Author Topic: Mindreaders (Read 8921 times)

calliaume · « **Reply #15 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:33:03 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'256883\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 08:49 PM\']Mindreaders never had a conventional pilot, where a sample episode is made and the decision to air the show is made on the basis of the pilot. Mindreaders, like P+ and Blockbusters, was already a "go" when the so-called pilot was shot, probably for accounting reasons. It was really more of a dress rehearsal. There were traditional pilots for Spellbinders and Puzzlers which didn't sell.[/quote]
Mike Berger's site said the test show was made August 3, and the debut was August 13. By that time, if nothing else, TV Guide with Mindreaders ads concealed within would have already been on press. If you're making a pilot at that point, something is very, very wrong.

clemon79 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 10, 2011, 10:07:14 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'256883\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 05:49 PM\']I was referring to Drew Carey.[/quote]
Really? I, for one, had no clue.

chris319 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 10, 2011, 10:31:52 PM »

Quote

If you're making a pilot at that point, something is very, very wrong.

I beg your pardon? We were required by NBC to make a pilot. I suspect that the costs associated with the pilot (including the set) came out of NBC's budget for three pilots per quarter. NBC then got to deduct the costs associated with those pilots as R&D expenses. So they had real tax consequences for the network.

Quote

Mike Berger's site said the test show was made August 3, and the debut was August 13.

We rehearsed in the studio from Monday, July 30 until Friday, August 3 when the pilot episode was shot. Bill Todman passed away on Sunday, July 29 so Goodson was in New York through Tuesday the 31st. He came to the Mindreaders set with Marc Breslow in tow on Wednesday the 1st. Paul Alter had pissed away the first two days of rehearsal unable to come up with a workable opening. When Breslow got there, he and Goodson came up with the opening that had the celebrity team captains in a box wipe against the multi-colored set wall and the opening copy used on the air was written.

CoreyCoop · « **Reply #18 on:** February 11, 2011, 01:42:09 AM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'256900\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 07:31 PM\']When Breslow got there, he and Goodson came up with the opening that had the celebrity team captains in a box wipe against the multi-colored set wall and the opening copy used on the air was written.[/quote]

I don't think Marc Breslow ever had an original thought in his head, Goodson came up with the opening, or was able to over-rule Paul and pick the best ideas from others on staff to come up with the opening. Of course I was not there, so pardon my prejudice against Breslow, I just never saw any reason to think he could direct anything that didn't already have a pattern setup for him, or didn't fit in one of the two patterns he knew already.

JasonA1 · « **Reply #19 on:** February 11, 2011, 02:22:49 AM »

[quote name=\'BillCullen1\' post=\'256796\' date=\'Feb 9 2011, 08:01 PM\']I thought The Better Sex was better than Mindreaders[/quote]

In the bonus games I sampled on The Better Sex, they used a lot of straight-forward general knowledge. It turned an already shaky premise into a pure game of "you better hope this audience doesn't know these facts!" What skill were the contestants using to win the $5,000?

-Jason

chris319 · « **Reply #20 on:** February 11, 2011, 03:11:12 AM »

[quote name=\'CoreyCoop\' post=\'256918\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 10:42 PM\'][quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'256900\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 07:31 PM\']When Breslow got there, he and Goodson came up with the opening that had the celebrity team captains in a box wipe against the multi-colored set wall and the opening copy used on the air was written.[/quote]

I don't think Marc Breslow ever had an original thought in his head, Goodson came up with the opening, or was able to over-rule Paul and pick the best ideas from others on staff to come up with the opening. Of course I was not there, so pardon my prejudice against Breslow, I just never saw any reason to think he could direct anything that didn't already have a pattern setup for him, or didn't fit in one of the two patterns he knew already.
[/quote]
Hi Corey, welcome to the board.

Something changed between Tuesday and Wednesday of that week when Goodson returned from Todman's services and brought Breslow with him. Putting a celebrity's face inside a box wipe against a background was hardly a stroke of genius because it's so much like the Match Game opening, directed by guess who. It's plausible that Breslow suggested it, but anyone else on the staff could have as well. All you need to do then is write some opening lines to go with it and presto! A show opening! Paul fumbled around for a couple of days, having contestants on each team glaring at their opponents while the camera panned their faces. They even rented a Quantel DVE for the week but came up with nothing.

Neumms · « **Reply #21 on:** February 11, 2011, 08:44:47 AM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'256900\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 11:31 PM\']We rehearsed in the studio from Monday, July 30 until Friday, August 3 when the pilot episode was shot.[/quote]

Chris, I wonder what you did all that week. Knowing how fast a shooting day with five or more episodes would go, that seems like a ton of time in the studio. Was that little of the game figured out? Were there celebrities around to do run-throughs? Was it training Dick Martin?

Thanks. I love hearing how you solve problems and develop shows. I write commercials, so I've had a taste of how exhilarating and dreadful it can be when an expensive crew is standing around an expensive studio and something, anything, has to appear on television soon.

chris319 · « **Reply #22 on:** February 11, 2011, 05:04:32 PM »

That week I spent most of the day working on P+ material in the office, then went to Mindreaders in the late afternoon. Some time was spent getting Dick up to speed and a lot of time was spent working on the opening. Stand-ins were filling the roles of celebrities and contestants. The game was in OK shape but the presentation was still being worked out. Some things can only be worked out once you're actually in the studio.

The Pyramids · « **Reply #23 on:** February 12, 2011, 04:10:48 PM »

Has there ever been an answer to the question of why this never aired on GSN?

chris319 · « **Reply #24 on:** February 12, 2011, 05:36:09 PM »

[quote name=\'PaulD\' post=\'257047\' date=\'Feb 12 2011, 01:10 PM\']Has there ever been an answer to the question of why this never aired on GSN?[/quote]
I'm not sure all the tapes still exist.

Eric Paddon · « **Reply #25 on:** February 12, 2011, 06:51:23 PM »

If the show fell victim to erasure, then I guess it had to be total since in the old days of GSN they might have at least aired a random episode like they did with the two "Better Sex" episodes in those old "Wide World Of Games" specials.

calliaume · « **Reply #26 on:** February 12, 2011, 08:17:59 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'256900\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 10:31 PM\']

Quote

If you're making a pilot at that point, something is very, very wrong.

I beg your pardon? We were required by NBC to make a pilot. I suspect that the costs associated with the pilot (including the set) came out of NBC's budget for three pilots per quarter. NBC then got to deduct the costs associated with those pilots as R&D expenses. So they had real tax consequences for the network.
[/quote]
What I meant (and didn't say very well) was this was more of a test program, as you said earlier in the thread, rather than a pilot for which a decision had to be made as to whether to put the series on the air or not. That decision had obviously already been made. I'm pretty sure Bob Eubanks had already been told All-Star Secrets was through at that point, right?

NBC seemed very limited in its daytime programming options in 1979 -- they had just expanded Another World to an hour and a half to replace the flop Jeopardy! revival, and had no options to rerun any of their hit sitcoms in the daytime because -- well, they had no hit sitcoms. (Diff'rent Strokes was pretty much it, and that had only debuted nine months before.) Was there any sense of urgency due to this?

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #27 on:** February 13, 2011, 02:04:43 PM »

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If the show fell victim to erasure, then I guess it had to be total since in the old days of GSN they might have at least aired a random episode like they did with the two "Better Sex" episodes in those old "Wide World Of Games" specials.

I'd agree to that. As far as we know, pretty well every GT show they had even just one or two episodes of, they did find a way to air at some point - shows like What's Going On, Better Sex, Number Please, the '71 ABC Password, etc. You'd really have to think if GSN had any Mindreaders tapes at all it would have popped up somewhere at least once.

The only ones we know exist but never popped up were Classic Concentration (NBC ownership issues) and Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour (Squares ownership issues).

Oh...and for the record, I kind of liked The Better Sex.

Eric Paddon · « **Reply #28 on:** February 13, 2011, 02:19:23 PM »

Also Narz Concentration (same reason as Classic Concentration) and Henry NYSI (host nixing them). And there's also the syndicated Tattletales that's never shown up at all but which we have to assume should exist given that syndicated G-T shows by then were almost always saved.

chris319 · « **Reply #29 on:** February 13, 2011, 09:12:31 PM »

Quote

this was more of a test program, as you said earlier in the thread, rather than a pilot for which a decision had to be made as to whether to put the series on the air or not.

Sorry to pick on your semantics again, but there was nothing to test. When the pilot was shot it was already committed to series. "Dress rehearsal" is the phrase to use.

I remember seeing a couple of pilots taped around that time; one was from Hatos-Hall and the other involved Larry Hovis IIRC. They could have picked either of those up if they needed a game show in a hurry, and there were rumors about NBC being interested in Tattletales. Barry & Enright must have been developing Bullseye around that time.