Hot Potato...

[tpirfan28]

eye saw tat hat putato dbutd 2day.  huw wuz hat putato plaed? ded bil kulin tos uh putato et thu kuntestintz? tat wud bi uh funi.

(JOKE PEOPLE.)

Anyway...I've only ever seen one episode of Hot Potato, but I do remember bits and pieces of it.  My question, should it have been given a longer run?  It seems like it was a novel concept, but more or less an complicated version of Family Feud.

/answer to the questions would be a classic case of Freakin' Google.
//only because Freakin' Wiki doesn't have the same ring to it

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'144273\' date=\'Jan 23 2007, 12:37 PM\']
Anyway...I've only ever seen one episode of Hot Potato, but I do remember bits and pieces of it.  My question, should it have been given a longer run?[/quote]

It had a huge run.  Granted, it was the same five months over and over. . .  

Seriously, the format change hurt (going celebrity and losing the seven straight jackpot), but the death slot hurt even more.  Might have had a decent run if given $otC or DREAM HOUSE's slot.

[chrispw1]

I thought it was a pretty good show although as mentioned the time slot hurt it. Although, wouldn't it have probbaly had better clearances in Central and Pacific time zones where it would have been on at 11 instead of noon. Perhaps an early morning slot in the Sale of the Century hour would have meant less clearances in Central and Pacific as from what I understand  many stations in those areas liked to show talk shows in that hour.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'144273\' date=\'Jan 23 2007, 10:37 AM\']Anyway...I've only ever seen one episode of Hot Potato, but I do remember bits and pieces of it.  My question, should it have been given a longer run?  It seems like it was a novel concept, but more or less an complicated version of Family Feud.[/quote]But it wasn't Family Feud at all. Sure, there were survey questions, but Card Sharks had survey questions too. I liked that you could challenge the other team to answer, and that the questions were also lists of statistics and so forth.

Was it a great show? Nah, not really. Was it revolutionary? No, most every other mechanic Hot Potato used had been done. But I enjoyed it, and I think given the chance (ie: better airing times) people would have warmed up to it.

[Adam Nedeff]

I'm a huge fan of the show; the USA network reruns were can't-miss for me when I was little, but looking at it today, I see two significant flaws:
#1. The bonus round is boring as hell and wasn't won nearly enough.
#2. The game doesn't move fast enough. As long as people compare it to "Family Feud," look at the pacing of both shows. "Feud" in 1984 usually managed five or six questions per show, minus the end game. "Hot Potato" usually had three questions per show. One episode in premiere week only had two for the entire half-hour.

The noon time slot was going to kill it anyway, but given a faster pace and a more interesting end game, it might have worked. The front game, despite being a ripoff of another series, was great as-was, IMO.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'144278\' date=\'Jan 23 2007, 11:55 AM\']
Was it a great show? Nah, not really. Was it revolutionary? No, most every other mechanic Hot Potato used had been done. But I enjoyed it, and I think given the chance (ie: better airing times) people would have warmed up to it.
[/quote]
Ya know, I liked it when it was on, too, but looking back, the pacing was HORRIBLE. I mean, it was dog-assed-slow.

(That said, it is also one of the few shows that wasn't really ruined when it slapped the "Celebrity" on its name.)

[MikeK]

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'144273\' date=\'Jan 23 2007, 01:37 PM\']eye saw tat hat putato dbutd 2day.  huw wuz hat putato plaed? ded bil kulin tos uh putato et thu kuntestintz? tat wud bi uh funi.

(JOKE PEOPLE.)[/quote]
Joke or not, can we keep the trolltalk away from this board?  That's one of the reasons we're where we're at now.

[dzinkin]

I was wondering who was going to drag that garbage out.

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'144293\' date=\'Jan 23 2007, 05:51 PM\']
Joke or not, can we keep the trolltalk away from this board?  That's one of the reasons we're where we're at now.
[/quote]
Well said.  Among other things, the troll talk encourages our involuntary ex-members to keep trying to come back, resulting in more work for your humble moderators.  (Not that some of the ex-members won't keep trying anyway, but there's no reason to egg them on.)

[Chelsea Thrasher]

How was Hot Potato?  Baked, with butter and sour cream. :-P
----
It was an enjoyable enough show.   The format was watchable - not great, but watchable.  Bonus Game was the best sedative this side of over-the-counter medications. Overall, it wasn't a bad show - it just wasn't great.  

Wow, I think I may have just described almost the entire Barry & Enright catalog there...

/And the host wasn't so bad himself.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'144284\' date=\'Jan 23 2007, 04:33 PM\']
Ya know, I liked it when it was on, too, but looking back, the pacing was HORRIBLE. I mean, it was dog-assed-slow.
[/quote]

For us old-timers who remember that era of B&E games as first-run eps, it's amazing looking back now how cheezy and bad the computer graphics were on both that show and TTD!  

Even if you put Potato and Tic Tac up against the Bullseye & Joker shows at that time or earlier-- which were using full color slides on their screens -- many of us still thought that those hideous computer graphics were far better than the slides.

The pacing could have been a little faster, but it seemed like most of the noontime game shows on NBC in the 80s ran slower than what they should have  (Super Password, Wordplay, Hot Potato, etc...).

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'144305\' date=\'Jan 23 2007, 10:03 PM\']
The pacing could have been a little faster, but it seemed like most of the noontime game shows on NBC in the 80s ran slower than what they should have  (Super Password, Wordplay, Hot Potato, etc...).
[/quote]

Before somebody jumps in, yes, we know Wordplay aired at 12:30.  "Noontime" means between noon and 1.

Go! was certainly frenetic enough.  I do remember tuning this in during a Christmas break and thinking a) "Bill's working for somebody besides Bob Stewart or Mark Goodson?"  b) "They cancelled Go! for this?"

[Jimmy Owen]

HP-great show.  Only saw it once on NBC while on vacation, but was happy to see it for a year on CBN and 2+ years on USA.  Probably Bill's 2nd best show of the '80's.  I liked the pacing, made for better play-a-long.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'144322\' date=\'Jan 23 2007, 11:51 PM\']
I liked the pacing, made for better play-a-long.
[/quote]
I'd agree with you if I didn't think I was going to DIE between play-a-long opportunities.

[Craig Karlberg]

Looking back on HP on its 23rd anniversaey, the show was OK when I saw it on those USA reruns(I didn't see much of it on NBC because I was busy eating lunch at the cafeteria during my senior year in high school).  The main game was OK except the pacing was rather slow compared to FF back then.  The bonus round was simple, yet it sometimes makes me wanna take a nap before the next main game.  Bill Cullen was decent here.  He was just funny enough to keep the show going during its short run.  That 12 Noon slot here in the East sure was a killer.  An earlier slot may have saved the show along with a better end game.  Overall, it was passable FWIW.