Game Show Fans 50 Greatest - Results

[BrandonFG]

Two minutes is pretty long for a timed bonus round. I think cutting the Bonus Lingo to a 1:00 (or even :30/:45 round) makes things less anticlimactic. To allow a few more words, maybe only give the contestants three guesses?

Of course, that might still give the team just as many chances to rack up a bunch of words, but my brain is fried and not in Armchair Producer mode.

[clemon79]

I was surprised I didn't have Lingo on my list but I think what kept it off was how broken I felt the original was.

See, same can be said for DoND, too. The US version was completely farked up beyond measure, and is a large contributing factor towards my contempt for the game. But if you go to Australia or the UK, it's actually relatively watchable. (Or even the Netherlands treating it like the lottery show it really is.)

So I probably would have buried it further than I would have expected to based on the US treatment. (Make no mistake, I don't think it's a great game anyhow. It's an okay lottery format, but a lousy game.)

[vtown7]

I was surprised I didn't have Lingo on my list but I think what kept it off was how broken I felt the original was.

See, same can be said for DoND, too. The US version was completely farked up beyond measure, and is a large contributing factor towards my contempt for the game. But if you go to Australia or the UK, it's actually relatively watchable. (Or even the Netherlands treating it like the lottery show it really is.)

This.

I put Deal on my list purely due to the strength of the UK version.  It was more style over substance for sure.  However the UK version - if you stuck with it for x number of days on end - allowed somewhat of a rooting section for these players.  That being said I wasn't a fan of Box 23 - too much of an add-on.

I should mention the (original) French version had the same kind of vibe as the UK version.  I saw an episode where there was a small value and the top prize left in play and the contestant was offered progressively two or three ascending offers when left with these two boxes - something like 60%, then 65% of the top prize.  It was brilliantly done, and I only wish it was still kicking around on YouTube because it really showed what the format could be.

Ryan.

[Brig Bother]

The French version (which would have taken the Italian version as inspiration) was probably my absolute favourite version of the show, tense and usually quite funny, with killer choices of background music from TV and film. Then they Americanized the set and game and it wasn't quite so good.

[Ian Wallis]

I just thought of something.

To me, where Lingo failed the most was its bonus round. The No Lingo round was just so drawn out and long, the Bonus Lingo round was kind of anticlimactic once a team got past the first draw because unless they either had the worst luck ever or choked bad in the 2:00 sprint, they were drawing out the inevitable $5K win. And the most recent edition gave away too much money for its own good.

I wonder if a round like the original Catch Phrase bonus could work. Where you start with a blank card and each square conceals a word and lines made using the center pay higher bonuses.

On the Woolery version, once they got to around 5 or 6, it was mathematically impossible NOT to win the bonus round.  I agree with other posters that maybe 60 or 90 seconds would have been better.

[Sodboy13]

10 was the threshold.

[nowhammies10]

^Which is why, on at least one occasion, they ended the bonus game early.

[Jimmy Owen]

^Which is why, on at least one occasion, they ended the bonus game early.

Anybody think alternating guesses would have been more entertaining?

[Steve Gavazzi]

On the Woolery version, once they got to around 5 or 6, it was mathematically impossible NOT to win the bonus round.

I think I remember someone figuring out that the exact number was nine, which made me wonder why they bothered with a tenth word, since it was totally meaningless.  The nerd in me always wanted there to be a rule that if you got all 10 words, you won the $10,000/jackpot automatically...it would have rewarded unusually good players and cut out a lot of unnecessary ball-drawing.

[parliboy]

On the Woolery version, once they got to around 5 or 6, it was mathematically impossible NOT to win the bonus round.

I think I remember someone figuring out that the exact number was nine, which made me wonder why they bothered with a tenth word, since it was totally meaningless.  The nerd in me always wanted there to be a rule that if you got all 10 words, you won the $10,000/jackpot automatically...it would have rewarded unusually good players and cut out a lot of unnecessary ball-drawing.

Less than nine.  You could have 20 balls on the board without a Lingo (12 spotted plus 8 earned), but only if there was a clear diagonal. And since they give them the center ball, it couldn't have been more than seven.

[Steve Gavazzi]

Huh.  That's even goofier, then.

[nowhammies10]

Here's a recreation of the Bonus Lingo board (sans numbers) I made using the one pattern they used from S2 onward, and this is what I believe to be as close as you can get without getting a Lingo, covering 8 7 of the "numbers".  Can anyone get it any closer than that?

EDIT: Yup, damn "G" column.  Fixing.
EDIT 2: Looks like it is 7 after all.

[TLEberle]

But for the vertical lingo in the G column.

[Thunder]

That is the kind of takedown that we teach at the police academy, sir.

Quick and efficient.

[parliboy]

So, yeah, seven.