Annoying Game Show Gimmicks

[ET206]

What are some gimmicks that some shows do that really don't add to the game itself that you find annoying?  Here are a few in my opinion: 
*Mama Doris (Anthony Anderson's mom) on TTTT
*George Gray's "Morning, Mama Mae!" (Although I'm being a hypocrite here because I like Allen Ludden's "Hi, Doll!")
*Drew doing the "1...2...3" with the reveals
*"The fact of the matter..." (early days of PYL when Peter revealed the answers)
*TJW audience game
*families giving Richard useless gifts on FF
*the Tootsie Pop trees on FF.

[whewfan]

Mama Doris is fine to me. I've been watching the second season and she's not as dominant as she was in the first season. She doesn't even "keep score" anymore.

George Gray's greetings could use some variety here. Allen didn't ALWAYS say "Hi Doll!"

Oh yes... the 1,2,3 reveals... that and many other crutch phrases Drew has that he just won't give a rest.

Never noticed that about Peter.

I was always on the fence about the TJW audience game. When there was an entertaining contestant, Jack was fun with them, and showed more enthusiasm than he did with the main game players. I think as the series progressed after 1982, he was obviously becoming more tired of the show. When the audience players were more "run of the mill", then the whole thing felt like a waste of time.

Family Feud- The gifts did get ridiculous. Perhaps they were encouraged because it gave Richard more reason to stretch before actually starting the game. The last 2 seasons of Feud, for me, were painful to watch because it was obvious Richard was tiring of the show. He was running out of funny things to say, so the gifts gave him material.

The Lollipop trees- Richard gave lollipops to family members, friends, and staff as a kind gesture. He also remembered everyone's birthdays and was generous with gifts, which is likely why when it was Richard's birthday, the staff always did something nice for him on the air. Interestingly enough, for the first week there was only ONE lollipop tree that both families picked from, until Richard asked why each family couldn't have one, and the following week there were two. The lollipop trees, IMO, didn't really interfere with the game, they just signaled "the beginning of the end" for those that watch the game in reruns.

[Jeremy Nelson]

The Momma Mae thing does grate- it just doesn't feel natural.

Drew's 1-2-3 bit is old. but it's miles better than "Hold my hand and say Alakazam".

The Prize Puzzle is an annoying gimmick to me.

[whewfan]

Here are a few more

Richard Karn- "Drawing first blood"... "TRIPLE THE POINTS"... I'll give Karn credit for one thing though, the Halloween shows were fun because he would host in character, which was more interesting than Karn as himself.

TTTT- During the last season of TTTT, they would have a celebrity's spouse as a subject for the first game. However, the panel was also allowed to question the celebrity before the actual game started. For me, this took away from what the premise of the game was.

Tattletales- Representative members of the audience play a round- For a week of shows only, a representative audience member from each section played a question. The round was played similarly to the main game of Mindreaders. Each celeb was asked a question that they had to answer "yes" or "no", and they simply picked one of the answers secretly. If the audience member could correctly predict the celeb's answer, their section won some money. I'm not sure if this came before or after Mindreaders, but one thing it did do was slow down the game. If you thought the buzz in format was slow, this was slower. Thankfully they never did that again after that week.

[Dbacksfan12]

*Drew doing the "1...2...3" with the reveals

Barker did the same kind of thing, only he'd draw it out more.

The STYD bits where the announcer cross-dressed and modeled the prizes were quite annoying.

[BrandonFG]

The pregnant pause when revealing information. Match Game now does it sometimes for the Super Match, and it's not as bad as a show like, say, Deal or No Deal. But it's noticeable enough to where I shake my fist at the TV. What's even more irksome is that I see this trend on reality shows now, on HGTV for instance.

When John O'Hurley hosted Feud they had audience sections on either side of the game board, and some audience members would hold signs rooting for whatever family. It was a very weird idea that I wanna say was inspired by American Idol. IIRC, someone on this board said it was simply an idea the Feud staff threw at the wall, to see if it would stick.

The cross-dressing announcer schtick on STYD creeped me out, esp. when he'd play a grandma.

[Jeremy Nelson]

When John O'Hurley hosted Feud they had audience sections on either side of the game board, and some audience members would hold signs rooting for whatever family. It was a very weird idea that I wanna say was inspired by American Idol. IIRC, someone on this board said it was simply an idea the Feud staff threw at the wall, to see if it would stick.

I recall seeing prospective families holding up signs as well, and always thought it weird that one would root for a family that could be their next opponents.

[Nick]

When John O'Hurley hosted Feud they had audience sections on either side of the game board, and some audience members would hold signs rooting for whatever family. It was a very weird idea that I wanna say was inspired by American Idol. IIRC, someone on this board said it was simply an idea the Feud staff threw at the wall, to see if it would stick.

That's probably the worst offender in one of my annoyances: the modern on camera audiences shtick.  Having the audience on camera is an integral part of some shows (Price, Let's Make a Deal) and a byproduct of regular directing (Dawson Feud, Press Your Luck), but once Millionaire came on the scene, it seemed every show just had to find a way to get an observing audience on camera far more often than it needed to be.  The trend seems to have curbed a bit.  Pyramid last summer didn't spend a whole lot of time trying to get the audience in view (unlike the pilots they did a few years back where they sat the audience on both sides of the set).

When I think of the other side, anything taped at Burbank back in the day seemed to virtually never have the audience on camera, outside of maybe a ticket plug.  Did they ever show the audience for such shows a Blockbusters and Sale of the Century?

[BrandonFG]

When I think of the other side, anything taped at Burbank back in the day seemed to virtually never have the audience on camera, outside of maybe a ticket plug.  Did they ever show the audience for such shows a Blockbusters and Sale of the Century?

Scrabble is the only NBC show from that era that I can think of. Password Plus would show the audience for ticket plugs, but other than that, I can't recall anything else.

[Chief-O]

When I think of the other side, anything taped at Burbank back in the day seemed to virtually never have the audience on camera, outside of maybe a ticket plug.  Did they ever show the audience for such shows a Blockbusters and Sale of the Century?

I want to say "Bullseye" did a few times. "Super Password" did on some occasions (I can cite the finale intro and Natalie Steele's ToC win, for starters). I *wish* SoTC did for lot wins.....but as far as I know, they never did.

And then there's "Your Number's Up", where the audience was quite integral to the gameplay......(ETA: And how dare I forget early LMAD!!)

Drew's 1-2-3 bit is old. but it's miles better than "Hold my hand and say Alakazam".

Am I the only one who liked the "Alakazam" bit?

[jmangin]

One of my biggest annoyances is any "10 member"-based question on Card Sharks. However, I'm not sure if there's unanimity on this being a gimmick.

[TimK2003]

When I think of the other side, anything taped at Burbank back in the day seemed to virtually never have the audience on camera, outside of maybe a ticket plug.  Did they ever show the audience for such shows a Blockbusters and Sale of the Century?

I want to say "Bullseye" did a few.times.

Bullseye did it more after the move from NBC  to  CBS TV City to show their flashing sign in the audience.

[TLEberle]

One of my biggest annoyances is any "10 member"-based question on Card Sharks. However, I'm not sure if there's unanimity on this being a gimmick.

At least you're naming something that was dreamed up to jazz up the show and not just "a thing I don't like".

I mentioned this in the A/V Room a month ago, but I wish there was a way to do it faster, but when your host is born to have funny conversations with people in the backdrop of a light game, it's a big ask. I'd even be OK with first question of the day and then the car question (which means the match changes from best-of-three, but that can be worked around)--I think that goes to the problem. Your coordinator finds ten lottery millionaires or retirees or umpires and you want to make use of them, but it can't be at expense of the original article too much.

[Fedya]

It's not just game shows, but coming back from a commercial break and showing the same ~10 seconds of footage that was run going into the break.  One of the things I always hated about The Amazing Race.

[Unrealtor]

Any time there's a pause or slowdown in the action for the sole purpose of "Let's watch the set change around!" Something like a brief chat between the host and the match winner on Card Sharks while everything moves around to the Money Cards is one thing, but ever since everyone started emulating Millionaire with the dramatic music and change of lighting at the start of every game, it seems like it' was everywhere for a while. I suspect it's an unpopular opinion, but I'd include the backdrop parting for the Gauntlet of Villians to be in this.