Author Topic: PYL: Did they miss an obvious solution? (Read 8878 times)

toetyper · « **Reply #30 on:** October 07, 2008, 08:36:49 PM »

[quote name=\'TheLastResort\' post=\'199165\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 08:23 PM\']
It took an hour and 27 minutes to tape. Now shaddap!!!!
[/quote]

thank you

rwalker · « **Reply #31 on:** October 07, 2008, 09:07:57 PM »

I figured somebody would be bitching about the lack of a source for 1:27

/ah hell, let it go!

TheLastResort · « **Reply #32 on:** October 07, 2008, 09:59:37 PM »

[quote name=\'rwalker\' post=\'199176\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 09:07 PM\']
I figured somebody would be bitching about the lack of a source for 1:27[/quote]

Are you saying you doubt my sources??!

/OK, I pulled it out of my ass. But you have to admit, it stopped the bickering!

rwalker · « **Reply #33 on:** October 07, 2008, 10:23:18 PM »

[quote name=\'TheLastResort\' post=\'199192\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 09:59 PM\']
[quote name=\'rwalker\' post=\'199176\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 09:07 PM\']
I figured somebody would be bitching about the lack of a source for 1:27[/quote]

Are you saying you doubt my sources??!

/OK, I pulled it out of my ass. But you have to admit, it stopped the bickering!
[/quote]

Yes it did. And you did a good job

/Whammies are now brown?

dale_grass · « **Reply #34 on:** October 07, 2008, 10:43:34 PM »

[quote name=\'PYLdude\' post=\'199162\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 07:17 PM\']
Next time, try asking a question that can be definitively answered one way or another.
[/quote]
I can think of no better rule for a discussion forum than only asking questions that have definitive answers.

/Point taken on the ungratefulness, though.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #35 on:** October 07, 2008, 10:47:04 PM »

[quote name=\'TheLastResort\' post=\'199192\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 09:59 PM\']
/OK, I pulled it out of my ass. But you have to admit, it stopped the bickering![/quote]
Made me laugh.

Seriously, is this that hard to estimate? I don't know how jaded we've gotten thanks to three-hour DoND marathons, but I have to guess that like most 80s game shows, PYL was shot in more or less real time. The whole point of all the stories was that they DIDN'T stop the game while he was in the middle of his streak. The event played out over two half-hours, but a lot of that was explanatory filler and commercial breaks inserted where the live action continued. So the whole thing probably took 45 to 50 minutes to happen, and the only serious "down time" might have been after the game ended and they had to figure out what to do with WAY more than a half-hour of footage. (The lengthy post-game interview seems to be a pretty clear indication they decided on the spot to create two half-hours.)

Am I missing anything?

Kevin Prather · « **Reply #36 on:** October 07, 2008, 10:53:06 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'199197\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 07:47 PM\'] (The lengthy post-game interview seems to be a pretty clear indication they decided on the spot to create two half-hours.)
[/quote]
At one point in the post-game interview, Peter says something to the affect of "We're so far over the time, so it doesn't even matter," for what that's worth.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #37 on:** October 07, 2008, 10:56:50 PM »

[quote name=\'Kevin Prather\' post=\'199199\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 10:53 PM\']
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'199197\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 07:47 PM\'] (The lengthy post-game interview seems to be a pretty clear indication they decided on the spot to create two half-hours.)
[/quote]
At one point in the post-game interview, Peter says something to the affect of "We're so far over the time, so it doesn't even matter," for what that's worth.[/quote]
Good point. That would suggest the possibility that they didn't even have that much of a stop-down after the game portion, going with business as usual (or as close to it as possible) and figuring they'd sort it out later.

toetyper · « **Reply #38 on:** October 08, 2008, 11:26:02 AM »

yay for logical thinking

TLEberle · « **Reply #39 on:** October 10, 2008, 12:00:02 AM »

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'199135\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 01:33 PM\']In reality, the $100,000+ they gave Larsen busted their prize budget, but wasn't a huge sum in the context of the overall cost of production.[/quote]I realize that the prize budget is a number that the production company has to work with, but how then do you come up with the values of the windows in the game beforehand? Someone could win with $1,000 or $40,000, and there's no way to know beforehand? Did the executives play several dozen games before going to air?

davidhammett · « **Reply #40 on:** October 10, 2008, 08:46:12 AM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'199197\' date=\'Oct 7 2008, 10:47 PM\']
I don't know how jaded we've gotten thanks to three-hour DoND marathons, but I have to guess that like most 80s game shows, PYL was shot in more or less real time. [/quote]
That was the case for the three episodes I saw taped in August, 1985... done to time, save for board malfunctions (on one episode, two of the projectors blew their bulbs).

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #41 on:** October 10, 2008, 11:31:44 AM »

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'199359\' date=\'Oct 10 2008, 12:00 AM\']I realize that the prize budget is a number that the production company has to work with, but how then do you come up with the values of the windows in the game beforehand? Someone could win with $1,000 or $40,000, and there's no way to know beforehand? Did the executives play several dozen games before going to air?[/quote]
If the executives were smart or fortunate, they might have had someone (someone much like the person whose response is just above mine!) whose job it was to figure out mathematically what the average win might be, spread out over many, many games of course. And who knows, maybe they did just spend a lot of time playing and seeing what developed. Once they started airing, surely somebody was keeping track of the real numbers, and possibly making adjustments to the game board as needed.

Kevin Prather · « **Reply #42 on:** October 10, 2008, 02:29:58 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'199375\' date=\'Oct 10 2008, 08:31 AM\']
If the executives were smart or fortunate, they might have had someone (someone much like the person whose response is just above mine!) whose job it was to figure out mathematically what the average win might be, spread out over many, many games of course. And who knows, maybe they did just spend a lot of time playing and seeing what developed. Once they started airing, surely somebody was keeping track of the real numbers, and possibly making adjustments to the game board as needed.
[/quote]
They can also adjust the questons as needed, to lower the potential number of spins taken.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #43 on:** October 10, 2008, 04:11:24 PM »

[quote name=\'Kevin Prather\' post=\'199386\' date=\'Oct 10 2008, 01:29 PM\']
They can also adjust the questons as needed, to lower the potential number of spins taken.
[/quote]
Didn't they already do that the other way? ISTR if spin totals were really low entering the third or fourth question, a light would go on at Tomarken's podium indicating that he might want to ask a different particular question.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #44 on:** October 10, 2008, 04:36:58 PM »

Quote

Didn't they already do that the other way? ISTR if spin totals were really low entering the third or fourth question, a light would go on at Tomarken's podium indicating that he might want to ask a different particular question.

Yes, and in many episodes you can actually see the light blinking when they take the right wide shot of Peter and the contestants.