Total surreal moment on a Let's Make a Deal rerun today. During the Big Deal, a contestant wins the "small deal" of the day, which is lady's clothing. The first outfit is a mannequin in some bizarre full length sweater (like, the sweater goes all the way to the feet) and the other outfit is a mannequin in a dress with a pink feather boa. Except, it turns out the woman wearing the dress isn't a mannequin, she's a human, and she starts walking around and showing it off.
The weird thing is, the woman isn't Carol Merrill, which is very odd because they didn't really utilize other models in the '70s version. Very strange.
I'm not exactly sure why Big Brother 8 contestants were on Power of 10 last night. I'm also not sure why the girl who made it to the main game cried basically throughout the entire show. Perhaps taking someone who's been in isolation for 9 weeks and then throwing them up onto a game show set isn't the best idea.
The Miss Teen USA Pageant is hardly a game show, but pageants were a mainstay for Bob Barker and it's currently hosted by former game show host (and Price candidate) Mario Lopez, so I'll claim this reference is relevant.
We'll get our first look at Drew Carey on October 15th, according to the official Price website. Not sure if this means the season will be 3 weeks shorter than it normally is, or if the reruns usually slated for mid-season will be reduced.
Word is that the shows will air in somewhat strange order to allow Drew to get up to speed on the pricing games. The first few shows already in the can used a smaller set of pricing games, and those episodes will be spread around the season so the show displays the same variety in games it did with Bob at the helm. It will be interesting to see if some games are retired outright, and what will be done with the games that referenced Bob directly: Barker's Bargain Bar and Barker's Markers.
From the clips shown during a commercial on GSN yesterday, we have confirmation that they will be airing a 1976 episode (click here to see exactly which one) and Vanna's first 1982 Wheel. What a coup for Wheel fans! It's a shame it took something as sad as Merv dying to get it done.
Power of 10 continues to perform decent in the ratings. Last night's episode won its timeslot (barely) in households, but was beaten handily in the younger demos by that Dance thing on Fox. In fact, it tied in 18-49s with one of NBC's ubiquitous Most Outrageous Moments specials.
Not sure what the future holds for this show. It hasn't wowed enough to earn a spot on the Fall schedule, but it could maybe be used as fill-in programming should holes crop up for CBS later on in the year.
Last night's episode was somewhat enjoyable, but again I feel like the show just drags a bit. Drew continues to impress though. On that topic, Drew's first Price episodes taped yesterday and apparently he did a good job. There are some minor set tweaks for the new season, but nothing drastic has changed, which is good news I think.
While the entertainment world continues to mourn the passing of Merv Griffin, GSN issued a press release regarding their planned tribute to the legend. The release mentions some items that would be of particular interest to Wheel of Fortune fans, including "an early Woolery" appearance as well as Vanna's debut.
Vanna's debut was shown in clips in several later syndicated Wheel shows, so that may or may not mean the full NBC episode from December, 1982. But the later retrospectives on the show rarely if ever showed clips featuring Chuck Woolery, so this could be an actual episode featuring Chuck. I know that GSN has at least two in their vaults. So while losing Merv still stings in the minds of fans, GSN may have found a great way to remember the legend.
I like to think that each Giveaway set is pretty great, but I have to admit, this one might be the best ever. A lot of my Al Martella tapes are included here. He was great at taping landmark shows back in the early 80s, all in great quality and all with original commercials. He got me on the road to trading back in the mid '90s, and it's time to pass the fun on. Good luck!
I finally caught up with the much-discussed premiere of Power of 10 on Saturday night's rerun. I needed to go into this show with an open mind, but it was hard for me not to look at it as more of a dry run for how Drew will do on Price. In that aspect of the show, I think he shined. His ad libs were very good, he seemed relaxed and in control of the game, and most of all he seemed to be having fun and actually interested in the contestants.
As for the game, well, it's really more of a warmed over version of the Card Sharks main game than I thought. In fact, if they were looking to do something like this in primetime, I found myself asking why they didn't just do a primetime edition of Card Sharks. Sixty straight minutes of survey questions is a bit much, and unfortunately the show suffers from a bit of the classic 2000's game show malady--drawn out deliberation with family and friends.
The $10,000,000 hook is a nice addition, but the randomness of selection one out of 11 percentage points means even Dan Avila wouldn't try for it. The show's engaging enough to tune into and enjoy if I ran into it, but I'm not sure it's appointment viewing. I am a lot more relaxed about the prospects of Drew for Price though, assuming he can avoid any more freak injuries during rehearsal.
The game show world lost another legend in what is turning out to be a sad year for the great contributors to the genre. Merv Griffin died at 82 today, leaving behind a legacy of the two most successful syndicated game shows in the history of television. While he was never responsible for creating as many shows as the legendary Mark Goodson, the astounding international success of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! has guaranteed we'll be hearing the words "A Merv Griffin Production" for decades to come.
Merv was truly a renaissance man of the television medium, having hosted several game shows as well as starring in his own smash talk show for most of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. An accomplished musician, he created the theme to Wheel and Jeopardy still on the show today, the Jeopardy! theme in particular having established an iconic place in American pop culture.
An accomplished businessman, he built a fortune both on and off television, including hotels, resorts, and even an island in the Bahamas.
While the industry mourns the passing, an interesting (albeit sad) question arises. With "Merv Griffin's Crosswords" set to premiere next month, will the producers continue to honor Griffin by keeping his name in the title? And will Merv's final television creation go on to be as successful as his other shows?
The good news is, Drew Carey is rehearsing Price is Right pricing games. The bad news is, he's being injured by the turntable. I kid you not. Check it out here.
Last night's special hour long Singing Bee was pretty good, but there was some things about it that seemed odd:
* Multiple incorrect answers that were left in the broadcast, presumably to fill the hour long time * A bizarre elimination format which really wasn't clear until the entire round had played out * What's up with the "fill in the entire" chorus round? The difficulty of that swings wildly from song to song. That poor guy who had to sing "Love is a Battlefield" was on the hook for, like, 65 words or something. Whereas some choruses have 10 or 15. That needs to even out a little bit. * They seem to have settled on the scrambled word game for round two. That's grown on me a little bit, because you can still get the answer right even without knowing the song. I still think I prefer the fill in the blank game they used on the first two episodes. * The final round was almost a joke last night, as the words to fill in seemed much easier than on previous episodes. Seeing as they hadn't given away the top prize in a few shows, maybe that makes sense.
All in all it's still worth watching on a weekly basis and leaps and bounds better than the FOX debacle.
I realize that Zonk prizes on Let's Make a Deal are never really meant to be taken home (the poor contestants usually got a small cash prize instead). But there have been some crazy Zonks on the last few reruns of LMAD on GSN.
Today a lion cub was offered as a Zonk. Two days ago there was a live bear offered, and it wasn't even caged. It was hanging on to poor Carol Merrill and she's feeding it food while it paws at her. I mean, I am all in favor of creativity, but a live bear??
Is anyone, even die hard game show fans, watching Set for Life? It lost handily to a rerun of 1 vs. 100 on Friday.
It really is one of the worst primetime games in at least a decade. When I saw an episode of it on a screener a few months ago I couldn't believe that it had actually made it to full production. People walking around a stage removing gigantic Light Brite pegs, while a friend plays a semi-meaningless game in an isolation booth. How many bong hits went into this one?
