Annoying Game Show Gimmicks

[TLEberle]

I suspect it's an unpopular opinion, but I'd include the backdrop parting for the Gauntlet of Villians to be in this.

Completely apropos of nothing at all, are your affairs in order?

/I agree that it's a bit overmuch, but it's a cartoon game show that beats you over the head with everything.
//serious question: would you prefer if they went to break as the partitions split and come back with Tom and champion at the starting line?
///I love it on Whew! and hate it on the two most recent Pyramids.

[Otm Shank]

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.

During the Pyramid taping I was at last spring, the celebrities had a rehearsal game with one of the producers and two other staffers. (Side note: this was where it was revealed the default preference was to have a contestant giver in the Winner Circle, so they had responsibility if an illegal clue was given.) While they were going through the motions for the Winner's Circle, he mentioned the "DiPirro Push" or words to that effect -- essentially, the director's signature light cue/zoom.

[BrandonFG]

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.

I think that was more or less every Jay Wolpert show, or a vast majority of them. Yeah, it was a lot of chrome, for what's merely the backdrop rotating or moving.

/Complete with musical number

[TLEberle]

I can forgive a whole lot of Jay Wolpert's sins given that he put such a premium on the game as opposed to now where we have theatrics and stretching to cover for the fact that there's not much there there.

[Unrealtor]

//serious question: would you prefer if they went to break as the partitions split and come back with Tom and champion at the starting line?

I wouldn't even have minded if they came back from the break on the runway and had to walk back to the starting line. It's something weirdly specific about the combination of the pause and the set change, but not either one without the other.

Also, I had considered singling out Second Chance/Press Your Luck lingering on the wide shot of the desk rotating around before going into a break as an example of showing off in the same way without killing the momentum of the show specifically for the sake of watching it happen, so I could hardly object to a hypothetical situation doing the same thing.

[daveromanjr]

At a taping of one of the first season episodes of Match Game last year before the celebrities came out they had the audience do reaction shots.  They had us laugh, clap, boo, act happy, act sad, etc.  I had been to several other tapings of both season 1 and 2 episodes and they only filmed us once.  I never did see them use the audience reaction shots in the episodes.

[Nick]

I *wish* SoTC did for lot wins.....but as far as I know, they never did.

I've wondered what kind of audiences, besides pending contestants and contestant "fan clubs," Sale had.  I've gotten through much of the syndie version and for a show of that era, there's an unusual amount of noticeable sweetening, everything from cheers to guffaws.

[Chief-O]

I *wish* SoTC did for lot wins.....but as far as I know, they never did.

I've wondered what kind of audiences, besides pending contestants and contestant "fan clubs," Sale had.  I've gotten through much of the syndie version and for a show of that era, there's an unusual amount of noticeable sweetening, everything from cheers to guffaws.

I kind of wonder myself, actually. SOTC seemed like it was done in somewhat of a "not live" fashion, especially shopping round segments and the like. Studio audiences may not have been comfortable with that at the time (though, as we all know, times have changed in that regard).

Bringing this thread back to the original topic.....I caught TPiR today (it's only once in a blue moon that I watch any of it these days) and was reminded of the "Winner" license plate bit. Never liked it when it started....don't like it now.

[TLEberle]

I was going to have a bit of fun at the expense of our estate agent of fictional places, but then I remembered the stage rising bit from Million Dollar Password and how fatuous I thought it was. I could quibble with the contestant island rotating on Press Your Luck because television is supposed to be a visual medium and you want to see stuff moving. Earlier today I thought of John McEnroe proclaiming "It's game time!" as the flames licked higher and the title bit of furniture moved into place, or Brad Sherwood intoning "This is your big moment" as the drum hit accompanied the lights being dimmed and I think the difference is that some elements are meant to draw attention or to punctuate that something is about to happen, and others are done by necessity, design or they look cool. You could have new contestants on Match Game walk on set and sit down, but it looks spiffy to have them twirl on set as Gene introduces them.

[daveromanjr]

One gripe of mine is how many times Drew says "Good luck!" to everybody for everything.  I'm sure it is with good intentions but it grates on my nerves when you hear "good luck" 60 times a show, give or take.

[TimK2003]

I could quibble with the contestant island rotating on Press Your Luck because television is supposed to be a visual medium and you want to see stuff moving.

The shots of the rotating contestant island was used more for "padding" than actual annoying game show gimmicks.

When the game play runs long, they would edit rotating set out and go right into commercial when Peter finishes his lines (and go right to Peter when coming back from commercial).   When the game runs short, the rotating island stays in, and if they really needed to stretch they would show a poem on the screen. 

[calliaume]

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).

This will date me:  I went to a taping of The Money Maze (well, my family went too; I was 12 at the time), and Alan Kalter explained they could have just had the audience sit behind the maze out of camera range, but they wanted to convey the excitement of running the maze.  Our job:  being excited about the running of the maze, but also being silent while doing so, so as not to drown out the person calling out directions.  Most of the audience got lots of screen time (we were at the edge of the camera sweep going into commercials, but we did get a family shot at the end of the second show).

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?

Going to the 1960s New York-based NBC shows, I don't think we ever saw audience shots, mostly because those were some tiny studios.  Based on the photos I've seen, I'm pretty sure it couldn't have been much more than 150 people.

[Chief-O]

Going to the 1960s New York-based NBC shows, I don't think we ever saw audience shots, mostly because those were some tiny studios.  Based on the photos I've seen, I'm pretty sure it couldn't have been much more than 150 people.

"He Said She Said" panned through the audience during their intros.

As far as capacity.....150 sounds about right, at least for 6A and 6B (maybe 8G as well?).....I'm not sure about 8H's "official" capacity (SNL puts chairs on the floor for some of its audience).

[Nick]

SOTC seemed like it was done in somewhat of a "not live" fashion, especially shopping round segments and the like. Studio audiences may not have been comfortable with that at the time (though, as we all know, times have changed in that regard).

There was a certain amount to the show that wasn't live to tape.  I know I read somewhere the prize plugs and accompanying B roll were all recorded at the start of the taping day and plugged into shows as needed (and in later tapings when they reused the same prize/theme setups).  I'm sure I saw somewhere too that Jay Stewart's intros were recorded too and he didn't start live to tape until he said, "And now, here's the star of our show..."  It becomes a lot easier on your editing department when they don't have to cover up live applause in the wrong places, which may have resulted them in instructing the audience to remain quiet by times.  It's where the applause and cheers are clearly expected where they were sweetened that perplexes me.

It's especially evident as Jim makes his entrance.  Pull up a few intros earlier in the syndie run and you'll hear the same chorus of "yay"s as Jim sprints across the stage.

[whewfan]

Didn't Jay also do the "So far (contestant) has won X..." live at the start of the show? Also, is it true that he didn't start pre-recording his stuff until his voice started to struggle, so they had him pre-record things so he only had to say it once. I believe he may have done the prize plug for the Fame Game segments live too.