Hosts that have complained about certain elements of the game on the a

[alfonzos]

Chuck Wollery argued with somebody off-camera about how he read the clues during the thirteen-week revival of Scrabble.

[Casey]

Not sure how much of a "complaint" this is, but I do recall several instances on Face The Music where Ron Ely would lament that Lisa Donovan never got to sing very much of anything because 95% of what she sang had the title in the lyrics.  Enough that he stated on multiple occasions that he wanted to hear her sing something all the way through - which they did do a couple of times at the end of some shows.

[whewfan]

Ron also commented on how the band sometimes didn't play certain songs very well. Once they played the Perry Mason theme, and Ron commented "That sounded PRETTY close to the Perry Mason theme". I am not saying it's a complaint, in fact when I started this thread, perhaps "complain" was too strong of a term. I should've phrased it as perhaps "commentary" on certain elements of the game, whether it's expressed verbally or with facial expression. So I am sorry if my introduction to the topic disturbed some people.

For me though, the king of commentary on how they disliked elements of a game is Jackie Gleason and You're in the Picture. During the game itself, the expression of "please forgive me, I am SO sorry" on Gleason's face as he plugs the sponsor is interesting to watch. Gleason spending the entire second show apologizing for the previous show was a bold and funny move.

[chris319]

That's true, the same as Barker. But I don't think Bob had any complaints except for the contestants, certain models, other than that. That's all I can think of.

True, but even Bob wore a smile 90% of the time (in public appearances, at least). It seemed to me that Gene just became very angry -- even in the waning days of the syndicated MG.

Barker was a producer's dream in that regard. You could give him a stinkeroo of a game (Professor Price) and he would take it 100% seriously and sell it to the contestant and audience. If he had misgivings about it he didn't let the audience see it one little bit. That was his T or C experience coming into play. Any discussion of the merits of the game took place off camera. He was the consummate pro in that regard.

[The Ol' Guy]

I remember a Woolery Scrabble incident when the clue was along the lines of "He's responsible for many horrible rush hours", and the answer was Limbaugh. After the reveal, Woolery took an on-air shot at the writing staff and admitted he liked Limbaugh, followed by plenty of applause.

[Adam Nedeff]

I don't think this counts as an element of the game, but one host complaint that totally cracked me up: Pat Sajak walks onstage and says "Welcome to Wheel of Fortune, where we just finished taping a whole bunch of promos for the local stations that air our show...Audience, show of hands, who here hopes they never have to sit through anything like that again?"

[WhirlieBird74]

Ron also commented on how the band sometimes didn't play certain songs very well. Once they played the Perry Mason theme, and Ron commented "That sounded PRETTY close to the Perry Mason theme". I am not saying it's a complaint, in fact when I started this thread, perhaps "complain" was too strong of a term. I should've phrased it as perhaps "commentary" on certain elements of the game, whether it's expressed verbally or with facial expression. So I am sorry if my introduction to the topic disturbed some people.

'Face the Music' was hilarious when Sandy Frank kept those outtakes in the show.  Someone posted on YT 'Round 2' of a FTM game (featuring Michael Lagmay, who won $100K on Name That Tune) where Ron was quoted (laughing), "I can't believe this...", when Michael and some clueless older lady kept missing the tie-breaker songs and/or 'famous faces'.  

Another instance, was in the 'Championship game' where Ron would say, "Tommy Oliver and his band will play some musical clues for you.  In tune, we hope."  You could hear the stagehands laugh in the background.  If it weren't enough (on a later show), when they went to Lisa for a musical clue, the camera was on Lisa, but the band members were reading the LA Times.  Tommy Oliver held up a sign saying, "On Strike...For Compliments".  Ron quickly apologized and the game went on.

[chrisholland03]

I think some of you guys are reading way too far into some of the comments...

[Jay Temple]

Another positive from Chuck: Scrabble had some sort of viewer contest going on that took time away from the game, so they went to speed-round format after the second clue of every game. Chuck said he liked it better that way. I didn't, but I liked the fact that he was willing to say so.

[davidbod]

Chris Tarrant is unashamedly scathing about most of the flops he's hosted, especially in his early years.

Of Cluedo, he said: "I absolutely hated hosting Cluedo, it's the worst thing I've ever done. It took forever to make the thing. We used to have to turn the studio audience over just to make sure they didn't get any bed sores"

[parliboy]

Another positive from Chuck: Scrabble had some sort of viewer contest going on that took time away from the game, so they went to speed-round format after the second clue of every game. Chuck said he liked it better that way. I didn't, but I liked the fact that he was willing to say so.

I think I see what he was really going for.  Consider that it's 1-1 after two words, and then the start player on the third word scores, no stoppers.  That player has a 2-1 lead heading into Speedword, nothing to do about it, and that's a tad unfair.  It's the same reason 2-2 Speedword was originally implemented, I imagine.

[PYLdude]

I think some of you guys are reading way too far into some of the comments...

What, no lame attempt at humor here? Despite your potential point, which is kinda valid?

[Robert Hutchinson]

I was fascinated to see, in a couple of episodes uploaded not too long ago, that Pat wasn't exactly brimming with enthusiasm for Same Name and Before and After when they were introduced, either.

[chrisholland03]

I think some of you guys are reading way too far into some of the comments...

What, no lame attempt at humor here? Despite your potential point, which is kinda valid?

Namely because almost all of the examples of 'complaining' were lame attempts at humor by the hosts

[CeleTheRef]

in Italy Paolo Bonolis is famous for that, and that's why he's so popular.  
while other hosts try to be diplomatic at all times, Paolo is not afraid of telling a lady that she sucks at the game, or to define the set "designed by a viet cong" because he stumbled on a step.