Two of my least favorite shows to have aired this year are Extreme Makeover Home Edition and Amne$ia. Well, if those two shows got married, had a baby, and the baby came out with four heads, then you'd have the new ABC primetime game Opportunity Knocks.
What's not to love?
*Zero play along factor? Check. *Annoying overexcited family? Check. *Ridiculous fake drama cliffhanger commercial breaks? Check. *Screaming teenager girls? Check.
At some point I was hoping J.D. would just give the family two minutes to run through their house collecting prizes and cash, but that probably would have been too much to ask for.
TP'd as in Trivial Pursuited. I have to give the show neither a thumbs up or thumbs down, but rather a thumbs sideways. The scoring system is unique, and the user-submitted questions I like. I like the fact that the home players have a team captain who is kind of watching over the show Max Headroom style. And I thought the range of questions was broad with acceptable, if not great, difficulty.
I really didn't like the fact that in Round 2 the wedges become somewhat meaningless in the sense that any question can earn any color. That really violates the spirit of the game and just smacks of laziness in the rule design. Christopher Knight is very average as new hosts go -- he kept the game moving along but didn't seem completely engaged, and in today's show had a rough flub when he asked a contestant if he was sure of his answer -- right as the "correct" signal sounded. Lastly, while the end game scoring system ensures that the game will remain close until the end, I didn't really find it all that dramatic or climactic.
Will somebody please tell GSN that they are advertising the wrong times for the new blocks of GSN Live? In the earlier part of the commercial, the ad gets the times right: 12 Noon/9am Pacific and 3pm/Noon Pacific. Then, at the end of the commercial, the times magically shift to 12 Noon/3pm Eastern and 3pm/6pm Eastern. What the heck?
Well the sky didn't fall on Price today. Despite the removal of producer Roger Dobkowitz, the show pretty much went on as it always has, with the exception of increased wheel bonuses and a new, watchable pricing game called Gas Money.
Did anyone catch that the showcase winner had actually appeared on the show in 1974? I'm not sure how many return contestants they've had since that became allowable last year. I did note that Drew asked her if the money at the wheel had gotten better since she was on the first time, not realizing that there was no wheel back in 1974. But hey, nobody's perfect.
I don't watch Bingo America, but I know enough to know that the hosts have changed for the much-anticipated 2nd season. Was Patrick Duffy too good for the show? Or was it that he found himself in the shower one day and discovered the fact that he hosted the show for a year was just a bad dream?
Big Family Guy fan here, and while we wait for the new season to premiere (9/25), I discovered that Seth MacFarlane has a website with animated shorts here (www.sethcomedy.com). Check out the $25,000 Pyramid skit on the page. It's pretty good, although it keeps with the conflation of game show rules that he showed in his Wheel of Fortune skit on Family Guy a year ago. If you recall, Peter went shopping after he won the bonus round in that one. This one isn't much better in terms of authenticity, but it's still good for a laugh.
"Night Of Watching Game Show Network Leaves Man Concerned About Life Insurance"
BRIDGEWATER, IA—Shortly after watching back-to-back episodes of Love Connection, The Newlywed Game, and Lingo Monday night, local resident Fred Grossman, 26, began suddenly to worry about finding the life insurance policy that is right for him. "Who is going to care for my loved ones when I am gone?" said the unemployed, unmarried Grossman, who also thinks he may have an enlarged prostate, and is wondering why he's been picking up his pet medication at the vet when he could have it delivered right to his door for just a small monthly fee. "Isn't it about time I gave my family the peace of mind they deserve?" The following afternoon, after sitting through a three-hour block of daytime talk shows, Grossman announced an abrupt decision to pursue an exciting career in either criminal justice or air conditioning and refrigeration repair.
Play It Again 80s was so much better than the 70s version. Call me surprised. Although they focused on a few clips that have certainly made the rounds, the deference to the two biggest Password bloopers in history was good to see. Those are bloopers that don't fit well into the "blink and you'll miss it" motif of your average clip show, so to include them was nice to see. Mentioning Thom and Michael Larson was also nice to see. Even a B-minus video quality clip of $ale of the Century made it on there. The '90s version should be really interesting to see how they buff up a decade that was definitely not kind to the genre.
Also, it was good to see The (New) $25,000 Pyramid episodes from 1983 again. Did anyone notice how dark the set looked back then? It's like when 1985 rolled around they doubled the wattage of the light bulbs. The first episode they showed today looked like it was done in a cave. And I'm sorry, Billy Crystal going against anybody on that show just isn't a fair fight. Too bad he didn't do the game more than he did, he was unbelievably sharp.
Lots of new stuff this Monday in syndication. Reminds me of the good 'ol days in the '80s when you'd have a couple of Mondays of all new shows. Classics like '87 Truth or Consequences, the Gene Rayburn Break the Bank, Headline Chasers...yeah, maybe I should quit while I'm ahead.
Anyways, the best moment today for me was Deal or no Deal. Wow, the show as it always should have been. Breeze through a game in 22 minutes. No bogus family member drama. Real contestants holding the cases. If I weren't so burnt out on the show from the last 2+ years of drawn out bogusness, I'd be more interested. But still, if this ends up being the future of the show in the US (it's destined to get knocked out of primetime soon), I think it will run a better chance of surviving. Of course in LA it's in a dreaded double run, but that's another story.
Wheel's million dollar wedge was a lot of hype but no action, as of yet. I predict a once every 2 years win rate on that, so when it happens it should be darn exciting.
Millionaire's changes were neat, I suppose. Replacing 50/50 with Double Dip as a lifeline is kind of a wash in my opinion. The categories are neat, although somewhat of a waste as you can already see the questions ahead of time without risk, and it's not likely a contestant is going to invoke serious strategy by seeing 3-word topics 10 questions in advance.
What bummed me the most here is the timed questions. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't like the drawn out drama the endless questions allows. And we've all heard horror stories of contestants literally taking hours to answer a question (all edited out, thank God). Unfortunately, it seemed today like a lot of the time saved by timing the question was replaced by filler, including showing pictures of kids and dogs back home. Yawn.
First off, sorry I've been gone forever. No excuses here, other than a total lack of new game show material this Summer. I'm not counting Wipeout, which was strangely popular despite lacking any sort of...watchability.
You know I love my GSN documentaries, but Play it Again 70s just bored me to tears. For starters, Caroline Rhea was just going through the motions hosting the show -- totally didn't look like she wanted to be there. Secondly, portions of the show were a direct re-tread of the far-finer Match Game documentary from 2006. Lastly, 85% of the show was simply bloopers that have aired hundreds of times before on other blooper specials, including the mercilessly overplayed "In the Butt Bob" blooper. In fact, what made this special that much worse is that after the overplayed blooper was shown, it devolved into a 2-minute conversation by non-game show celebrities discussing the blooper.
And would it kill GSN to license a Price is Right blooper every so often?
