The most miscast hosts

[clemon79]

ObGameShows: Alfonzo Hogwash hosts Catch 21 on GSN.

Actually, Alfonzo Hogwash is my Gnarls Barkley cover band.

[cmjb13]

Trebek and Classic Concentration: He was so bored with the show that the producer took away the role of explaining the rebus from him and gave it to the winner contestant.

1/10. Not very believable at all.

While I can't vouch for him being bored, speaking with someone who worked on the show stated that he did keep to himself in his dressing room most of the time.

[BrandonFG]

Alfonzo hogwash.

Didn't he play Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?

ObGameShows: Alfonzo Hogwash hosts Catch 21 on GSN.

No, no. It's the show that's hogwash. Alfonzo Hogwash founded the school Harry Potter attends.

[TLEberle]

Wholly disagree. The whole point of Greed to me was that okay, we'll give away a top prize of $2M, but you're gonna have to earn your way to it.

From what I read in an interview with His Dickness, earning the money didn't enter into it any more than any other game show that came before or after Greed. The idea was to give away more money than Millionaire, and to make the game accessible as possible to as many people as possible, because though anybody can take a guess at the $250k or $500k questions, most often you didn't have the knowledge base to do so with any more certainty than a Holstein dropping a gutload.

So yes, they asked you questions about things that you normally interact with, like cheese or Jell-O or cars, but they asked the questions in such a way that you couldn't possibly have previous knowledge of the answers other than vague notions. The only difference between what Greed did at the beginning and saying "Pick the four hieroglyphics out of six shown that are in this sealed envelope and you win $200,000" is that you've heard of Compaq, Lucky Charms and Buddy Holly. It works on Pointless, Hot Potato, and even Rich List/Who Dares Wins, but it didn't on Greed.

[clemon79]

Rich List/Who Dares Wins

Wait a second, though. This and Pointless quite specifically use material with a finite number of tangible answers, and in the case of Pointless, the poll is quite specifically the point (as it were); it's just that the poll question is "Which tangible answer is least likely to be given while still *being* given?" On this, there was still a finite list of definitely correct answers. Those questions are fine. It's when Greed asks those Gallup Poll questions that most people couldn't even pause tape and look up on Teh Intarwabs that I have a huge problem.

If Greed stuck more to the type of stuff like the question they asked to Curtis Warren about movies being made from TV shows (which is funny in hindsight because looking at it, six of the eight answers are now correct), or something like "Of these eight flavors, which five are found in a Five Flavors roll of Life Savers candy?" I'd have a far more favorable opinion of it.

[TLEberle]

someone who worked on the show stated that he did keep to himself in his dressing room most of the time.

I tend to have a rather dim view of humanity so I tend to not go out and interact with people at large if I can help it. One does not necessarily follow from the other.

[chris319]

While I can't vouch for him being bored, speaking with someone who worked on the show stated that he did keep to himself in his dressing room most of the time.

As do most other game show emcees (and celebrity guests).

[JakeT]

Rolf Benershke (sp?) - Wheel of Fortune - what did Merv see in this guy?

The same thing Merv probably saw in Mike Reilly and Ty Treadway.  I'll keep that open to your own interpretation.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH...beefcake!  (SCTV-ish Merv-ish reference)

JakeT

[wdm1219inpenna]

Jack Barry on "Break the Bank" 1976.  He seemed much better suited to interact with civilians and children than with celebrities.

Gene Rayburn on "Break the Bank" 1985.  I know he has been mentioned previously.

Jim Caldwell on "Tic Tac Dough" 1985-86.  I often wonder how much longer the show might have lasted had Wink remained host and had they not "Easter"ized the set in pastels....

Patrick Duffy on "Bingo America".

Pat Bullard on "Card Sharks" 2001.  

Jon "Bowzer" Bauman for "Hollywood Squares".

Monty Hall "Beat the Clock" 1979

Bob Hastings "Dealer's Choice" 1974 (He also portrayed "Mr. Kelsey" of Kelsey's Bar on "All in the Family")

[Dbacksfan12]

Jim Caldwell on "Tic Tac Dough" 1985-86.  I often wonder how much longer the show might have lasted had Wink remained host and had they not "Easter"ized the set in pastels....

I thought the set updates were a welcome change.  That set looked badly out of date by 1985.

Wasn't the show losing steam at that point anyhow to WoF and J?  Exposing how weak the show actually was?

[BrandonFG]

Jim Caldwell on "Tic Tac Dough" 1985-86.  I often wonder how much longer the show might have lasted had Wink remained host and had they not "Easter"ized the set in pastels....

I thought the set updates were a welcome change.  That set looked badly out of date by 1985.

Wasn't the show losing steam at that point anyhow to WoF and J?  Exposing how weak the show actually was?

I agree on the wood grain being woefully outdated, but "Wheel" even steamrolled "Feud". I don't think it was the format as much as it was "Wheel" just storming out the gate that first season.

[MikeK]

I thought the set updates were a welcome change.  That set looked badly out of date by 1985.

100% agreed about the set.

Watching the Caldwell TTD ep. Jamie posted on his site yesterday, another thing which was dated by that time was the computer system used to run the board and the computer graphics.  The electronics and graphics between the end of the Caldwell run and the start of Patrick Wayne's show four years later are like night and day.  A fairer comparison would probably be 12 years, since I would guess the computers and electronics associated with running the game board was the same from the start of the CBS run through the end of the syndie version 8 years later.

[J.R.]

I agree on the wood grain being woefully outdated, but "Wheel" even steamrolled "Feud". I don't think it was the format as much as it was "Wheel" just storming out the gate that first season.

And, to think, some TV experts thought Syndie WOF was going to be a bust when it first debued.

[BrandonFG]

I agree on the wood grain being woefully outdated, but "Wheel" even steamrolled "Feud". I don't think it was the format as much as it was "Wheel" just storming out the gate that first season.

And, to think, some TV experts thought Syndie WOF was going to be a bust when it first debued.

Which amazes me even more, considering how close it was to cancellation in the early-80s. I think the ratings picked up a bit around the time Pat took over on NBC. IIRC, it was the #2 daytime game that season (anyone got an EOTVGS handy?), but considering how few games there were between late-1981 and fall '82, I don't think that's saying much.