Feud question

[TLEberle]

Realistically, the only way Feud works better as a fair and balanced game is if it's not played to fit in a half-hour format.  The 200 people who care about that are all in this forum.

And I would overlook the format flaw if I enjoyed the hosting, or the questions and so on. Richard and Ray were funny enough that I didn't care about the fact that every question but the last was essentially practice. And if the game hinged on the last one, Ray was so good at building up the suspense that I forgot about that back-heaviness. But now we have "If cannibals were about to eat a tourist, what would they throw away?" and obnoxious capering so I stop caring, and that leaves more time to contemplate how a production company could be so OCD that a game has to end in four or five questions, and if they have to edit and rerack the game, even if if disadvantages good game players, so be it.

Some guy uploaded his appearance on The Crosswits, and he handily won the first two rounds. There is no doubt that he's going to win the game and play the Crossfire round, but Jack still hosts the game and builds it up because our intrepid hero is on the cusp of winning the $1,000 bonus. For that round, I forgot that he had the game in the bag and got caught up in the play of the puzzle. Great game shows can do that.

[Robert Hutchinson]

Adding a few thoughts late: IIRC, one of the very first Karn play-to-300 episodes had a team winning after the Double round, and they were so long on time that they did an amazingly slow full credit crawl *and* aired a two-minute blooper reel of sorts (funny answers, buzzers not working) at the end. I wouldn't be surprised if that led to the practice of switching Double questions around.

I'd say that 95% of the Karn and O'Hurley episodes I've seen with teams that won the first two rounds had points in the third round that gave a sub-300 total, and the other 5% gave a total just barely above 300.

And another problem with 55-point questions is what's needed to get that survey result: usually either a maddeningly vague question, or one that had 20 decent responses but they only listed the top six. (The latter tended to be questions that might as well have been "Name a celebrity.")

[BrandonFG]

Adding a few thoughts late: IIRC, one of the very first Karn play-to-300 episodes had a team winning after the Double round, and they were so long on time that they did an amazingly slow full credit crawl *and* aired a two-minute blooper reel of sorts (funny answers, buzzers not working) at the end. I wouldn't be surprised if that led to the practice of switching Double questions around.

I believe they also added a commercial break in between the two Fast Money rounds, to eat a little time...

[TLEberle]

I believe they also added a commercial break in between the two Fast Money rounds, to eat a little time...

Wasn't that the break that would have come between the Triple round and Fast Money anyway?

[BrandonFG]

I believe they also added a commercial break in between the two Fast Money rounds, to eat a little time...

Wasn't that the break that would have come between the Triple round and Fast Money anyway?

Thinking about it now, that seems to make sense, considering there was already a break between the Double/Triple round, whether the family reached 300 early or not.

[Robert Hutchinson]

Yeah, that was already a scheduled break. They might've killed 20 seconds or so with the outro and intro, but that's about it.

For all its flaws, I thing Bill Engvall's Lingo shows that a sufficiently talented host can give you a good bit of editing room on a self-contained show. From appearances, I'm guessing that Bill did a fair amount of chatting with the contestants in every episode, which could all be left in if the contestants were guessing words quickly, and edited out when there was more struggling.

[Mr. Armadillo]

And another problem with 55-point questions is what's needed to get that survey result: usually either a maddeningly vague question, or one that had 20 decent responses but they only listed the top six. (The latter tended to be questions that might as well have been "Name a celebrity.")

They had one last week that looked like a case of the latter--the question was proabably designed to have more than four answers on the board, but numbers 5-X may have been cut off to keep the leading family (who already had 181) from being able to win.  

The question was "Name something that could be described as Hot-Hot-HOT", and I think the scores on the four answers were something like 19-17-14-9.  Plenty of room for more answers on the tail end (seriously, none of the other 41 people surveyed matched anyone else's answer?), and had the leading family swept this one, they would have had exactly 299 points.

[Ian Wallis]

But then I watched a couple of episodes over vacation and the questions were either lame, dumb or offensive

I watched the show on Monday and was surprised at some of the questions they're using now.  First was "name something that might make you throw up".  Next, "name something you'd put in your mouth but now swallow".  Sure enough, one of the contestants said "sperm".  I'm no prude, but is this what we've come to to get a laugh on a "family friendly" show?  You'd never have questions like this in the old days.

[TLEberle]

I'm no prude, but is this what we've come to to get a laugh on a "family friendly" show?  You'd never have questions like this in the old days.

Count yourself lucky if it was referred to only once.

[BrandonFG]

But then I watched a couple of episodes over vacation and the questions were either lame, dumb or offensive

I watched the show on Monday and was surprised at some of the questions they're using now.  First was "name something that might make you throw up".  Next, "name something you'd put in your mouth but now swallow".  Sure enough, one of the contestants said "sperm".  I'm no prude, but is this what we've come to to get a laugh on a "family friendly" show?  You'd never have questions like this in the old days.

One of the Roker Celebrity Feud questions was "Name another phrase for 'throw up' ". I'm a 7th grader at heart, but I gotta admit I cring'd hearing the players come up with their favorite way of saying "ralph", "spew", or "hurl".

[clemon79]

Next, "name something you'd put in your mouth but now swallow".  Sure enough, one of the contestants said "sperm".

Well? Was it there?

[Hastin]

Next, "name something you'd put in your mouth but now swallow".

I found this exact question on a UK Family Fortunes promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0hPicAtwTWk#t=22s from 4 years ago! I wonder if it's the same answers.

[The Pyramids]

But then I watched a couple of episodes over vacation and the questions were either lame, dumb or offensive

I watched the show on Monday and was surprised at some of the questions they're using now.  First was "name something that might make you throw up".  Next, "name something you'd put in your mouth but now swallow".  Sure enough, one of the contestants said "sperm".  I'm no prude, but is this what we've come to to get a laugh on a "family friendly" show?  You'd never have questions like this in the old days.

That did it for me. The entire series now seems rigged with offensive questions to ensure a funny reaction from Steve. One of the things I always appreciated about 'Feud' was how it was TV-G in this day and age. Thats not the case anymore.

[TimK2003]

But then I watched a couple of episodes over vacation and the questions were either lame, dumb or offensive

I watched the show on Monday and was surprised at some of the questions they're using now.  First was "name something that might make you throw up".  Next, "name something you'd put in your mouth but now swallow".  Sure enough, one of the contestants said "sperm".  I'm no prude, but is this what we've come to to get a laugh on a "family friendly" show?  You'd never have questions like this in the old days.

That did it for me. The entire series now seems rigged with offensive questions to ensure a funny reaction from Steve. One of the things I always appreciated about 'Feud' was how it was TV-G in this day and age. Thats not the case anymore.

I'm tending to agree on that statement.  I started working 2nd shift when the new season of Feud premiered last month, so I have already seen more episodes this season than in the past 3-4 seasons combined.  And it's almost a sure bet that the opening question will have at least one answer containing "Sex" "Penis" or some bodily function (fart, poop, etc...) on the board.  I have to say that it's growing old fast.  It's almost as if Feud is starting to get the Match Game '98 treatment for their selection of Q & A's.  Hell, if Nell Carter were still around, they'd probably plant her in the audience to constantly say, "That's a Very Good Answer"  to all the responses.

[dale_grass]

Hell, if Nell Carter were still around, they'd probably plant her in the audience to constantly say, "That's a Very Good Answer"  to all the responses.

The Halloween shows are coming up, so they still might.


\Too soon?