Is it me or does it seem like the Showcase Showdown wheel has been giving out $1.00's way more often than usual this season on Price is Right? Drew even picked up on that fact today.

I tweaked a few of my pricing game pages to reflect some of the minor rule modifications that have taken place this season. Will they filter to the official site eventually? :)

 

posted by Brad @ 10:08 PM   3 comment(s)

Leave it to Canada to make a full on documentary about Alex Trebek. Here's a clip from Youtube, featuring some brief shots at rarely seen game shows. The story about his experience on Pitfall is particularly interesting.

 

posted by Brad @ 7:55 PM   4 comment(s)

I've been watching Temptation pretty much every day since it started. That puts me in a select audience of about 8 people. But it also means I know for a fact that they've given away one major prize in six weeks on the air.

Why does this show conspire to have its contestants win absolutely nothing? The best prizes take 6 or 7 days to win, yet are no more valuable than prizes Wheel gives away routinely. Contestants are obviously being bullied to buy every Instant Bargain they see. And let's face it, the producers specifically are picking players with limited general knowledge, so scores are ridiculously low and easy questions are missed periodically.

I find the show engaging enough to watch on a daily basis, for whatever reason. I just wish they'd make it a little easier for people to win stuff. There's none of the suspense and drama of the original $ale of the Century, and that's sad because this is a show with potential.

 

posted by Brad @ 11:25 PM   8 comment(s)

Fremantle has a new website for Price, www.priceisright.com. It's about time they gave the show its own URL; I was wondering about that in a post earlier this year.

Make sure to check out the pricing game descriptions to see if they seem familiar. Yes, they're completely lifted word for word from my own pricing game pages I founded back during the Clinton Administration. I guess I should be mad, but one hand washes the other; Fremantle has never complained about my many screenshots I have up there. Let's hope they never do. :)

 

posted by Brad @ 4:02 PM   16 comment(s)

Product tie-ins are always a curiosity on Price is Right. When I won my lawn mower on there in 2000 I also got a $40 supply of Citrucel fiber therapy...in case I got constipated while gardening I guess.

Bob rarely took advantage of the easy joke fodder with tie-ins (one notable exception was the infamous "Bar Set and Eye Drops" item up for bids that he skewered mercifully).

Drew seems definitely more in tune to the humor there, as seen on Thursday's show when cough drops were offered with a set of buzz saws: "Yeah you definitely don't want to break into a coughing fit when you're using power tools."

However, I'm not sure what he was thinking when all the contestants overbid on that item and he referred to their need to go lower than $650 as "Uh oh, Nazi submarine!"

And $486 for an IUFB? That's circa 1988.

 

posted by Brad @ 12:37 AM   3 comment(s)

Drew's second episode was so much stronger than his first! I can't fathom why they chose the first show that they did, other than that it was a perfect game. Today's episode Drew seemed so much more comfortable. Plus it didn't hurt that his contestants were above average in terms of fun, especially the Plinko lady from the YouTube clip.

I really think I'm going to like the way he handles contestants--far more chummy than Bob ever was. One thing he does that I love is that he keeps winning contestants on stage with him before the commercial break starts. Bob was always pushing contestants off camera (sometimes very awkwardly and forcibly). Drew just seems to be way more into getting to know the contestants.

One other plus -- he seems to be able to make light of the show, which I think is OK. I mean, this is a game where people are pricing chocolate syrup to win cars. It's not peace negotiations. So the fact that he can make light of the silly nature of some of the games and prizes is a plus, even though some die hard fans probably hate that.

So let's see how this goes. Given the random airing order of episodes my opinions of Drew may go up and down the next few weeks. But if we start to see more episodes like today's I think the show will be in good shape.

 

posted by Brad @ 10:05 PM   17 comment(s)

Today was Drew's first aired episode. Turns out it was his 7th taped. Go figure. I was really surprised to see no shoutout to Bob, or some kind of handing over of the torch. At this point that's obviously not going to happen.

Drew had some good moments but honestly I didn't see him being much stronger than many of the audition tapes I saw from earlier in the year. He kept the game moving along well enough, but the rapport I expected him to develop with the contestants just wasn't there. That may be something that builds over time so we'll have to keep our eyes open.

And while I'm glad he delivered the spay/neuter line at the end, it came off so awkward I almost wished he hadn't.

This other online review was even less friendly.

 

posted by Brad @ 8:36 PM   15 comment(s)

I thought I had the scoop on this but everyone beat me to it. Was out drinking last night and ran into my friendly GSN source. Playmania is indeed gone at the end of the month. My source told me to expect GSN's new direction to be more classic game-oriented, which I take to mean more reruns and new content that hard-core fans will like. Rock on.

Now, how about opening up the Sony vaults? I mean, Trivia Trap reruns? How many times can GSN trot that out? It was probably the worst G-T game in history. Meanwhile thousands of Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dought episodes sit collecting dust.

 

posted by Brad @ 7:37 PM   8 comment(s)

The baton is officially passed this Monday. Worried about it? This AP article about Drew should take some of the fear away -- sounds like he's going to keep the spay/neuter message, and a winning contestant said he was a great host. Nothing like a little unbiased opinion, right?

 

posted by Brad @ 10:04 AM   8 comment(s)

Password's back! Allen Ludden yelled that on the first episode of Password Plus back in 1979. Now Regis will be yelling that later this season, according to this surprising article from Variety.

Not sure what to make of it from the article. It's one of my favorite games from the G-T Library, so as long as they don't muck it up too bad I'd say this is good news.

 

posted by Brad @ 12:25 AM   11 comment(s)

You remember that queasy feeling you got in your stomach when John Carpenter won the first $1 Million on Millionaire back in '99? That sort of, "Wow those questions sure seemed easier than normal" feeling?

Well, at least Millionaire tried to cheapen their game subtly. Deal or no Deal decided to rip the soul out of something great it had created --a holy grail prize. Winning $1 Million under Deal's normal format is an outstanding feat. An accomplishment that, had it been reached legitimately, would have provided for one of those keeper episodes you would have watched again and again.

Instead, in a surprisingly desperate publicity grab, they've decided to keep adding $1 Million cases until the damn top prize is won. And the saddest part is...they still haven't given it away.

To make matters worse, tonight's episode was typically bad Deal from last season. Another poor woman with a sob story, desperate to make her family's life better, kept pressing her luck idiotically and blew 90% of her prize. Why are Americans so bad with managing their money?

And who swapped out Deal's great musical package from last season for this year's musical collection of crap?

 

posted by Brad @ 11:36 PM   9 comment(s)

Temptation has done lots of crazy things to the Sale of the Century format -- forgetting about the male species, obsessing over the word "shopping", and inventing a new currency called Temptation Dollars.

But nothing strikes me as stranger than the fact that this week's shopping gallery features as a top prize an African Safari. No car??? Seeing as the show seems to have an "all about women" focus, why on earth is a safari the top prize?

Also, Rossi's hair has apparently gone through a gel-tastic makeover.

 

posted by Brad @ 12:07 AM   5 comment(s)

Who would you like to see win a fight between Survivor's Johnny Fairplay and Starface's Danny Bonaduce? The answer: no one. But if you had a second choice, it would probably be Danny.

I hate the fact that I'm linking to TMZ, but they have the best clips of the brawl, which occurred during the taping of a Fox Reality Channel awards show (to air later this month). The good news for FRC is that it's providing the best free press the fledgling network has ever gotten -- the clip aired on E!, Showbiz Tonight, and, natch, TMZ on TV. Also KTTV (Fox in LA) aired it as one of their top news stories, proving what a joke that affiliate is.

 

posted by Brad @ 12:36 AM   0 comment(s)

That post title would mean something if you'd seen the George Hamilton audition for TPiR. Yikes.

Two new software titles quietly hit shelves this summer. Wheel of Fortune Deluxe and Concentration. I'll review 'em both.

Wheel Deluxe is basically the download-for-a-fee Wheel game available via the Sony site, but on a CD-ROM. It's a mixture of good, bad, and meh.

The good - they included some of the stuff sorely lacking from the other releases this decade. Toss Up Puzzles, Jackpot, $10,000 wedge, and Mystery Round are all here. The puzzle categories reflect the newer variety of puzzles we see today. The wheel matches the current version (circa 2006) to a T, and the music has been updated to reflect the current mix. The bonus round reflects the 2001 rule change, complete with escalating cash amounts (I think only "cash" can be won).

The bad - they took out some of the things the older games did have in there, namely special wheel prizes, speed-up rounds, and, mysteriously, the entire fourth round. As far as I can tell there's no way to get to a $5,000 round whatsoever in this game. Vanna (or a generic replacement) is completely missing, so the contestants are basically playing the game by themselves. Kinda creepy, especially in the bonus round. The wheel graphics are good, but the wheel spins unbelievably slow, and when you are playing with two (dumb) computer players, the rounds can take forever, as the computer players like to pick every letter in the puzzle and all the vowels before trying to solve.

The meh - There's a puzzle of the day that at least shows you the game knows what day of the month it is. You can play different city themes, something the last Hasbro version had as well I believe. Graphics are decent, if not spectacular.

Score: 7/10. I like the additions, but I can't figure out why they paid such attention to detail in some places and a total lack of detail in others.

Concentration was quite a surprise. The show hasn't aired in any capacity in 14 years. This is actually a pretty solid game with some fun twists. The game is played completely like the "Classic" version, complete with the colored Takes and Wild Card. Two out of three rebuses win the game and go on to play the car game, which uses real car types and believable car values. Even at 35 seconds, the car game is a cinch to win.

Graphics are good, and a voice over host moves the game along at a nice clip. You can customize the color of the tiles on the board, which includes a "classic" option that makes it looks very much like the '80s version. The tile open sound effect is even the same from that version.

The one detractor is that the puzzles are a complete joke. Usually only three or four individual elements to guess, and nothing ambiguous like you would sometimes see on the actual show. Skill level wise it winds up playing more at an early teen level. Also, the box indicates that there are only over 100 puzzles, which means repeats would quickly be an issue.

One other funny note - due to NBC's ownership of the game, certain prizes are branded with the GE logo!

Score (8/10): Great framework, graphics, and gameplay, just need to increase the number (and difficulty) of the puzzles, as well as the bonus round.

 

posted by Brad @ 11:45 PM   1 comment(s)

Remember when syndicated Wheel was getting 40 million viewers a night? Try less than 10 million now. That's still good for #1 in the syndie ratings (discounting the oddly-counted ESPN football broadcasts), but at some point will it finally give up the title of top syndie show?

 

posted by Brad @ 8:22 PM   1 comment(s)

Despite being one of the better games to premiere this decade, the charm may have worn off for The Singing Bee. It finished a distant 4th in the 18-49 ratings last night, losing to, cringe, the premiere of Cavemen on ABC. I do know a lot of people who watched Caveman only to gauge how bad it would be, so we'll see what next week brings.

 

posted by Brad @ 1:36 PM   0 comment(s)

Some interesting moments on tonight's season premiere of The Singing Bee:

*Toni Basil is alive and kicking, performing "Mickey" during the intro and protracted contestant selection. She still looks pretty good at age whatever. Did you know that after "Mickey" hit #1, she never had a single go higher than #77 after that? Good work!

*Contestant Michael provided a hilarious mis-solve to the song "I Touch Myself", when he changed the lyric "I want you to remind me" to "I want you behind me". Given the song, you can almost understand his guess.

*The rules of the show regarding how many contestants start and how many proceed to the next round seem to be ever-evolving.

*Blind Start is a lot weaker than the other semi-final games they played in the first season. I had grown to like the floating words game, and I always liked the karaoke-style game.

*I reject the notion that Men Without Hats were 1-hit wonders. "Pop Goes the World" was a solid hit for them as well.

*The champion's rendition of Take on Me was undeniably awful, but kudos to her for trying for the high notes.

*The show has gotten far easier since it originally premiered, but it's still fun to watch.

 

posted by Brad @ 12:04 AM   5 comment(s)

If GSN is ever looking to spice up their Playmania show, maybe they can hire their Swedish equivalent as hostess and see if she can replicate this web gem.

 

posted by Brad @ 12:02 PM   3 comment(s)