The Big Deal
As a kid growing up watching USA and CBN's game show lineup, I always tuned out Let's Make a Deal. In fact, the only thing I ever found rewarding about the 1984-1986 run was Door #4. When Family Channel dusted off the early '70s shows I never really bothered to pay attention.
Now that I'm an adult, I can totally appreciate the series and I'm glad GSN has it back on daily. I never realized what a true genius Monty Hall is. I'm just amazed at the way he starts a deal, and the most amazing part is how he casually goes up to unexpecting contestants and starts the proceedings. In that sense he was the anti-Rich Fields: calm, cool, collected.
People always say that Bob is a legend because Price is the hardest show to host. I think Deal gives Price a run for its money in that department. There are so many combinations and twists and turns the deals in the show can take, and frankly I've never seen Monty even come close to miss a beat. He's just like clockwork up there, and the contestant coordinators were amazing at picking people who would go absolutely nuts when presented with the tough decisions the show threw at them.
The only thing I can knock (at least in the 70s version) is the set at ABC. I mean, it looks less like a game show set and more like something you'd see at a livestock festival. That ugly blue curtain and the omni-present exit doors. Yikes. Luckily you had the lovely Carol to distract you from all that.
But other than that exception, this show is an absolute winner and was deserving of its 14 year consecutive run on daytime. Thankfully Monty had the forethought to allow these tapes to survive 30+ years later for our enjoyment.
One other thing worth touching on--In Mark Goodson's (in)famous Price is Right pitch film in 1972, he basically accuses LMAD of ripping off the Price is Right. But I'm not sure it's not the other way around. The original Price was a simple bidding game for large prizes. As far as I know, the grocery guessing element didn't come in until the 1972 version started. But by that point, Deal was already doing a number of grocery item guessing games. In fact, on today's show they played a primitive version of Check-Out, which didn't premiere on Price until the early '80s. Chew on that.
Now that I'm an adult, I can totally appreciate the series and I'm glad GSN has it back on daily. I never realized what a true genius Monty Hall is. I'm just amazed at the way he starts a deal, and the most amazing part is how he casually goes up to unexpecting contestants and starts the proceedings. In that sense he was the anti-Rich Fields: calm, cool, collected.
People always say that Bob is a legend because Price is the hardest show to host. I think Deal gives Price a run for its money in that department. There are so many combinations and twists and turns the deals in the show can take, and frankly I've never seen Monty even come close to miss a beat. He's just like clockwork up there, and the contestant coordinators were amazing at picking people who would go absolutely nuts when presented with the tough decisions the show threw at them.
The only thing I can knock (at least in the 70s version) is the set at ABC. I mean, it looks less like a game show set and more like something you'd see at a livestock festival. That ugly blue curtain and the omni-present exit doors. Yikes. Luckily you had the lovely Carol to distract you from all that.
But other than that exception, this show is an absolute winner and was deserving of its 14 year consecutive run on daytime. Thankfully Monty had the forethought to allow these tapes to survive 30+ years later for our enjoyment.
One other thing worth touching on--In Mark Goodson's (in)famous Price is Right pitch film in 1972, he basically accuses LMAD of ripping off the Price is Right. But I'm not sure it's not the other way around. The original Price was a simple bidding game for large prizes. As far as I know, the grocery guessing element didn't come in until the 1972 version started. But by that point, Deal was already doing a number of grocery item guessing games. In fact, on today's show they played a primitive version of Check-Out, which didn't premiere on Price until the early '80s. Chew on that.
posted by Brad @ 12:05 AM 4 comment(s)