[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'132111\' date=\'Sep 19 2006, 07:42 AM\']I also wonder if we would have been this hard on the original 1980 game:
"Why should a long word be worth more points than a short word? Why should a contestant be penalized for having a bad celebrity when the contestant has absolutely no control? At least on Password or Pyramid, the contesant is always half of the equation, but on this show, when it's not your turn, you get no say. And here, that's two-thirds of the time."
[/quote]I doubt it. By 1980, Bob Stewart had built up heaps of credibility, so I would be way more forgiving of a game play hiccup (cf: Go) if Our Man Bob was in charge, than say if Stone-Stanley Productions brought out another insipid show. Now, since you've brought up some interesting points, I'll try to do what I can.
The thing about a point-per-letter is that it was elegant. You knew that each word was worth exactly that, and it provided for some uncertainty if a team was on 40 or more points; whether they could go out on that turn.
Sure, the contestant is penalized in gameplay for having a bad celebrity, but at BSP, they seemed to lean on the same people in rotation. I would happily put my $10,000 hopes in the hands of Debralee Scott and Nipsey Russell than whatever clods were on Pyramid starring Donny Osmond (I refuse to call it Donnymid out of principle). Even if ONE of your partners was a real thick-o, you could still win the game with the other one, and then maybe you get lucky and shlep that person to the other team.
And in the end, you get to be on TV, playing what's a really fun and interesting game; you get to hang out with four stars of the time and one bad ass host. And you have the chance to win $10,000 at the end of the game. I would happily take my chances with the celebrity draw for that.
I give Chain Reaction III a hard time because it has such an impressive forebear and it screwed up at almost every opportunity. Chain Reaction I was given the chance to shine, and while it was a short-lived show, it was a clever one, and what I saw of it on GSN; I enjoyed.