How did they do that...

[nowhammies10]

You wouldn't feel that way if you saw the looks on those audience members' faces as you wrote their name on the tag and handed it to them. Every single taping, somebody would say to me "I don't even care if I get called! I have the name tag!" It's the coolest free souvenir you can get anywhere in Hollywood.

Hell, I felt that way just watching the live touring show when it came to Toronto a few years back.  I still have the tag and the T-shirt I made that Todd Newton signed after the show.

[chris319]

I've also often wondered what kind of printing equipment production companies have in house to produce nametags or placards for the desk?

None. All the graphics were done in the networks' graphics departments.

In the 1980's, 1" type C videotape had just come out. I though G-T should purchase a couple of 1" VTR's and do some editing in house, especially FF which required a lot of editing. The idea never caught on.

[Neumms]

The "oval" is the giveaway here... it's a circle tilted on a mirror.  This is so they can make it look like it's floating in a box, when really, it's just being reflected.

Thanks a ton, for this and the six-ball answer. So the spinning circle is parallel to the floor, either above or below the part of the box we see? Gosh, it was cool when the numbers floated within the circle, rather than now when you see the black display.

[WhammyPower]

So the spinning circle is parallel to the floor, either above or below the part of the box we see?

No, it's lying on the plane of the mirror.

[Neumms]

No, it's lying on the plane of the mirror.

So we see the actual spinning thing, not its reflection?

[Kevin Prather]

No, it's lying on the plane of the mirror.

So we see the actual spinning thing, not its reflection?

Look closely. The mirror is at an incline. The top half of what you see is the spinning wheel. The bottom half is reflection.

[JasonA1]

I think you guys are confusing yourselves at this point. The red spinning thing is all real. Think of the inside of the red circle as a mirror out of which the display has been punched out. The mirror covers all the housing that holds up the wheel & display from the back.

-Jason

[Adam Nedeff]

Me reading this thread.