Today on Price is Right--a mother and daughter were called individually into Contestant's Row, ironically right next to one another. Bob called it a historic first for the show. I call it an accident. There's a reason that hasn't happened in 35 years. The show's producers NEVER call two people from the same group--I just think they screwed up this time. Even Bob looked surprised. Although it was hard to tell how the producers missed it--the two women were wearing the same shirt. And the Mother had some weird hair thing going on.
In any event, the show ended with some drama, as a $1075 difference in the Showcase didn't hold up, getting bested by a $725 difference. Couldn't help but feel bad for the guy who lost.
If NBC doesn't pull Identity this week, they've really given up on Friday. The question isn't whether or not 1 vs. 100 will come back, it's more a matter of when, and how much of the audience did they lose with this ridiculous gambit?
Too many wins in Lucky Seven this season? I swear the last two times it was played, the final digit of the car was 1 the first time and 9 the second time. That's just wrong.
Another great moment in Friday's episode was before the 4th Item Up For Bids, the new contestant ran on down, up on stage and all over it, resulting in infrequently seen shots of the producer's table and most of the cameramen. Bob promptly remarked that the woman "wanted his body". Good stuff.
Kudos to today's Money Game contestant for trying to bring some excitement to the game. Down to his last pick, he triumphantly yells "I'm going to go for El Cheapo!" and points at the $25 card. Keep in mind, this is only the 4th lowest value on the board. Bob aptly replied, "Well, it isn't very cheap."
However, at the point that Bob nearly pulled the $25 card out, the contestant changed his mind at the last minute and went for $90. You can figure out the rest: $90 was wrong, $25 was right.
Biggest win ever tonight on the Foxworthy Affair, and it could have been a grand slam if the guy had gone on. Obviously the questions on each show are "easy", but did tonight's stack seem easier than normal to anyone else out there?
It's certainly not a bomb by any stretch of the imagination, but CNN.com (and my own math skills) state that Deal or no Deal is starting to soften in the ratings. On Monday the show was off by nearly 25% from it's year ago numbers. Granted it's up against harder competition in Dancing With the Stars, but a show as gimmicky as Deal is bound to start losing traction eventually. Frankly I'm surprised it's taken this long.
Luckily for Howie and the gang, NBC is so hurting these days that the show isn't in any immediate danger. But you have to wonder if Deal will last as long as Millionaire did in primetime before it settles into a near-certain syndicated career.
In a week that certainly hasn't been filled with good news, we got another sad notification today. Kitty Carlisle passed at age 96. I wrote about her a few weeks ago, lamenting that she was shockingly left out of GSN's tribute to women in game shows (while Anne Robinson somehow made the cut). Kitty was an absolute pro, a woman whose charm and beauty were beyond compare. And she was by far the smartest panelist on To Tell the Truth, exceeding probably even the great Bill Cullen.
Each time a legend like Kitty or Arlene passes, it's a sad reminder how few of the true legends are left among us. Luckily for us, thanks to the forethought of Mark Goodson, the many times Kitty graced the screen are preserved for us to watch in the future.
There's nothing better than waking up, groggy-eyed, turning on the TV and hearing the long forgotten theme to the 1974 version of Jackpot! As the picture came into view I half expected to see Geoff Edwards' leisure suit and 15 giddy contestants. Instead, it was This Week in Baseball, which has apparently been using this theme for 30 years now. Bummer.
First off, it took them two weeks after Michael Larson's episode to actually change the board patterns. Now, I guess there's limited risk in that decision, because by the time his episode had aired, incoming contestants were already seeing the new patterns. But what if you were in the audience watching as a contestant about to get called on? I guess people just didn't put 2 and 2 together immediately.
Also, when the patterns did change, for some reason they ran at 75% speed for the first tape date. Kinda jarring to watch.
Remember the guy who played the annoying male contestant role on Hollywood Squares' hilarious April Fools Episode in 2003 (see it here)? I was flipping channels today and saw him turn up as one of Al Bundy's friends in a Married With Children episode.
Answer this for me--if Howie Mandel is so afraid of germs, going as far as preventing contestants from shaking his hands, why on Earth did he allow tonight's crazy lady and her family to touch his face and kiss him? I guess some germs are better than others.
Glad to see the mini-marathon of Now You See It on GSN last night. Seems like they prefer to air 4 episodes in a row during these marathons (formerly known as Game Show Saturday Night, formerly known as Wide World of Games).
I was a little bummed that they picked from the final format of the show, but it's not really that much worse than the original. I was also surprised to see how easy the bonus round was that the woman (finally) won. The episode they aired a few weeks ago by itself had a very tough bonus.
I think Fremantle briefly flirted with bringing the game back a few years ago but it never really got anywhere. Foreign versions have aired, but strangely enough, the Australian version was never anything more than a kids game.
Can we please up the card values in Punch Board on the Price is Right? I swear, the last 5 times I've seen it no contestant has gotten above $500, and today's guy got two punches, both of which earned $50. Maybe add some medium range values like $2000 and get some real interesting decisions going, like we see in Let 'em Roll. As it is the game has to be the most boring cash game on the show by far.
I didn't really have a problem with the carryover contestant on tonight's Deal or no Deal, at least at the start. I looked past the "It's a Small World" costume and odd family members. But when she broke down sobbing uncontrollably as she was unable to decide whether to take a $200K deal or not, I really lost any compassion I had for her. I mean, am I supposed to feel sorry for someone who has that large of a check written for them? Suck it up, make the decision, and stop blubbering already!
And why did they air a new Deal followed by a rerun? That's just tacky.
