Supermarket Sweep contestant interviewed by The Onion's A.V. Club

[alfonzos]

http://www.avclub.com/article/what-was-it-be-supermarket-sweep-207654

[Matt Ottinger]

I first thought that might be one of their satires, because unless you're Randy West, who's going to want to hear your Supermarket Sweep stories from thirteen years ago?  But OMG, I was wrong.  This is a wildly detailed, lengthy and straight-faced exposition about what it was like to be a Supermarket Sweep contestant.

[weaklink75]

Kinda sucks they didn't let the winning teams keep their sweatshirts (also surprised none have turned up on eBay).

[SamJ93]

Interesting to learn that they taped show segments in 'blocks' instead of live-to-tape. I recall reading that Legends of the Hidden Temple did the same thing. I assume since both shows had massive physical sets, it was done to cut down on the cost of moving and storing them.

[Mr. Matté]

Interesting to learn that they taped show segments in 'blocks' instead of live-to-tape.

Didn't David change suits/clothes every episode? Or did they just stagger the episodes so that all the episodes didn't air back-to-back?

[Matt Ottinger]

Kinda sucks they didn't let the winning teams keep their sweatshirts

You know, that really doesn't make a lot of sense.  If in fact they were giving them away (Randy?), why penalize the team that won?

On QuizBusters, the student names are printed on sheets of plastic, and if players ask to keep them as souvenirs (about half do), we let them -- but only if they lose.  The point of that, however, is because winning teams return to play again, and we don't need to be printing new ones every time.  That wouldn't apply here.

[BillCullen1]

Very interesting and insightful article. If GSN were to acquire SS reruns, I would watch it occasionally.

[JayDLewis]

I first thought that might be one of their satires...

If it's the AV Club, that 's the "serious" Onion. (otherwise I would have thought the same)

[JasonA1]

Cool stuff. Contestant stories frequently reveal great little trivia nuggets, especially with a show that has as many moving parts as Supermarket Sweep.

You do have to take some of his observations/opinions with a grain of salt, though. I like how the AV Club interviewer asked him questions about how the show is made as if the contestant were an unimpeachable source. All of us here shouldn't be surprised, for example, about the boilerplate language in the contestant release about (the possibility of) not receiving your money if the show doesn't air.

-Jason

[TLEberle]

I read that and thought "that would be the first time in the history of the medium that the production company was selling a la carte episodes to the airing network" if the interviewee didn't get something wrong. But PAX was also a special case so you never know.

Since Randy will be here eventually I figure I'll ask: I remember reading or hearing about a team that won their episode and their take home total was $5,000 even; not the bonus prize plus their sweep total even though that's what was shown on-screen at the conclusion of the show. Was that the case or did I get it wrong?

[MSTieScott]

I like how the AV Club interviewer asked him questions about how the show is made as if the contestant were an unimpeachable source.

Yeah, if they're going to keep interviewing game show contestants (they interviewed a TPIR contestant last year who also relayed a couple of slight inaccuracies), then they'd be well-advised to change their cut-and-paste introduction that says "In Expert Witness, The A.V. Club talks to industry insiders."

[BrandonFG]

It never even hit me that there were so few aisles in the store.

The separate segments explains why only the first part of a show had an audience, and for the sweep, they were clearly gone...although the editors would always splice clips in of people "cheering". I remember reading (I think on ATGS) that audience members watched the sweep from another room.

Didn't the early years of the Lifetime version keep the audience in-studio for the sweep, along with an actual eggcrate clock mounted on the wall?

[WarioBarker]

Pretty interesting stuff, particularly on how the show was taped by 2001 and that the goofy movements made by the teams during the intro were planned by the staff.

Didn't the early years of the Lifetime version keep the audience in-studio for the sweep,

I don't think so, no.

along with an actual eggcrate clock mounted on the wall?

Only for the first season.

[JasonA1]

The Lifetime audience was there in the early goings. You can search up the premiere from February 1990 and see them as the bonus round starts.

-Jason

[TLEberle]

Interesting to learn that they taped show segments in 'blocks' instead of live-to-tape. I recall reading that Legends of the Hidden Temple did the same thing.

They did, and it also became clear that Kirk was merely reading his lines and he was barely competent at that. Yes, you've given over most of the show to a giant talking stone head, but he really was the lesser of two evils there.

I assume since both shows had massive physical sets, it was done to cut down on the cost of moving and storing them.

The only thing that got moved was the Steps of Knowledge; really the only time that the Steps had to be out of the way was for the Temple Games. They could have done the episodes in half-sized chunks (Moat and Steps, Games and Temple Run) and cut down on the amount of time that some of the contestants were there; I remember that the Temple Run was recorded as the main park was shutting down for the day; that's how long it was.