Million Dollar Password taping

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'TonicBH\' post=\'180032\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 02:41 AM\']
[quote name=\'WhammyPower\' post=\'180026\' date=\'Mar 4 2008, 10:05 PM\']
I believe Price still shoots in an hour, no?[/quote]As somebody who's been in the crowd of one, yes. Give or take 10 minutes.[/quote]
Wheel and Jeopardy still tape more or less in real time too.  They stop if there's a serious, need-to-stop problem, but it would be odd for one of them to take more than, say, 45 minutes to do a show.  It's been years since I've been to a Family Feud taping, but I assume they also tape in the traditional way.

[lobster]

[quote name=\'DoorNumberFour\' post=\'180051\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 09:17 AM\']
I can guarantee I'm one of the best Password players on this board, but my audition taught me a valuable lesson:

When you tell them how much you love their game and they give you a dirty look, run like hell.
[/quote]

here's my litmus test... when you love their game so much that you notice subtle hints the contestant coordinators have never watched it before they took that 2 month "casting" gig.

case in point .. while we (about 25 or so people) were in the waiting room, they did this silly mock half-of-the-room vs the other half-of-the-room .. the password was "America" and some cone gave the clue "U.S." which screams 'illegal clue' but the girl running the game didn't have a clue and let it go.. and she was supposedly the one that was in charge of all the coords!  she's the one that explained the rules of the game! (which about 8 people in the room raised their hands when asked if they not know how to play)
mock game or not, it was clear that she didn't really know that was an illegal clue.. I debated really hard if I should correct her in front of everybody, but chose not to.. it's clear now it wouldn't have mattered :p

and as a matter of fact, almost EVERY audition I've been to  (27 now ) has been run by people who seem to know or care very little about game shows .. i don't get it..

/preachin to the choir

[cmjb13]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'180063\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 11:15 AM\']
It's been years since I've been to a Family Feud taping, but I assume they also tape in the traditional way.
[/quote]
Yes.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'180045\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 05:36 AM\']
[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'180044\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 08:22 AM\']
/Really sick of the PC crap making its way to game shows
[/quote]
You'd prefer the Mac crap?
[/quote]
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/2862/ad...ac110706yu1.gif

Which one would you rather see as a Password contestant?
[quote name=\'DoorNumberFour\' post=\'180051\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 07:17 AM\']
I can guarantee I'm one of the best Password players on this board[/quote]

I think you'd be in for a very big disappointment.

[Tony Peters]

[quote name=\'lobster\' post=\'180066\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 10:34 AM\']
and as a matter of fact, almost EVERY audition I've been to  (27 now ) has been run by people who seem to know or care very little about game shows .. i don't get it..
[/quote]
And here we have the real reason why most of today's game shows aren't as good as they could be.  If the people who make them don't care enough about them to make them the best quality they can be, why should I (for example) care to invest any time watching them?  

/cynical much?
//yes; you have a problem with that?

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Tony Peters\' post=\'180118\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 03:16 PM\']And here we have the real reason why most of today's game shows aren't as good as they could be.  If the people who make them don't care enough about them to make them the best quality they can be, why should I (for example) care to invest any time watching them?  [/quote]
Well, in fairness, there's a difference between not caring about doing a good job and not being able to do well in a game show trivia quiz.

Still, reminds me of a moment way back during my audition for Sale of the Century.  The coordinators asked us if any of us had been on a game show before, and one guy said he has been on The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour.  Even though that had only been about three years earlier, neither coordinator had any idea that there was such a show, and both thought he was telling them he had been on two different shows, which would have hurt his chances to be selected.

[mmb5]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'180121\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 03:34 PM\']
Still, reminds me of a moment way back during my audition for Sale of the Century.  The coordinators asked us if any of us had been on a game show before, and one guy said he has been on The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour.  Even though that had only been about three years earlier, neither coordinator had any idea that there was such a show, and both thought he was telling them he had been on two different shows, which would have hurt his chances to be selected.
[/quote]
Or when I tried out for Millionaire and I mentioned that I lived in Kevin Olmstead's old house.  The coordinator didn't know who that was.  This was in 2002.


--Mike

[lobster]

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'180176\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 07:46 PM\']

Or when I tried out for Millionaire and I mentioned that I lived in Kevin Olmstead's old house.  The coordinator didn't know who that was.  This was in 2002.

--Mike
[/quote]

hah wow..

how abouts the coords of Lingo not knowing it was ever a game show before its most recent iteration (dutch, canadian or otherwise)

they looked to be about 19..

i think basically these kids are handed a clipboard and a headset and boom: instant contestant coordinator

/sigh :p

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'lobster\' post=\'180047\' date=\'Mar 5 2008, 09:38 AM\']
the audition room was clearly filled with people who couldn't give a crap less what show this was, only that the craigslist listing said they could win a million dollaz!
[/quote]

Just call them Fremantle's Million Dollar Prize Insurance Policy!

[uncamark]

And even "WWTBAM" tapes a half-hour in about 45 minutes without any gratuitous stopdowns--if my experience is correct, the only edits are for contestants who take an extremely long time and, when they were using it, waiting for the AOL poll to come back.  (As I've mentioned before, they waited about 2 minutes for an AOL poll to go through, with the ATA cue playing away all the time, put up on Meredith's prompter a "we seem to be having technical difficulties with AOL, so here's the audience poll" message--and then the AOL poll came through!)

[bdatcf1]

This is the same show that wants janitors, so that America can root for an "underdog". Somehow I'm not surprised.

Not this sways my hopes for the show, but I don't like the idea of a game show "creating" a contestant. You either know how to play the game or you don't.

/Really sick of the PC crap making its way to game shows

I went to the first taping at Kaufman Astoria. Very cool set ala WWTBAM when it first debuted. As for the contestants, they all were nannies and waiters....yeah right! They all looked to be straight out of some agency! To their credit, they gave really good clues, to bad the celebs couldnt figure em out. The game was totally hamstrung by the  "stars". "Um I don't know what that is?"

[tpirfan28]

Clearly they didn't cast up Betty White, so I'm already gonna teeter this sucker over the "fail" bin.

/who knows, contestants giving good clues makes excellent play-along value

[itiparanoid13]

I won't bore you with the incredibly lengthy details I was told about the show.  If you care to get into it, just go to my site.  But here's the truncated version: it's all lightning rounds and a money chain.  Actually, it's Pyramid for Dummies.

Main game: Same celebrity/contestant thing for four rounds.  One person gives clues for a password and the other guesses.  They have 30 seconds to get five words.  One point for each.  Celebrity/contestant trade off giving, and after round two the celebrities switch.  Most points plays the Winner's Circ...I mean end game for $1,000,000.

End game: Basically, just get a five words out of a certain amount in 90 seconds to go up a tier.  There are six levels.

Tier 1: 5 words out of 10: $10,000
*Tier 2: 5 words out of 9: $25,000*
Tier 3: 5 words out of 8: $50,000
Tier 4: 5 words out of 7: $100,000
Tier 5: 5 words out of 6: $250,000
Tier 6: 5 words out of 5: $1,000,000

$25K is a checkpoint.  Get that and you can't leave with less.  After you beat a tier you decide to take your money and split or play the next level.  If you lose, you go back to $0 or $25K obviously.  After the player's done with the end game, two new contestants come to play.

Opposites are allowed as clues.  Perhaps the most perplexing to me, if that's possible, is that you can only give three clues per Password in the end game.  Then you're screwed.

I was a bit worried initially, and this did confirm some of my fears.  However, I never expected it to become the all lightning round show.  That's one I'm shocked about.

[BillCullen1]

I was at the Sunday afternoon taping.  I thought the game moved at a good pace, but it's definitely not your father's Password.  I lucked out in that the celebs at my taping were well known and could play the game, especially the female one.  She's a fan of game shows and she's definitely not shy.  And she is well known.  The male celeb is known for games, but not game shows.  If you have a PlayStation 2 or Xbox, you've probably heard of this guy.  Everyone had to sign a release not to reveal anything about the show, so good luck with speculating.  

Regis is, well, Regis. Either you love him or hate him. None of the contestants at my taping were janitors. I actually think this show has a shot of catching on, but they need celebs who can play the game.

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'180701\' date=\'Mar 9 2008, 08:39 PM\']Clearly they didn't cast up Betty White, so I'm already gonna teeter this sucker over the "fail" bin.[/quote]
I may be about to commit game show heresy, but here it is.

Betty White seems like a wonderful human being, and is unquestionably very good at games like Password. But she is 86 years old. And with this thing having nothing but timed gameplay . . . I just don't think it's a slam dunk to have her on.