Change for the better?

[PYLdude]

I say that Scrabble\'s changes were not only good but necessary.


Why was there any need to either straddle or not have the champ play the front game outside of the one time he/she would have? To me it opened up the game and it allowed it to proceed as it should have timing issues aside. I thought the pre-change episode format didn\'t make for good television back when I saw them for the first time as a youngster and I still don\'t think so now so many years later.

[jjman920]

I\'m going to go with Price, but not for it\'s complete revamped revival (though it was excellent). No, I\'m going to go for them expanding to an hour and the addition of the Big Wheel. I felt sorry for contestants in the half-hour era who played for an organ, won, and got the short stick because two other contestants got to play for a Chevy Vega and a fur coat. The Big Wheel gave all contestants a shot at the showcase and a shot at redemption if they fouled up on their pricing game or were bitten with a tough setup. It also added a little more excitement to the show once all the bonuses were instituted.

[clemon79]

- Star Wheel on Match Game (but I know your mileage may vary...hey, it was the MG I saw the most of as a kid, so it is partially a sentimental pick...)

This I will second emphatically. Watching the Richard Dawson Match got old after a while. That said...

- 100 Mexicanos Dijeron/Que Dice La Gente presenting possibilities on Fast Money\'s outcome with the Lollipop Game, and offering a bonus for finding all five number one answers.

...how did I know I wasn\'t going to get out of a Fabiano post in this thread without him figuring out a way to shoehorn this one in there?

[thomas_meighan]

In the case of To Tell the Truth, only having two rounds per episode (on the syndicated version) was a welcome change. That\'s especially apparent when compared with the later daytime seasons, with three rounds in just 25 minutes, the audience guessing, and often a film clip or other kind of demonstration. The panelists just didn\'t have time to ask that many questions.

 

The ABC Password improved on the original series in a couple of ways, particularly in allowing only 6 clues instead of 10. The CBS Password could get draggy at times when the teams struggled to guess a word at those low values, and they were frequently far afield by then anyway. By allowing contestants to continue playing beyond two games, the show also became more suspenseful. (Although in the one-loss-and-out format of 1971-73, a sharp player could quickly shut their opponent out--perhaps this was improved in the best-two-of-three format, which I haven\'t seen.)

 

The single-player format of the 1989 Now You See It seems better to me than the rather unnecessary use of teams on the original (which I otherwise like a lot).

[Jay Temple]

Regarding the Star Wheel: I know that for a short time, they had a restriction on picking the same celebrity. (I don\'t remember whether you had to go through all the celebs regardless of outcome, or if you just couldn\'t pick one you\'d won with.) I\'d be curious to know whey they dropped it. I had a different solution to always picking Richard, which is to tie it to the Audience Match: If you choose the answer that a celeb gives you, you have to play with that celeb. If you go on your own, you have to choose one of the other three.

[TheInquisitiveOne]

I thought the change in Shopping prize progression from NBC\'s $ale of the Century (car>cash>Lot) to the syndicated version (car>all prizes on stage>Lot) was a necessary amendment. It made more sense for an additional cash purse to be the final step up the mountain for the gutsy, skilled player. It also made for very exciting television.

 

Granted, when a player went for the cash on the NBC version, it was just as tense. I was just surprised that the Lot came after. Of course, except for one player, the champions would take the money and run, rather than add additional tax burdens. When they made it where you had  to get the Lot to get the cash, it was a better structure overall.

 

The Inquisitive One

[clemon79]

I had a different solution to always picking Richard, which is to tie it to the Audience Match: If you choose the answer that a celeb gives you, you have to play with that celeb. If you go on your own, you have to choose one of the other three.

 

...and now everyone picks Richard for the audience match first, and STILL play with him an inordinate amount of the time.

[TLEberle]

Why was there any need to either straddle or not have the champ play the front game outside of the one time he/she would have? To me it opened up the game and it allowed it to proceed as it should have timing issues aside.

After retiring a ten-time winner they would play two crossword games to have the two new Sprint challengers, and it was very tedious. Scrabble is meant to be a fast-moving game, or at least one that doesn\'t plod along with all the vigor of a beached whale. The fact that you say \"timing issues aside\" means you acknowledge that there wasn\'t enough time for two crosswords, the two Sprint rounds and the bonus. It was the same issue that was present on Davidson squares: the stars taking up so much time that you can\'t play more than two questions in the third game. Would anyone here call that a feature of the show as opposed to a negative?

[Chuck Sutton]

I think the Tatletales change to all what used to be called \"quickies\" in the long run actually helped.   At first I disliked it.  But after a while it was clear it gave all the couples a chance to talk on all the questions and moved the  show along.

[Vahan_Nisanian]

Travis, I could have sworn you said that you prefer the format that came before it (1984-1986 one). I personally prefer the 1986-1990 one.

[aaron sica]

I was going to suggest \"Dice Game\" but I\'m not so clear on the early rules. For some who may not know, zeroes and the numbers 7 through 9 were also in the price with the earliest playings....If a 1 or 6 was rolled, was the option there to go lower than a 1 or higher than a 6? I remember seeing an early playing of the game when GSN got TPiR and nearly fell out of my chair when the player lost with one of the numbers being an 8...

[TLEberle]

I can\'t imagine why there wouldn\'t be.

[Twentington]

Add me as another vote for \"Wheel getting rid of shopping.\" And unlike most, I generally don\'t mind their constant addition of new gimmicks over the years. Sure, a few have been clunkers (Double Play, Megaword), and a couple I wouldn\'t mind seeing again (the categories with an extra question after them, like Slogan, Where Are We?, or Fill In the Blank), but I generally don\'t mind the constant tweaking over the years.

 

I also agree with TPIR expanding to an hour. I hadn\'t really thought of the \"odd one out\" problem that half-hour episodes present.

 

Another one I\'m surprised wasn\'t brought up yet: Jeopardy! redoing the buzzer system so that you can\'t ring in until after Alex finishes reading the clue. Didn\'t they sometimes have problems with people buzzing in too soon, or two podia lighting up at the same time?

[Matt Ottinger]

Didn\'t they sometimes have problems with people buzzing in too soon, or two podia lighting up at the same time?

 

Not the latter, there was never a problem with the lockout system (at least nothing that ever aired).

 

According to a book by one of the show\'s clue writers, smart players would assume (reasonably, in most cases) that they\'d know the first few clues in any given category, so those players would ring in as soon as they were able to do so, usually before Alex had even begun reading a clue.  This presented two big problems for the show.  inevitably, there would be clues that the player didn\'t know after all, but the show still had to tick away those precious seconds while he stands there blankly.  Secondly, some players weren\'t nearly as smart as they thought they were, and the result would be large negative scores.  This would be a particular problem late in the game when someone tried desperately to catch up. 

 

Forcing the players to wait took care of those problems, but created a game which, especially in the early round, became less about knowledge and more about eye-hand coordination.

[Twentington]

Forcing the players to wait took care of those problems, but created a game which, especially in the early round, became less about knowledge and more about eye-hand coordination.

 

Aw, you\'re just bitter because you lost against Ken Jennings. :-P