Or the one with the banker, that was hosted by Bradley Walsh. I only know it because of the YouTube clip where he completely loses it over the German skiier Fanny Chmelar.
The Bradley Walsh one is The Chase.
Deal or No deal has a banker…
A couple of years ago, Netflix had the first episode of every season of the U.S. Jeopardy (the Trebek version, not Art Fleming) available for streaming, so I was able to watch the very first episode.
It was also a lot slower than we’re used to now, mostly because Alex did a lot more explaining of the mechanics of the game. “Sorry, Bob, we’ll have to take $200 away from your score for that incorrect response.” “That’s correct, Frank. Now it’s your turn to pick the next clue.” That kind of thing.
These days they take for granted that everyone knows how the game works, but in the early days they felt like they had to make things clear for the players and, perhaps more important, for the viewers. Possibly Stephen Fry’s version will get quicker as well, assuming it continues awhile.
I was wondering what kind of accent the announcer has. Can anyone tell me?
We’ve been thinking Irish….it’s definitely distinctive, but I don’t know that definitively. Casual searching didn’t turn anything up.
IMDb says it’s Des Clarke, and he is from Scotland.
There is also an American pilot of Countdown. It’s not very good either, especially as I don’t think there’s a numbers round, and, of course, they have to add a big-money element.
Countdown seems to be hard to export; there was an Australian version that was true to the format, but it ended up being replaced on Australian TV by episodes of the British version.
Meanwhile, with the popularity of the New York Times “Connections” game, I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time before somebody tries to find a way to ruin Only Connect with an “Americanized” version - probably by moving the Connecting Wall to the end and making it a bonus round of some sort.
We were literally just talking about this. Our fear is that they would dumb it down here… the best part of that show, as far as we’re concerned, is how hard the clues can be. When you get one, it feels great. (And when you yell out the correct connection when there’s still five points on the board it feels fucking fantastic.) I mean yes, they can drop the Eurovision clues“, but otherwise keep it tough please
Yeah. The pop culture references are the main reason I want US versions of these shows. I just have no chance at most of those. I’d love them to make questions of equal difficulty but for Americans.
That said, I do actually like that Jeopardy UK seems to be somewhat easier. Despite being someone who won championships in quiz bowl and being good at quiz board games, I’ve never been good at regular Jeopardy. I think there have been times I got more correct on Only Connect.
One change I wouldn’t mind in the US Only Connect show, though, is less silence.
If they Americanize the questions they’ll need to Americanize the host, and that will be difficult. I don’t know if we’ve had anyone with that level of Haughty derision since Morris the Cat passed away.
One reason that the amount of money in the prizes in British game shows (which actually include both the U.K. and Ireland) is so much more than the amount of money in American game shows (which actually include both the U.S. and Canada) is the possible audience for the American ones is 5.115 times the television audience for the British ones, and the amount spent on a program depends on the size of the audience.
Huh? You mean the other way around?
Yeah, you’re right. I have problems with mistakes like that. I try to write my posts too fast.
There was a limit of £6000 cash up until 1993 so a lot of prizes were consumer goods rather than cash. The infamous speedboat on Bullseye for instance.
Ben Stein. He has game show hosting experience (Win Ben Stein’s Money).
If the host doesn’t have to make the “is that answer correct” or “you need to be more specific” decisions, maybe Jane Lynch.
What’s Mayim Bialik doing nowadays?
That was a really enjoyable show, but the guy doesn’t do himself any favors, and he’s gotten weirder as he’s gotten older. When he said that he missed Aunt Jemima on the bottle because “I prefer when it was a black person, showing their incredible skill at making pancakes.” he was kind of self selecting out of any kind of consideration.
Neuroscience?
Search YouTube for “Mayim Bialik Breakdown” to see one thing she’s doing. She takes occasional roles in various television shows, movies, and video games. She may be searching for another television series (like Call Me Kat which she did for three years) to star in. She may be working on another book.
I heard once that Jeopardy! and Iron Chef America are the only television programs that are deliberately aimed at both Americans and Canadians. In other words, they are not filmed and shown in one country and later shown in the other country. They are designed from the start to be shown in both countries.
This seems to be inconsistent with the name of Iron Chef America. In the other hand, did you see The Great American Joke Off? It’s a television program with two teams of comedians improvising replies to subjects they are given. It has comedians from various English-speaking countries on those two teams. Despite the name of the show, it’s filmed in London.
Where’s Emily Litella when we need her?