Author Topic: First There Was "Bobcat's Big Ass Show"... (Read 3976 times)

TimK2003 · « **on:** January 24, 2013, 01:48:18 AM »

...And now TBS will bring us \"Bam\'s Bad Ass Game Show\".

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118065048/

PYLdude · « **Reply #1 on:** January 24, 2013, 01:57:44 AM »

So TBS passes on Match Game for what amounts to a cross between Wipeout and Jackass with a little Distraction thrown in.

Very funny. Not funny ha ha, funny faux pas.

clemon79 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 24, 2013, 02:19:00 AM »

So TBS passes on Match Game for what amounts to a cross between Wipeout and Jackass with a little Distraction thrown in.

Very funny. Not funny ha ha, funny faux pas.

We like to call this \"not funny ha-ha, but funny f**k you.\"

J.R. · « **Reply #3 on:** January 24, 2013, 02:22:26 AM »

Is this 1998? Since when is the word \"ass\" in a title considred edgy?

clemon79 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 24, 2013, 02:33:56 AM »

http://xkcd.com/37/

TLEberle · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2013, 09:41:25 PM »

Very funny.

What I think is \"funny\" is that we hold up a few game shows as the more terrible or awful ones of the genre, and we have this and Killer Karaoke of late, and at least one game show where contestants had to eat as much food as possible while trying to keep it in their stomach.

Whether television is a mirror to society or it shapes society, I miss the days when a show about solving puzzles or answering questions would be good enough.

PYLdude · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2013, 09:54:15 PM »

The issue becomes, though, that you run the risk of doing the puzzle solving/question answering to death and have people seeing it and going \"I\'ve seen this before, so many times.\" You\'re almost required to have at least a little hook.

Operative word being little. I thought Downfall was an inoffensive way to spend an hour (I just wish Y2J was given a little more room to loosen up- you could tell when he was working on book and it sucked), and Distraction is another fave of mine. But that\'s sort of where I draw a line.

BrandonFG · « **Reply #7 on:** January 25, 2013, 09:15:27 AM »

My issue is that so many of these overblown primetime shows could be toned down and made into daytime shows. Downfall had an inoffensive enough main game, and obviously the chrome was seeing a Ford Focus or baby grand piano fall 75 feet.

25-30 years ago, it would\'ve been closer to Cliff Hangers; a much smaller replica (think the cheesy model cars they displayed on Gambit, rolling down a conveyor belt. Sure you don\'t get to see the Focus smash into a million pieces, but the effect is there.

Rich/Money List, with a few tweaks should\'ve been another daytime entry...I guess Hot Potato was close enough. Still Standing, Show Me The Money, I could go on and on...

TLEberle · « **Reply #8 on:** January 25, 2013, 01:46:14 PM »

You\'re almost required to have at least a little hook.

Like you said, the key there is little. No hook gets you Trump Card or Wintuition. So there\'s a paradigm: you have the bland games with no chrome to speak of at all, and the overblown edgy games that need to be toned down because the silliness of the chrome outshines the game.

BrandonFG · « **Reply #9 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:41:19 PM »

Is this 1998? Since when is the word \"ass\" in a title considred edgy?

Only in the same universe where Go Daddy commercials are edgy.

chris319 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 26, 2013, 06:27:51 PM »

the chrome was seeing a replica of a Ford Focus or baby grand piano fall 75 feet

If it takes a low-brow gimmick to draw an audience then you don\'t have much of an underlying game. Need proof? Jeopardy! has been on almost as many decades as the total number of downfall episodes.

clemon79 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 26, 2013, 06:33:54 PM »

If it takes a low-brow gimmick to draw an audience then you don\'t have much of an underlying game.

The thing is, the game itself actually wasn\'t bad, and sure as hell was content-heavy compared to some of the other crap we\'ve seen. I think the gimmick of Downfall actually *detracted* from it, and if they had figured out a way to take the same underlying game mechanic and surround it with different, not-as-schlockly chrome, it might have had half a slot, and at the minimum wouldn\'t be dismissed as the sideshow it seems to have been.

BrandonFG · « **Reply #12 on:** January 26, 2013, 07:00:49 PM »

If it takes a low-brow gimmick to draw an audience then you don\'t have much of an underlying game.

The thing is, the game itself actually wasn\'t bad, and sure as hell was content-heavy compared to some of the other crap we\'ve seen. I think the gimmick of Downfall actually *detracted* from it, and if they had figured out a way to take the same underlying game mechanic and surround it with different, not-as-schlockly chrome, it might have had half a slot, and at the minimum wouldn\'t be dismissed as the sideshow it seems to have been.

Exactly.

(Warning: it\'s Armchair Producer time)

Put Jericho and the contestant* in a studio, and maybe even keep the conveyor belt in the background**, but again, use the scaled down prizes I mentioned or even cards shaped like a car, piano, money bags, etc. Hans has the TPiR audience on the edge of their seats once he hits the 20 mark, and that\'s for a dinette set. I have a hard time believing a potential Downfall audience wouldn\'t react similarly over a car or $10,000 in cash possibly going bye-bye.

It wouldn\'t be the same IMO, but you could also use a ~~big ass~~ large monitor or \"ribbon display\" (LCD screens you see in stadiums and arenas), and have the prizes \"roll\" down that way.

*I\'d introduce a main game where contestants earn a prize bank with a similar word game. First to collect four or five wins and plays to keep the prizes.

**Say, about 5 or 6 feet off the ground?

TLEberle · « **Reply #13 on:** January 26, 2013, 07:58:06 PM »

Forgive me, but I think Chris\'s point was that the clue/answer, clue/answer needed to be surrounded in something other than dropping prizes off of a skyscraper. Million Dollar Password had a bonus round where each level was harder than the last, there\'s no reason that you couldn\'t do that as well here; you\'d just change the name of the show from Downfall to something else.

PYLdude · « **Reply #14 on:** January 26, 2013, 08:04:51 PM »

Forgive me, but I think Chris\'s point was that the clue/answer, clue/answer needed to be surrounded in something other than dropping prizes off of a skyscraper. Million Dollar Password had a bonus round where each level was harder than the last, there\'s no reason that you couldn\'t do that as well here; you\'d just change the name of the show from Downfall to something else.

There is a reason why...you\'ve just stripped away the game\'s hook and turned it into Generic Quiz Game #50jillion.

I don\'t see what the problem is \"the faster you can think on your feet and come up with the right answer, the better chance you have to keep all your prizes\", which is what the object of Downfall was. Just because they dropped the prizes off the side of a building doesn\'t mean that the chrome affected the game so much that it overshadowed it.