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Author Topic: Insomniac musings  (Read 1661 times)

Gus

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Insomniac musings
« on: September 19, 2006, 03:14:06 AM »
My everpresent rambling train of thought has stopped at questions pertaining to the one feature that ties the two games at opposite ends of the game-show intelligence spectrum, Press Your Luck and Jeopardy!: The fact that on both programs, while all players accumulate actual, dollar-denominated cash (rather than game points) during the game, only the overall winner actually takes his winnings, and the losers' scores go to zero.

* I understand that because this was not the case on pre-1984 Jeopardy; players didn't necessarily need to compete to win any money, that it was essentially a bonus that the high-scorer got to come back, and that many people were content just to win whatever they'd accumulated. Whoever first thought up this idea, on whatever show it was, was brilliant, because it introduces a real element of competition that ends up making much better television.

* So, which show was the first to use this device? Did Press Your Luck's predecessor, Second Chance, utilize it, or did it use the Jeopardy! method of the day? Was there perhaps an even older show that used it? Are there other games before or after that I'm not thinking of?

* Incredibly, highly, ridiculously speculative, but perhaps worth asking: If PYL *was* the first show to have this device, is it possible that the J! producers were inspired by it in making their decision to do that there?

And now, I slumber.

JasonA1

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Insomniac musings
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2006, 07:35:12 AM »
"Second Chance" did it for the same reason PYL did and J! did - it would simply be too expensive to pay all the contestants everything they accumulated. Anything said about a "more competitive game" is just a happy side effect of the budget concerns.

-Jason
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Robert Hutchinson

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Insomniac musings
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2006, 08:10:55 AM »
Not quite as competitive as either J! or PYL, but wasn't The Joker's Wild doing that from the start in 1972?
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Ian Wallis

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Insomniac musings
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2006, 09:10:33 AM »
Quote
I understand that because this was not the case on pre-1984 Jeopardy; players didn't necessarily need to compete to win any money, that it was essentially a bonus that the high-scorer got to come back, and that many people were content just to win whatever they'd accumulated.

I think it was the right thing to do both on the current Jeopardy and Press Your Luck.  When the original Jeopardy was on the air, stakes were much lower.  If you finished second but won $300 it was a nice reward for doing well.  When the stakes were raised once it hit syndication, you could have contestants being content with their four- and five-figure totals not to try risking it for the win.  You can see how exciting that would be after a while.  

And yes, Joker's Wild was doing that from 1972 on.
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