"Show Me The Shatner"

[J.R.]

I thought I was watching an SNL Parody of a game show. Too much silliness to take it seriously.

I didn't hate it though.

-Joe R.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'JRaygor\' post=\'137917\' date=\'Nov 14 2006, 11:08 PM\']
I thought I was watching an SNL Parody of a game show. Too much silliness to take it seriously.
I didn't hate it though.
[/quote]
Oh, I didn't hate it either. To actively hate it would have required far more emotion that I think that tripe deserved.

[geno57]

From today's (11/15/06) Chicago Sun-Times, the Quick Takes column:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Game over

QT Grammar R Us Seminar on the English Language (cont'd):

• • Cindy Dolski, a Green Bay, Wis., reader, writes:

"In a commercial for a new game show hosted by William Shatner, the announcer repeatedly uses the nickname 'Shat.' Isn't that the past tense --"

No. QT will not allow you to boldly go where no reader has gone before.

[weaklink75]

Well, the ratings are in...., they're not the best, and it went down every half hour as well...The 2nd episode will probably tell the tale a little more...

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'narzo\' post=\'137915\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 01:50 AM\']
Mark Goodson said the rules to a good game show should be able to be described in one sentence.  I defy you to do just that with this show...
[/quote]

And you can do that with The Price Is Right?

I'm not holding up Show Me as a model of simplicity, but its reductio ad absurdum would seem to be, "Answer six questions correctly before you miss six and you'll win money."  If I can have another phrase, I'll tease the network in my pitch by saying, "Oh, yeah--the dollar amounts are held by dancing girls."

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'137939\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 08:37 AM\']
I'm not holding up Show Me as a model of simplicity, but its reductio ad absurdum would seem to be, "Answer six questions correctly before you miss six and you'll win money."  
[/quote]
Except that's not true. If your six right answers are the lowest amounts on the board, and your three wrong ones are the biggest, you still go away with zippo. "You'll PROBABLY win money" is more accurate, but then you have to explain "probably".

You could say "Right answers win money and wrong answers lose money on this big-money quiz show", but then the suits say "Yeah? How's that different from Jeopardy?" Then I say "Dancing girls." And then I hope my suit doesn't get too rumpled as they throw my ass out.

[LouKip]

After watching SMtM last night, I could describe it in two words: Shatnero Gigante. Perhaps Endemol can kick down some bucks for the guy in the bumblebee suit or the grim reaper who plays the trumpet.

Personally, I liked the game itself, and I wished they had found stronger contestants, but alas, that seems secondary or tertiary compared to the meta-camp theatrics of the show. Shatner was fun, too, but it's hard to tell when the editing seems to excise every possible spontaneous moment.

LK

[Mike Tennant]

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'137939\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 11:37 AM\']
[quote name=\'narzo\' post=\'137915\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 01:50 AM\']
Mark Goodson said the rules to a good game show should be able to be described in one sentence.  I defy you to do just that with this show...
[/quote]
And you can do that with The Price Is Right?
[/quote]
Yes, you can.

"The contestant who comes nearest to the actual retail price of the item up for bids without going over wins that prize and the opportunity to play another pricing game for one or more additional prizes."

Now each individual game on the show has its own rules, but most of them can be summed up in one sentence also.

Actually, I think Goodson's statement was that the idea for the show should be conveyable in a single sentence, and TPIR definitely fits that bill:  "Contestants play pricing games to win prizes."

[Ian Wallis]

My God, that was friggin' awful.

What he said.  

How many questions did they actually managed to get in during 90 minutes - 15?  To me it's a cross between 1 vs 100 and Deal or No Deal.  And of course, an Endemol game show has to look like all the others that they do.

Since every new show these days seems to come from them, do you think they're the new Goodson-Todman?

\Tongue in cheek
\\I heard that...

[chris319]

Since every new show these days seems to come from them, do you think they're the new Goodson-Todman?

There is a puddle of wet, gooey stuff on the floor that wasn't there a second ago. My tummy hurts.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'137986\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 04:28 PM\']
There is a puddle of wet, gooey stuff on the floor that wasn't there a second ago.
[/quote]
In other news, the West L.A. Bed, Bath, and Beyond was found to be missing two towels...

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'137970\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 12:56 PM\']Since every new show these days seems to come from them, do you think they're the new Goodson-Todman?[/quote] Granted what follows, this still ranks as the worst insult ever leveled at anyone in the history of the GSF. </wink>

\Tongue in cheek
\\I heard that...

Even so, what I fear is that other companies that have otherwise sound ideas are going to mold their show into an Endemol-ish format (otherwise En-Demolishing it) because they wrongly think that just because the shows get 13 million sheep to watch on a Friday night, it must be The Right Way To Do Things.

And that's what's really sad here.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'137990\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 05:20 PM\']
Even so, what I fear is that other companies that have otherwise sound ideas are going to mold their show into an Endemol-ish format (otherwise En-Demolishing it) because they wrongly think that just because the shows get 13 million sheep to watch on a Friday night, it must be The Right Way To Do Things.
[/quote]
Not for nothin', but if they can get 13 million sheep to watch on a Friday night, it's not wrongthink.

The issue here isn't that these people are making crappy shows; their job is to make stuff people watch, and they seem to be doing that quite well. The issue is that the sheep are stupid enough to watch it.

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'137941\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 11:55 AM\']
[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'137939\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 08:37 AM\']
I'm not holding up Show Me as a model of simplicity, but its reductio ad absurdum would seem to be, "Answer six questions correctly before you miss six and you'll win money."  
[/quote]
Except that's not true. If your six right answers are the lowest amounts on the board, and your three wrong ones are the biggest, you still go away with zippo. "You'll PROBABLY win money" is more accurate, but then you have to explain "probably".
[/quote]

That's a good point.  And, you know, it's one of the things I like about it.  It's a potential-big-money game show, but there's not a guarantee.

By the way, Letterman just ran a clip listing SMtM's rules as bullet-points over clips of the show.  It did make things look ridiculous, but so, again, would the rule sheet for TPiR.

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'Mike Tennant\' post=\'137964\' date=\'Nov 15 2006, 03:10 PM\']
"The contestant who comes nearest to the actual retail price of the item up for bids without going over wins that prize and the opportunity to play another pricing game for one or more additional prizes."

Now each individual game on the show has its own rules, but most of them can be summed up in one sentence also.

Actually, I think Goodson's statement was that the idea for the show should be conveyable in a single sentence, and TPIR definitely fits that bill:  "Contestants play pricing games to win prizes."
[/quote]

Nicely done.

And here, the statement is, "Contestants answer questions to win money."  (Which is, of course, the same sentence you'd use to describe "Greed," which Woolery once famously described as being overcomplicated.)