Lingo New Year's marathon

[gameshowguy2000]

And another rule: No bonus letters.

And, I just saw a few episodes tonight, and found an interesting word: ESTER.

An ESTER is a compilation of fragrances, and Chuck mentioned that to all the Scrabble fans, too.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Brandon Brooks\' date=\'Jan 1 2004, 11:29 PM\']
They flew Chuck out there, but found the contestants already there.  And remember, it was for only 20 episodes, so that's, I don't know... maybe a week's stay?

Brandon Brooks [/quote]
 The contestant were Americans living in Holland at the time. THey probably did tape the episodes five a day for four weeks, so Chuck probably didn't have to be there for more than a week.

[melman1]

So Lingo was already an established game in Europe, then?  No need to go over there if not, right? Is "Lingo" an American-ization of a different name?

If it was already a European show, it's awfully hard to believe they used that awful set.  Unless, as I said, it was a big hit in the Dutch crackhouses.

[PeterMarshallFan]

I found the flow of this to be far better than season 3. It just seemed to work better. Although, season 2 is still the best by far, IMO.

[itiparanoid13]

I agree with the previous post.  It all just has to do with the look of the show for me.  Season 1 looked like 20 crappy pilot shows.  In Season 3, although the set is nice, the set just doesnt fit a simple word guessing game.  That set looks like it would belong maybe on a new form of Friend or Foe? or something, but definitely not Lingo.  I feel the same with Stacey.  Now its not that she takes away from the show, she helps Chuck out in his blundering moments, but a simple, bare bones, word guessing game such as Lingo just doesnt need a model.  Season 2 was the best.  The set fit the show and the prize of $5,000 or that tropical vacation was a very nice touch.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'Jan 2 2004, 12:13 PM\']So Lingo was already an established game in Europe, then?  No need to go over there if not, right? Is "Lingo" an American-ization of a different name?

If it was already a European show, it's awfully hard to believe they used that awful set.  Unless, as I said, it was a big hit in the Dutch crackhouses.[/quote]
They sure did--and still do:  Here's TROS' page for the show, complete with video clip.

IDTV produces "Lingo" for TROS, who has control of the Nederland 2 channel at the 7:25 p.m. weeknight time it's currently on.  You want a further explanation of the public broadcasting system in the Netherlands, look it up yourself because it's too complicated and way offtopic as it is.

But to explain the weird time and the 25-minute length:  The shows are shown without interruptions and the commercials (yes, public TV in the Netherlands does have commercials freely marked as such) air between programs.

And yes, Nance is the host, not the model.

[Ian Wallis]

Does anybody know exactly when GSN aired the episode with a "0" in the bonus round on New Year's?  I checked an episode guide for season 1, and it stated that ep. was the fourth-last originally aired.  I was only able to watch from 9 p.m.-midnight (the last six episodes) and didn't see it.  GSN obviously aired them in a different order than they originally did...and I missed it again.

As for the contestants on the first season, do we know for sure they were Americans and Canadians living there, or were they just on vacation at the time?  When you listen to where they're from and what they're doing (i.e. a lot of students), I find it hard to believe they were all living there ... not that it really matters, but since the point was raised I was always curious about that.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jan 3 2004, 11:49 AM\'] Does anybody know exactly when GSN aired the episode with a "0" in the bonus round on New Year's?  I checked an episode guide for season 1, and it stated that ep. was the fourth-last originally aired.  I was only able to watch from 9 p.m.-midnight (the last six episodes) and didn't see it.  GSN obviously aired them in a different order than they originally did...and I missed it again.
 [/quote]
 I want to say it aired around 3PM or 3:30 ET (I didn't watch all 20, but I do recall seeing that one).  Sorry I didn't get it on tape.

Doug

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jan 3 2004, 12:49 PM\']As for the contestants on the first season, do we know for sure they were Americans and Canadians living there, or were they just on vacation at the time?  When you listen to where they're from and what they're doing (i.e. a lot of students), I find it hard to believe they were all living there ... not that it really matters, but since the point was raised I was always curious about that.[/quote]
Some of them were living there at the time--Abby Sher for sure (gulp) because she was a company member of Boom Chicago, the English-language improv troupe in Amsterdam, when she taped the show (the Boom Chicago web site had a picture of her and her partner being coached in Lingo by another company member).  If all of them were living there, I don't know--but they could've gotten tourists to come in.

[gameshowguy2000]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Jan 2 2004, 03:14 PM\'] [quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'Jan 2 2004, 12:13 PM\']So Lingo was already an established game in Europe, then?  No need to go over there if not, right? Is "Lingo" an American-ization of a different name?

If it was already a European show, it's awfully hard to believe they used that awful set.  Unless, as I said, it was a big hit in the Dutch crackhouses.[/quote]
They sure did--and still do:  Here's TROS' page for the show, complete with video clip.

IDTV produces "Lingo" for TROS, who has control of the Nederland 2 channel at the 7:25 p.m. weeknight time it's currently on.  You want a further explanation of the public broadcasting system in the Netherlands, look it up yourself because it's too complicated and way offtopic as it is.

But to explain the weird time and the 25-minute length:  The shows are shown without interruptions and the commercials (yes, public TV in the Netherlands does have commercials freely marked as such) air between programs.

And yes, Nance is the host, not the model. [/quote]
 So, is this the only version of Lingo to have a female host (not CO-host)?

[vtown7]

As for the contestants on the first season, do we know for sure they were Americans and Canadians living there, or were they just on vacation at the time

I was actually living in Eastern France at the time... would have gladly paid to take a five hour train trip to Amsterdam to have been a part of it!!!

Ah well, whadda ya going to do?  I suppose I'll wait for some more random Canadian game shows to pop up (paging Blaq...)

Cheers,

Ryan

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'vtown7\' date=\'Jan 5 2004, 10:10 PM\']

As for the contestants on the first season, do we know for sure they were Americans and Canadians living there, or were they just on vacation at the time

I was actually living in Eastern France at the time... would have gladly paid to take a five hour train trip to Amsterdam to have been a part of it!!![/quote]
And another half-hour to Hilversum, where the studio actually was, along with much of the rest of the Dutch broadcasting industry.

But they may've done interviews in Amsterdam.

[melman1]

Does GSN license the game itself from the European people?  I've long wondered why GSN has done nothing to tweak the basic game, and maybe the answer is "their contract says they can't".

[PeterMarshallFan]

[quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'Jan 6 2004, 07:07 PM\'] Does GSN license the game itself from the European people?  I've long wondered why GSN has done nothing to tweak the basic game, and maybe the answer is "their contract says they can't". [/quote]
 Ask this question at the GSN boards and you will be told that Stacey is the fix to all the show's problems. [And sadly, I'm only being a little bit sarcastic]

The game is as stale as an old wafer. At least the 1987 version mixed it up a little bit with the prize and jackpot balls. I'd say the gameplay should be improved first, before the set [which is now ugly] or the theme [which is good, but is on the wrong show] or before hiring a "linguist."

But the contract point is something I didn't think of before. You might have something there.....

[SplitSecond]

[quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'Jan 6 2004, 04:07 PM\'] Does GSN license the game itself from the European people?  I've long wondered why GSN has done nothing to tweak the basic game, and maybe the answer is "their contract says they can't". [/quote]
 Well, their end game is different than the standard "No Lingo" end game used in most of the rest of the world, and many other versions have some sort of intermediate game involving toss-ups and longer words (like the tiebreaker used here).

I'm not aware of any "the format must stay the same" clauses in international game format sales.  Maybe on this one point, GSN and Phil Gurin had the revolutionary idea of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".