Author Topic: Underrated/Overrated hosts..... (Read 19778 times)

Blanquepage · « **Reply #30 on:** July 06, 2006, 07:15:21 PM »

In terms of overrated, I echo the sentiment of others about Jack Barry not being all that great.
To me, Bert Convy was a lot more of "just a pretty face" than a good host.
Last but not least, I didn't like Regis' style of presenting 'Millionaire' at all.
I didn't go at all for this "Mr. Nice Guy" style by refusing to string the contestants and the audience along in order to provoke at least SOME tension and drama. He was pretty dull on what I've seen of The Neighbors, too.

My underrated list would be Jim Peck, Jim Perry, and Kevin O'Connell.

--Jamie

ilb4ever2000 · « **Reply #31 on:** July 06, 2006, 11:14:26 PM »

[quote name=\'Jimmy Fiono Coyne\' post=\'123490\' date=\'Jul 6 2006, 07:15 PM\']
In terms of overrated, I echo the sentiment of others about Jack Barry not being all that great.[/quote]

But come on, is he really overrated? I've never read any glowing praise for him here.

Kevin Prather · « **Reply #32 on:** July 07, 2006, 12:12:55 AM »

May I think outside the box?

For underrated hosts, how about J. Keith van Stratten? I thought he did a great job. He kept the game going without being stiff, and he's a quick thinker.

Johnissoevil · « **Reply #33 on:** July 07, 2006, 03:17:23 AM »

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'123414\' date=\'Jul 6 2006, 12:20 AM\']

Overrated:

1. Geoff Edwards
[/quote]

Was Geoff even RATED at all? Seems to me he didn't gain much fame outside of the die-hard community for his shows...

Johnissoevil · « **Reply #34 on:** July 07, 2006, 03:19:24 AM »

[quote name=\'Brandon Brooks\' post=\'123415\' date=\'Jul 6 2006, 12:24 AM\']
Your choices are spot on with me. I would add to the underrated list Kevin O'Connell. Man, I would've liked to see him host other shows. If he was so effortless with GO as a rookie, I'm sure he could've handled formats. Also, I think the biggest himbo of all time, John Davidson, is sooooo overrated. Why was he picked to host anything? Weren't there other good looking guys who weren't as bumbly?

Brandon Brooks
[/quote]

I thought John was alright on Squares. As for $100K Pyramid, you're right. I always pictured Bob Goen as more of a natural than Davidson for Pyramid.

tvwxman · « **Reply #35 on:** July 07, 2006, 07:31:46 AM »

Here's the thing (to me) about being 'overrated'...that would assume you've had a few chances to host various game shows...(How can Pat Sajak be overrated if he only hosted one show?) and not proving yourself capable time and time again..

In the case of an overrated host with a long running show, a guy whose personality gets in the way of the game at hand...for me, some of them (below) at times, got so annoying, they made me turn the channel.....

Underrated is a little different. Someone who deserved more opportunities and/or accolades that what they got...

That said , here's my list.
Underrated :

Jack Narz
Bobby Van
Jim Perry

Overrated :

Jim Lange
Jack Barry
Bob Eubanks

clemon79 · « **Reply #36 on:** July 07, 2006, 09:27:34 AM »

As I always like to point out when someone forwards this argument:

[quote name=\'Johnissoevil\' post=\'123515\' date=\'Jul 7 2006, 12:19 AM\']
I thought John was alright on Squares.
[/quote]
...except for the little part where, save for an IFB with a producer in it telling him whenever it happened, he DIDN'T KNOW THE RULES TO HIS OWN FRIGGIN' GAME.

"Circle gets the...erm, what's that? Oh, we can't put a circle there, you have to earn that yourself."

Considering his utter inability to recognize a winning condition, I always thought that playing Tic-Tac-Toe with John Davidson for money would be a rather profitable experience.

NickintheATL · « **Reply #37 on:** July 07, 2006, 09:40:46 AM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'123522\' date=\'Jul 7 2006, 09:27 AM\']
Considering his utter inability to recognize a winning condition, I always thought that playing Tic-Tac-Toe with John Davidson for money would be a rather profitable experience.
[/quote]

I have to agree with Lemon here. I always thought that, if John Davidson were a soccer player, he would continually kick the ball into his own goal because he does not know the rules.

Quote

UNDERRATED

Pat Finn- He came across as stiff on TJW, but he proved himself much looser on STYD. He tried to maintain some degree of class that Dee Baker seemed to drain out whenever he came out in drag.

Excuse me? Pat Finn? Underrated? You must be joking. I plainly remember the first time I saw Pat Finn was at the age of 12, when USA was repeating TJW '90, and I cringed the moment I heard his over-excited voice. I just never could tolerate him on anything I ever saw that he hosted, and I've not exactly went out of my way to watch anything he's hosted lately either. In other words, it's overrated to say he's underrated.

I have to agree with most of the list to say that Jim Perry is underrated, I think he is a great, capable host that had some good hits in the 70's/80's.

I also say that Bert Convy tends to get underrated sometimes too, he was a great host on Tattletales, maybe not so much so on Super Password. If only we had gotten to see him on MG '90. :-\

WhammyPower · « **Reply #38 on:** July 07, 2006, 11:23:27 AM »

Here's my picks:

UNDER-RATED
George Gray: Great ad-libber, knows how to run the game well.
Bil Dwyer: See George Gray
Bill Rafferty: He moved the game along, and inserted humor where it was needed.

Honorable Mention: Laird Macintosh: He has the right touch for a show like Treasure Hunters. Which is good, since he does host that.

OVER-RATED
Bob Barker: lame humor + pointless thoughts = Why is he still there?
Chuck Woolery: See Bob Barker.
Richard Karn: See Bob Barker. Oh wait, they fired him. YAY!

Dishonorable mention: Ricki Lake. Even though she got "better" during the run, she still sucked.

clemon79 · « **Reply #39 on:** July 07, 2006, 12:21:36 PM »

[quote name=\'WhammyPower\' post=\'123527\' date=\'Jul 7 2006, 08:23 AM\']
Honorable Mention: Laird Macintosh: He has the right touch for a show like Treasure Hunters. Which is good, since he does host that.
[/quote]
If by "host" you mean "holes up in a studio and records all of his bits in a single day", sure. The guy's a talking head, fer God's sake. He's a "host" in the same sense that a guy who voice-tracks a six-hour radio shift in twenty minutes without so much as touching a compact disc, cart, or hunk of vinyl is a "deejay". How the hell you even rate him, much less UNDERrate him, is completely staggering to me.

Here's a little hint for you: Just because it says "Host" under his name when he's fonted the first time he appears on-screen, doesn't mean he actually IS one.

Your title could not be more appropriate right now.

JasonA1 · « **Reply #40 on:** July 07, 2006, 12:39:10 PM »

Quote

lame humor

I thought that'd be right up your alley.

And I don't think even the most casual of viewers considered Richard Karn to be anything resembling "good" much less overrated.

-Jason

DrBear · « **Reply #41 on:** July 07, 2006, 03:15:45 PM »

Well, Karn was considered good when he took over, if only because he followed Louie. So Karn was good in the sense that morphine is good after you've broken your leg. But you can't continue with it. Karn never really grew into the job.

clemon79 · « **Reply #42 on:** July 07, 2006, 03:33:14 PM »

[quote name=\'DrBear\' post=\'123562\' date=\'Jul 7 2006, 12:15 PM\']
So Karn was good in the sense that morphine is good ~~after you've broken your leg~~.
[/quote]
There, fixed that for you.

A more apt analogy might be "in the sense that having your foot stomped on is good...after being kicked in the nutz."

whewfan · « **Reply #43 on:** July 07, 2006, 05:11:03 PM »

Richard Karn's performance on Feud can be compared to what the networks told Monty Hall on LMAD... "yeah, the first show is good... but what have you got for the next one?"

Karn knew the game backwards and forwards, and ran the game at a fairly brisk pace, but if you compared his first show to a more recent one, you'll see that it's pretty much the same ol' same ol'. You can't get away with doing the exact same show for very long.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #44 on:** July 07, 2006, 11:09:15 PM »

For the category of overrated hosts....Rush Limbau....oh, you mean GAME SHOW hosts!?!??

Definitely, Dickie Dawson.

Although I liked when he told it like it was (i.e. when someone came up with a dumb response, he would play it up), I never liked when he'd spend the first several minutes talking about minutia while stroking his ego, having Mr. & Mrs. Joe America bowing at his feet and having one-sided conversations with people off camera and out of earshot.

If you edited out all that gibberish, you'd have about 15 minutes of good TV per show episode.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, all of the above fits for El Rushbo too. And I believe he purposely wanted security to find his little blue pills so he could brag about his big....ego!