Your favorite host entrance?

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'174560\' date=\'Jan 11 2008, 12:59 PM\']
I have to also agree about Blyden's intro. He was always either waving or sort of bowing while walking to his desk. I always liked how it looked.
[/quote]
Really? I always thought it looked stilted and REALLY awkward. Mind you, I don't understand the whole Larry Blyden thing in the first place; I always thought the only reason he had a gig was the whole New-York-as-center-of-the-universe thing.

/ask any New Yorker, they'll tell you

[tpirfan28]

Favorite host entrances:  Clark $25K and $100K from the later years (with the bow after he comes from behind the set), Narz NYSI, Password Plus, and TPIR.

Stairs that mattered:  Classic Concentration.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'174575\' date=\'Jan 11 2008, 04:49 PM\']Stairs that mattered:  Classic Concentration.[/quote]
Huh-uh.  Not to game play, they didn't.  Just let us see Marjorie's legs.

/Not that that isn't a killer reason.

[BillCullen1]

My favorite host entances are:

Allen Ludden - Password Plus
John Daly and the panel - What's My Line?
Dick Clark - The $20/25/100k Pyramid
Gene Rayburn - Match Game (70s version)
Garry Moore - To Tell The Truth
Bob Barker - The Price is Right

But my favorite host entance is Jack Narz on Now You See It, with the music, set, contestants and Johnny O's intro, it's classic.

[ITSBRY]

Great topic! I think the openings are half the reason I enjoy game shows actually.

My top 5:

5. The 90's To Tell the Truth opening and entrance was very classy. I always enjoyed watching the celebs and host enter via that big staircase.

4. Press Your Luck's host entrance always seemed cool with the island swinging into place as Peter entered.

3. 80's Pyramid celeb/host entrances. Very cool.

2. TPIR has to be right up there. What I wouldn't give to put on a suit, walk through those doors and have a studio full of people give me a standing ovation while that nifty theme music plays.

1. High Rollers 87 had one of the coolest and most exciting overall openings ever.

[Robert Hutchinson]

I may regret mentioning this in the thread, but what about entrances that you loved as a kid for no particularly good reason? Me, I had some sort of hang-up over hosts walking under curtains--Sajak on Wheel, and especially Bill Anderson on Fandango.

Re: stairs that matter to game play, Finders Keepers and Shop 'Til You Drop had stairs that could eat time off the clock in their bonus rounds--not to mention the ever-present danger of a lawsuit.

Finally, just to mention some faves that haven't come up yet (I don't think): I liked the way the whole back wall swung open on MG/HS Hour. And I still miss Alex entering through the sliding "P" and "A" on the Jeopardy! set.

[TheInquisitiveOne]

Echoing the sentiments of Narz NYSI, Jack's entrance was amazing, although the set was pretty much nonessential after that.

But I love how Johnny O. says "Now...You...See...It!" in rhythm to the trumpet riff.

The Olson/Barker combo in TPIR was also gold.

The Inquisitive One

/I loved those ultra-fast zoom-outs!

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' post=\'174524\' date=\'Jan 11 2008, 11:34 AM\']
[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'174518\' date=\'Jan 11 2008, 10:29 AM\']
Much as I like that entrance, by the way, it seems to me that the platform with the two curving sets of stairs is just about the least essential piece of GS setwork ever.
[/quote]
Point taken, but I love that set.[/quote]

Oh, me, too!  Hell's bells, that's one of the coolest gameboards ever.  (And when I think of the electronics involved, for 1975, I'm even more amazed.)

To continue the side-topic though, with the exception of Joe G's Sale of the Century, when 'did' stairs matter into a set?

How 'bout Barker's (now Drew's) TPiR?  I know, you *can* do it without, but very time I see an international version with Contestant's Row on the same level as the game floor, it just seems wrong.

[Jimmy Owen]

For those who remember, did you ever worry that Nick Clooney wouldn't make it from the center of the maze to his host position before Alan finished telling us about some of the prizes hidden in the maze?

[calliaume]

Peter Marshall on The Hollywood Squares.

[Jay Temple]

Gene Rayburn's entrances were the best that can be attributed to the host. Narz on NYSI had the best-staged entrance. (Non-host entrances: I definitely liked the 80's Pyramid celeb entrances. I also like J! better when Johnny would say, "Now entering the studio are today's contestants ...")

[DoorNumberFour]

[quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'174560\' date=\'Jan 11 2008, 03:59 PM\']
I have to also agree about Blyden's intro. He was always either waving or sort of bowing while walking to his desk. I always liked how it looked.
[/quote]
Larry entered like a true man of the stage.

Whenever I do a play and I take my bow at the end, I always try to bow like Larry Blyden: short, enthusiastic, humble.

[Robair]

One that always awed me as a kid was when John Bartholomew Tucker would come in on that speedboat, looking like Thurston Howell IV, on "Treasure Isle". I don't remember much about that show but that speedboat thing was damned impressive.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'DoorNumberFour\' post=\'174614\' date=\'Jan 11 2008, 11:29 PM\']
[quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'174560\' date=\'Jan 11 2008, 03:59 PM\']
I have to also agree about Blyden's intro. He was always either waving or sort of bowing while walking to his desk. I always liked how it looked.
[/quote]
Larry entered like a true man of the stage.

Whenever I do a play and I take my bow at the end, I always try to bow like Larry Blyden: short, enthusiastic, humble.
[/quote]
Yes, Blyden always did that little sidestep thing when he entered. I always remember him doing that and his greeting of "Hello, all bodies" or "Hello, all persons".

[Fedya]

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'174575\' date=\'Jan 11 2008, 05:49 PM\']
Stairs that mattered:  Classic Concentration.
[/quote]
Weren't there "stairs that mattered" in The Diamond Head Game?

Pitfall, of course, eschewed stairs for elevators.  ;-)