I was expecting one of those idiot celebrity scenes but Shatner was actually doing well there. Until he wasn’t.
The ending of Tsirk:
“I know of no other country where a person breathes so freely!”
“Now do you understand?”
“Now do you understand?”
The American and British versions had the same host.
Hence “virtually indistinguishable.”
Despite my general opinion of him, I feel for Shatner in this sitch.
I was referring to Anne Robinson (British) and Jane Lynch (American). I don’t remember the name of the Russian host right offhand.
I could easily see myself doing the same thing. I mean, I don’t think I’d go full Bobby Knight, but the mental slip, yeah.
FYI, Anne Robinson was the host when the show was first brought to the United States and the insulting of the contestants was something she did. It was part of the appeal. I assume that Jane Lynch was copying that. The Wikipedia article says of the international adaptations, “Most versions also have disciplinarian female hosts, again similar to the British original.”
I missed Robinson’s episodes in the US because I was living abroad, just like I missed Philbin’s episodes of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Is the cake show dumb? Has anyone seen it to confirm?
I haven’t seen it, but isn’t it mostly comedic and fun? Like a fun game?
You don’t want somebody to go home empty-handed at all.
Having been on a couple of game shows, I can say that they do appreciate you taking a day off work in order to play the game. In both cases, we contestants were contractually obliged to be there all day, even if we lost before 10 am. (We contestants were the studio audience, applauding like crazy for the team that defeated us two games ago.) So the producers wanted to give us something for our time.
We—that is, my girlfriend and I—never won. But the “lovely parting gifts” were a helluva lot better than a case of Turtle Wax and a year’s supply of Rice-a-Roni (the San Francisco treat). In each case, we got an expensive pair of his-and-hers watches, probably worth about $600-$700 today, adjusted for inflation. I still have mine, and they both still work. So, in a way, if you lost, you actually won; because the producers didn’t want you to go away grumbling and unhappy, especially if you took a day off work to appear on their show.
What have you been on? Do tell!
Really liked the old SNL FF sketch with Bill Murray playing Richard Dawson, looking and sounding nothing like him but pulled off the louche, d-baggy swagger on point, setting up softballs for the Conehead Family (“Name a holiday” - “The Moons of Meepzor”…:“a mode of transportation” - “The Foamshume”)
The highlight was when he asked Laraine “Connie” Newman “Name something you bite”, and with an impassioned quiver, she said “mmm The Big One”. We all look at the board and with a “ding ding ding” the top entry flips over - “THE BIG ONE”. Yay!
Who can forget the Mad Dash.
The first was “Bumper Stumpers,” which is where you try to decipher vanity license plates. There was more to it than just that, but that was the heart of the game. It was produced in Canada, and shown on the USA Network, back in the late 1980s. Hosted by Al DuBois. Taping took place at the Global Network studios in Don Mills, Ontario.
The second was “Definition,” which was broadcast in Canada only. It was a Hangman-like game, where you selected letters that made a phrase of some sort, while removing letters from the alphabet that your opponents might need. The team that guessed the phrase won the round. The host was Jim Perry, whom you’ve seen hosting “Card Sharks” and “Sale of the Century.” Taping took place at Channel Nine Studios in Scarborough, Ontario.
I was living in Toronto at the time, so neither was difficult to get to. Heck, Global Studios was maybe a ten-minute drive away from my home; and Channel Nine maybe fifteen. So it wasn’t like I was travelling to get to them. (“Guests of ‘Pig in a Poke’ stay at the luxurious Plaza Hotel …”), which I’m sure, pleased the producers. Oh, they mentioned some local hotel, but all contestants were local, so the producers gladly accepted the hotel’s plug and its money for the plug, without having to have anybody actually stay there.
Both were fun experiences. And like I said, I got a couple of very nice watches out of them, so I walked away happy.
The American version, with Anne Robinson.
I attended a taping of Family Feud in Hollywood back when Richard Dawson was still the host. It was an experience. The people in charge of running the shows evidently know how to weed out the non-serious fans from the serious ones – you have to wait for hours in a long line with no shade, no water, and no bathroom.
Finally you were let inside into the glorious shade and air conditioning. You get to sit in row and get “warmed up” by the announcer telling jokes. I thought that, as the studio audience, we would be polled for future answers – “survey say…” I thought that they polled the studio audience. Coulda sworn they said so, but, no. Nobod asked us any questions.
They taped five half-hour shows in a row. To my surprise, they kept the breaks or commercials to the two minutes or so it actually was when the show ran, even though they could’ve shut off the cameras. Probably easier to do it that way. Plus, if they let the breaks go sn long, we’d all be there a long time.
The thing that really struck me actually occurred to me before I went, As the OP noted, they’re not looking for factual answers, but for the most likely given answers. So if they ask “nme a country in South America” and most of those surveyed replied “Mexico”, that would have been the correct answer. That’s probably why they tend to steer clear of those kind of questions with definite answers (alhough I swear I heard that one once).
Naturally, Hollywood Squares was dumb (c’mon, every question was true or false), but as others have noted, one of the goals of tv game shows is to make the audience feel comparatively smart. Folks watch different game shows for different reasons. Match Game was famous for engaging in double entendres and innuendo. It was no accident that 99% of female contestants chose to pair with the attractive Richard Dawson for their panelist match rounds. Sure, Hollywood Squares was a rich source of innuendo too. Audiences looked forward to hearing Paul Lynde’s zingers, but the other reason audiences watched was to see which B or C-lister would appear. Would it be Charo? Paul Williams? Mac Davis?
Yeah, I’m always surprised when there are a lot of letters left, and someone guesses the word, and blurts it out, rather than keeping on spinning and accumulating money.
The problem with continuing to spin is the risk of landing on Bankrupt (or Lose a Turn). There is an “Express” wedge, which lets you guess consonants for a thousand dollars each, with no risk of bankruptcy. I’ve seen people land on that, know the answer and chose to solve the puzzle rather than continuing to accumulate cash.