Something I thought about last night while watching.
The illusion of going off the side of a building is cool, but how much more expensive would it have been to construct an indoor, raised set, say 10 feet from the floor. Keep the conveyor belt, but instead of prizes falling off the building, you have simulated prizes (i.e. a large plastic toy car, or simply art cards with the pictures of prizes) rolling off. Something that wouldn't make as much as a mess for cleaning up. I just wonder how much building an elaborate set + renting studio space would cost compared to building an elaborate set + renting the top of a building.
When it's time for the contestant to go bye-bye, they simply fall down a chute, a la Russian Roulette.
Of course, the image of seeing a Ford Focus go off the side of the building might sound more appealing, but to me, seeing a contestant fall into some large pit stirs my curiosity. Two examples, 1) when I used to watch Remote Control as a kid, and saw losing contestants retreat into the wall, it genuinely scared the hell out of me. 2) A friend and I once watched RR, and when he saw a contestant fall through the floor, his eyes almost came out of his head.
In both cases, you most likely know that the contestant is just fine. At the same time, it was fun wondering because the show didn't have to to tell you that they were fine. It was kinda implied since, y'know, the show went to air.