Reminder: "Million Dollar Password" Debuts Tonight (June 1)

[MrBuddwing]

Tom Shales reviewed the premiere episode for The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8053003094.html

He calls it a "numbness-inducing whiz" but likes Regis Philbin as the host.

[Craig Karlberg]

After reading that review, I'm still holding out judgement on M$P untill I see it.  If I like it(& it's probably unlikely), I'll stay with it.  If not, I might as well push that "awww" button too.  So far, the only things I see good out of this are the set which looks kinda cool as well as Regis Philbin(& with $1M attatched to a game show, surely he's all over it).

[Jay Temple]

It wasn't great, but it was good. Put it this way, it was a better remake of Pyramid's main game than Donnymid was. My thumbnail review:

Good

• Regis
• the celebrities' quality of play
• It's Password.

Bad

• The clock in the bonus round. I don't dislike it, but I think it's redundant, given the three-clue maximum.
• The font. I misread "KILL" as "HILL".

This doesn't sink to the level of being "bad", but a couple times when Regis set up the next level of play, I expected him to say, "Here is your first subject."

[abba]

Will there be full episodes online?

[MrBuddwing]

I guess it's time to take responses to the thread in Show Summaries.

[toddyo]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' post=\'187258\' date=\'Jun 1 2008, 11:36 PM\']
It wasn't great, but it was good. Put it this way, it was a better remake of Pyramid's main game than Donnymid was. My thumbnail review:

Good

• Regis
• the celebrities' quality of play
• It's Password.

Bad

• The clock in the bonus round. I don't dislike it, but I think it's redundant, given the three-clue maximum.
• The font. I misread "KILL" as "HILL".

This doesn't sink to the level of being "bad", but a couple times when Regis set up the next level of play, I expected him to say, "Here is your first subject."
[/quote]

[toddyo]

I said the same thing to my wife. That and..."put the following in reverse order".  And Regis had the same outcue "From NY, goodnight). ARGH!

Does every set have to look like Millionaire? Podiums?  What ever happened to real sets? It's amazing how GameShow Marathon got it right and all other Fremantle revivals haven't seen the light.

I missed the team play. I missed the lower key interaction. The "speed rounds" were okay. The graphics could be better. I'd give it a C. Average.

So if you do a game show...must it be directed on the west coast by R. Brian and Mark Gentile on the East Coast?

[MrGameShow]

I watched the show last night and thought 'HOLY CRAP that's FAST!'

The main game "Elimination Round" feels very rushed - I get that they want the game to move along, but sometimes it was so quick it felt like Regis didn't even have time to banter!

Five words in :30 isn't that bad though. Saves from perfect games and tiebreakers.

Bonus Game: I agree with the earlier post that the clock seems a little redundant given the clue limit, but that also adds to the pressure that you need to pick your battles wisely on what words you try to play out.

Overall a neat show to watch - I'll be tuning into the next one!

[sshuffield70]

[quote name=\'toddyo\' post=\'187296\' date=\'Jun 2 2008, 07:17 AM\']
I said the same thing to my wife. That and..."put the following in reverse order".  And Regis had the same outcue "From NY, goodnight). ARGH!

Does every set have to look like Millionaire? Podiums?  What ever happened to real sets? It's amazing how GameShow Marathon got it right and all other Fremantle revivals haven't seen the light.

I missed the team play. I missed the lower key interaction. The "speed rounds" were okay. The graphics could be better. I'd give it a C. Average.

So if you do a game show...must it be directed on the west coast by R. Brian and Mark Gentile on the East Coast?
[/quote]

Should be noted some of the head honchos on this crew were also with Regis for WWTBAM including executive producer Vincent Rubino.  Might explain the outcue being recycled.

[tvrandywest]

It's a hit!

Million Dollar Password opened with a first-place 7.4 rating/13 share. Retention out of lead-in 60 Minutes (#1: 7.6/16 at 7 p.m.) was 97 percent. Congrats to the Fremantle family!

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[geno57]

I've been watching various incarnations of "Password" since I was very small (in 1961).  I'm very surprised to be writing this ... but I just finished watching it, and I'm liking it.

[inturnaround]

[quote name=\'abba\' post=\'187268\' date=\'Jun 2 2008, 12:19 AM\']
Will there be full episodes online?
[/quote]

Yes. The premiere is already up. You can find it here.

[wdm1219inpenna]

I watched it for about the first 35 minutes.  Even though I knew it wasn't going to be the same as Password Plus or Super Password, I turned it off after about 35 minutes.  Password, while having had time limits in the past, felt too rushed during the main game.  I miss the password puzzles too.  

This was an ok game, but it was very repetetive for a full 60 minutes, and why I turned it off after only 35 minutes.  Just too rushed overall for my taste.  It also reminded me of Pyramid, having 30 seconds to guess 5 words, instead of 7.  Someone earlier gave this a C, I give it a weak C grade wise.  Not horrible, but not outstanding either.  The lack of playalong factor always contributes, along with not being able to hear the announcer say "The password is..."  Seems many of these "Million dollar shows" go announcerless too.  I think the genre of the "Million" dollar game shows has worn itself pretty thin, at least with me anyway.  I may watch it again, just to see what celebs will be on, but this is not a "must see" program for me by any stretch either.  I enjoyed watching Regis host, and surprisingly Rachael Ray wasn't too annoying to me, as she usually is.

[joker316]

I consider myself to be something of an "old school/hardcore" Password fan and home game player. My mom credits the CBS show and the home games with helping to teach me how to read at an early age; so when a remake of the show happens, I tend to be "protective" and a bit wary (especially given Fremantle's track record).

So I was very pleasantly surprised by the debut of MDP. I may get flack for this, but the elimination rounds felt more like the old Lightning rounds "on steroids" (30 seconds instead of 60 helps with the feeling). I felt Regis did a fine job as host, and the celebs did pretty good. Even Rachael Ray (and I am not one of her biggest fans).

Yes, the elimination round does move at a breakneck pace, but that's what happens when you try for two full games with no carryover to the following episode. Maybe after some more games , the pace will even out. Also, I understand the point of how the celeb partner is chosen to play in the MDR; but if the winner needed only one word to win (like E-Roc), how do we know that he might have done better with Ray. Maybe they should let him play out the full 30 second round with her. Or let the winner choose his partner. Or maybe I should stop nitpicking!

At the $100K level, seeing the first 5 passwords was a little different (but no worse than seeing the betting word in the 70's). I was actually saying, don't go for it because if you have to pass, you don't know what the sixth word is. Sadly for E-Roc that came to pass (his expression when the word was "fiasco" was priceless and a little sad at the same time)

IMO a very good first episode. If the caliber of play from the celebs holds up  and with Randy's post on the ratings, CBS and Fremantle may have a winner.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'joker316\' post=\'187342\' date=\'Jun 2 2008, 02:13 PM\']
Or maybe I should stop nitpicking![/quote]
It doesn't matter, since all six shows are shot and Fremantle isn't going to listen to us anyhow, but no, you shouldn't, you're dead-on here, this was a solution in search of a problem. There's no reason not to come back from the break and say "Dick Hertz is our champion, he's chosen to play with Neil Patrick Harris, and here's how the bonus game works." Only an idiot is not going to choose the partner they did better with anyhow, and if someone Really Loves Rachael Ray That Much and wants to crash and burn at play the endgame with her, hey, it's their money.

(Seems to me the whole thing was designed so that the crappy celebrity didn't get their Wittle Feelings Hurt when nobody picked them.)

At the $100K level, seeing the first 5 passwords was a little different

So just as I was saying to a friend "There's just no percentage in playing for the $250K considering how much information you don't have," they gave the guy that information, and the decision INSTANTLY got more intriguing. I thought that was a brilliant twist.

(his expression when the word was "fiasco" was priceless and a little sad at the same time)

Rightly so. He got cornholed.

if the caliber of play of the celebs holds up

The likelihood of this is inversely proportional to the likelihood of booking Rachael Ray again.