On 21...

[Jeremy Nelson]

How did they keep the contestants from seeing the audience reactions? Were the booths blacked out, or did they use tinted glass? Just something I've wanted to know.

[Kevin Prather]

Apparently, it involved the way the lights hit the glass.

[BrandonFG]

From 21 contestant Dave Legler, who held the game show winnings record for all of about 7 hours... ;-)

From the inside of the booth, the glass is somewhat reflective.  The show
requires contestants to wear light-colored clothing so adequate light will
reflect off of their clothes on to the glass.  When you have clothing
considered potentially too dark, one of the stage managers comes in the booth
with you to test it out and make sure you can't see the main audience.  You can
see Maury from the booth and you can see the front section of the audience,
where the on-deck contestants sit.  People seated in this section are not
allowed to clap at any point in the game.  The main audience is further back
and cannot be seen.  A partition between the two sections of the audience also
helps.

The thread, January 2000

[tvrandywest]

As late as the day before production there were challenging issues. The biggest problem was the computer program that ran the scoring. As it was explained to me, there wasn't adequate opportunity to debug, and it was problematic on the first tape day.

Isolating the contestants and the effectiveness of the booths was another significant issue still being fixed the morning of the first episode's taping. The single most important factor in limiting the contestants' visibility was the lighting. As I remember it, there was concern that even after tweaking the lighting, the first row or two could be seen, as Mr. Legler described it. That led to the quick fix of having the contestant pool in the front row not react to the game play.

And yes, adding continuous applause to the contestants' headphone feed was a later step designed to keep the players from making educated guesses about their opponent's progress. Nobody was able to anticipate how loud the 500+ person audience would be in the hands of a good warm-up!   ;-)


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'123666\' date=\'Jul 9 2006, 06:39 AM\']
As late as the day before production there were challenging issues. The biggest problem was the computer program that ran the scoring. As it was explained to me, there wasn't adequate opportunity to debug, and it was problematic on the first tape day.[/quote]
Wow. Was the decision to go with plasma monitors made at tha very last minute, or something? 'Cuz that doesn't strike me as a particularly difficult program to write, and should have been done and debugged well in advance, otherwise.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'123684\' date=\'Jul 9 2006, 02:03 PM\']
[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'123666\' date=\'Jul 9 2006, 06:39 AM\']
As late as the day before production there were challenging issues. The biggest problem was the computer program that ran the scoring. As it was explained to me, there wasn't adequate opportunity to debug, and it was problematic on the first tape day.[/quote]
Wow. Was the decision to go with plasma monitors made at tha very last minute, or something? 'Cuz that doesn't strike me as a particularly difficult program to write, and should have been done and debugged well in advance, otherwise.
[/quote]


Remember that they hired a producer not known for being GS-friendly to co-produce the show, besides not having too much time (about as much time as Fox had with Greed) from NBC announcing the revival to its first airing. I'm certain the producers did the best they could with the show given their experience producing game shows and how much time they had to work with.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' post=\'123729\' date=\'Jul 9 2006, 04:37 PM\']
Remember that they hired a producer not known for being GS-friendly to co-produce the show, besides not having too much time (about as much time as Fox had with Greed) from NBC announcing the revival to its first airing. I'm certain the producers did the best they could with the show given their experience producing game shows and how much time they had to work with.[/quote]
Well stated. There was no expressed or implied criticism, just some facts.

Was the decision to go with plasma monitors made at tha very last minute, or something?

I really don't know what transpired before rehearsal day, one day before taping. It's very possible that the problematic program may have controlled more than simply the scoring. When the set is tense, it's not smart to ask too many questions about the sore spots, especially when they have nothing to do with you   ;-)

Randy
tvrandywest