Concentration rebuses

[alfonzos]

Has anyone given much thought to the styles of rebus puzzles? When Concentration started the puzzles took up the entire board with no blank frames. As the years passed, I suspect Norman Blumenthal, the producer, realized that certain elements would be used often so certain symbols such as "oar" had many variations drawn. Only unique elements for individual puzzles were drawn and frequently used elements were just worked in as needed. I noticed that after a few years, blank frames were worked into the puzzle to give the whole picture symmetry.

When G-T took over the series, puzzles were drawn in color and blank frames became a thing of the past. When Steve Ryan started designing puzzles for Classic Concentration, I noticed that the rebuses contained much more information than was needed to solve the puzzle. For instance, an entire human figure was drawn when only "eye" was needed to solve the puzzle. Ryan's puzzles were clever but the artwork struck me as garish and puzzles painful to contemplate. I prefered Blumenthal's puzzles especially the ones used for The Challenge of Champions.

I am glad the home game publishers used the television game show material. You have to import the British Paul Lamond version of Concentration to get color rebuses though. Only Pressman's version bucked the trend of using television rebuses and the game is a disappointment because of that. (Pressman also negected to include prize racks and the bonus round. Shame!)

Opinions?

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'172898\' date=\'Dec 23 2007, 10:52 AM\']
Only Pressman's version bucked the trend of using television rebuses and the game is a disappointment because of that. (Pressman also negected to include prize racks and the bonus round. Shame!)

Opinions?
[/quote]
I think this is the first time that I've heard of that an Endless version of a home game actually included something the original one didn't.

[Jimmy Owen]

Well, there needed to be more info on the 80's version, since the contestants were looking at a TV rather than a huge mechanical game board.  I preferred the game board, but time marches on, I guess.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'172898\' date=\'Dec 23 2007, 10:52 AM\']For instance, an entire human figure was drawn when only "eye" was needed to solve the puzzle. [/quote] But that's what made them interesting. When you have an eye, that's all you need. The arrows pointing to body parts changed what pieces of the puzzle were necessary to solve. The other way would be tedious.

Ryan's puzzles were clever but the artwork struck me as garish and puzzles painful to contemplate.

I have the Classic Concentration book on my shelf as we speak. Point out a couple of examples to me. I just don't see it.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'172898\' date=\'Dec 23 2007, 01:52 PM\']
Has anyone given much thought to the styles of rebus puzzles? When Concentration started the puzzles took up the entire board with no blank frames. As the years passed, I suspect Norman Blumenthal, the producer, realized that certain elements would be used often so certain symbols such as "oar" had many variations drawn. Only unique elements for individual puzzles were drawn and frequently used elements were just worked in as needed. I noticed that after a few years, blank frames were worked into the puzzle to give the whole picture symmetry.
[/quote]
Since the puzzles were a little more modular - cut up into pieces to fit onto a mechanical game board - I'm sure some of those symbols were used over and over again, like an "eye" that fit on one square or a "T" that fit into a 2x2 grid. Whenever a new one was needed, Blumenthal would recruit one of his staff artists.

In the color days, I'm sure the same techniques were used. But come "Classic Concentration" and every puzzle had to be drawn from scratch and the artists could go a little more wild.

I'd love it if someone could get a hold of Bernard Schmittke, the only artist to work on every version of "Concentration", from Hugh Downs to Alex Trebek, and ask him about all these techniques he used.

[DjohnsonCB]

What about the puzzles on the Narz version?  Were there any blank squares or re-used symbols with those rebuses?  I never saw enough of those shows to know for sure.

[alfonzos]

There were no blank frames on the Narz edition.
Add: I stand corrected.

[MikeK]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'173115\' date=\'Dec 25 2007, 09:06 PM\']There were no blank frames on the Narz edition.[/quote]
Yes, there were.

[Bob Zager]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'172907\' date=\'Dec 23 2007, 03:06 PM\']
Well, there needed to be more info on the 80's version, since the contestants were looking at a TV rather than a huge mechanical game board.  I preferred the game board, but time marches on, I guess.
[/quote]
If the show is ever revived again, I'd like to see them use a videowall, similar to the current Jeopardy! board, and maybe even simulate the mechanical effects of the original game board.

[geno57]

[quote name=\'Bob Zager\' post=\'173193\' date=\'Dec 26 2007, 06:49 PM\']
If the show is ever revived again, I'd like to see them use a videowall, similar to the current Jeopardy! board, and maybe even simulate the mechanical effects of the original game board.
[/quote]


See, I think that would be a great idea.  The rebuses in "Classic Concentration" were beautifully done, but I thought the board graphics (the numbers and the prizes) were poor.  There was no charm to it, at all.  Computer graphics were not advanced enough yet, in the late-80s and early-90s.  When viewing a shot of the full stage, it was unsettling (to me), to not see a board there.  The board is the very center of the game, fer cryin' out loud.

Furthermore, those "dingly-dink, diddly-doo" music effects, every time a prize was revealed, about made me crazy.  I'd much rather hear something that was, at least, based on an actual mechanical sound.

The whole thing could be executed a lot better today, than it was nearly 20 years ago.

[chris319]

those "dingly-dink, diddly-doo" music effects, every time a prize was revealed, about made me crazy

I was in the studio when they were rehearsing (before the show debuted) and I told Mark Bowerman that those sound effects wouldn't wear well at all. Was I right?

Though the graphics were a bit primitive looking, the other option would have been to use the mechanical board, which was horribly labor intensive in terms of the hard artwork required.