honor in some way from the Birthday Board and throws it to their teammate, who then either puts it in a box if they agree or throws it back to the team member at the Birthday Board if they disagree. Examples of items as gifts for the guests of honor are a white cowboy hat for Gene Autry, a gold medal for Carl Lewis, and a pickett fence for Tom Sawyer. In season two, the teammate at the Birthday Board stands behind a yellow line on the floor while throwing gifts to their teammate, and crossing that line causes a five-second penalty on the team. After an item is wrapped, the team member at the party table slides it down to the guest of honor. If the gift delivered to the guest of honor is correct, a bell rings, meaning that the gift is accepted. But if the gift delivered to the guest of honor is incorrect, a pair of hands push the gift back to the team member at the party table, meaning that the gift is rejected. At that point, the team member at the party table throws the item back to their teammate, who puts it back on the Birthday Board and take another item from it. If the team has trouble deciding on what item to deliver to the guest of honor, they can pass and move on to the next guest of honor, but they'll have to come back to the one they passed later if there is still time left on the clock. The team has one minute and fifteen seconds to deliver all seven correct gifts to the guests of honor; successfully doing so wins each team member the vacation package and the shopping spree of either $1,000 or $2,000, depending on the outcome of the Double Up Derby, but failing to do so wins the team $100 for each correct gift delivered. And that's Shopping Spree. I'll say that with all the physical activity going on in the game, it does look really fun. When I first saw the main game being played, I felt it to be too short, what with it being just one round, and this game show looks like the kind that could've had two rounds in the main game. But after seeing how long it takes for the main game and the Birthday Party to be played each, I guess that it's best that the game is played the way it is. It's only a half-hour show, and they really couldn't fit too much within that time. I like that this show gives members of the studio audience the opportunity to be of help in it and receive a bit of cash for it in the end. I also feel that the amount of the shopping spree received for winning the game is a bit low, even if the Double Up Derby is won. But it really isn't a big deal, since each team member receives the full amount of the shopping spree, and it is compensated for being a bit cheap by the prizes in the vacation package, which each team member also receiving the full of. On the day after the show ended, The Family Channel got renamed Fox Family, which lasted until November 10, 2001 when it got renamed ABC Family. I also have to mention that Ron Pearson is also a juggler, as he is shown juggling some items at the end of some of the episodes of the show. Also, eight years before he started hosting this show, he hosted a children's game show called Skedaddle, another game show produced by Jay Wolpert. At that time, Ron Pearson was known to become one of the youngest hosts in the history of game shows. There's a good amount of information about Skedaddle for me to work with, but I want to make sure that all the information is accurate by watching an episode of it on the Internet or looking at screenshots of the show. Unfortunately, there's nothing like that that can be found on the Internet at the moment except for a video of an intro to a block called The Funtastic World Of Hanna-Barbera that mentions the show briefly. Hopefully, a full episode of Skedaddle will be uploaded on YouTube in the future, because that show is one of the game shows that I really like to check out and cover here. 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 Dec 11, 2015 15:08:51 GMT -5
Your knowledge of game shows is so fascinating, Flo! There are only a few that I've heard of based on what you've been talking about (and I think those are all the ones I requested). Looking forward to seeing what you do next!
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Post by Flowgli on Dec 18, 2015 13:00:43 GMT -5
Hi, people! I'm Flo, and welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Tom Kennedy hosted many game shows, but not as many as others like Bill Cullen did. In the previous year, I talked about one of the game shows he hosted, and that game show was Split Second...well, the original run of that show anyway. This week, I will be talking about another game show that Tom Kennedy hosted, and that game show is 50 Grand Slam. Like Yahtzee and Knockout--both of which I talked about in the previous year--and Lingo, which I briefly mentioned in the edition in which I talked about Yahtzee-- 50 Grand Slam is a production of Ralph Andrews. It was paired up with Stumpers!, a game show hosted by Password host and late husband of Betty White, Allen Ludden. 50 Grand Slam and Stumpers! both aired on NBC from October 4, 1976 to December 31 on that same year. Also, host Tom Kennedy and host of Stumpers, Allen Ludden, made brief appearances in each other's shows on the premiere episodes of these shows. Allen Ludden briefly appeared at the beginning of the premiere episode of 50 Grand Slam, while Tom Kennedy briefly appeared at the end of the premiere episode of Stumpers! Both hosts were friends with each other, and they both hosted Password Plus a few years later, with Allen Ludden being the original host and Tom Kennedy being the new host after Allen Ludden permanently left that show due to his failing health. Also, 50 Grand Slam was announced by John Harlan, and both this show and Stumpers! are two of the many game shows at the time that only lasted one season consisting of 65 episodes, just like some of the other game shows that I already covered here. The set for 50 Grand Slam has a couple of interesting parts. It has two giant spinning cubes, each one having "50" on two sides opposite each other and "GRAND SLAM" on the other two sides opposite each other. These giant spinning cubes are actually soundproof booths, with the number zero in "50" on one of the sides of each cube being a door. The set also has a giant display in the back that shows how much money a contestant has won, but the problem with it is that it only holds up to five digits, meaning that when displaying a five-figure amount, the dollar sign is dropped. In each episode, three or four games are played. Each game has nine contestants, but only two of them play at a time. To win money, not only does a contestant have to win against their opponent, but they also have to reach a minimum. If a game ends in a tie, the contestants who just played it are committed to play against each other again until one of them wins. After a contestant wins money, they have the option to play again in the next episode or stop and take all the money they have won up to that point. If they decide to play again, all their money is put at risk, and they leave the show with no money if they lose against their opponent. Each game is played by two contestants selected at random whose expertises and areas are featured in that game. Most of the games have contestants answer questions under a specific category; sometimes, a "general knowledge" category is played. Some of the games have physical activity. In the question games, one contestant is sent to their soundproof booth, while the other contestant is asked four questions under the given category. After the contestant playing first goes through the four questions, the light in the soundproof booth that the contestant playing second is in is turned on, and that contestant gets to answer the same four questions under the same category while still sitting in that soundproof booth. Whoever answers the most questions correctly wins, with a minimum of two questions needing to be answered correctly in order to win the money. In the physical games, both contestants play in an area behind the two giant spinning cubes. An example of a physical game is a game of golf where the contestants each have to putt five golf balls into a five-foot diameter tub that is twenty-five feet away from them, with the contestant who putts the most golf balls into the tub winning the game and money for putting at least two balls into the tub. A contestant who wins money after winning a game makes their decision to either stop or continue playing on the episode after the one in which that win occured. To help that contestant make their decision, John tells them about their new opponent. Each game is played until all nine contestants in that game have played it, or until one contestant has taken the chance to win the top cash prize of $50,000, which is why this show is called 50 Grand Slam, by the way. To win the $50,000, a contestant has to win eight games. The cash prizes won on a contestant's first seven wins are $200, $500, $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $20,000, in that order. If a contestant is playing a game for $50,000, and they lose, they still win a brand new car. Well, that's 50 Grand Slam. The game has a simple format to follow, yet it's challenging for the contestants to reach that big money. In the 1970s, a cash prize like $50,000 is rarely played for, so that amount of money was an outstanding one for the time. During this show's run, five contestants have won the $50,000. The amounts of cash played for before the $50,000 are good, but they could've make them other amounts besides those that begin with either a one, a two, or a five, and have it followed by only zeros. I also think that a contestant should play as many games as they could in a row on each episode instead of just play one game on an episode and wait until the next episode to make the decision to keep going and play the game again. Aside from all that, I think it's a great show. After 50 Grand Slam got cancelled, it was replaced the following Monday by Name That Tune, another game show that Tom Kennedy hosted. Now, because 50 Grand Slam was paired up with Stumpers!, it makes sense that I talk about Stumpers! next week, since I just talked about 50 Grand Slam this week. So, Stumpers! will be the game show that I will talk about in next week's edition...which happens to fall into Christmas Day! Wow! I really can't wait! 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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