eBay Find: "Lost TV Game Show"

[weaklink75]

First, I want to publicly apologize to Curt Alliaume for so casually dismissing his notion that the host could possibly be Robert Earle.  Turns out he was right on the money.

And now that a few of us have seen it, am I really going to be the first one to say...man, what a dumb idea for a TV show?  Because man, what a dumb idea for a TV show.  I agree with Kevin that it would be a decent idea as a board game, but (to me anyway), yelling at the screen over the ineptitude of players isn't the same as yelling right answers.  This just seems like it would get really repetitive really fast.

We're thinking this was done about 1965 or so? If this had been done in 1955, it might have had a shot...Still, it's a interesting piece of GS history, and worth the money to me (Thanks for that little bonus too Matt)

[gamed121683]

Man, it sounds like this find is already light years better than what BUZZR's Lost & Found will have to offer.

[TLEberle]

We're thinking this was done about 1965 or so? If this had been done in 1955, it might have had a shot...

Would it, though? Even though there were fewer channels, viewers could have gone out to a movie, or read a book or listened to the radio. There's no there there.

[jage]

Like so many early game shows, it could be fun as a segment once or twice, but gets old really quickly. Makes me long for more Video Village, a seemingly very fun board game concept.
Thanks Matt for the effort and the bonus as well.

[SuperMatch93]

I'm not surprised that it wasn't picked up for a series, but kudos to Matt for the effort.

By the way, whatever became of the What's Going On? part of the tape? Did it turn out that it was an episode that's circulating?

[RMF]

And now that a few of us have seen it, am I really going to be the first one to say...man, what a dumb idea for a TV show?  Because man, what a dumb idea for a TV show.  I agree with Kevin that it would be a decent idea as a board game, but (to me anyway), yelling at the screen over the ineptitude of players isn't the same as yelling right answers.  This just seems like it would get really repetitive really fast.

Especially since, if anything, this episode is less disastrous than it could have been- given incompetent-enough players, there's a very real chance of them failing to finish an entire game during an episode, and there's only so much bad play one can watch before it goes from "having fun with how bad the play is" to "really, really painful".

In all sincerity, thank you so very much for arranging for the transfer, and thank all of you who funded this- anything we can do to help the preservation of the genre is a positive thing, and I find the shows that don't work to be just as instructive as those that do.

[MikeK]

My post-3AM thoughts on both shows:

"Make Your Move":  If I was a television viewer in 1965, I would have been impressed and even fascinated with the animated logo in the beginning of the show.  The big issue I have with the "Make Your Move" is a complaint we've had about many shows in years past--rotational symmetry.  I get the fairness aspect of having the same wall set-up every quarter rotation.  It made for a less interesting game, IMO.  If there was a mathematically fair, in terms of number of walls per 4x4 corner section of the grid, as well as having more randomness, I'd find the game a little more enjoyable and challenging.  Silently selecting your move, like using a joystick and displaying the choice, wouldn't hurt either since it appeared contestants piggy-backed off of other contestants' choices a few times.  Another big flaw:  From what I could tell, the players in later positions, C and D, were at a disadvantage, especially D who never started a round.

The bonus show:  Speaking of flaws, this had more flaws than a Mickey Mantle rookie card which was placed in some kid's bike spokes, then sent through the wash for good measure.  Holy Flawed Scoring Format, Batman!  There is Body Language bad, then Super Password bad.  This tops both.  Then there's the game play.  In the end, there's a game there but it plods along and needs a ton of refining.  Credit where credit's due--At least Mark Goodson was trying new formats, albeit not really good or creative ones, in the mid-to-late 80s like this, "On a Roll", and "TKO".  (It's unfair to lump "TKO" with the other two; I really like "TKO".)  And Christian's connection between the theme and the thinking music?  Mind blown indeed.

[TLEberle]

I think the bonus element looked to combine Match Game's fun and Super Password's puzzle and I like the germ in there, but it needed another spin.

[Matt Ottinger]

By the way, whatever became of the What's Going On? part of the tape? Did it turn out that it was an episode that's circulating?

As I said in another thread, my question about What's Going On was only "marginally related" to the issue of this film.  Make Your Move was the only thing on this reel.

[DoorNumberFour]

I posted the link itself in the A/V subforum, but I've identified the theme song as "Murder She Says aka The Miss Marple Theme" by Ron Goodwin and His Orchestra, from the 1964 film "Murder Most Foul". I suppose that would further confirm the pilot's tape date as sometime in 64 or 65.

[Matt Ottinger]

Credit where credit's due--At least Mark Goodson was trying new formats, albeit not really good or creative ones, in the mid-to-late 80s like this, "On a Roll", and "TKO". 

Technically speaking, this was an attempt to update the sixties obscurity Get The Message, using the "throw more celebrities at it" approach that had succeeded so spectacularly with Match Game.

[MikeK]

Technically speaking, this was an attempt to update the sixties obscurity Get The Message, using the "throw more celebrities at it" approach that had succeeded so spectacularly with Match Game.

I did get a "Get the Message" vibe, as well as sprinkles of "Match Game" and "Super Password", as Evil Travis mentioned earlier.  There's just so much wrong with the game--the broken rules, the broken scoring format, the bonus round which causes the proceedings to screech to a halt while everybody lumbers to the end of the show.  Points for the bonus round topic which could (and did) go several different ways, confusing the contestant.

[TLEberle]

I did get a "Get the Message" vibe, as well as sprinkles of "Match Game" and "Super Password", as Evil Travis mentioned earlier.  There's just so much wrong with the game--the broken rules, the broken scoring format, the bonus round which causes the proceedings to screech to a halt while everybody lumbers to the end of the show.  Points for the bonus round topic which could (and did) go several different ways, confusing the contestant.

I thought we were trying to sidestep the name of the show, but now it's out of the bag. Anyway, what's broken in the scoring system or game rules where one player can get an advantage over the other? I agree that the scoring is profoundly stupid in that only that last round matters, but what didn't you like about the main game? I think the end game is fantastic but needed to move faster.

[MikeK]

I thought we were trying to sidestep the name of the show, but now it's out of the bag. Anyway, what's broken in the scoring system or game rules where one player can get an advantage over the other? I agree that the scoring is profoundly stupid in that only that last round matters, but what didn't you like about the main game? I think the end game is fantastic but needed to move faster.

Maybe it's due to the inequity in scoring, but I didn't like the person who started round 1 starting round 2 and really, does it matter when the third round is the only one that matters?  Work out the scoring (Best 2 out of 3 for a flat $500, win in two matches and play for a double bonus round a la "Go"?) and the game improves drastically.

Like I said previously, there is a game there.  It just needed a ton of fleshing out before making it to pilot stage.

[Matt Ottinger]

I agree with Mike that mechanics were the problem, but this was near the end of the period where even a lot of the G-T games that reached the air had scoring systems that were at best unimaginative and at worst flawed.  Creatively, the company was running on fumes at this point.  Their only fairly successful launch from here on would be their Concentration reboot.

Would it be a better game with only six celebrities?  Were they hesitant to do that because it would resemble Match Game even more?  The world will never know.