most heartbreaking moments in game show history

[barker5000]

What do you think are the most heartbreaking moments in game show history, including biggest losses, worst decisions, etc. in game show history?

Thanks,
barker5000

[whewfan]

I can think of a few...

Dan Avila's 1 million dollar loss on Greed (and his subsequent loss on a second appearance). Granted it was "greed" that got him, but still heartbreaking.

The "agony of defeat" puzzle on WOF, where a contestant could've won $60k and bought out the whole studio! She hits bankrupt and loses everything!(the total amount a player could win in prizes was at least $50k then) How ironic! (and yes, I am using the term properly!)

There was also a heart stopping moment on the short lived Winning Lines. A contestant could've bailed out, but instead wipes out entirely. Even Dick Clark seemed genuinely saddened by the whole thing. You could tell he was thinking "this is the part of the game I HATE"

Deal or No Deal- Well, that show is ABOUT heartbreaking moments, enough said.

I also think that the expose of the game show scandals had to be heartbreaking for faithful viewers that watched Twenty One, Dotto, and $64k Question.

There was a female clown on LMAD that had a choice between $500 and a curtain. Granted, $500 isn't life changing money, but when she got zonked she was clearly saddened. Monty gave her a second chance at the end and gave her $300 for correctly naming the material the 3 pigs houses were made of.

While I wouldn't say it was heartbreaking for the viewing audience, I can recall a couple moments on Fun House where there was one token that decided the game that made the contestants emotional. I recall one moment where one team was trying really hard not to cry when they lost. JD Roth tried to pep them up with the usual "you guys were awesome" speech, but one kid could be heard saying "Man, we SUCKED!"

[tvmitch]

What popped into my mind were the few times on Pyramid in the WC, where the contestant would win, we'd hear the win cues, and then we'd hear buzzers and it turned out to be a non-win because of some arcane rule break.

Those were pretty bad. Worse yet were the ones where the viewers didn't find out until after the commercial break that the win didn't count.

My favorites were the ones where Dick Clark would run out himself and declare a non-win. "We'll check right after the break."

On the flipside, some of the greatest moments were after a close WC, and Clark would draw out the reveal after the commercial break. "Well, we checked the tape, yadda yadda...and you've just won ten thousand dollars."

[wheelloon]

[quote name=\'whewfan\' post=\'171857\' date=\'Dec 12 2007, 09:19 AM\']
The "agony of defeat" puzzle on WOF, where a contestant could've won $60k and bought out the whole studio! She hits bankrupt and loses everything!(the total amount a player could win in prizes was at least $50k then) How ironic! (and yes, I am using the term properly!)
[/quote]
You should go and find and watch the actual clip. It can be found at least a few places online, I recommend Brad Francini's WOF Timeline.

She (Terri "nolastnamegiven") didn't hit Bankrupt, she called a wrong a letter, an S IIRC. Many audience groans later, Nikki solves the puzzle for $1100. Tragic moment, indeed, but the puzzle was almost readable, I can't say I feel overly sorry for Terri. Nevertheless, a tragic series of events.

The biggest loss to date on 1vs100 (contestant's name escapes me) was quite heartbreaking, IMHO. I don't remember exactly how much he lost either, but the look on his face when the correct answer was revealed was heart-wrenching...

*According to Wiki* Raul Torres: $263,000 lost to Mob, episode aired 2/16/2007

[DjohnsonCB]

Some may not consider this a heartbreaker, but it stands out as an example of me knowing something the contestant--and audience--didn't, and that had I been playing I might have cleaned up:

On the Dennis James version of TPIR, a contestant played the Grocery Game.  This was back when $7.00 was the amount not to go over.  One of the grocery items was Di-Gel antacid which in 1973 was a dollar a box for the tablet version.  Most audience members knew this--sort of--and kept shouting at her to take seven of them at the outset.  So she did...and went over $7.00 and lost.  How could this have happened?  Because they had the LIQUID version on display that night, which I knew cost more than a dollar.

Since that mistake brought the GG to such a quick end, they had more time to elaborate on the showcases, and there was a long announcement by one of the models that there was this new movie in production called "The Sting" and a winning bidder would get to visit the set and maybe get a small part in the film, IIRC.

[dzinkin]

Like Mr. Johnson, my example is a time when I knew something the contestant didn't.  Specifically, it was from Eddie Timanus's semi-final game in the 2000 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, which I attended.  Much of the material went right past me, but the one friggin' time I knew the correct response and he didn't happened to be the second Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy round... and it ultimately cost Eddie the game. :-(

I even remember the category -- Middle Initials -- and the clue: "Kennedy Defense Secretary 'S'".  (Correct response: Who was Robert S. McNamara?)  Randy Amasia, who was sitting near me, could tell from the look on my face that I knew; as he admitted later, he thought I was planning to try to get the clue thrown out by yelling out the answer, and that's why he whispered "I know what you're thinking, don't you dare!"  Of course, even if I'd wanted to do that, I can't believe it would have worked anyway; I suspect that they'd probably have just thrown me out.

[tpirfan28]

Cathy and Lori's spin battle on PYL.  Yeah, the part of the game they were playing was complete luck-based, but for it to drag on and on like it did....

[That Don Guy]

If lottery shows count, the most heartbreaking moment may never even have aired.  On California's Big Spin show back in the early days of the state lottery, a contestant spun the wheel (it consists of a ball inside of a wheel that has 100 posts arranged on the front face of the wheel near its edge; eventually, the ball comes to rest between two of the posts, which back then had dollar amounts from $10,000 to $2 million), and as the wheel was slowing down, the ball landed in one of the $2 million slots; the music started playing, balloons and confetti started dropping, the contestant's family came out to celebrate with her - and then the host (I think it was Geoff Edwards) had to announce that "the ball did not stay in the $2 million slot for the required five seconds" (the wheel was still moving and the ball popped out after about 4 1/2 seconds) and eventually landed in a $10,000 space.  Back then, there were 20 spinners per week, and the show was only 30 minutes long, so they only aired about half of each week's spinners; presumably, this spin was one of the ones cut from the broadcast.

(Note that, years later, she sued the lottery commission for $2 million and won, in part because she had tapes of other spinners where they did not apply the "five-second rule".)

Here are some others I can think of:

A number of times on the syndicated version of Let's Make A Deal, during the big deal, Monty would reveal one contestant's door, and then open the door nobody chose, to the delight of the other contestant, who thought they had won the Big Deal, only for that second door to have the Big Deal behind it.

A descendant (I don't know if she was a direct descendant or not) and namesake of Susan B. Anthony was on The $128,000 Question and got the last part of the $64,000 question wrong - and then immediately realized what the correct answer was.

Back in the days of the isolation booth and the "$100,000 Mystery Tune" on $100,000 Name That Tune, the contestant and a sizable chunk of the crowd (and myself as well, watching on TV) thought the money was in the bag when the pianist started playing the first song from Guys & Dolls ("I've got the horse right here / The name is Paul Revere / And here's a guy that says if the weather's clear...") and the response was "Can Do" - unfortunately, the actual title is "Fugue for Tinhorns" (although they would have accepted "I've Got the Horse Right Here" as well).

However, the most heartbreaking moments of all are probably the "contestants" on Fox's The Rich List who won hundreds of thousands of dollars finding out that Fox cancelled the show before their episodes aired so they wouldn't be receiving any money.  (I thought some of the laws passed after the 1950s scandals prevented this sort of thing.)

-- Don

[Hastin]

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' post=\'171891\' date=\'Dec 12 2007, 12:25 PM\']
(Note that, years later, she sued the lottery commission for $2 million and won, in part because she had tapes of other spinners where they did not apply the "five-second rule".)
[/quote]

Ahh! So that's why Pat Finn like mentioning the five-second rule on just about every spin.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' post=\'171891\' date=\'Dec 12 2007, 03:25 PM\'] and as the wheel was slowing down, the ball landed in one of the $2 million slots; the music started playing, balloons and confetti started dropping, the contestant's family came out to celebrate with her - and then the host (I think it was Geoff Edwards) had to announce that "the ball did not stay in the $2 million slot for the required five seconds" [/quote]
Larry Anderson, not Geoff Edwards.  Larry told the story at one of the Game Show Congresses.  To hear him tell it, that incident led to him being let go by the program.  My understanding all along was that the spin DID air, but I could be wrong.

Meanwhile, as many people in this forum can tell you from first-hand experience, the most heartbreaking moment in game show history is when YOU lose.

[uncamark]

That woman on that "TPIR" episode with the "Sting" walk-on wasn't one of the models (Janice and Anitra had yet to be allowed to talk yet), but was Eileen Brennan, who was actually in the film.  OK, so she wasn't Newman or Redford, but do you honestly think they could've gotten either one of them to go on a game show to plug their movie?

[MyronMMeyer]

[quote name=\'dzinkin\' post=\'171886\' date=\'Dec 12 2007, 01:44 PM\']
... and it ultimately cost Eddie the game. :-(

I even remember the category -- Middle Initials -- and the clue: "Kennedy Defense Secretary 'S'".  (Correct response: Who was Robert S. McNamara?)
[/quote]

Close. It was Middle Names/Strange.

http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1302

Interestingly, that clue reappeared in an almost identical form last year. Not as a Daily Double, tho'.

http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=871

-M

[GameShowFan]

In one of the first J! ToCs, a player hit a Daily Double, bet it all, and had the right response cold... and forgot to use the correct phrasing. What would have been a nail-biter turned into a blowout.

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'MyronMMeyer\' post=\'171907\' date=\'Dec 12 2007, 06:00 PM\']
Close. It was Middle Names/Strange.
[/quote]
Great.  It was so traumatic I've suppressed some of the details. ;-)

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'171899\' date=\'Dec 12 2007, 02:25 PM\']
Larry Anderson, not Geoff Edwards.[/quote]
Then there was more than one such incident (unlikely considering what it cost them the first time), or ol' Larry was full of what makes the grass grow green, because I saw that when it happened, and it was most definitely Geoff Edwards at the helm.

(FWIW, I'm fairly certain that the 90's Edition of The Book of Lists also has an entry confirming that it was Edwards. Yep, page 246, "20 Unusual Lawsuits." Happened December 30, 1985...definitely the Edwards regime, because the lottery was still fairly young at the time, and Chuck Woolery hosted it for a brief period at the start before Edwards came in.)

(And I have a fin for anyone who gets him to tell that story on "Anyone Can Play" and then calls him on it.)