Author Topic: Big Saturday Night: The Reviews (Read 12575 times)

Don Howard · « **on:** June 14, 2009, 04:06:47 PM »

Issue 1: The live humor-free wrap-around portion of the three-hour non-Univision Sabado Gigante.
* KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY: Not funny. Too loud.
* ROSS MATTHEWS: Glad he was enjoying himself. But too over the top.
* CHARISSA THOMPSON: The only one who seemed take it seriously. Didn't shout; just talked. SHE should be the main host.

Issue 2: 20Q
* CAT DEELEY: I have no problem with her at all. Very good hosting job.
* THE TALKING COMPUTER: Shut him the hell up. Not one amusing syllable was uttered by Malcolm In The Mainframe.
* THE GAME: So it's possible to have nothing but NO answers on the screen during parts of the head to head to head game?

Issue 3: The Money List
* FRED ROGGIN: I give him good marks, but, please, find something other than "well done" to say for a correct answer.
* THE $$$: It's possible to win a game or games and have no money to show for it? Not even $500 for each list won? While audience members for BSN are awarded thousands for doing precious little?

BrandonFG · « **Reply #1 on:** June 14, 2009, 04:15:59 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'218046\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 04:06 PM\']Issue 2: 20Q
* CAT DEELEY: I have no problem with her at all. Very good hosting job.
* THE TALKING COMPUTER: Shut him the hell up. Not one amusing syllable was uttered by Malcolm In The Mainframe.
* THE GAME: So it's possible to have nothing but NO answers on the screen during parts of the head to head to head game?[/quote]
I watched the rerun today. There's some game there, but I was completely turned off by the Endemol elements: overcaffinated contestants, constant audience shots, etc. I could've done without the constant computer comments as well.

chad1m · « **Reply #2 on:** June 14, 2009, 04:27:36 PM »

I really, really, don't like the games in-studio. They're not intriguing and they come off very poorly. I mean, someone won $10,000 cash for 30 seconds of playing with refrigerator letters. Just keep doing call-ins. If you're going to do extra giveaways, they might as well be call-in giveaways so viewers can be lured in. "Ooh! I wanna win!" The call-ins are the best, most fun and best executed games on the program.

And the skits are really not funny. If we learned anything from the Game Show Awards, it's that making fun of game shows on a network that game show fans will be watching isn't the brightest idea. Sure, it was done back in the day with Faux Pause, but look how that was perceived and how long it lasted.

I really, really like the Money List. Great concept and Fred Roggin hosts it very well. The only thing I don't like is that it's like he's asking himself questions. "Is it up there?....Yes it is!" 20Q could easily be a half hour show. As an hour show stretched to an hour and a half, it isn't that enjoyable. I feel like it's stretched a bit too much, but both shows definitely have a great play along element.

I think next week, I might skip the Big Saturday Night portion and just watch the shows uninterrupted. The worst part about Big Saturday Night just so happens to be the Big Saturday Night portion.

Clay Zambo · « **Reply #3 on:** June 14, 2009, 04:39:14 PM »

[quote name=\'chad1m\' post=\'218048\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 04:27 PM\']I think next week, I might skip the Big Saturday Night portion and just watch the shows uninterrupted.[/quote]

Wave of the future, that.

For that matter, is there any reason 20Q couldn't be a half-hour show? Perhaps without mid-round cutaways?

vtown7 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 14, 2009, 05:59:05 PM »

Just curious - did anyone get a callback regarding the at-home contestants? I got two or three within about ten minutes for the first game.

Ryan

chad1m · « **Reply #5 on:** June 14, 2009, 06:34:53 PM »

GSN might've just been over-compensating for the previous lack of Canadian participation.

That Don Guy · « **Reply #6 on:** June 14, 2009, 07:12:03 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'218046\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 01:06 PM\']Issue 2: 20Q
* CAT DEELEY: I have no problem with her at all. Very good hosting job.[/quote]
Even if she did say "Haitch-DTV" at one point. (Then again, Cat is known to have a sense of humor about her accent; ask anybody who watches So You Think You Can Dance? about "judges".)

Quote

Issue 3: The Money List
* FRED ROGGIN: I give him good marks, but, please, find something other than "well done" to say for a correct answer.

I think they oversell the drama a little in this game.

-- Don

Sonic Whammy · « **Reply #7 on:** June 14, 2009, 07:53:38 PM »

I feel automatically obliged to comment after there was a live caller from my hometown playing with Tom Green last night.

THE LIVE SHOW:
> Yes, oh dear Lord, I was hanging my head in shame about that Whammy bit.
> The games are all right, but yes, they pay out way too much for them. Lob a 0 off of them and it's fine.
> Of any sketch they did, the Wide World of Games caught my attention the most. Came off as a GS Weekend Update. Not bad, but I couldn't help but think they're sort of stealing our "Smash or Trash" bit from Game Show Talk & Fun. (We have our way of ripping into things, too.) But I digress.

20Q:
I genuinely thought they did a nice job here. Cat made the game flow VERY nicely, although she should have a little more faith in us remembering that the green boxes are yes's and red boxes are no's. Every round of the game takes a slightly different spin on the 20Q concept while staying true to it the whole time. Exactly how it should be done. And as for Hal Sparks, he's fine. Remember, he's a comedian playing the voice of an "unbeatable" supercomputer. For this computer to come off as snarky is expected in this day and age, whether you welcome it or not. So it helps then that Hal's easy enough to listen to.

THE MONEY LIST:
I never thought it was a bad game the first time around, so I'm still fine with it now. That said, it feels weird watching Fred try to be dramatic. In a lot of cases, it sounded very forced, and it shouldn't be that way. Drama and tension have to flow naturally, otherwise you look like you're trying too hard. I hope he can find that in time.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

vtown7 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 14, 2009, 10:47:00 PM »

Quick questions about Money List - I don't have the episode in front of me, but I'm going from memory: the "unfinished list" bit for Countries of Asia... did it include the UK? Am I missing something - is that to do with territorial possessions outside Europe?

Ryan;.

TheInquisitiveOne · « **Reply #9 on:** June 15, 2009, 01:38:47 AM »

[quote name=\'vtown7\' post=\'218059\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 09:47 PM\']Quick questions about Money List - I don't have the episode in front of me, but I'm going from memory: the "unfinished list" bit for Countries of Asia... did it include the UK? Am I missing something - is that to do with territorial possessions outside Europe?

Ryan;.[/quote]

From the Official Money List Website (click to expand), the UK is indeed on this list. I had to do some digging, but the British has some land interest in the Indian Ocean (per Wikipedia).

My thoughts on GSN's BSN:

20Q: Much better than I thought it would be, but I can't help but feel that it's 1 vs. 100 lite, with all the cues and audience reactions and such...waaaayyy too thin for 90 minutes however.

The Money List: Can we have that set? In my opinion, the strongest show in the lot by far. This show can work in an hour, and Roggin is definitely able to step up his game. I won't criticize because (per Buzzerblog) these shows were taped just as Fred was beginning to dig his heels in GSN Live. He will certainly improve.

Big Saturday Night: An unfinished list is unfinished business, and apparently an unfinished segment is much needed business for GSN. The live wraparounds (which cut off nice sized portions of the main shows) were very, very bad. Mad TV rejects, overtly festive interns, lame parodies, and disproportionate cash prizes made the biggest feature of the show the most painful to watch. Unscrambling words in 30 seconds shouldn't have as much jack as Getting 6 of 15 Dr. Seuss Books, I'm sorry.

The two studio games are good on their own...dump the live segments, and you have the best crop of GSN homebrew since 2002...hopefully, they will have much more mileage.

The Inquisitive One

/The Grinch Who Stole Christmas? Really?

Offshored2007 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 15, 2009, 10:05:50 AM »

"BSN" should be cancelled after one telecast like the original "The Rich List" was in 2006 by Fox. No improvements to the game at all other than Fred Roggin:
[list=1]
1. No reward for winning a game, how about $1,000 for getting that far?
2. All or nothing bonus round, no safe haven level(s).
3. Annoying computer graphics and music
[/list]
Why was this brought back? Some "unfinished business" we didn't need.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #11 on:** June 15, 2009, 10:25:33 AM »

I didn't see the shows, but is it irony or coincidence that the American host taped his show in Britain and the Britsh host taped her show in America.

I don't mind home viewers winning more than studio contestants. Gives the folks at home more of an incentive to watch.

KWJCDon · « **Reply #12 on:** June 15, 2009, 11:55:24 AM »

Looks like they are rerunning the Saturday night shows on Sunday afternoon without the BSN elements. Just two one hour shows. 20Q was on for an hour (3pm?) followed by The Money List an hour after that (at 5pm?). Is this going to be the usual routine? Much easier to digest then watching the rest of the filler on Saturday night.

Thanks,
Don

Strikerz04 · « **Reply #13 on:** June 15, 2009, 11:58:37 AM »

Both shows were very good, although 20Q should be a half-hour show, and I'll agree with most on Money List on a reward for winning the match ($1,000). The way Money List closed out to black was weird (but strangely cool)--its saying as if "they'll be back on the next show, then the boom."

About the live segments--I ended up switching to Kill Bill because the skits were annoying, and I didn't care about it. If they switched to something GSN Live-esque, maybe it'll have some level of redemption. I'll just watch the shows in reruns.

Offshored2007 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 15, 2009, 01:16:16 PM »

[quote name=\'Strikerz04\' post=\'218071\' date=\'Jun 15 2009, 11:58 AM\']Both shows were very good, although 20Q should be a half-hour show, and I'll agree with most on Money List on a reward for winning the match ($1,000). The way Money List closed out to black was weird (but strangely cool)--its saying as if "they'll be back on the next show, then the boom."

About the live segments--I ended up switching to Kill Bill because the skits were annoying, and I didn't care about it. If they switched to something GSN Live-esque, maybe it'll have some level of redemption. I'll just watch the shows in reruns.[/quote]
The Whammy! skit was painful. No mention of the 2002-2004 "Whammy!: The All New Press Your Luck" in it either.