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Post by Flowgli on Sept 30, 2016 12:00:23 GMT -5
Hey, you! 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 started off year three of Game Show Corner with a Nickelodeon game show called Make The Grade, a children's game show that could've been really good but didn't turn out too well in the end. This week, I'm gonna be covering another Nickelodeon game show that could've been really good but didn't turn out too well in the end, not to mention that it aired around the same time Make The Grade aired. The game show is called Think Fast. Think Fast aired on Nickelodeon from May 1, 1989 to June 29, 1991. It lasted two seasons, with season one taped at WHYY-TV Studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and season two taped at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was hosted by Michael Carrington and announced by James Eoppolo in season one, and hosted by Skip Lackey and announced by Henry J. Waleczko in season two. The game is played by two teams, each one consisting of one girl and one boy. One team is gold, and the other team is blue. The two teams play two rounds, and in each of the two rounds, they compete against each other in challenges that are designed to test their physical and mental abilities. The challenges in this game are referred to by the hosts as "events". At the end of each event, the team who wins it scores cash and gets a chance to solve a visual puzzle called the "Brain Bender". There are three events in round one, and each event in that round is worth $50, while there are two events in round two, and each event in that round is worth $100; in a few episodes, a third event is played in round two to fill in time in case there's plenty of time left before the bonus round, which I'll get to later. Often, the second event in round one and the first event in round two are one-on-one events, where only one member in each team--both contestants in the same gender--compete, and often, the boys play the one-on-one event in round one, and the girls play the one-on-one event in round two. Also, if an event ends in a tie, then the two teams each get the full cash amount, but the Brain Bender does not come into play at the end of that event. And after a one-on-one event, the member of the team that has won that event has to solve the Brain Bender without any help from their teammate. Now, about the Brain Bender itself, it is a visual puzzle behind a complete set of jigsaw puzzle pieces that bear the show's logo. The Brain Bender is either a rebus puzzle, a photo of a celebrity, a photo of a common object, a close-up photo of a common object, and objects in common. For the objects in common Brain Bender, the pieces covering up the puzzle are squares, with each square fully covering up one of the objects, and the squares are removed in order, from left to right, and starting at the top and ending at the bottom. For all the other Brain Benders, the pieces covering up the puzzles are jigsaw puzzle pieces, and they are removed in random order. At the end of each event, one of the pieces is removed, revealing a portion of the Brain Bender, and the team that has won that event has five seconds to solve the Brain Bender. If the team correctly solves the Brain Bender, they score $200; but if they fail to solve the Brain Bender, another piece is removed after the next event is played, revealing more of the puzzle. If the Brain Bender is correctly solved in round one, another Brain Bender comes into play in round two, where it is also worth $200. Sometimes, a Brain Bender ends up lasting an entire episode without being solved after five events, and if that happens, the teams play Sudden Death, where the rest of the Brain Bender is revealed, one portion at a time. Sudden Death is played differently in each season. In season one, teams take turns making guesses on the Brain Bender, with another portion revealed before each guess, and if neither team is able to correctly solve the Brain Bender after all parts of it have been revealed, then Michael or the studio audience says what the correct solution to the puzzle is, and no money is scored from the Brain Bender. In season two, teams watch more portions of the Brain Bender being revealed, one at a time, and they buzz in as soon as they think they know what the correct solution to the puzzle is; if the Brain Bender is not correctly solved after all portions of it have been revealed, Skip reads verbal clues to help the teams figure out the Brain Bender until one of them buzzes in with a correct guess. At the end of the game, the team with the most money wins the game and advances to the bonus round called the Locker Room. Both teams keep the money, with a minimum of $100, while the losing team receives consolation prizes on top of the money they have scored. These are all just the basic rules of the game. So, before I get to the Locker Room bonus round, I'll be going into further detail on the events themselves. However, I'm not gonna explain every single event that has been played, or we'd be here until next week. Now, some of the events are played within a time limit--specified or not--while others are played as races. Some events are played only in season one, some are played only in season two, and some are played in both seasons, with changes made to the names, rules, and aesthetics in season two. Often, the race games in season one require teams to buzz in as soon as they think they are finished, and Michael checks everything the team who buzzed in has done in that event, and if there is one mistake made on that team's part, then the other team automatically wins that event, so a team has to do everything in that event perfectly before buzzing in in order to win, as buzzing in in such an event only ends that event. Also, some events have teams play separately, with the team playing first making as much success as possible until either that team has done everything needed to be done in that event or the clock reaches the maximum time limit, and the team playing second--who has been isolated off stage while the first team plays--is brought back on stage and has to do all the exact same things in that event and end up either making the same amount of success the first team made in a faster time or making more success than the first team made in the same amount of time in order to win the event. One of the most frequently played events on this show is a Simon-type game. There are five games like these, and regardless of which Simon-type game is played, the basic rules of the game are the same; one team starts the event off by adding the first item to the sequence, and the other team has to repeat the sequence and add an item to it. The teams take turns, repeating the sequence and adding an item to it each time. The event is over when a team makes one mistake when repeating the sequence. In season one, the event is also over when a team correctly repeats the sequence but forgets to add an item to it. The team that ends the event by doing either one of the two aforementioned things loses the event, and the other team wins it. The Simon-type games are as follows: Paint Catchers - One member in each team wears umpire gear, while the other member in each team throws at them red, blue, yellow, and green balloons filled with paint in those same colors. In season two, the umpire chest shields are bigger, and the team members in umpire gear have a clear thing behind them so the wall behind them doesn't get messy by the paint in the thrown balloons. We've Got Your Number - Often a one-on-one event, teams or contestants press buttons on a giant green telephone. Occasionally, this event uses two telephones, each one in a team's color. In season two, this event is renamed Close Calls. Pat The Uncle - Always a one-on-one event, contestants pat three guys referred to as "uncles" sitting in front of a television prop and stuffing their faces with random food items. Each time an "uncle" is patted, he lets out a loud burp--which is obviously a played sound effect--while occasionally spewing some food out of his mouth at the contestant who has patted him. In season two, this event is renamed Burp The Uncle, and the contestants wear goggles. Sounding Board - Always a one-on-one event, contestants have identical items that make sounds when used. The items used in this event are placed on a table, while a different version of this event uses one-man-band equipment for each contestant. Ice Cream Sundae Parlor - Always a one-on-one event, contestants add toppings to their ice cream sundaes, and also add a cherry everytime a contestant correctly repeats the sequence and adds a topping to it. Sometimes, contestants have to end each turn by hitting their buzzers instead of adding cherries to their sundaes. The toppings used in this event are unusual; those toppings include Oreo cookies, fortune cookies, Cheerios, rubber rat toys, unpeeled bananas, money, feathers, and rubber balloons. The basic rules of the other Simon-type games apply in this one, but a contestant can lose this event to the other team by forgetting to add a cherry to their sundae when they are finished adding their toppings to their sundae. Another type of event played in this game is a basketball-type game. There are two games like these, and they both involve throwing basketballs through hoops, yet both are played very differently from each other. The basketball-type games are as follows: Noisy Toss - The teams are shown a backboard with ten basketball hoops on it, with each hoop having a net tied shut and a sound word over it. The teams then listen to six of those sounds twice and throw small basketballs in their own team colors into the nets that correspond to the correct sounds. The teams have 30 seconds to throw their basketballs into as many correct nets as possible. Sometimes, a team can end up getting more than one of their basketballs into the same net, but they will only be credited once for each correct net if that is the case. The team who has shot the most correct hoops wins the event. Hoops With Colorful Basketballs - This isn't what this event is really called, but this event doesn't have an official name. Always a one-on-one event, each contestant has a basketball hoop with a giant vertical tube under it and a basket filled with basketballs in different colors. Each tube has words on either side or both sides that make up a phrase, title, or name with a word missing. All missing words in this event are colors, and the contestants have to fill in the blanks by throwing basketballs in the correct colors through the hoops and into the tubes in the correct order. The event ends as soon as one contestant has filled in all the blanks in their tube, and the contestant who has filled in the most blanks correctly in their tube wins the event for their team. Another type of event played in this game is a scale game. There are two games like these, and they both involve getting both ends of a scale balanced to get a needle at the top into a red range and keep it there. The scale games are as follows: Weight And Seesaw - Two different versions of this event are played. In both versions, however, one member of a team sits on one end of a giant scale, while a pile of random household items are placed on the other end of the scale, and the other member of that team has to take some of the items off the scale to get it balanced. If too much weight gets taken off the scale, the team member on it can end up getting lowered into a giant bowl of goop, and the other team member has to put some weight back on the scale. In one version, the teams play separately, with the team playing first trying to get the scale balanced until either they succeed in doing so or the clock reaches the maximum of 45 seconds, and the team playing second having to get the scale balanced in a faster time in order to win the event. In another version, the teams play simultaneously, with each team having their own scale, bowl of goop, and identical pile of random household items to work with, with the first team to get their scale balanced winning the event. Life's A Beach - The teams each have a scale that is much smaller than the scales used in Weight And Seesaw. Each scale has an anvil on one end and a clear bowl on the other end. There's also sand all over the floor, and the teams have to pick up some of the sand using shovels and hand brooms and putting it in the clear bowls of their scales. If too much sand is put in the clear bowl of a team's scale, that team must take some of that sand back out. The first team to get their scale balanced wins the event. Now, let's just go through some more of these events and get to the Locker Room. More of the events are as follows: The Feelies - The teams play separately in this event. One member in each team wears a blindfold and a pair of gloves, while the other member in each team hands them items and gives them a one-word clue on each item. The blindfolded member in each team has to feel the items handed to them and guess what those items are. Sometimes, the team playing first has their turn end when the clock reaches a maximum of 30 seconds, and sometimes, they have their turn end after five items are correctly guessed. After the team playing first has finished their turn, the team playing second must either get more items guessed correctly in the same amount of time or get the same number of items in a faster time in order to win the event. Plumber's Blackjack - One member in each team sits under a container with a red line below the rim and holes around the red line, while the other member in each team climbs up a ladder to the container. Between the teams is a table with a deck of cards and ten blue-colored water-filled beakers on it. Each card has a different value on it, and each beaker is labeled with a value on one of those cards. To start the event off, each team has the member on the ladder drawing a card, with the contestant who has drawn the card with the higher value taking a beaker first. Each contestant is given a beaker that is labeled with the value that corresponds to the value on the card they have drawn, and this continues until the event is over. After a contestant is handed a beaker, they must pour the water in that beaker into the container above their teammate's head. The two teams take turns pouring water in beakers given to them into the containers, with every card after the first two drawn by Michael himself after he shuffles the remaining cards. Whichever team is closest to the red line on their container without going over wins the event. If a team goes over the red line, the water comes out of the container through the holes and pours on the head of the teammate sitting under that container. Flog - This event is a game of miniature golf with words spelled backwards, hence the name of the event Flog, which is golf spelled backwards. One member in each team is at their buzzer, while the other member in each team is at the miniature golf course, which has some obstacles for the teams' golf balls to get through. When a backwards-spelled word is shown, the contestants at the buzzers have to buzz in and correctly guess what the word is, with the contestant doing so earning their teammate the right to putt at the miniature golf course. This event is played this way until one contestant at the miniature golf course gets their ball in the hole, with the first contestant to do so winning the event for their team. The backwards-spelled words are shown on cards on a stand in season one and shown as superimposed graphics in season two. Also, in season two, the miniature golf course has a loop for the golf balls to go around and a tunnel for the golf balls to go through. Occasionally, palindromes are used in this event, such as "racecar", which has also been used when Michael demonstrated this event on another Nickelodeon show called Don't Just Sit There, where he appeared on as a guest host. Categorically Speaking - Often a one-on-one event, teams or contestants are given a letter at the start and a series of categories, and what they have to do on each category is take turns giving answers that fit in that category and begin with that letter, starting with the team or contestant who buzzes in first. A category is over when a team or contestant gives an answer that doesn't either fit in that category or begin with that letter, after which the other team or contestant scores a point. The team or contestant with the most points at the end of the event wins. As The Word Turns - Always a one-on-one event, contestants are shown a television prop with three rotating drums on the screen, with each drum displaying one word in each of a series of three-word phrases, titles, and names. All the words in each phrase share the same color background. The contestants have to buzz in and correctly identify one of the phrases on the drums. After a phrase is identified, the drums stop when the words in that phrase are shown on the screen, with Michael often having to rotate the drums himself whenever they keep rotating or stop at a word that doesn't belong in that phrase. Sometimes, all the words in each phrase are numbered, and contestants have to buzz in and identity a phrase by giving all the correct numbers in the correct order. The contestant who has correctly identified the most phrases wins the event for their team. Bits And Pieces - Each team has a mat and a basket filled with wooden pieces that are straight and curved. The teams are asked a question, and they have to answer it by using the wooden pieces to spell out the answer on their mats. The first team to spell the correct answer wins the event. Hot And Cold - One member in each team has a canister that contains a flower for their opponent's teammate to find. Each contestant has to place their canister anywhere on a green area with other canisters scattered all over it and watch where their opponent is placing the other canister. All the canisters that don't have flowers in them have springy snakes in them. The other member in each team, who both have been in isolation during the canister placing, has to find the canister that has their flower in it with help from their teammate. The team members who have placed the canisters have to guide their teammates to the correct canisters by throwing plastic peppers and rubber ice cubes, letting them know if they are either getting closer to the canisters or getting further from them. The first team to have found the canister with their flower in it and open it wins the event. Sometimes, the team members throwing the fake peppers and ice cubes wear face masks to keep them from verbally telling their teammates if they are getting warmer, hotter, or colder. Mrs. Worry - A character named Mrs. Worry tells a story about what she is worried about, and the teams are asked questions about what they've just heard. Each time a team buzzes in and answers a question correctly, they score a point; but if they buzz in and answer incorrectly, the other team scores a point. The team with the most points when time expires wins the event. Sometimes, a team gets to answer a question that the other team has missed, and a team wins the event by being the first to score three points. Leaping Letters - One member in each team stands behind a catapult, while the other member in each team stands next to a board. At the catapults are a pile of letters, and the contestants at the catapults must catapult the letters to their teammates, who must catch those letters in the air, place them on their boards, and use them to spell as many words as possible. Every word spelled in this event has to be at least two or three letters long, and proper names are not allowed. This event lasts for one minute and thirty seconds, and the team that has spelled the most words wins the event. Behind The Teacher's Back - The two teams are each seated at a desk with equipment used to make spitballs and notebooks to cover up the equipment so they can't be seen by a teacher named Mrs. Tillerwell in season one and Mrs. Prunewhip in season two. They face a blackboard with targets on it and have to make spitballs and throw them at the targets when the teacher is not looking. To start, the teacher asks a question to the teams and goes to the team that raises their hand first. While a team is answering a question, the other team makes spitballs and throws them at their target. If the team answering a question answers correctly, the teacher goes to the other team, who must stop making and throwing spitballs and answer the next question. But if the team answering a question answers incorrectly, they are asked another question, while the other team continues to make and throw spitballs. To make spitballs, each team has to unroll some toilet paper in their own color, ball it up, and dip it into a bowl of some sticky substance. In season one, there are two targets, one for each team, drawn on an actual blackboard. In season two, one red target shared by both teams is on a clear blackboard. The team that has the most spitballs in a target when time is up wins the event. Okay, I've listed enough events here. There are a lot more events than just these, but all that I've listed here is enough. Now, let's get to the Locker Room! In the Locker Room, there are fifteen numbered lockers, with each locker having double doors, a light, and a button. There's also a button in the middle of the Locker Room. Fourteen of the lockers have seven matching pairs in them, while the one remaining locker is an unmatched locker. One of the lockers automatically opens up, and one member of the winning team has to find the correct match by opening one of the other lockers. To open a locker, the team member in turn has to press the button in front of it. That team member keeps opening lockers until the locker with the correct match in it is opened, indicated by a bell, and then, they have to close all the lockers and lock the two matching lockers by pressing the button in the middle of the Locker Room. Afterwards, another locker automatically opens. This round is played until either all the needed correct matches are found and locked or time runs out. Once the two lockers with the pair correctly matched are closed and locked, their lights turn on or off, and those lockers remain closed and locked for the rest of this round. The matching pairs consist of random characters who sometimes throw things and shoot silly string at the winning team, a large quantity of certain objects, and surprises that happen without warning. Most of the things hurled at the winning team can end up hurting them, so because of this, the team has to wear helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, and goggles. The team is awarded for every correct match they found and locked up, with the last needed match awarding the team the grand prize. These are all the basic rules of the Locker Room, but this round is played differently in each season. In season one, the winning team has one member finding and locking up as many correct matches as possible within the time limit of 30 seconds. During that team member's turn, there is something called a Time Bomb in the unmatched locker, and the Time Bomb is set to go off in the first 20 seconds of that team member's time. No, the Time Bomb is not a real bomb; it's just a cardboard bomb with the words "TIME BOMB" printed on it. What that team member has to do with the Time Bomb is open its locker within the first 20 seconds of their time, and if they do that, their teammate gets a full 30 seconds for themselves in the Locker Room; but if the Time Bomb's locker is not opened within the first 20 seconds of the first team member's time, that locker opens automatically, and the second team member only gets 20 seconds for themselves in the Locker Room. Either way, the team member going second has to find and lock up all the remaining matches before their time runs out. In the first few episodes of this season, the second team member gets 10 seconds added to their time, for a total of 40 seconds, if the first team member finds the Time Bomb on time, and they get 10 seconds deducted from their time, for a total of 20 seconds, if the Time Bomb is not found on time. Each correct match found and locked up wins the team a prize, with each prize won being more valuable than the previous prize won, up to six prizes, and the grand prize won always being a trip. Also, the lockers' lights are above their doors, and they turn on after the matches in those lockers are found and locked up. In season two, the two members of the winning team take turns finding and locking up correct matches within the time limit of one minute. The unmatched locker in this season has a character with no match inside called the "Red Herring". Before the round begins, the home viewers are shown which character in the Locker Room is the Red Herring. Once the team member in turn sees the Red Herring's locker open automatically, they have to close the Red Herring's locker by pulling a cord suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the Locker Room, or "yank on the Herring Handle", as Skip puts it, and plastic fish toys fall on the Red Herring as their locker closes. The team is not awarded anything for locking up the Red Herring, but they get to continue finding and locking up the remaining matches afterwards. The team wins $100 for each of the first four correct matches found and locked up--with each team member receiving the full amount--and a prize for each of the remaining three correct matches, with the grand prize being often not a trip, but either a Sunfish sailboat or a computer. Also, the lockers' lights are at their buttons, and they turn off after the matches in those lockers are found and locked up. And that's Think Fast. I actually like the idea for a kids' game show of teams competing against each other in challenges that are designed to test their physical and mental abilities, but the way it's done here, well, it's just not done well here. There are more events that test only either one ability of the teams than there are events that test both abilities of the teams. There are some events where all teams do is buzz in and give answers with no use of body power, while there are some events where all teams do is do all action with no use of brain power. There are also some events that test neither ability of the teams and only require the teams to just have some luck. Speaking of teams winning events by just being lucky, there are some events where a team scores a point by default each time the other team buzzes in and gives an incorrect answer. And while there are some events where a team is only given a chance to answer each time the other team buzzes in and gives an incorrect answer, those events are still outweighed by the events where a team scores a point by default each time the other team buzzes in and gives an incorrect answer. While we're still on the subject of teams winning events by just being lucky, there are also too many race games in season one where a team wins by doing less than the other team and the other team buzzing in first with any mistakes on their part. These events really bother me, as in a game show like this, I think teams should actually earn their wins by putting in a lot of effort in using their physical and mental abilities, not by their opponents making mistakes. Also, some of the events end way too quickly to the point where an extra event has to be played in order to fill in time and means nothing, and some of the events drag on way too long to the point where the home viewers could end up finding themselves bored out of their minds and changing the channel. Some events are also found confusing by the teams and the home viewers, and it's sometimes because of the way the hosts explain the way these events are played, which is not very well. Michael did a much better job at explaining how events are played than Skip did, as Skip explained how the events are played by reading from index cards that he held in his hand. And you know what? I think this is a good time in this edition for me to talk about Skip. Not only did he rely on index cards to help him explain the events, but he also relied on them to help him talk to the teams. Speaking of talking to the teams, he would just list a few things about each contestant, ask a question or two about the last thing he listed, give a generic positive response, and move right on. This shows that Skip didn't care much about his contestants. Also, in events that involve both teams playing at the same time but don't involve them buzzing in and answering questions, Skip would check on one team at a time, jumping from one team to the other by saying "Let's see how the gold team is doing" or "Let's go to the blue team". I mean, why just comment on one team at a time on how the teams are doing? Skip can say how each team is doing in one sentence. And even worse, when an event is over, Skip was supposed to know the end results. He was supposed to know right then and there which team has won an event unless the results are very close. But often, Skip would go to the judges for the end results, and he would often do this when the end results are clear as crystal, especially in events that use buzzers. Sometimes, Michael would go to the judges for the end results in events that use buzzers, and the buzzers used in season one had no score displays on them, so Michael had a perfect reason to go to the judges for the end results in events like these. But the buzzers used in season two did have score displays on them, so Skip had absolutely no excuse for going to the judges for the end results in events like these; he can just look at the score displays on the teams' buzzers, and just by doing that, he can easily tell which team has won the event. And finally, Skip is too loud and hyper at some points in every episode of season two. Of course, you have to have a host who has a good amount of energy and is interested in being there and actually has fun there if you're going to make a game show, especially a game show that is played by kids and on Nickelodeon, but being too loud and hyper can really make that host come off as annoying and fake. And by fake, I mean acting excited just for the sake of it, not because they are having fun and showing that they really want to be there. The way the main game is structured doesn't seem to work well, either. Just like the way the main game is structured in Make The Grade, the way the main game is structured in this show doesn't look like it needs to be played in two rounds. Round two seems just like a continuation of round one but with the dollar values for the events doubled and, for the most part, the Brain Bender still unsolved. I also have mixed feelings about the Locker Room bonus round. Out of the two ways this round is played, I prefer the way it's played in season two over the way it's played in season one; I think it's better for both members of the winning team to take turns finding the correct matches within the same time limit than for each member of the winning team finding the correct matches within their own time limit, with the team member going first having exactly 30 seconds to find as many correct matches as possible, and the team member playing second having a time limit determined by whether or not the team member playing first has found the Time Bomb to find the rest of the correct matches. Also, this round may not look like the kind of bonus round that is either too hard or too easy to win, but because of how this round is played, regardless of the season, this round can actually be won very easily by each member of the winning team running across the room and hitting the buttons that correspond to the lockers that haven't been matched and locked yet without even stopping for a fraction of a second to look at who is or what are in each locker at each turn. Now, it's time that I list the changes I would make to make this show better, and here they are: 1. There wasn't a stationary area for the host and teams in the show, so I think there should be one, consisting of a platform with a circular end on one side for the host to stand on and a rectangular end on the other side with two podiums there for the teams to stand behind, just like the home base on Shop 'Til You Drop, a game show that premiered somewhere in the same year that this show ended. This area would be used in events that involve teams buzzing in and giving answers. 2. Every event would test both physical and mental abilities of the teams equally, and no event should end too quickly or drag on for too long. 3. The main game would have exactly five events, with each event being its own round. The events would be worth $50, $75, $100, $125, and $150, in that order. 4. There would always be a different Brain Bender played after each event, and all Brain Benders would be played at home base. On each Brain Bender, the puzzle pieces covering it would be removed, one at a time, until the team that won the event buzzed in, and that team would be allowed to make only one guess and have only three seconds to make that guess. If that team correctly solved the Brain Bender, the money they won for winning that event would be doubled; but if that team failed to correctly solve the Brain Bender, that money would remain as is. If an event ended in a tie, both teams would play the Brain Bender, with more of the puzzle pieces being removed until a team buzzed in to stop the reveal and make a guess should the other team buzz in first and fail to correctly solve the Brain Bender. Correctly solving the Brain Bender right after the event ended in a tie would still double the money from that event for that team. So, in each round, a team could win up to $100, $150, $200, $250, and $300, in that order, meaning that a team could win up to $1,000, just like in another Nickelodeon game show called Finders Keepers. 5. Finally, the Locker Room bonus round would be played much like it was played in season two; the two members of the winning team would take turns within one minute, and the unmatched locker would have a Red Herring in it. However, the two team members would open only one locker at each turn instead of as many lockers as possible until the correct match is found at each turn, with each opened locker with an incorrect match immediately closing, and each opened locker with a correct match immediately closing at the same time the locker correctly matched closed, and there would be no button in the middle of the room to close and lock the lockers, making this round similar to the Mega Memory bonus round of Get The Picture, another Nickelodeon game show, which replaced this show after it ended. Also, just like in season one, each correct match wins the team a prize, with each prize won being more valuable than the previous prize won, and the final prize won being a trip, but a team would win up to seven prizes instead of six, since the winning team would have to find up to seven correct matches within one minute. And those are the changes I would make to improve the show. So, do you agree with these changes and the changes I came up with for Make The Grade? If not, then leave a reply on what changes you think should be made on these shows in order for these shows to become better. So, that's it. Think Fast is another Nickelodeon game show that could've been a really good but didn't turn out too well, and they probably would turn out better had these changes I've suggested have been made. So far in this year of Game Show Corner, all the game shows I've covered so far are Nickelodeon game shows. Yes, it's just two Nickelodeon game shows, but it's enough for now, and I'll cover another two Nickelodeon game shows in the final two editions of this year. Next week, I'll be covering a game show that is a production of Jack Barry and Dan Enright. See you then! 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 7, 2016 12:00:17 GMT -5
Hello, people! I'm Flo, and welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Game shows produced by Jack Barry and Dan Enright mostly have straddled formats, goals for contestants to reach in order to win the game, and bonus rounds where winning contestants win prize packages on top of cash accumulated in said bonus rounds by reaching a goal or lose all that money by revealing an "enemy" of some sort. There's the dragon in Tic Tac Dough, the devil in The Joker's Wild, the lightning bolt in Bullseye, and the percentage of zero in the game show that I'm gonna be covering this week called Play The Percentages. I mentioned Play The Percentages briefly when I covered Hollywood's Talking in year one. Both of these shows were produced by Jack Barry and hosted by Geoff Edwards. Not only that, but Play The Percentages was also produced by Ron Greenberg, distributed by Colbert Entertainment Sales, directed by Richard S. Kline, announced originally by Jay Stewart and later Bob Hilton, and aired in syndication from January 7, 1980 to September 12 on that same year. During the show's short run, there have been many changes made to the gameplay. That's really annoying, but I'm gonna get through this and try to explain the gameplay as best as I can. Originally, the game is played by two married couples. Later, the game is played by two solo contestants. Either way, there are usually returning champions. Also, regardless of the format, contestants are asked questions in which they have to figure out the correct percentages of groups of people who answered said questions correctly. I'll explain both formats of the main game first, and when I'm done with that, I'll get to explaining both formats of the bonus round. So, here we go. In the first format of the main game, the game is played by two married couples. The two couples are asked general-knowledge questions that have been answered by a group of 300 people before the show, and each couple locks in the percentage of the group of people who answered those questions they think answered those questions correctly. On each question, one half of each couple--both being of the same gender--lock in their guess on what they think the correct percentage to that question is. After both contestants have their guesses locked in, they each verbally give their guess to the host--mostly also giving a reason why they feel that the guess they have made is most likely correct--and their guesses are displayed above their score displays. Then, the screen between the two couples reveals the correct percentage on that question, and the couple whose guess is closest to the correct percentage, higher or lower, scores points based on the correct percentage; for example, if a question has been answered correctly by 27% of the respondents, then that question is worth 27 points to the couple whose guess is closest to that percentage. The couple who has scored the points for being closer to the correct percentage than the other couple also has the option to answer that question themselves or challenge the other couple to answer it, and after that decision is made, the half of the couple answering who took part in locking in a percentage has to give an answer to that question without conferring with their spouse, and that couple scores points based on the the remaining percentage on that question; for example, if a couple scores 27 points for being closer to the correct percentage, then the couple answering the question in play themselves scores 73 points for answering that question correctly. The couple who has scored points for being closer to the correct percentage can also score the remaining points by the other couple challenged to answer the question in play answering it incorrectly, making it a successful challenge to the challenging couple. Originally, if the couple with the initial control of the question scores the remaining points by a successful challenge, they get a chance to score that much more by answering that question themselves. Also, if the couple with the initial control of the question answers that question themselves, and they are incorrect, the other couple gets a chance to answer that question and steal the remaining points. After each question, the other half of each couple plays the next one. Both halves of each couple take turns playing questions until one couple wins the game by either reaching 300 points--with any points exceeding that goal not being added to their score--or locking in with the correct percentage right on the nose, regardless of the scores at that point. The winning couple receives $300 and advances to the bonus round. Later on with this format, if a couple wins the game by locking in with the correct percentage right on the nose, they also win a jackpot that starts at $10,000 and increases by another $1,000 each time it's not won. Now, this is how the second format of the main game goes. Two solo contestants play the game, and the main game has three categories. Before the game, each contestant chooses a category they feel they have the most knowledge on, and the remaining category becomes known as a "Potluck" category. The main game in this format is played in up to five rounds, and in each round, lights on the three categories flash at random and stops on one of those categories, making that category be the one to be played in that round. After a category is randomly chosen, two questions in it are asked. On the first question, the challenger chooses a point value from 10 to 90 in an increment of ten. These point values are based on the percentages of respondents who answered the questions incorrectly before the show, with each percentage rounded to the nearest increment of ten. The challenger scores the points by answering that question themselves correctly, but if they fail to answer that question correctly, the champion gets a chance to answer that question and steal the points. The second question in that category is played in the same manner, but with the champion making the choice of point value and having priority in answering that question. If the Potluck category is chosen, then two questions asked in that category are toss-up questions, both of which the contestants get to buzz in and answer. Later on with this format, all questions asked are toss-up questions, regardless of which categories the questions are in. A contestant wins the game by being the first to reach 250 points. The first contestant to reach that goal receives $500 and advances to the bonus round. If neither contestant reaches that goal after five rounds, more toss-up questions worth 50 points apiece are asked until a contestant scores enough points to reach the goal and win the game. That's it for the main game altogether. Now, we can move on to the bonus round. In the first format of the bonus round, the big circle on the floor that has a big percent symbol on it rises up, and the winning couple starts off by giving a percentage that is higher than 0%. The given percentage becomes the jackpot percentage, and it is displayed on the lower circle of the percent symbol. Then, the couple is asked questions with three answers to choose from on each one. On each question, one of the answers to choose from has the highest percentage--and is usually the correct answer answer--another answer to choose from has a lower percentage, and one more answer to choose from has a percentage of zero. What the couple has to do on each question is choose one answer, and that answer's percentage is displayed on the higher circle of the percent symbol. If that answer has a percentage that is higher than 0%, then the couple scores points based on that percentage. After each successful choice of answer on a question, the couple has the option to play another question or stop and take $10 for every point scored in this round; for example, if a couple chooses to stop this round with 31 points, then they will receive $310. If the couple chooses to play on and chooses the answer with a percentage of zero, then the round is over, and the couple wins nothing. However, if the couple scores 100 points in this round before an answer with a percentage of zero is chosen, then they win $2,500. Finally, if an answer chosen has the exact percentage as the percentage chosen by the couple to be the jackpot percentage, the couple wins a jackpot that starts at $25,000 and increases by another $1,000 each time it's not won. Later on with this format, the jackpot percentage is removed from the round due to the circle displays on the percentage symbol having been malfunctioned, so the increasing jackpot is no longer played for in this round; with this change, the increasing jackpot is carried over to the main game with the starting base of $10,000 instead of $25,000, and I already explained how the jackpot there is won. Also, should a couple choose an answer with a lower percentage, they must choose one of the remaining two answers before being given the option to stop. Now, this is how the second format of the bonus round goes. The winning contestant is asked only one question, but this question is a survey question, not a general-knowledge question. This question has six answers to choose from, with five of them given by the respondents and the other one having a percentage of zero. What the contestant has to do is choose the five answers given by the respondents, one at a time, with each successful choice of answer earning the contestant points based on the percentage of that answer and the option to choose another answer or stop and take $10 a point scored in this round. If the contestant chooses the answer with a percentage of zero, the round is over, and the contestant wins nothing. However, if the contestant chooses all five answers given by the respondents before the answer with a percentage of zero has been chosen, then they originally win $2,500; the prize for winning the bonus round in this format is later changed to a prize package worth somewhere between $3,000 and $3,500, which is one of the things that game shows produced by Jack Barry and Dan Enright are known for. This format of the bonus round was actually introduced back when the main game was still played by couples. When the game was changed from being played by couples to being played by solo contestants, the winning contestant was allowed to bring a family member or friend of theirs for the bonus round, but said family member or friend was only there for moral support, and only the contestant themselves could choose answers. Regardless of the format, a couple or contestant who wins five games in a row wins a car. I'm finally done with explained the game. What are my thoughts on this show? Well, I like the general idea of it; I think it's really neat having contestants guess percentages of groups of respondents who they think have answered questions correctly. When it comes to the main game, I find the format used when the game was played by couples a lot better than the format used when the game was played by solo contestants. The first format is more straightforward and easier to understand, not to mention that it fits very well with the title of the show, while the second format seems to have what the title of the show is taken away from it. If they're gonna go with the second format, they should at least have the point values for both questions in each pre-selected category determined by the contestant who pre-selected that category, and have that contestant get the first shot in answering each question in that category. Both formats of the bonus round are all right, but $10 a point seems kinda cheap to me, especially for a game show produced by Jack Barry and Dan Enright and aired in 1980. I think each point scored in the bonus round should be worth either $25 or $50. Also, $2,500 for winning the bonus round seems kinda cheap, as well. I know that this was changed to a prize package that is valued at $3,000 to $3,500 later on with the second format, but that should have been the prize for winning the bonus round for the entirety of the show's run, and couples and contestants should keep all the money from the points scored in the bonus round on top of the prize package for winning the bonus round. That's what the game shows I mentioned at the beginning that were also produced by Jack Barry and Dan Enright are known for, as well. This game show isn't bad, but with so many changes in the gameplay during its short run, it still could use some work. Oh, I forgot to mention that there was also a judge on the show named Erik Warner, who was nicknamed "Judge Von Erik" by Geoff. Erik was mostly heard during the second format of the main game, and he would often make mistakes in his judging, which would lead to laughter from the studio audience, the contestants, and Geoff himself. There's also a pilot episode of the show. The game in the pilot is the same as it is in the first format, but what's different about the way the game is played in the pilot episode is the bonus round. In the bonus round of the pilot episode, the winning couple is started off with 100 points, and they are asked up to five questions, all of which have been answered by a group of respondents before the show. On each question, the correct answer to it is given to the couple, and what the couple has to do is guess the percentage of the respondents they think have answered that question correctly. The correct percentage is then revealed, and the couple loses a point for every percent they're off by; for example, if a couple has 100 points, and their guess on a percentage is 53%, and the correct percentage is 57%, then the couple loses four points. Now, if the couple loses all 100 points, then they have lost the bonus round. There's money--up to $3,000--to be played for in this bonus round. The first thing that the couple has to do to win money in this bonus round is still have some points left over after the first three questions, and doing so wins them $500. Next, they have to still have some points left over after the fourth question, and doing so doubles the money to $1,000. Finally, they have to still have some points left over after the fifth question, and doing so triples the money to $3,000. Now, if the couple guesses a percentage that is the correct percentage on any question, then they automatically win the bonus round and the jackpot that was originally played for in the first format of the bonus round in the series. I gotta say that the bonus round used in the pilot just doesn't work. It's too similar to the Lucky Seven pricing game on The Price Is Right, and the way money is won from still having points left over is a bit complicated. So, I'm glad that the bonus round was changed from this before the series premiered. And that's all I have to say about Play The Percentages. Like I said, this game show isn't bad, but with so many changes in the gameplay during its short run, it still could use some work. 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 14, 2016 12:00:11 GMT -5
Hey, families! Flo here, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. It's time that I cover another game show host by Bob Eubanks. The last time I covered a game show hosted by Bob Eubanks, it was back in year one, and such a show I covered back then was Trivia Trap. Also back in year one, I covered two game shows that have gameplay similar to that of The Newlywed Game, the game show that Bob Eubanks is best known for hosting, and such game shows I covered back then were Three's A Crowd and I'm Telling! This game show that I'm gonna be covering this week not only was hosted by Bob Eubanks, but also has gameplay similar to that of The Newlywed Game. This game show is called Family Secrets. Family Secrets aired on NBC from March 22, 1993 to June 11 on that same year. Not only was this show hosted by Bob Eubanks, but it was also announced by Dean Miuccio, packaged by Dave Bell Associates and Buena Vista Television, and taped at Disney-MGM Studios--now known as Disney Hollywood Studios--in Orlando, Florida. The game is played by two families, each one consisting of one child and both of their parents. In round one, the parents are put in isolation, and their children remain on stage to answer questions about them. There are four questions in total asked in this round, with the first two questions asked being about the children's fathers and the last two questions asked being about the children's mothers. After the two questions about the fathers are answered, the fathers are brought back on stage and asked those same questions. After a father gives an answer, his child's answer is revealed, and the family wins money if the answers match. After the fathers have their chances to match their children's answers on those two questions, the children are asked the two questions about their mothers, and their mothers are brought back on stage to answer those questions after their children's answers to those questions have been recorded. Each correct match in this round is worth $100. In round two, the children are put in isolation, and their parents remain on stage to answer two questions about them. After the parents' answers to those questions have been recorded, their children are brought back on stage to answer those questions. Each correct match in this round is worth $200. After the two rounds, the final question of the main game is asked to the two families. This question is about the average American family, and it has a numerical answer. Each family writes down a number, which is their guess, and has ten seconds to do so. Afterwards, the families' guesses are revealed, and the correct number is revealed after that. The family whose guess is closer to the correct number scores $500. If both families either have written down the same guess or are within the same numerical range, then the $500 goes to the higher-scoring family. After the final question, the family with the most money wins the game and advances to the bonus round. If the game ends in a tie, another question with a numerical answer is asked. In the bonus round, the child of the winning family is given a category, and they choose which parent of theirs to answer questions in that category. Up to five questions are asked in that category, and if three questions are answered correctly before three questions are answered incorrectly, then the family wins a trip. So, that's Family Secrets. Well, what can I say? It's basically just another clone of The Newlywed Game, and by that time, which was 1993, there has already been too many clones of The Newlywed Game in total. But out of all the clones of The Newlywed Game, I guess this one kinda works, because this one was hosted by Bob Eubanks, the original host of The Newlywed Game and the man who is best known for hosting The Newlywed Game. Even if it works in any way, I still stand what I said back when I covered I'm Telling!, and that is that clones of The Newlywed Game should be saved for adults, and adults only. This clone of The Newlywed Game has adults and little kids playing the game. Granted, there's only one little kid in each family in the game, and there's not as much bickering over wrong answers in this show as much as there is in I'm Telling!, but it doesn't change the fact that there are little kids at all in a clone of The Newlywed Game. And why is the game played by families of three? There's money involved, with none of the dollar values of each question being equally divisible of three. Maybe a family can end up with a cash total that is equally divisible of three, but that has happened a lot less than it hasn't. The most money a family can win on this show is $1,300, and that is not equally divisible of three. I already explained in full detail why game shows with cash involved and played by teams of three are an issue to me in a few other game shows like those I covered in the past. I'm not gonna repeat it all here. There's just one more thing about this show that I have to mention, and that is the controversy that arose during the show's run. The controversy is all about a family on the show that is partly not a real family. That family has been identified as the Hansen family, and it consisted of a ten-year-old girl, her father, and the father's girlfriend who was living with them at the time and posing as the girl's mother on the show. It has been reported by a Chicago-based daily newspaper called Chicago Tribune on May 1993 that this family has won $6,000 in prizes, but the girl's real mother found out about all this and contacted NBC and Dave Bell Associates to get the episode with that family in it pulled before it could air on May 27, 1993, the date that that episode was scheduled to air on. Officials at NBC and Dave Bell Associates agreed to pull the episode, so they did that and replaced it with a rerun of an earlier-aired episode. The girl in that family was awarded her prizes, which were a camera and a CD player, but the family wasn't awarded the trip or their money. On the day the show's final episode aired, the girl's father and his girlfriend got married. So, that's it. After twelve weeks on the air, Family Secrets got cancelled for two reasons. One of those reasons is low ratings, but the other reason is that families constantly failed to meet eligibility requirements, just like the family I just talked about that caused the controversy on the show. After this show got removed from the air, another game show premiered on NBC the following week, and that game show is called Caesars Challenge. And you know what? I'll be covering that game show next week. I sure am going to have fun with this one! 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 Oct 20, 2016 14:39:17 GMT -5
Why are you posting GSC today, Flo? It's only Thursday.
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Post by Flowgli on Oct 20, 2016 15:21:15 GMT -5
So it is. Yeah, I haven't been keeping track on what day is today. I'm feeling kinda off today for some reason. So, I'll take this edition down and post it again tomorrow.
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Post by Flowgli on Oct 21, 2016 12:00:03 GMT -5
Hello to all of you people in Vegas! 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 covered a game show that aired on NBC called Family Secrets. This week, I'll be covering a game show that premiered on that network the following week after that show got cancelled. This is the game show that I have been looking forward to covering for a long time! This is the exciting prize maximus letter-perfect game show, Caesars Challenge! Caesars Challenge aired on NBC from June 14, 1993 to January 14, 1994. This show was taped at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was hosted by NBC sportscaster and former professional football player Ahmad Rashād, co-hosted by Dan Doherty--who was dressed as a gladiator to keep with the theme and replaced Chad Brown and Zach Ruby, both of whom were also dressed as gladiators, after the earliest episodes--announced by Steve Day, directed by Steve Grant, created by Rick Rosner, and produced by Rosner Television and Stephen J. Cannell Productions. The show's theme music, while it sounds a lot like the theme music from Triple Threat--a game show that I already covered in the previous year--was not composed by Wil Shriner, but composed by Stormy Sacks. The game is played by three contestants, all of whom have been chosen from the studio audience prior to the show. Usually, one of the contestants is a returning champion, but in some cases, all three of the contestants are challengers. The three contestants play three rounds. In each round, the contestants are shown words with their letters scrambled on a nine-monitor slot machine, which the co-host activates by pulling a lever to reveal the scrambled words. After a scrambled word is revealed, a subject that that word fits in is revealed originally to everyone and later to the home viewers only. The contestants have to earn the right to unscramble the word by buzzing in and correctly answering multiple-choice questions that fit in the subject that that word fits in. Each question has three answers to choose from, and because of this and the fact that the game is played by three contestants, a contestant automatically receives credit for a question if both of their opponents have buzzed in before them and answered incorrectly, since, by then, only the correct answer will remain. Each time a contestant wins a question, they score money, and they get to choose a letter in the word. The chosen letter is then placed in its proper position of the word, and the contestant who has won the question and chosen that letter has five seconds to unscramble the word. Correctly unscrambling the word scores the contestant money for each letter that was unplaced right before the word was unscrambled correctly, but if the contestant fails to unscramble the word, another question is asked. After a word is correctly unscrambled, another word in another subject is put in play. Also, in the episodes in which the subjects of the scrambled words are revealed to the home viewers only, each word's subject is revealed to everyone in the studio right after that word is correctly unscrambled. There are two words in rounds one and two each and as many words as time permits in round three. Each word is seven letters long in round one, eight letters long in round two, and nine letters long in round three. Each question and unplaced letter is worth $100 in round one, $200 in round two, and $300 in round three. Also, right after each word is put in play, the slot machine selects one of the monitors with a letter in it to be the "Lucky Slot", and that monitor is signified by red light borders above and below it. If a contestant chooses a letter whose proper position of the word is the Lucky Slot, a siren is heard, coins pour out of the slot machine, and that contestant has a chance to add an instant jackpot to their score by correctly unscrambling the word in play immediately. If the word in play is correctly unscrambled immediately after the letter that goes into the Lucky Slot is chosen, the contestant who has done all that gets the instant jackpot added to their score on top of the money for each unplaced letter in that word. But if the contestant fails to correctly unscramble the word in play immediately after they have chosen the letter that goes into the Lucky Slot, the Lucky Slot is out of play for the remainder of the word in play, and it comes back in play at the start of the next word. The instant jackpot starts at $500 at the start of each episode and increases by another $500 at the start of each successive new word if it's not claimed. After the instant jackpot is claimed, it starts back at $500 at the start of the next new word. At one point in round three, time usually runs out while a word is in play, and when that happens, a car horn sounds, the Lucky Slot is taken out of play, no more questions are asked, and the remaining letters of the word in play are placed in their proper positions. What the contestants have to do at that point is buzz in, which stops any more of the remaining letters of the word from being placed in their proper positions momentarily, and unscramble the word, with the contestant correctly doing so scoring the remaining money from that word. But if a contestant buzzes in with an incorrect guess on that word, they are locked out for the remainder of the round, and more of the remaining letters of the word are placed in their proper positions until a remaining contestant buzzes in to unscramble the word. After that word is correctly unscrambled, the game is over, and the contestant with the most money in their score wins the game and advances to the bonus round. In the show's earliest episodes, the winning contestant uses the money they have won the game with to shop for prizes, just like what winners of each round on Wheel Of Fortune would do during that show's earliest years. Later on, the winning contestant receives a prize package whose value is equal to the amount of money they have won the game with. The losing contestants each receive consolation prizes, including dinner for two and a headliner show at the Circus Maximus showroom at Caesars Palace. If the game ends in a tie, another word is played in the same speed-up fashion by the tied contestants to determine the winner. During the show's run, the bonus round has two formats, both of which are played for a car. Both formats of the bonus round also have only words to unscramble and no questions to answer, and the winning contestant retiring from the show undefeated once they have won the car by winning the bonus round. In the original format of the bonus round, a bingo cage filled with lettered balls is lowered from the ceiling, and the lettered balls roll out of the bingo cage and down a ramp, with the co-host calling out the letters on the balls in the order they came out. In some episodes, the balls coming out and the letters on them being called out all take place starting right before the show goes into a commercial break and stopping temporarily somewhere during that commercial break, and more of the balls will come out and the letters on those balls will be called out. Either way, the balls will keep coming out and the letters on them will keep being called out until a gong is heard and Steve Day says in a booming voice "Caesar says STOP", meaning that at least one nine-letter dictionary-certified word can be formed from those letters. By then, the bingo cage stops rotating, a nine-lettered dictionary-certified word is chosen by the show's producers, and all the letters of that word appear on the slot machine monitors by the co-host pointing at them with his "magic sword" in the order those letters came out. Then, the winning contestant chooses a letter in that word for each trip they make to the bonus round--one letter on their first trip to the bonus round, two on their second trip, three on their third trip, and so on--and all the chosen letters are placed in their proper positions. Then, the contestant has ten seconds to correctly unscramble the word. The contestant is allowed to make as many guesses as they need to until either they make a correct guess or time runs out. If the contestant makes a correct guess on the word, they win the car and retire from the show undefeated, and three new challengers compete on the next episode. But if the contestant fails to correctly unscramble the word, they return to the show on the next episode and play against two new challengers. With this format of the bonus round, a contestant can stay on the show for up to eight days, with that contestant automatically winning the car without having to play the bonus round, because if that contestant is to play the bonus round on their eighth day, then the word in play in the bonus round would already appear to be unscrambled after eight of its letters are chosen and placed in their proper positions, since, by then, the one remaining letter would still appear to be in its proper position anyway. The second format of the bonus round was introduced less than two months before the end of the show's run. Instead of a lettered ball-filled bingo cage, a ramp, and the slot machine monitors, this format uses a curtain-covered monitor on a prop that resembles a Roman structure, which was pulled in by Dan Doherty. At the start of this bonus round, Dan opens the curtains, revealing five scrambled words stacked on top of each other the bottommost word is five letters long, and each word above that is one letter longer than the word before it, with the topmost word being nine letters long. What the winning contestant has to do is unscramble all five words correctly within thirty seconds. The contestant starts at the five-letter word at the bottom and must work their way to the nine-letter word at the top. On each word in play, all the letters are shuffled and placed into their proper positions, one at a time, and the contestant is allowed to make as many correct guesses as they need to. Each time the contestant correctly unscrambles a word, they move on up to the next word. If all five words are correctly unscrambled before time runs out, the contestant wins the car and retires from the show undefeated. But if time runs out before all five words are correctly unscrambled, the contestant returns to the show on the next episode and play against two new challengers. When this format of the bonus round was introduced, contestants are limited to three appearances on the show, so after a contestant wins the game on their third and final appearance, they retire from the show undefeated after playing the bonus round for the last time, whether they win the car that day or not. Regardless of the format of the bonus round, balloons fall all over the set each time a contestant wins the car. Sometimes, the balloons remain on the floor on the next episode for luck to the three new challengers. This show also has a game for the members of the studio audience, which takes place during the end credits. In the audience game, Ahmad chooses members of the studio audience to unscramble five-letter words shown on the slot machine monitors. Each member of the studio audience who correctly unscrambles a word gets a fistful of silver dollars and gold foil-covered chocolate medallions from a bowl held by the co-host. And that's Caesars Challenge. This is a great game show, and it's not just because it was taped at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada; it's because the gameplay is great and also simple to follow, the prizes that were played for are very good--even a car played for in the bonus round--seeing the studio audience join the fun and be awarded for being successful at the end of each episode is nice, and the interactions between Ahmad and Dan are kind of amusing. There are a few things in the show that I don't really like, though. One is the fact that a contestant wins a question by default after their two opponents buzz in and choose both incorrect answers. In a game show that premiered years later called Catch 21 and a game show that premiered years earlier called On The Spot--with the latter game show already having been covered in the previous year--multiple-choice questions are not only asked, but they are also thrown out when the first two contestants who buzzed in chose both incorrect answers and not won by default by the remaining contestant. Why couldn't they throw out questions in this show after the first two contestants who buzzed in chose both incorrect answers? Maybe this show has contestants win multiple-choice questions by default to save time on the main game so that all three of the rounds there are played, which seems to make sense, since there are some episodes where too many questions are won by default to the point that either only one word is played in round two or round three becomes a speed-up round as soon as it begins without having any questions asked in that round. Another is that in the later episodes, the subjects of the words that come into play are revealed to only the home viewers until the words are unscrambled. Why can't everyone in the studio be told what the subjects of those words are while the words in those subjects are in play? Is it to keep the words from being unscrambled way too early, thus keeping the contestants from scoring a lot of money in the main game? Is it to keep the instant jackpot from being scored so many times in one episode? It just had to be those reasons. Another is that after a contestant wins a question, they are obligated to choose a letter to be placed in its proper position of the word in play before they can unscramble that word. It is kind of a problem, since contestants only score money for each remaining unplaced letter when they unscramble words. Even in the episodes where the subjects are revealed to the home viewers only until the words in those subjects are solved and the second format of the bonus round is used, Ahmad incorrectly stated that each word is worth a maximum of $700 in round one, $1,600 in round two, and $2,700 in round three, when in fact, each word is worth a maximum of $600 in round one, $1,400 in round two, and $2,400 in round three. I feel that each word should be worth a flat $1,000 in round one, a flat $2,000 in round two, and a flat $3,000 in round three. Either that, or at least have each word start at those amounts and drop by one tenth of those amounts each time a contestant fails to correctly unscramble a word. But if having each word being worth money for each remaining unplaced letter is what they're gonna go for, then it would be nice for the contestants to have the option to unscramble a word without choosing a letter to be placed in its proper position first. Another is that all the money won in this game are in prizes and not in cash. I'm sorry, but if contestants are scoring money for winning questions and unscrambling words, then the money should be all in cash, not prizes. If this show is going to have prizes being won in the main game, then I think the best way for that to happen is to award a prize each time a contestant scores the instant jackpot, and each prize won in the main game would be that contestant's to keep regardless of the outcome, but the winner would be the only contestant to keep the money they have scored, and in cash, too. Finally, there's the change in the format of the bonus round. With the first format, a winning contestant's chances of winning a car increases each time they fail to win it in the bonus round and take a return trip there. With the second format, a winning contestant's chances of winning a car is always the same everytime they fail and make a return trip to the bonus round. Even worse is that contestants are limited to three wins, making it difficult for some people to win the car during their championship on the show. I mean, this is a Rick Rosner-created game show, after all, and in every game show that he did, there's a bonus round where winning contestants play for a car, and their chances of winning a car increase each time they fail and make a return trip to the bonus round, and they retire from the show undefeated once they win the car. Just Men!, a game show that I already covered back in year one, is another game show with a bonus round like that from Rick Rosner, and so is the John Davidson-hosted revival of Hollywood Squares. Okay, Hollywood Squares was technically created by Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley, but Rick Rosner was still in charge of the John Davidson-hosted revival of that show. Caesars Challenge is still a good game show. It's still a cool word game where contestants can come to Las Vegas to win big prizes. Speaking of winning big on the show, there are a few memorable contestants there, if many people really remembered the show, that is. One is Tom Gauer, who won a car on his fourth appearance with the word "CAFETERIA" and left with over $53,000 in prizes. Another is Babbette Griffiths, who also won a car on her fourth appearance, but with the word "ELEGANCES". But the one contestant that this show was most known for is Neil Bines, also known as Mr. Anagram. This contestant is very, very good at unscrambling words. Everytime he wins a question, he chooses a letter that he knows goes into its proper position of a word, which that proper position is the Lucky Slot, unless, in only two or three cases, the Lucky Slot is out of play, and he immediately unscrambles the word correctly. He retired from the show undefeated on his first and only appearance with the word "GONDOLIER". This show has a pilot episode, which is pretty much the same as the earliest episodes of the series when the first format of the bonus round was used and winning contestants bought prizes with their winnings. In the main game, the contestants each start off with $2,500 and lock in how much money they want to wager on whether they think they can unscramble a word correctly or not using keypads. In round one, each contestant can wager up to $250, and correctly unscrambling a word pays off at two to one. In round two, each contestant can wager up to $500, and correctly unscrambling a word still pays off at two to one. In round three, each contestant can still wager up to $500, and correctly unscrambling a word pays off at three to one. Regardless of the maximum wagers and the odds, each contestant who doesn't correctly unscramble a word gets their wager deducted from their score. Also, the instant jackpot is carried over from the previous episode, and it starts back at $1,000 each time it's claimed. Finally, the car horn simply means that the word in play is the last word in the main game, so round three is still played like normal, and it doesn't become a speed-up round. I'm glad that these differences in the pilot didn't get carried over to the series. This show is the last daytime game show on NBC, and it also was the last daytime game show on any network besides The Price Is Right until fifteen years after this show's run ended when the Wayne Brady-hosted revival of Let's Make A Deal premiered on CBS. Also, even though this show premiered the following week after Family Secrets, it actually replaces another game show that aired on NBC back in 1993, and that game show was Scattergories, a D ick Clark-hosted game show based on the Milton Bradley game of the same name. I'll get to covering Scattergories, but not in next week's edition. Since Scattergories was hosted by D ick Clark, I'll get to covering that show when we're close to going into the new year. So, what game show will I be covering next week? You'll see what it is when that time 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 28, 2016 12:01:45 GMT -5
Hi, guys! Flo here, 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. Charades is a fun game to play with friends and relatives, no matter what the occasion is you play the game on, and no matter whose house you play the game in. What makes the game even more fun is when it gets adapted into a game show. There are game shows that are based on the game of charades, and I will be covering one of those game shows this week. The game show I'm gonna be talking about today is Body Language. Body Language is a Mark Goodson production that was not only based on charades, but also based on another Mark Goodson production called Showoffs, which also was based on charades and produced by Bill Todman, as well. This show aired on CBS from June 4, 1984 to January 3, 1986. It was taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood, hosted by Tom Kennedy, and originally announced by Johnny Olson until his death on October 12, 1985, with announcing duties afterwards shared by Gene Wood and Bob Hilton, both of whom occasionally substituted for Johnny Olson prior to his death. Also, this show was the second game show in which Tom Kennedy and Gene Wood worked together as host and announcer, with the first one being Password Plus, another Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production. The game is played by two teams, each one consisting of one contestant and one celebrity. Usually, the contestant on one of the teams is a returning champion. The team with the returning champion wear red name tags, while the team with the new challenger wear green name tags, except on the first two episodes, where both teams wear green name tags. Towards the end of the show's run, the celebrities' name tags are star-shaped. The two teams play two rounds, and in each round, each team has a set of five words or names to act and guess. On each team's turn, one team member stands behind a podium and guesses the answers, while their teammate stands in an area in the middle of the set and acts the answers, which are all shown to the acting team member on a screen on the podium, one at a time. The acting team member is not allowed to talk, make sounds, or use props; they can only pantomime. If the acting team member gives an illegal clue, the word in play will be taken out of play for the remainder of the team's acting and guessing time. There's an exception to the "no talking" rule that applies to the acting team member, and that is when they or their teammate are stuck on an answer, at which point the acting team member says "pass", and the team will return to that answer if there's still time left on the clock. The team has 60 seconds to act and guess as many words as possible, by the way. After the team plays their set of words, the acting team member goes back to their seat, while their teammate is shown a puzzle that describes someone or something but has seven numbered blanks in it. Five of the blanks are where the five answers acted out earlier belong in the puzzle, while the other two blanks are where two additional words that are not acted out earlier belong in the puzzle, with those two words each in parentheses starting in the sixth week of the show's run. The answers correctly guessed are revealed in their appropriate blanks, and the guessing team member has to guess who or what the puzzle is describing using the words filled in the blanks. If the guessing team member correctly guesses who or what the puzzle is describing, they score money for their team; but if they fail, the guesser on the other team comes over to the podium, chooses one of the remaining blanks, and make a guess on who or what they think that puzzle is describing after that blank is filled in. The two guessers take turns choosing blanks and making guesses until one of them correctly guesses who or what the puzzle is describing. If no correct guess is made after all seven blanks have been filled in, then the actor on each team gets to make one guess. Each round in the main game has two puzzles, one for each team to work with. In round one, the celebrities do the acting, the contestants do the guessing, and each puzzle is worth $100; and in round two, the contestants do the acting, the celebrities do the guessing, and each puzzle is worth $250. However, if a puzzle is never correctly solved, the value of that puzzle will be added to the value of the next puzzle. Also, starting in the fall of 1985, a team who correctly guesses all five words before their time runs out in round two receives a cash bonus of $500, which does not count towards their cash score. A team wins the game by being the first to reach $500 or more. So, because each puzzle is worth $100 in round one and $250 in round two, a team can win the game just by correctly solving both puzzles in round two alone. But if neither team has reached $500 or more after round two, which is often the case, then a playoff takes place. In the playoff, the team's contestants are shown one more puzzle, and there's no acting involved. Once again, the contestants take turns choosing blanks and making guesses, but the champion or designate has the option of which contestant goes first. Whoever correctly solves the playoff puzzle scores $250 and have enough money to win the game. The winning team plays the bonus round called Sweepstakes. This round is played in two parts. For the entirety of this round, there are only words to act and guess and no puzzles to solve, and one team member does all the acting, while their teammate does all the guessing. Originally, the celebrity does all the acting, and the contestant does all the guessing; starting on June 10, 1985, the contestant has the option of who does all the acting and who does all the guessing. In the first part, the team has ten words to work with, and they have 60 seconds to act and guess as many of those words as possible. Each word correctly guessed wins the contestant $100. Also, if an illegal clue is given, the word in play is taken out of play permanently. After this part of the round, Tom goes over the missed words with the winning team. In the second part, the team has three more words to work with, and they have 20 seconds to act and guess all three of those words. If all three of those words are correctly guessed before time runs out, all the money won in the first part of this round is multiplied by ten, so up to $10,000 can be won in this round. But if time runs out before all three of those words are correctly guessed, the contestant receives the money won in the first part of this round as is. Also, if one illegal clue is given in this part of this round, this round ends immediately. That's the gameplay. Now, we'll be getting to the returning champions rule. Originally, contestants stay on the show until they win five games, lose once, or reach or exceed CBS's winnings limit at the time, which was $25,000. Starting on September 24, 1984, contestants stay on the show until they win six games, lose twice, or reach or exceed CBS's increased winnings limit, which, at that point, was $50,000. Now, before I get to my thoughts on this show, I have to explain the special episodes. One set of special episodes is where the contestants playing the game are teenagers. These special episodes aired in the summer of 1985. The game in these episodes is played the same way as it has been played in the regular episodes, but there are a few differences. Other than the fact that the game in these episodes is played by teenagers instead of adults, the bonus for correctly guessing all five words before time runs out in round two is a special prize suited for teenagers--such as a Commodore 64 computer--and $2,500 of the money won by a contestant is awarded in cash, and the rest of the money won if that contestant wins more than that is put in a savings bond that matures on their eighteenth birthday. The winnings rule used in these episodes is later carried over to the "Young People's Week" episodes in the 1980s revival of Card Sharks, another CBS game show that replaced this show after its run ended. If a contestant ends up with less than $2,500 in the game, their total winnings are increased to that amount. The teams in these episodes wear sweatshirts in their team colors, with the celebrities' sweatshirts having big yellow stars on them, and the contestants' sweatshirts having the words "TEEN WEEK" in white on them. There's also a special episode that aired on March 15, 1985, where players in a baseball team called the Los Angeles Dodgers play for charity. The players in that episode were Steve Sax, Dave Anderson, Mike Marshall, and Greg Brock, and they all wore Dodgers t-shirts and caps in the game. Each player in this episode is playing for a different charity, and both members in each team split the money to donate to their charities, with a minimum of $5,000 for the winning team to split and a minimum of $1,000 for the losing team to split. Finally, there are a few pilot episodes that were recorded in 1983. The game in these pilots is played the same as it was played in the series, but there are a few differences. One is the scoring in the main game; there are still four puzzles in the main game--not counting the playoff puzzle--but they are worth $100, $200, $300, and $400, in that order. Another is the bonus round; the bonus round is called "7 Chances", there are only puzzles to solve in it and no answers to act and guess, making this bonus round the complete opposite of the Sweepstakes bonus round that was used in the series. In the "7 Chances" bonus round, the winning team plays two puzzles, and in each puzzle, they have to choose blanks by number to fill in and guess who or what that puzzle is describing. If the first puzzle is correctly solved, then they play the second one. If both puzzles are correctly solved, the contestant wins $5,000 or $7,000--depending on the pilot episode--plus another $1,000 for every unused chance. The team can choose up to a total of seven blanks, and if they still fail to solve both puzzles correctly, they lose the bonus round, and the contestant receives only $500 for solving the first puzzle correctly if they have done so. These pilot episodes aired on a network called Buzzr, which is a network for all game shows in the Goodson-Todman library, and also a network that, in a way, is now what GSN used to be in its early years. Speaking of Buzzr, the YouTube channel that that network originated from has its own version of this show, and in that version, it's all acting and guessing answers and no solving puzzles. All right, I seem to have said enough about the gameplay and other miscellaneous information about the show. Now, it's time that I give my thoughts on this show. I think the game is great! The gameplay is simple to follow and fun to watch and play along. It's also a clever thing for Mark Goodson to do, which was taking elements of a couple of game shows that he produced previously with Bill Todman and combining them to make a game show like this. This show not only has the charades element from Showoffs, but it also has the puzzle element from Password Plus. I would include Super Password in this, since both this show and Password Plus are both revivals of Password and played exactly the same, but Super Password premiered on the same year as Body Language premiered, and that was years after Bill Todman died. I also like how teams act out the shaping of breasts to indicate that they are acting out a female, the zipping up the fly to indicate that they are acting out a male, and the drawing of a star to indicate that they are acting out a celebrity. That really helps their teammates guess answers that are people. However, I think the scoring would've been better if teams score money for correctly guessing answers that are being acted out as well as for correctly solving puzzles, and if they have decided to do that, then the goal to winning the game would've been higher than $500. But overall, this is a great game, and I'll consider covering Showoffs soon. For the next two editions, I'll be covering two game shows that premiered on August 2004 on PAX--known today as Ion Television--and ended somewhere in 2005. I'm really looking forward to sharing these two game shows with you guys. 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 4, 2016 13:00:28 GMT -5
Hey, everybody! This is Flo, and welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. Okay, here we are. It's time that I cover two game shows that both aired on PAX--known today as Ion Television--from August 2004 to somewhere in 2005. The first of those two game shows that I'm gonna cover here is the game show where image is everything, and that game show is called On The Cover. On The Cover is a pop culture trivia game and one of the game shows hosted by Mark L. Walberg. I already covered another one of the game shows hosted by Mark L. Walberg in the previous year, and that game show was Free 4 All, and near the end of the edition in which I covered that show, I briefly mentioned this show. This show was also announced by Mitch Lewis and packaged by CreativArts Entertainment Group and PAXSON Entertainment. The game is played by three contestants, and it consists of three rounds. For the entirety of the show, contestants are shown magazine covers on the game board, and they have to identify famous people on those magazine covers and answer questions about those famous people. Each correct answer scores a contestant points, and the contestant with the most points at the end of the game is the winner, and the winner advances to the bonus round for a chance to win a trip. Round one is the lightning round. Each contestant plays in this round as soon as that contestant is introduced by Mitch. Each contestant is shown a series of magazine covers and has 15 seconds to correctly identify the person or people on each magazine cover. On each magazine cover, a category that the person or people on that magazine cover fits in is given by Mark, and the name or names of the person or people on that magazine cover is blurred out from it. Each time a contestant correctly identifies the person or people on a magazine cover, they score 100 points. A contestant can pass on a magazine cover if they are stuck, but once they pass on a magazine cover, they can't go back to it. Each correct identification also reveals the name or names of the person or people on a magazine cover right before the next magazine cover is revealed. After a contestant's time is up, they are shown the magazine covers that they have missed and passed on, and Mark tells them the name or names of the person or people on each of those missed and passed magazine covers, while at the same time, those names on those magazine covers become un-blurred and revealed. This round is over after all three contestants each have had their turn. In round two, usually referred to as the "On The Cover Round" in the show itself, the contestants are shown three magazine covers on the game board, with each magazine cover worth a starting point value of 250 points. To start, the contestant with the lowest score--or the contestant who has played first in the previous round in case of a tie for last place--makes the first choice of magazine cover. After a magazine cover is chosen, a question pertaining to who or what is on it is asked, and a contestant has to ring in and answer that question. Whoever rings in with the correct answer to that question scores the points. But if a contestant who rings in gives an incorrect answer or fails to give an answer in time, the other contestants get to ring in and answer that question. After a question, its magazine cover is replaced with another one, the values of the other two magazine covers are each increased by another 250 points, and the contestant who last answered correctly gets to make the next choice of magazine cover. This round is played in an unspecified amount of time, and the end of the round is signified by a one-note music cue. In round three, the contestants are shown three sets of three parody magazine covers. Often, the three parody magazine covers in a set share a common bond. On each set, questions pertaining to the people on the three parody magazine covers are asked, and contestants have to ring in and choose which person or people they think is the correct answer to a question. Sometimes, the first part of a question comes off as if one answer is correct when it's really another answer that is correct, which is why Mark warns the contestants at the start of this round that they can ring in as early as they like on a question, but if they ring in and choose an incorrect answer, the other contestants get to hear the question in its entirety. Also, if the first two contestants who rang in choose both incorrect answers, the last contestant remaining still has to ring in and choose the remaining answer, which is the correct one. Each question is worth 500 points on the first set of parody magazine covers, 750 points on the second set, and 1,000 points on the third set. Each set is finished after an unspecified number of questions--usually five--have been asked and answered. At the end of round three, the contestant with the highest score wins the game and advances to the bonus round. If the game ends in a tie, one more question on the third set of parody magazine covers is asked, with the contestant who wins the tiebreaker question, either by answering it correctly or by default, winning the game. In the bonus round, the winning contestant has to identify a person on a "mystery cover". However, the mystery cover is behind nine numbered squares that form a 3x3 grid, with the numbers shown on the grid in a random order, so what the contestant has to do first is remove the squares to reveal parts of the mystery cover, and they do this by correctly identifying people on nine magazine covers in the exact same manner as in the lightning round. This time, each magazine cover has a number on the lower left corner--with that number corresponding to its square on the grid covering the mystery cover--and the contestant has 20 seconds to correctly identify the person or people on each of those magazine covers. After time runs out or all nine magazine covers have been played, the squares whose numbers correspond to the magazine covers correctly guessed on are removed from the grid, revealing parts of the mystery cover. A category is also given to help the contestant out in figuring out who is on the mystery cover. Using the category and the revealed parts of the mystery cover, the contestant has 10 seconds to correctly identify who is on the mystery cover. Then, all the remaining numbered squares are removed to reveal the mystery cover in its entirety, and the name of the person on the mystery cover is un-blurred and revealed by Mark. Correctly identifying the person on the mystery cover wins the contestant the trip, while failing to do so wins them a consolation prize. After the bonus round has been played, Mark states a little-known fact about the person on the mystery cover. That fact is also stated by Mitch twice, the first time in the opening spiel at the start of the show, and the second time right after the show's third commercial break before the bonus round begins. So, that's On The Cover. Before I share my thoughts on this show, I have to explain the two episodes that aired as a two-day special on May 17 and 18, 2004. In those two episodes, the game is basically played the same way as it is played in the series. There are some differences featured here, though, with the most notable differences being the set, the opening spiel, the announcer, and the point values being lower. The announcer on these episodes was Vanessa Marshall, by the way. The differences in round one are that each contestant stands next to Mark at the platform bearing the show's logo in front of the podiums instead of Mark and the contestants being at the podiums for the entire round, and each correct identification is worth 25 points. Everyone takes their places at the podiums after the round ends. The difference in round two is that each magazine starts at 50 points and increases by another 50 points each time it's not chosen. The differences in round three are that the parody magazine covers in each set have answers above them, with those answers being the first names of the people on those parody magazine covers, their last names, or pun-laden words or phrases, and those answers sharing a common bond, and each question is worth 100 points on the first set of parody magazine covers, 200 on the second set, and 300 points on the third set. At the end of the game, the winning contestant receives a prize announced and described by Vanessa. In the bonus round, the winning contestant is shown four magazine covers, one at a time, with each one having a person on it, and the contestant is asked four questions about those people, one question about each person. Each correct answer is shortened to one word, which serves as a clue to a person on a mystery cover, which is not behind a grid of nine numbered squares or on the game board at all. After the four questions and the shortening of the given correct answers, the contestant is given a category to the person on the mystery cover and has 10 seconds to correctly identify the person on the mystery cover using the category and earned clues, and successfully doing so wins them a grand prize package, which consists of not just a trip, but also jewelry and a set of luggage. The trip played for in both of these episodes are to the Newport Beach Film Festival. After the round is played, the correct answers to the questions missed, the clues from those correct answers, and the mystery cover are all revealed. Also, no little-known fact about the person on the mystery cover is stated. And that's the show overall. The overall gameplay is good, regardless of which episode is being watched. There are some things in the two-day special episodes that I like better than those in the series. One of those things is the opening spiel. In the series, Mitch spoke in a low voice while soft mysterious music plays, and then, all of a sudden, Mitch spoke in a much louder voice while the show's theme music, which was higher and upbeat, played as the show's logo was formed and Mark was introduced. That opening spiel really startled me when I listened to it, especially when I wear earbuds when watching an episode of this show on YouTube. In the two-day special, an animation of graphics of magazines was shown, and the show's theme music played throughout the entire opening spiel, and Vanessa spoke in a normal tone of voice. Another one of those things is that there is no little-known fact stated about a person on the mystery cover. It really doesn't help the home viewers figure out who the person on the mystery cover is, and hearing the reminder of that little-known fact from Mitch as soon as the show returns from its third commercial break right before the bonus round begins just feels out of place. Because of all this, I find Vanessa a much better announcer on the show than Mitch. Another thing is that the point values in the two-day special are lower than the point values in the series, because with the point values as high as they are in the series, it looks as if the contestants might as well be playing for cash instead of points. The same can be said about the point values in the two-day special, but because of how low the point values are in the two-day special, the game there is better off being played for points instead of cash. One more thing is that the first part of the bonus round in the series is a rehash of round one. The first part of the bonus round in the two-day special is completely different, and I think the bonus round there overall is better, though I think it would've worked for the series if the correct answers to the four questions that are used as clues to the mystery cover are each used in its entirety instead of being shortened to just one word and the mystery cover is not referred to as a mystery cover, since it isn't even on the game board behind a grid of numbered squares during the round. Round two is played exactly the same in both the series and the two-day special, so I don't have anything to say here. I actually like how questions are required to be answered in round three in the series better than in the two-day special, to be honest. Answering questions by choosing names and pun-laden words or phrases just seems unnecessary, and I believe it's better to answer questions by simply saying the names of the people on the parody magazine covers. Both of the sets look nice, but they're a bit too dark, and there's nothing on them that shows that this game show is all about magazine covers--and also CD covers, DVD covers, and things like that, for that matter--except for the magazine covers and the show's logo displayed on the game board and the platform bearing the show's logo. Well, I feel that I have said all I needed to say about this show, so I'm gonna end this edition right here. So, join me next week when I'll be covering the other game show that aired on PAX from August 2004 to somewhere in 2005. That game show, by the way, is called Balderdash. See you then. 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 11, 2016 13:00:10 GMT -5
Hi, people! It's me, 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. Now, as you know, I've covered a game show on PAX--known today as Ion Television--called On The Cover last week. That game show aired from August 2004 to somewhere in 2005. This week, I'll be covering another game show that also aired on PAX from August 2004 to somewhere in 2005, and that game show is Balderdash. Balderdash is a loose game show adaptation of a board game of the same name. The board game that this show is loosely based on was created by Laura Robinson and Paul Toyne, and it was originally released under a Canadian company called Canada Games. That game was later picked up in the US and released under The Games Gang, then Hasbro, and finally Mattel. The show itself aired on PAX from August 2, 2004 to February 4, 2005, and it was hosted by comedienne Elayne Boosler, announced by fast talker John Moschitta, Jr., and packaged by The Hatchery, LLC and Mattel. At the start of each episode, three celebrities that make up a panel introduce themselves, and they each provide some wild information, with only one celebrity telling the truth and the other two telling lies. After that and the opening spiel, Elayne reveal which panelist is telling the truth. The game is played by two contestants. In the game, the contestants are given points to wager and a category--with some of the categories given in this show being the same as the ones in the board game, such as Laughable Laws and Weird Words--and they each lock in their wager and choose whether they want to look for "truth" or "balderdash". The contestants' wagers and choices of either "truth" or "balderdash" are then revealed, and Elayne asks a question in that category. Then, each celebrity in the panel gives an answer and some wild information to go with it. After a celebrity gives their answer and their explanation for it, their answer appears on a monitor above their head. After hearing the answers and explanations for them from all three of the celebrities, each contestant locks in a celebrity depending on their choice of either "truth" or "balderdash". If a contestant has chosen to look for "truth", then they have to choose which celebrity they think is telling the truth. If a contestant has chosen to look for "balderdash", then they have to choose which celebrity they think is telling a lie. The contestants' choices of celebrities are then revealed, and the celebrity who is telling the truth is revealed by their monitor lighting up and flashing. After the reveal of which celebrity is telling the truth, the contestants' scores are changed depending on their choice of "truth" or "balderdash" and their choice of celebrity. One of the celebrities is telling the truth, while the other two are telling lies. A correct guess on "balderdash" simply adds a contestant's wager to their score, while a correct guess on "truth" doubles a contestant's wager and adds it to their score. Either way, an incorrect guess simply deducts a contestant's wager from their score. In round one, each contestant is given 250 points to wager. One category is played, and each contestant can wager whatever amount of points they want on the question in that category. In round two, each contestant is given an additional 500 points to wager. Two categories are played, and each contestant has to wager at least 250 points on the question in each category. If a contestant ends up with less than 250 points after the first question in this round, then they have no choice but to wager their entire score on the second question, but they can still choose to look for "truth" or "balderdash". In round three, each contestant is given an additional 1,000 to wager. One category is played, and each contestant has to wager at least half their score on the question in that category. Also, both contestants are looking for "truth" only, and the contestants' wagers and choices of which celebrities they think are telling the truth are not revealed until after the reveal of which celebrity is telling the truth. After three rounds, the contestant with the most points wins the game and chooses a celebrity in the panel to team up with in the bonus round called the Balderdash Barrage. In the Balderdash Barrage, the winning contestant and a celebrity in the panel of their choice are shown a set of ten monitors, each of which displays a letter in the word "balderdash". Behind one of those letters is a trip, and behind the other nine of those letters is a smaller prize, such as an MP3 player. The contestant and the chosen celebrity are then given a series of statements, all of which end with words or phrases that are balderdash, just like the mixed-up mad libs in Mad Libs--which I already covered in year one--and the "bloopers" in Whew!, and they have 45 seconds to correct as many of those statements as possible by giving the correct words or phrases. On each statement, the contestant has priority when answering. If the contestant gets stuck on a statement, they can pass it, and the chosen celebrity gets to answer. If the chosen celebrity gets stuck, they can pass it, and the next statement is given. After time runs out, a letter in the word "balderdash" that has the smaller prize behind it is removed for each correct answer given, and the contestant chooses one of the remaining letters that they think has the trip behind it. The chosen letter then reveals which prize is behind it, and that's the prize the contestant wins. Later on in the show's run, if nine correct answers are given before time runs out, then the winning contestant wins both prizes. So, that's Balderdash. Well, the gameplay overall is okay, but the main game is played too much like Liar's Club, and the Balderdash Barrage is played a lot like Whew! and the "Mixed-Up Mad Libs" round of Mad Libs. There are some elements in this show that are in the board game of the same name, but there's not that much there. I've never played the board game, but I've seen a review video of it on YouTube, and after seeing how the board game is played in that review, I'll have to say that both the board game and the game show are mostly played differently and have a few similarities, which is why I said earlier that the game show is a loose adaptation of the board game. There are also a few changes made to the set in the middle of the show's run, which doesn't really bother me at all; it's a bit darker, black vertical strips with circular lights on them are added, a few more monitors are added in the back, and the color of the frames of the monitors is changed. Either way, the set overall has a lot of purple there. I also like how there's a rule change in the Balderdash Barrage that gives winning contestants a chance to win both the trip and the smaller prize. The scoring in the main game is good, too, but since contestants can end up scoring thousands of points, I think it would make more sense if the game was played for cash instead of points. Well, that's all I have to say about this show. We'll be away from PAX for a while and go to another network for the next edition, since I just covered two PAX game shows in a row. You'll know what other network we'll be going into when we get together in next week's edition, and that's no balderdash. 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 18, 2016 13:00:15 GMT -5
Hey there, penny pinchers! This is Flo, and welcome to this week's edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows. It's time that we go back to ABC and look into a game show where contestants have a chance to win one million...cents. That's right. One million cents, not one million dollars. Don't expect one million dollars to be played for in this game show, because this game show is from 1955. One million dollars is way too much money to be played for on a game show back then. Anyway, the name of the game show is Penny To A Million. Penny To A Million aired in black and white, and it aired Wednesday nights on ABC from May 4, 1955 to October 19 on the same year. It was hosted by Bill Goodwin, announced by Johnny Olson and Jay Stewart, produced by Ed Wolf, and sponsored by Brown & Williamson's Raleigh cigarettes and W.A. Sheaffer Pen Company. The game is played by four contestants, all of whom have been chosen at random from the studio audience. The four contestants are given a category, and they take turns answering questions in that category, with each contestant having five seconds to answer a question after it is asked. The first correct answer is worth one cent, and each correct answer thereafter doubles the money, except on the final correct answer, which increases the money from two hundred and sixty-two thousand and one hundred and forty-four cents, or $2,621.44, to five hundred thousand cents, or $5,000. The questions in the category in play get more difficult as more of them get asked. Also, some of the questions are dual-choice questions or multiple-choice questions. Some questions are also songs or pieces of music played by a live band, and contestants have to name the songs or pieces of music. A contestant who gives an incorrect answer or runs out of time to give an answer is eliminated from the game but receives a $25 savings bond and one of the products that sponsored this show as consolation prizes. After a contestant is eliminated, the category in play ends, and another category is put in play. After three contestants are eliminated, with the third contestant eliminated receiving a $50 savings bond instead of a $25 savings bond but still also receiving the either product sponsoring the show, the last contestant remaining advances to the Playoff Round. However, before the Playoff Round takes place, another game with four more contestants is played. All the money accumulated in both games is combined and played for by the winners of those two games in the Playoff Round, so up to one million cents, or $10,000, is played for there. In the Playoff Round, the winners of the two games take turns answering questions, starting with the winner of the first game, until at least one of them answers a question incorrectly. After one contestant answers a question incorrectly, the other contestant is asked one more question, and if they answer that question correctly, they win 75% of the money, and the contestant who has answered the previous question incorrectly wins 25% of the money. But if both contestants each answer a question incorrectly, each contestant wins 50% of the money. And that's Penny To A Million. Now, what are my thoughts? Well, the gameplay is okay, but I feel that it doesn't belong in a game show that is called Penny To A Million. With a game show that goes by this title, I expected the game to be played by only one contestant, not two sets of four contestants. Also, I feel that every correct answer after the first one should increase the money by ten, not double it. And why do the winners of both games have to split the money even after only one of them answers a question incorrectly? Shouldn't the contestant who did not miss a question win all the money while the other contestant receive a savings bond and either product sponsoring the show? Again, this game show is called Penny To A Million, so the successful contestant should receive the full amount of money accumulated in the game, not a fraction of it. Or better yet, the game should be done so that there's not only one contestant playing the game and having their total winnings increased by ten for every subsequent correct answer, but also the option for the contestant to stop and take the money after every correct answer and one incorrect answer causing the game to be over and the contestant to leave with no money. Yeah, this game sounds a lot like how Power Of 10, Grand Game on The Price Is Right, and, to a degree, a Puerto Rican game show called A Millón, but it makes sense for a game called Penny To A Million to be played this way. It also makes sense for this show to wait until about fifty years to premiere so that the game could be played for one million dollars. I mean, when people hear the word "million" in a cash prize played for on a game show, they always think one million dollars, not one million cents. Now, there's a pilot episode of this show, and the host there was Bud Collyer, who was one of the announcers on the radio show of Break The Bank--which I already covered in the previous year and also was produced by Ed Wolf--and the host of the daytime version of the television show and assistant to Bert Parks on that show from 1948 to 1953, was the host of Winner Take All from 1948 to 1950 on television and from 1950 to 1952 on radio, was the original host of Beat The Clock and To Tell The Truth, was the announcer and assistant to Vinton Freedly on Talent Jackpot, was the host of the DuMont run of On Your Way, and was the host of Number Please--which I also already covered in the previous year. Man, that was a lot to say there! Not just about Bud Collyer, but also about this show and my thoughts. So, I'm gonna end it right here and bid you all farewell until 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 Nov 25, 2016 13:00:18 GMT -5
Hi, everybody! Flo here, 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. What would you say is the shortest-lived game show ever? I've covered a couple of game shows that each lasted no less than six episodes back in year one, and those game shows were The Hollywood Game and You Don't Know Jack. This week, I'm gonna be covering the shortest-lived game show ever, and believe it or not, this show lasted only two broadcasts, with the first one being an actual episode. I'm not kidding about this, people. This show is called You're In The Picture. You're In The Picture aired in black and white, and it was intended to air Friday nights on CBS, but only two broadcasts aired, with the first one having aired on January 20, 1961--the same night as the Inauguration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy--and the second one having aired on the 27th on that same month of that same year. This show was hosted by star of The Honeymooners and performer in variety shows Jackie Gleason, announced by Johnny Olson for the game and Dennis James for live commercials for Kellogg's cereals--which, by the way, was the product that this show was sponsored by--created by Don Lipp and Bob Synes, and produced by Idees Grandes, Inc., Solar Enterprises, Inc., and Steve Carlin Productions. The game is played by a panel of four celebrities, and the celebrities in the panel in the show's first broadcast are Pat Harrington, Jr., Pat Carroll, Jan Sterling, and Arthur Treacher. In the game, a life-size picture that displays a set of four characters representing a song lyric, a historical event, or a scene in a story or musical is rolled out on stage, and that picture has four holes on where the four characters' heads are supposed to be. The panel is seated behind a life-size picture frame, where the life-size picture is placed in, and each celebrity in the panel sticks their head into a hole in it, just like visitors in theme parks, carnivals, and even zoos stick their heads into holes in carnival cutouts. Each hole in the picture has a collar for a celebrity's chin to be over; this is to keep each celebrity from seeing any part of the picture. What the panel has to do is figure out the content of the picture or what characters they portray in it. To do this, each celebrity asks Jackie yes-or-no questions in an unspecified amount of time. If the panel correctly guesses what the picture is, then 100 CARE packages are sent in their name; but if they fail to correctly guess what the picture is, then 100 CARE packages are sent in Jackie's name. That's all there is to the gameplay. Examples of pictures used in the game are Pocahontas saving John Smith and the Burlesque Beef Trust Girls, with the latter being one of the pictures to receive laughter from the studio audience due to the male celebrities in the panel having to stick their heads into the holes where the heads of the female characters are supposed to be. Now, before I give my thoughts on this show, I need to talk about the reviews this show got and what happened in the show's second broadcast. When the show premiered, it received extremely negative reviews across the board. In fact, the reviews for this show were all so negative that it quickly became one of the biggest bombs in the history of television. Even Time magazine cited this show as one piece of evidence that the 1960-61 TV season was the "worst in the 13-year history of US network television". On the show's second broadcast, the set was stripped bare, and there was no panel. All that was there was Jackie sitting on a chair with two end tables on either side, with a cigarette and ashtray on Jackie's left, and a cup of coffee called by Jackie "Chock Full O' Booze" on Jackie's right. What happened in that broadcast was that Jackie gave an apology for the show the previous week, and it wasn't just a simple "sorry"; it was a half-hour explanation of how much of a big fail the show was and how the show even came to be. He also explained that he wasn't supposed to be on the show the week before and was gonna be out of town, but someone came to him with the idea of the show, and he stayed around to do it. He even took the blame when the show was first demonstrated to him and other people with him, because they, even Jackie himself, all found the idea hilarious, and Jackie got more people in to see it, and the idea caught on. Also, during that broadcast, Jackie was responsible for doing live commercials in it, since I guess that Dennis James wasn't around that week to do it like he did the week before. And at one point, the picture of Pocahontas saving John Smith was rolled out by two stagehands who had their backs turned to the studio audience because of how embarrassed they were for having taken part in the show, and Jackie stuck his head into the hole where John Smith's head was in order to demonstrate what the show was like to the people who didn't see it the week before. The apology broadcast received much better reviews than the game show broadcast did. After the apology broadcast, You're In The Picture was no more. However, Jackie still had to fill out his commitment to CBS, so what he did was change the show to a talk show that featured one-on-one informal interviews and renamed it to The Jackie Gleason Show. This talk show lasted until March 24, 1961. Okay. Now, I can get to sharing my thoughts on this show. While the gameplay is really not great, I'll say that after checking this show out, I don't find it to be as bad as the people who criticized it made it out to be. Having people stick their heads into holes in a picture and identify a picture by asking yes-or-no questions does sound like a good idea for a game show, but actual contestants should be playing the game instead of celebrities, and actual prizes should be played for instead of CARE packages. What made Don Lipp and Bob Synes think that CARE packages are good enough prizes to play for in this game? What kind of prize is that for a game show? And why do they have to go to Jackie Gleason, the host of the show, if a picture is not correctly guessed? If the game was played by actual contestants instead of celebrities, and it was played for actual prizes instead of CARE packages, would the show last longer than one actual episode? I'd like to think so. The concept of sticking heads into holes in pictures and guessing what the pictures are may not have worked back when this show was in production, but it probably would work in a future game show. After all, this concept has been used on an episode of a comedy panel game show in the UK called Celebrity Juice in 2013. Well, I have talked about two game shows in a row that air entirely in black and white, so we're gonna go back to color in the next edition. Also, instead of referring to You're In The Picture as one of the biggest bombs in the history of television, it's more fitting that it's referred to as one of the biggest turkeys in the history of television, since yesterday was Thanksgiving. Anyway, with December coming in a little less than a week, the next edition and the next three editions after that will be all about shopping game shows. So, get ready to go Christmas shopping with me next week as we go into many malls all over the country when I talk about a game show from Stone Stanley Productions called Born Lucky. See ya then. 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 2, 2016 13:00:20 GMT -5
Hello, there, shoppers! 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. It's time to go to many different malls across America to do some Christmas shopping and look into a shopping game show. So, let's go, now. It's time that we look into a game show called Born Lucky. Born Lucky aired on Lifetime from October 5, 1992 to April 2, 1993, and again on the same network from July 5, 1993 to December 31 on that same year. It was hosted by Bob Goen, announced by Jonathan Coleman, and produced by Stone Stanley Productions, known today as Stone & Company Entertainment. It was taped at many different malls all over America, but for the entirety of its first week, it was taped at the Glendale Galleria in downtown Glendale, California. The game is started off with four contestants, who are all chosen from the mall crowd. Each contestant is given an object that is used for a challenge. Each contestant plays their own challenge for a chance to win up to $100 in what is referred to on the air as "mall money", which is actually all nothing but white pieces of paper, and they all play in the order they have been chosen from the mall crowd. Examples of challenges played are listening to an updated story about D ick and Jane and putting the ten events in the correct order they have been read in one minute, correctly identifying up to ten groups of three people with the word "three" in their names based on clues while having two mannequin heads on their shoulders to look like a three-headed person, reading ten lyrics from songs in the 1970s' and correctly guessing whether each lyric is real or made-up while wearing a disco suit, and correct guessing whether each of ten characters from films is a good guy or a bad guy by stacking white cowboy hats and black cowboy hats on their head. After each challenge, the contestant who played it is handed a fraction of the $100 maximum in mall money for each success made in that challenge, mostly $10 apiece, and they pick out a card with the name of a prize on it, with the prize itself theirs to keep regardless of the outcome of the game. After all four challenges have been played, the two contestants with the most mall money advance to the next round called the Challenge Round, while the other two contestants are eliminated. If there's a tie for last place among three or all four of the contestants, then each tied contestant picks out an envelope with mall money in it, and the one or two tied contestants who have chosen the most money advance to the Challenge Round. The Challenge Round uses a bidding mechanic just like the Bid-A-Note round in Name That Tune did, and so did "The List" in Sex Wars, Gambling Debt in Debt, and the Challenge Round in Wipeout, all of which I already covered in year one. The second round of the Gary Kroeger-hosted version of Beat The Clock used it years later. Anyway, in this round, the two remaining contestants are shown one challenge and how it's played, and after that, they take turns making bids on how many successes they think they can make in that challenge within a specified time limit, with each bid made being higher than the last until one of them challenges the other to fulfill their bid. The first bid is made by the contestant who has won the most money in the previous round, with a minimum bid given to them. After a contestant is challenged to fulfill their bid by the other contestant, that contestant plays the challenge and has to fulfill their bid before time runs out. If they succeed, they win the game; but if they fail, the other contestant wins the game. The winning contestant plays the bonus round, and in it, there are five tasks, each one on a table, and they have to complete all five tasks in one minute and thirty seconds. The tasks have to be completed in the order they are arranged, and the contestant moves on to the next task as soon as they complete the one before it. They can pass on a task if they get stuck, but they can only pass once, and they have to go back to the task they have passed on if there's still time remaining. Some of the tasks are questions in which the contestant can make as many guesses as they need to until they give the correct answers. If the contestant completes all five tasks before time runs out, they win $2,000 in mall money; but if time runs out before all five tasks are completed, they win $100 in mall money for each task completed. And that's Born Lucky. Before I get to sharing my thoughts on this show, I have to talk about the pilot episode. The show is the same, except it has a different logo, it was hosted by Mark Sweet, it has no announcer, the contestants have been chosen from stores in the Sherman Oaks Galleria in Los Angeles, California--which is where the game is played in--each contestant picks out an envelope with money in it as soon as they are chosen and have a chance to win that money or even more money by answering a question correctly or complete a task within a specified time limit, there's risk involved in the bonus round--since it is shown in a clip of this pilot that I found on YouTube that the winning contestant was offered $500 and given the option to take the money or give it back and complete the next task for $2,000--and all the money won was not in mall money, but in real money. Yes, the pilot episode has money awarded to contestants in actual dollar bills, so if that could be done there, then why couldn't that be done in the series? Now, I can get to sharing my thoughts on this show. The idea of playing challenges for money in an actual mall is okay, but for the most part, the challenges themselves are either ridiculous or just not the least bit exciting. The prizes won in the first round are okay, as well, but they are not really exciting enough. The bidding mechanic in the second round is okay, too, but I felt that that round should be called something other than the Challenge Round, since that's what the second round of Wipeout, which also has the bidding mechanic, is called. And like I said, the game should've been played for real money, not white pieces of paper called "mall money". Even though it's been said that the mall money is only used for spending at the stores in the mall that the game is played in, I highly doubt that it's acceptable to anyone working at those stores in the mall, as they're obviously working there to make real money and not receive worthless white blank pieces of paper. As you can tell from everything I said about this show and the show itself if you've watched it yourself, parts of the game are recycled from Shop 'Til You Drop, another production of Stone Stanley Productions and the better one of these two game shows. It is common for a company that produces game shows to recycle parts of their own game shows to produce new game shows, and Stone Stanley Productions is no exception. The theme music for the pilot episode was also recycled from the Fox version of yet another production of Stone Stanley Productions called Fun House. Also, after this show got cancelled for good, Bob Goen stopped hosting game shows for thirteen years and returned to hosting game shows in 2006 when he began hosting the US adaptation of a Dutch game show called That's The Question on GSN. Speaking of this show and That's The Question, these two game shows that Bob hosted are cable game shows. Okay, that's all I have to say about this show. Now, we're done with our Christmas shopping, and we can stop making trips to all these malls. What? You still have some Christmas shopping that you have to do? Well, not to worry, because we can still do some Christmas shopping from home. Yes, for the next three editions, we will be looking into three home shopping game shows, all of which premiered in 1987, starting with another game show hosted by Bob Goen simply called The Home Shopping Game. I'll see you then 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 9, 2016 13:01:55 GMT -5
Hello, there, shoppers! 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. It's time to do some more Christmas shopping...from home, this time. This week and the next two weeks, we'll be looking into three home shopping game shows, all of which premiered in 1987. The first one of these home shopping game shows that we'll be looking into is The Home Shopping Game. The Home Shopping Game aired in syndication from June 15, 1987 to September 11 on that same year. It was hosted by Bob Goen, co-hosted by Debbie Bartlett and Bob Circosta--with the latter also being the announcer--produced by Home Shopping Entertainment, Inc., and distributed by MCA Television. The game is played by two contestants, with one of them usually being a returning champion. The two contestants play four rounds, and each round is started off with an item at a bargain price being brought in by Debbie and described by Circosta. Each item brought in and described in the main game is a prize for the contestants to play for and an item for the home viewers to buy via an 800 number. Three of the words in the description of that item that pertain to it are shown to the contestants, with all the letters in each word all scrambled up, with two of the words in the top row and the third word in the bottom row. Under each scrambled word is a row of blank spaces for the letters to be placed in their proper positions, and one letter in each word is placed in its proper position before questions started to be asked to the contestants. All questions in each round pertain to the item up for grabs in that round. What the contestants have to do is buzz in and answer questions, with each correct answer adding money to their score, placing another letter in each word in its proper position, and earning them the right to unscramble one of the words. But if a contestant buzzes in with an incorrect answer to a question, the other contestant is given the right to unscramble one of the words by default but doesn't score money from the missed question. Correctly unscrambling a word also adds money to a contestant's score. After a word is correctly unscrambled or a contestant is not able to unscramble any words, another question is asked. In rounds one and two, each correct answer to a question is worth $100, and the first word correctly unscrambled is worth $100, the second word correctly unscrambled is worth $200, and the third word correctly unscrambled is worth $300. In rounds three and four, the dollar values are doubled to $200 for each correct answer to a question and $200 for the first word correctly unscrambled, $400 for the second word correctly unscrambled, and $600 for the third word correctly unscrambled. Whenever time is running out in a round, a bicycle horn is heard, and no more questions are asked in that round. At that point, the remaining letters in the remaining words are placed in their proper positions, one letter in each word at a time, and the contestants buzz in as soon as they are able to unscramble one of the remaining words. After all three words are correctly unscrambled, the round is over, and the contestant who has unscrambled the most words correctly wins the item up for grabs in that round. After four rounds, the contestant with the most money wins the game. Both contestants keep the money they have scored and the prizes they have won, but the winner advances to the bonus round. The bonus round is played in two parts. In the first part, one more item is brought in and described, and the winning contestant is revealed the first letter of each word in a five-word phrase or six-word phrase that pertains to that item, with all the words stacked on top of each other in order. What the contestant has to do in this part of the round is solve the phrase. If the contestant solves the phrase, they win $2,000; but if they don't, the next letter in each word in the phrase is revealed, and the money is cut in half to $1,000. More letters in each word in the phrase are revealed, one at a time, whenever the contestant is not able to solve the phrase, with the money being cut in half each time until the phrase is solved. After the phrase is solved, the contestant wins the money from there and plays the second part of the bonus round. In the second part, the contestant is shown one of the words in that phrase, and it's always the word with the most letters in it. The contestant has to use the letters in that word to make as many other words as possible within thirty seconds. Each word has to be spelled correctly and be at least three letters long. Also, each letter on each word spelled can be used no more than how many times that letter appears in the word in that phrase, and letters that are not in the word in that phrase can't be used in the words spelled. After time runs out, the money won in the first part is multiplied by the number of appropriate words spelled correctly in the second part. All the money won in the bonus round altogether is added to the contestant's total winnings. Contestants on this show can win up to five games, after which they retire from the show undefeated. There were at least three contestants on this show who retired undefeated, and one of those contestants is Nan, who later became a contestant on a game show whose main game is similar to that of this show, Caesars Challenge--a game show that I already covered seven weeks ago--and retired undefeated from that show, as well. Yeah, looking at this show and Caesars Challenge, they both have gameplay that's similar in terms of main game. They both have scrambled words, with one letter being placed in its proper position after contestants buzz in to answer a question, and the contestant who has won the question by either answering it correctly or winning it by default earns the right to unscramble a word, and contestants score money by answering questions and unscrambling words. The gameplay in both shows are good, and about my thoughts on The Home Shopping Game overall, it is a good home shopping game show; it has good gameplay, nice items for the contestants to win and the home viewers to buy via an 800 number, a decent set, a good team of host, co-host, and announcer, and a good amount of money for contestants to win. However, seeing how this show is a home shopping game show, I thought it would make more sense if a merchandise package worth thousands of dollars is also played for in the bonus round, not just thousands of dollars in cash. Also, each round in the main game is way too short; time runs out very quickly, and I think it would make more sense if they do what Caesars Challenge did years later and let the entire main game play naturally, and have the rest of the main game be played in the form of a speed round only when time is running out in the main game altogether, not have each and every round be played in the form of a speed round when time is running out in each of all of those rounds. Also, I forgot to mention that this show is one of the many shows that lasted only one season consisting of 65 episodes. Yeah, this show didn't catch on, and the other two home shopping game shows that I will be covering in the next two weeks didn't fare any better. You'll find out why starting next week when I talk about a home shopping game show hosted by Press Your Luck host Peter Tomarken called Bargain Hunters. 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 16, 2016 13:00:40 GMT -5
Hello again, shoppers! 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. We're gonna be doing some more home shopping today. So, get your phones and credit cards ready, as we'll be looking into a home shopping game show called Bargain Hunters. Bargain Hunters is a daytime game show and one of the game shows that Merrill Heatter produced without his partner, Bob Quigley. It aired on ABC from July 6, 1987 to September 4 on that same year. It was hosted by Press Your Luck host Peter Tomarken--who also hosted Hit Man and Wipeout, both of which I already covered back in year one--announced by Dean Goss--who also announced on I'm Telling!, which I also already covered back in year one--and packaged by Merrill Heatter Productions and Josephson Communications, Inc., or JCI. This game show has elements of The Price Is Right and basic elements of many other game shows put into it. This game is played by six contestants, two at a time. In this game, three rounds focusing on bargain prices of everyday items are played, with each round being played by a different pair of contestants. The three rounds played are Bargain Quiz, Bargain Trap, and Bargain Busters, in that order. At the end of each round, the winner advances to the final round called Super Savers, or the Main Event, as Peter refers to it as. In Bargain Quiz, items with prices attached to them are shown, and on each item, Peter asks a yes-or-no question, which asks if that item with that price is a bargain or not. Then, the contestants buzz in and guess either "yes" or "no". Whoever buzzes in with a correct guess scores a point, but if they buzz in with an incorrect guess, the other contestant scores a point. The points scored are indicated by diamonds. The first contestant to score three points wins the round and receives a prize. In Bargain Trap, five items with prices attached to them are shown, with four of those items being bargains--in other words, having prices that are lower than the actual retail prices--and the other one of those items being the "trap"--in other words, having a price that is higher than its actual retail price. The contestants take turns choosing items they think are bargains. After a contestant chooses a bargain, their opponent chooses one of the remaining items. If a contestant chooses the trap, then their opponent wins the game and keeps the items they have chosen as prizes. If the trap was the first item chosen, then not only does the contestant who has chosen the trap lose the game, but their opponent also receives the trap as a prize. Finally, if both contestants have chosen two bargains each, then they break the tie by each writing down how much they think is tacked on to the actual retail price of the trap, and the contestant whose guess is closest wins the game and receives the trap and two bargains they have chosen as prizes. In Bargain Busters, the contestants are shown items that have been chosen from stores across America and are listed at closeout prices. On each item, Peter announces the name of the store that item has been bought from and the city and state in which that store is located. After Dean describes that item, Peter reads three prices, one of which is the actual retail price of that item, and each contestant locks in which price they think is the actual retail price of that item by pressing a button that corresponds to that price on their podium. Each contestant who locks in with a correct guess scores a point. Just like in Bargain Quiz, the points scored are indicated by diamonds. After three items, the contestant who scores the most points wins the game and receives all the three items as prizes. If the game ends in a tie, a fourth item is put into play, and instead of being given three prices to choose from, the contestants each writes down what they think is the actual retail price of that item. The contestant whose guess is closest to the actual retail price of the fourth item wins the game and receives all the four items--yes, that includes the item used for the tiebreaker--as prizes. After each game, a trumpet fanfare sounds, signifying a segment called "Bargain Shoppers". In this segment, an item at a bargain price is offered to the home viewers and described by Dean. Both that item's actual retail price and bargain price are shown, and the home viewers can buy that item for its bargain price via a number. Usually, that item is one shown in the game just played. After the three games and the three "Bargain Shoppers" segments, the three winners advance to Super Savers. In Super Savers, the three winners are shown seven prizes with bargain prices attached to them, and each winner chooses three of the prizes during the final commercial break. The three prizes each winner chooses has to choose are the ones they think will save them the most money. Each winner then reveals which three prizes they have chosen, and Peter reveals how much money that winner has saved on each prize. The amounts of money saved on the three chosen prizes are then added up. After all three winners are revealed how much money they have saved on the prizes they have chosen, the winner with the highest total of money saved on the prizes they have chosen keeps the prizes they have chosen and also receives a grand prize, which is almost always a trip. There is a tiebreaker for this round, which Peter reminds the winners on each episode, but out of all the episodes I was able to find on YouTube, it never happened. Even when I looked up articles on this show, they either don't explain the tiebreaker for this round well enough or don't explain it at all. But anyway, the winner of that tiebreaker keeps the prizes they have chosen and wins the grand prize. That's it for Bargain Hunters. Now, before I share my thoughts on this show, I have to talk a bit about the pilot, which was taped on May 28, 1987. There are a few differences here. Some of the graphics are different, very little parts of the set are different, and some parts of the gameplay are different. In Bargain Quiz, instead of buzzing in and verbally saying "yes" or "no", each contestant locks in with either "yes" or "no" by pressing a button that corresponds to the answer they think is correct, and the contestants' answers are lit up on the fronts of their podiums, with the answer of the contestant who has locked in first flashing if both contestants have locked in with the same answer. On each question, the contestant who has locked in with the correct answer in faster time wins $100. A contestant wins this game by being the first to win $200, and on top of that, that contestant is shown two prizes, each one having a price shown, and that contestant has to choose which prize is the bargain--the other prize has its actual retail price shown. After the contestant's choice is made, the model at the chosen prize reveals its actual retail price. If the prize chosen is the bargain, the contestant wins both prizes. In Bargain Trap, Peter flips a coin on stage, just like he would do a year later on Wipeout, and the contestant closer to Peter has to predict whether heads or tails will be facing up after the coin lands. The coin flip determines which contestant gets to make the first choice of item. Bargain Busters is played exactly the same way as it is played in the series. In Super Savers, the three winners of the three games each make their choices of three prizes while Dean describes all the prizes there. Okay, it's now time that I share my thoughts on this show. This show is just plain weak. It really, really is. Just like Sex Wars, a game show that I already covered in year one, there's nothing original in this show in terms of gameplay. The show has too many elements of The Price Is Right, with the three games before Super Savers being like the pricing games, Super Savers itself being like the Showcase Showdown, models who show off the prizes and items used for the games, and the set consisting of three sections, each with a pair of double doors that open and close sideways. Also, the three games before Super Savers aren't any interesting; Bargain Quiz is a basic buzz-in round where all answers to all questions that are only either "yes" or "no", Bargain Trap is a ripoff of the first round of the original format of Trivia Trap--another game show that I already covered in year one--and Bargain Busters is a basic multiple-choice question round where contestants press buttons on their podiums to lock in their answers. Now, about the prizes, some of them are nice, some of them are okay, and some of them are not even worth getting excited about in the least. Also, Peter and Dean did well with what they had to work with. Now, I have to mention Dean and The Home Shopping Game. It has been revealed in an article on the Internet that Dean was considered to be the host of that show before they decided to have Bob Goen as the host. Just before Dean was considered to be the host of that show, he just finished his stint as the announcer of The All New Let's Make A Deal. But getting back to Bargain Hunters, this show is one of the game shows that has been hated by many people, especially Peter Tomarken himself, who went as far as to call this show a piece of sh*t. This show was found so bad by many people that it got cancelled after nine weeks due to low ratings and replaced by reruns of a sitcom called Mr. Belvedere, which stayed on the air until January 18, 1988 when it got replaced by an informational talk show called Home, also known as The Home Show. Even though Bargain Hunters is, in a way, as bad as people made it out to be, it's the CBS daytime version of The Price Is Right compared to the third and final home shopping game show that aired in 1987, which I will be talking about next week. And boy, is this gonna be torture to sit through. I'm really not looking forward to talking about this game show next week, but I think the sooner I get it out of the way, the better. So, I'll do it. Join me next week when I talk about one more home shopping game show, which has been considered by everyone who has known about it to be the worst game show of all time. I would say that next week will be our last chance to do Christmas shopping from home, but after having checked out this game show that I'll have to cover then, I don't recommend it. Man, why did I have to be born on the same year this game show aired? 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 23, 2016 13:00:22 GMT -5
Hello once again, shoppers. Flo here, 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. Well, folks, this is it. This is the game show that I have dreaded since I've found out about it. This is the game show that I really don't want to talk about but have to, since, in the past two editions, I have talked about The Home Shopping Game and Bargain Hunters, both of which are short-lived home shopping game shows that aired in 1987, just like this one. This game show that I'm gonna be covering today has been considered to be the worst game show of all time. It's so bad that I don't even want to even mention the title of it, let alone cover it here. But you know what? I'm gonna cover this show, since it's rare and barely talked about by many game show fans--and for a good reason--not to mention that I just covered the other two home shopping game shows that aired in 1987. Well, the sooner I get this out of the way, the better. So, let's get right to it. And I would tell you guys to get your phones and credit cards ready for home shopping one last time, but I'm not going to, because this show is not worth buying items from at all. So, let's just sit through this pile of crap that is called... Shopper's Casino. Shopper's Casino premiered in syndication on September 8, 1987, but it's unknown when this show's run ended; some sources say that it ended later in 1987, while others say that it ended somewhere in 1988. It was hosted by Miss America 1983 Debbie Maffett and Private Igor Straminsky from M*A*S*H, aka Jeff Maxwell. This show also has a model named Cindy Brooks, who was nicknamed "Lady Luck" here, and a dealer named Tom Bronson, who was nicknamed "Dirty Harry" here and got booed at when introduced, just like Rick Zumwalt as "Judge Mental" on the 1989 children's game shows adaptation of Pictionary, which I already covered in the previous year. This show was also announced by Don Helvey, produced by Bob Knight and Maryse Knight--I don't know for sure if those two are actually related or not--and packaged by Knight Productions, Inc. and Legacy International. This game is played by two contestants, both of whom are introduced by Don and go up on stage from a group of seated people that's supposed to be a studio audience. The two contestants play three rounds, and in each round, they play two casino games. There are three casino games in total, with each one being played twice. In round one, the contestants play Blackjack and Roulette. In round two, the contestants play Chuck-A-Luck and Blackjack again. In round three, the contestants play Roulette again and Chuck-A-Luck again. In each playing of each game, a prize played for is presented, and Don describes it, while "Lady Luck" models it. The prizes played for by the contestants are also the items offered to the home viewers who buy them at bargain prices by calling a toll free number. After each playing of each game, the winner receives the prize played for and scores points. The point values of the game are based on the dollar figures of the bargain prices of the items played for in those games. If both contestants win on the same playing of the same game, then they each receive the prize played for, and they each score the points. Now, let's get into further detail on the casino games played in this show. In Blackjack--or 21, as it is referred to as here--"Dirty Harry" deals cards for each contestant. Starting after receiving their second card, a contestant has the option to hit or stay. After both contestants each choose to stay, bust, or get a twenty-one exactly, "Dirty Harry" deals cards for himself, and he stops doing so as soon as he deals himself a card that gives him a total of seventeen or more. Each contestant who gets a higher hand than "Dirty Harry" without busting or gets a twenty-one exactly wins the game, receives the prize played for, and scores the points. A contestant also wins the game if they and "Dirty Harry" tie. In Roulette, each contestant is given a chip, with one contestant being given a black chip and the other contestant being given a white chip, and each contestant places their chip on one of the four bets, which are red, black, odd, or even. No bets on exact numbers are made in this variant of the game. "Dirty Harry" then spins the Roulette wheel, and the Roulette ball ends up landing on one of the spaces on the wheel when the wheel slows down and stops spinning. The contestant whose bet is landed on wins the game, receives the prize played for, and scores the points. If the Roulette ball ends up landing on a zero or a double zero, the point value of this game is doubled, and the wheel is spun again. In Chuck-A-Luck, the contestants each make a bet on whether the three dice in a spinning cage will end up being rolled to either nine and under or twelve and over. Then, "Dirty Harry" spins the cage, and after the cage stops spinning, the total number on the three dice is shown, and the contestant whose bet the number rolled is in the range of wins the game, receives the prize played for, and scores the points. It is unknown what would have happened if the dice ends up being rolled to either ten or eleven. At one point in the game overall, a series of music notes called a "bonus bell" sounds. When the "bonus bell" is heard, it means that the points played for in the next casino game are doubled. At another point, a home viewer on the phone plays a casino game with the contestants, with either host confirming the home viewer's bet for them and the home viewer themselves receiving the prize played for in that casino game should they win. There's something else about the home viewer interaction segment that needs to be mentioned, but I'll get to that later. After three rounds, the contestant with the most points wins the game and advances to the bonus round called the "Big Wheel". In the "Big Wheel", the winning contestant spins a wheel that has many wedges in different colors. There's nothing on any of the wedges, but the wheel has a table in front of it that shows names of prizes, with each name of a prize with a different color. After the wheel stops spinning, the contestant wins a prize that corresponds to the color that the wheel has stopped on. And that's the show. Now, the idea of a home shopping game show where contestants score points and win prizes by playing casino games may seem like a decent one on paper, but really, the show itself is just plain AWFUL! When people say that this show is the worst game show of all time, they weren't kidding. I mean, everything about this show is bad! In fact, it's all so bad that I have a LOT to rail on about this show! So, let's break it all down. I'm gonna start with the gameplay. First of all, why are there only three casino games, and why are they all played twice? It seems that this game show is trying to be like The Price Is Right and other game shows that have mini-games, but in game shows like those, each and every mini-game is played only once, so in this one, there should've been six casino games, with each one played only once. Second of all, the rules of the casino games seem to make them watered down. Actually, this applies to two of the casino games, and they are Roulette and Chuck-A-Luck; the rules of Blackjack in this show are exactly the same as they've always been. In Roulette, there are less betting options than there were in the standard version. In Chuck-A-Luck, there are only two betting options, and neither Debbie nor Jeff have even bothered to explain what would have happened if the dice ends up being rolled to either ten or eleven. Third of all, the order in which the points are played for are just random. In the one episode that can be found on YouTube, the premiere episode, the first game in round one is worth 499 points, the second game in round one is worth 139 points, the first game in round two is worth 169 points--which is actually doubled to 338 points due to the "bonus bell"--the second game in round two is worth 99 points, the first game in round three is worth 69 points, and the second game in round three is worth 499 points. Wouldn't it make more sense if the points played for are in order from lowest point value to highest point value? Next, I must address the set. The set for this show is the laziest one put together ever in the history of game shows! There's absolutely no effort put into this set! The set is just a studio that is so barren that it looks as if the show has been filmed in someone's basement, and it's got crappy signs, prizes, and game tables thrown in, with none of those things placed properly there! Are the set builders so lazy that they can't even build a set that actually looks like a game show set? Now, the prizes played for by the contestants that are also the items offered to the home viewers. One problem with these prizes is that most of them are worthless. Examples of prizes played for and items offered are a Coca-Cola pin set and a Teddy Ruxpin doll. Can't they have items that are actually valuable to offer, such as designer handbags, clock radios, or jewelry? Another problem with them is the bargain prices that they are priced at. The bargain prices are too high, especially for cheap junk like these. I mean, $499.95 for a Coca-Cola pin set? $89.95 for a dome tent? $99.95 for an Action Max video game console? $69.95 for a biofeedback system? That's all too much money for worthless crap like all this! I have a feeling that when this show was on television, nobody called that toll free number and bought a thing from that show. If that's the case, then those home viewers must be really wise. The next thing is the camera shots. When a casino game is in play, the camera doesn't get close enough to the outcome of that game. The camera doesn't get close enough to the cards dealt in Blackjack, it doesn't get close enough to the spaces on the Roulette wheel in Roulette, and it doesn't get close enough to the dice rolled in Chuck-A-Luck. It's really hard to tell what the outcome of each game is with the bad camera work. It's really hard for the home viewers to see what the values on the cards dealt are in Blackjack, which space on the Roulette wheel the ball lands on in Roulette, and what number is rolled in Chuck-A-Luck. Also, with this bad camera work, the home viewers are unable to see the grand prizes on the table at the "big wheel". I guess it's understandable that the camera work would be bad at Blackjack and Roulette, since the tables for those two games are so close together, but there's no excuse for the camera work to be bad at Chuck-A-Luck and the "Big Wheel", since there is plenty of room around each of those two tables. But had this show actually have a real game show set, there probably wouldn't be any bad camera work, now, would there? Moving on, right now, to the commercials. The commercials shown during the show's breaks are fake! What exactly do I mean by that? Well, they're all made by the same companies that packaged this show! Each commercial shown in all the show's breaks have the same superimposed graphics as those in the show itself, from the toll free number to the company names of credit cards acceptable for buying items offered to the address in which taping of all this takes place to the fonts used for all these! Also, one of these commercials features Don Helvey, the announcer of the show, advertising a product made by Legacy International, one of the companies that packaged the show! Seriously, why can't this show have real commercials shown during its breaks? Next, the hosts. As game show hosts, Debbie Maffett and Jeff Maxwell are annoying and incompetent, with Jeff being even more incompetent than Debbie. There are times when they trip over whatever words they say and end up babbling and having to say again what they were trying to say at first. There are times when Jeff tells jokes, none of which are funny in the least; those jokes are all very, very bad. And there are times when Debbie and Jeff speak very highly about the prizes played for. They say that those items are superior and high quality, when those items are actually inferior and low quality. Really, who would even think that all the cheap junk I just mentioned here are great in any way, let alone superior or high quality, other than these two sorry excuses for game show hosts? The next thing I want to address is the "big wheel". I put that term in quotes, because that wheel is not big. If you watch Wheel Of Fortune and The Price Is Right like many people in America, then you would know what a big wheel really is. The wheel used in the main game of Wheel Of Fortune is a big wheel, and the wheel used in the Showcase Showdown on The Price Is Right is big. There are some versions of Match Game that have a wheel called the "star wheel", and every wheel on the versions of that show that have it included for the head-to-head match portion of the Super Match bonus round is big! There's a lottery game show in California called The Big Spin, and the word "big" is used appropriately there, because the wheel on that show is big! But the so-called "big wheel" in Shopper's Casino is not big! That wheel is small! Not only is that wheel small, but it's also very cheap! That wheel looks like it was made by someone taking up arts and crafts, and there's nothing on any of the wedges on the wheel! In other game shows that have wheels, whether those wheels are for contestants to spin or for game show personnel to spin, there's always something on the wedges on those wheels. So, why can't the same thing be done with the wheel in this show? And no, the Roulette wheel in this show does not count. And finally, the biggest problem I have with this show is the home viewer interaction segment! The so-called "home viewer" doesn't sound like they're talking on the phone at home. This person actually sounds like they're standing somewhere off stage and speaking into a microphone. It doesn't take an expert on phones to figure that out; it's actually obvious because of how clear the person's voice is when speaking. Remember, sounds of people talking on phones don't sound that clear, not even back in 1987. Heck, they don't even sound that clear today! If this show is not going to have home viewers really interact with the show via phone, then it shouldn't even have this segment at all! You don't lie about stuff like this to your viewers, people at Shopper's Casino! You just don't! This show definitely is indeed the absolute WORST game show I ever checked out, and it is the worst one that I ever had to cover here on Game Show Corner! Yeah, there's definitely no doubt about that. Who would ever want to sit through a horrendous sorry excuse for a game show that is filled with dumbed-down gameplay, a set that is the laziest one put together of all time, junk prizes with prices that are too high for them to be bargains, bad camera work, fake commercials shown during breaks, a pair of hosts who are annoying, arrogant, and incompetent, a wheel that is too small to be referred to as "big" and too cheap to be used in a game show, and fake, deceiving phone segments that doesn't even use phones at all? Well, I have done that, because I'm an adventurous game show fan, and I like to check out rare game shows that not many people have known or talked about, which is why I started Game Show Corner. I went through a lot of trouble putting this edition together, and I had to keep watching parts of the episode of this show that can be found on YouTube just to make sure I got every bit of information of this show right, and now, I've said all there is to be said about this show, and I'm glad to be done with this show, because I can't take another second of it. By now, everyone should be done with their Christmas shopping, because Christmas is in two days. I'd like everyone to celebrate Christmas not watching bad game shows like this. Since next Friday is the day before New Year's Eve, the next game show that I will be covering by then will be a game show hosted by D ick Clark, and I will be in a good mood when I get started on it. So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a Merry Christmas.
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