Now that I've seen Chain Reaction and Starface in full

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'127326\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 09:34 AM\']The show aspect has interesting teams, and the tense knockout mechanic that builds to a climax by the end of the show. [/quote][quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'127326\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 09:34 AM\']Give me something besides three rounds of toss-up questions. There's no "show" at all.[/quote]
I'm never going to fault someone for being more interested in the "game" than the "show", but in both of these examples, it seems as though you're still talking about the "game".

To me, anyway, the "show" is the packaging, and in this one aspect, I think Starface is a little better than you're giving it credit for. People will be willing to watch for Danny's goofiness and for lame jokes at celebrities' expense.  By comparison, Chain Reaction is almost all about the game, which is why the seemingly small things -- like poor game play, or giving teams the last letter to words --  aggravate us so.

[Moe Train]

Hey, we played well on Chain Reaction.  Almost tripled our money in the bonus round!  But... I can't believe we missed some of the words we did.  I guess it was the pressure of the situation and the 5 seconds to answer...

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Moe Train\' post=\'127369\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 01:49 PM\']
Hey, we played well on Chain Reaction.  Almost tripled our money in the bonus round! [/quote]
Yes, Moe, but you have to admit that, at least so far, your team has been the exception.

[Moe Train]

Ha... I LOVE BEING THE EXCEPTION!

Matt, did you see our show?  If it weren't for the part where Dylan jumped in and said, "You just doubled your money," and some slow word changing, I think we could have had the triple.  

I'm not complaining though.  We had an amazing time, and would do it again in a second.  New York City is an amazing place to have a show.  haha... After we won the game, we got right into a cab and headed to Little Italy for an amazing celebratory dinner where we had about 10 bottles of wine for 6 of us... Singing and clapping in the streets, enjoying our day of celebrity, then off to the East Village for more mayhem.

I'm still kind of surprised at the lack of energy from some of the contestants.  I think a lot have never been in a studio or in front of a camera.  I imagine it would be fairly easy to freeze.  On our team, I was the only one with camera experience (modeling and commercials), and I coached those guys a bit about what to expect.  I think it helped when we got on the show.  Matt and Ryan did awesome in the bonus round.  I can't believe that I got some of those answers though!  (Earthquake, Waiter, Syrup)  Seinfeld was one of the answers, and we actually practiced that in one of the mock bonus rounds that we were doing in the car on the way up!  Mistletoe should have been answered, but we rang in too early.  Broadway was another answer.  I saw what Ryan and Matt were trying to do with that sentence.  Our hotel was right next to Letterman's Studio on 54th and Broadway.  They were trying to say something like, "What street is our hotel on?"  I would have gotten that in a second.

Oh well...  I'm ready for a Tournament of Champions!  (I hope we get on a Chain Reaction commercial too... I'd love that!)

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Moe Train\' post=\'127382\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 03:08 PM\']Matt, did you see our show?  If it weren't for the part where Dylan jumped in and said, "You just doubled your money," and some slow word changing, I think we could have had the triple.  [/quote]
Yes, like everyone else, I don't understand why it takes so long to change the words, nor why they don't have Dylan telling you whether you're right or not immediately.  

I get the impression that Dylan is either too afraid to deviate from precisely the role that has been defined to him, or else he's just clueless about the host's role in making the bonus game interesting.  Of course, when it comes to the bonus round, we are talking about comparisons to Bill Cullen and Kevin O'Connell, so the bar had been set pretty high.

[Moe Train]

Well, the one things that's tough is that the person who is blindfolded is concentrating so heavily on what their teammates are saying, because it's sensory deprivation.  I was really in the zone when blindfolded ("Let's do this"), and listening only for their voices.  The only other noises I noticed were the ding or the buzzer for when the word changed, and I even noticed when on stage that it was taking a while to go to the next word.  When the host popped in telling us that we doubled, I thought we were done, and on the show, you could see me taking off my blindfold.  After that, we got maybe one more word.  However, at the point where we doubled, we still had TWENTY seconds!!

[PYLW]

Saw your show, good epsiode. I've only seen a few epsiodes, though I do think your run at the Bonus Round was better than any other one I've ever seen so far. Everyone else choked/looked lost.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Moe Train\' post=\'127386\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 12:32 PM\']
When the host popped in telling us that we doubled, I thought we were done, and on the show, you could see me taking off my blindfold.  After that, we got maybe one more word.  However, at the point where we doubled, we still had TWENTY seconds!!
[/quote]
Ya know, you keep mentioning this, and I'm wondering about something.

Did you think that Dylan stepping in and saying that was telling you that your time had expired? Or that that was it, you'd won all you could and the game was over? 'Cuz if the latter, you went through a contestant briefing that told you that you doubled, then trebled, yes?

It's kinda like in football, where a player pulls up because he believes the ball is dead, and yet the ref didn't blow his whistle, so an alert opponent scoops up the ball and scampers into the endzone. You just Don't Stop Playing until someone stops you.

I mean, I know you were (and are) excited, and that's great, and I agree that Dylan's little interjection (and did he actually step in? Yeah, you were blindfolded and couldn't see him at the time, but on the couple of shows I've seen he said it from his position in the "wings".) is distracting and doesn't need to happen, but you keep blaming Dylan for this, and I'd be interested in knowing your mindset before I agree that the blame is justified.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'127390\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 04:25 PM\']
Did you think that Dylan stepping in and saying that was telling you that your time had expired? Or that that was it? 'Cuz if the latter, you went through a contestant briefing that told you that you doubled, then trebled, yes?

I mean, I know you were (and are) excited, and that's great, and I agree that Dylan's little interjection (and did he actually step in? On the couple of shows I've seen he said it from his position in the "wings".) is distracting and doesn't need to happen, but you keep blaming Dylan for this, and I'd be interested in knowing your mindset before I agree that the blame is justified.
[/quote]
I noticed the same exact thing from each of Moe's (many) posts: Blaming (subpar) host for something that the contestant should have known. Agreed, it's a faulty host-ism to interject during a tense bonus round, but that's the way it's been done since 1980 on the show. You should have known better, and unfortunately can't blame anyone else for missing the money.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' post=\'127400\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 02:34 PM\']
I noticed the same exact thing from each of Moe's (many) posts: Blaming (subpar) host for something that the contestant should have known. Agreed, it's a faulty host-ism to interject during a tense bonus round, but that's the way it's been done since 1980 on the show. You should have known better, and unfortunately can't blame anyone else for missing the money.
[/quote]
Well, hold on a second. I chose my words carefully for a reason: if he thought Dylan's declaration was one that would be made when time had expired (and I can totally see why he might think that...yes, hosts do sometimes interject, but usually with pertinent gameplay information only, and "You just doubled your money!!" isn't pertinent at that moment in the least), then I can see why he would react in that way. But if he thought "yay, that means I win!!" then that's flat screwing the pooch. Which is why I asked about his thought process. I don't wanna go hammering the nails in until I'm sure he's worthy of crucification.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'127405\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 06:07 PM\']
[quote name=\'tvwxman\' post=\'127400\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 02:34 PM\']
I noticed the same exact thing from each of Moe's (many) posts: Blaming (subpar) host for something that the contestant should have known. Agreed, it's a faulty host-ism to interject during a tense bonus round, but that's the way it's been done since 1980 on the show. You should have known better, and unfortunately can't blame anyone else for missing the money.
[/quote]
Well, hold on a second. I chose my words carefully for a reason: if he thought Dylan's declaration was one that would be made when time had expired (and I can totally see why he might think that...yes, hosts do sometimes interject, but usually with pertinent gameplay information only, and "You just doubled your money!!" isn't pertinent at that moment in the least), then I can see why he would react in that way. But if he thought "yay, that means I win!!" then that's flat screwing the pooch. Which is why I asked about his thought process. I don't wanna go hammering the nails in until I'm sure he's worthy of crucification.
[/quote]
Fair point. While i'm happy our new poster has won a few bucks, Moe's tone seems like he feels wronged, and quite frankly, I dont' think he was.

Of course, I'm not Moe, and do not speak for him. I only read his posts.

[Moe Train]

Nah.  I don't think I was wronged at all.  I knew that we could double and triple our money.  I just thought that we were done when he chimed in, like he was proclaiming how much we won.  Since I was just listening for Ryan and Matt's voices, I thought that when Dylan said something, the time was done and he was just telling us how much we had won.  I had no idea that we had 20 more seconds still I was told to keep going.  

I had a great time, bottom line, and would love to do it again.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Moe Train\' post=\'127440\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 08:29 PM\']
Since I was just listening for Ryan and Matt's voices, I thought that when Dylan said something, the time was done and he was just telling us how much we had won.  I had no idea that we had 20 more seconds still I was told to keep going.  
[/quote]
Gotcha. That's why I asked.

And I happen to agree with you, the few times I've seen him do it, it's bugged for exactly that reason. Let them play the game, Dylan, you can recap at the end.

[Moe Train]

We knew all the rules well in advance, since we were there the day of the "accident."  "The Goodfellaz" (www.myspace.com/WCUGoodfellas) were rescheduled for two weeks later, so we had time to practice and review all the rules of the game.  Confidence and relaxation were really high when we returned to Sony Studios in NYC.  We just didn't start the game off too well.  Caught some bad breaks, gave some bad answers ("LUCKY BALLS" was intentionally bad, since I couldn't figure out the word in the given time.  There was some banter cut out between Dylan and I, but at least they left in the part where I said, "WHAT?  YOU CAN HAVE LUCKY BALLS!")

We may have been losing for most of the game, but that's what comebacks are for...  (and another reason why I've been advocating the betting round when no one else has been) and my "STEP FATHER" buzzer beater took us over the top!  (It was so funny to see my face when I blurted it out.  By the look of my face, it was like someone turned on a lightbulb, and out came the answer!)

There was no question in our mind that we had to shoot for 10, because it was very easily attainable.  We almost got the 10, but hey, we can't complain with doubling our money!  I've seen some really lackluster bonus round performances though.  There's a way to form sentences quickly, the other teams just have to figure it out!  Matt and I were both English Majors at West Chester University (PA), and it really helped.

By the way, the crowd was much louder than it sounded on TV.  I must say though, our crowd seemed a lot louder than other shows.  Maybe it had to do with our WWE wrestling style antics to get the crowd pumped up.  People have been calling me and saying that I looked like Batista at the end of the show when I was pumping up the crowd.  

Oh the things you do when the adrenaline starts to flow!

Again, I don't feel as if we were wronged at all.  Dylan's just starting to get his flow as a gameshow host, but I'D do anything to have his job!  Maybe I'll have to do some more auditioning!

Man, some of you guys are brutal with the comments!

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Moe Train\' post=\'127455\' date=\'Aug 14 2006, 11:35 PM\']
Man, some of you guys are brutal with the comments!
[/quote]
Chief, you haven't seen the half of it.