What makes a good $1,000,000 Question

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 09:43 AM\'] Weakest Link burned through questions far faster than any show I was ever involved with, and they had it down to a science. [/quote]
 You know, they would, wouldn't they.

Do you know if anyone kept track of, on average, how many questions the Robinson and/or Gray versions whistled through per show? Would anyone care to set an over/under?

[Matt Ottinger]

My guess:

Hour long Robinson: 180
Half-Hour Gray: 120

If anybody here knows for sure (without taking a tape off the shelf and counting) my guess is it would be Randy.

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 12:29 PM\'] My guess:

Hour long Robinson: 180
Half-Hour Gray: 120

If anybody here knows for sure (without taking a tape off the shelf and counting) my guess is it would be Randy. [/quote]
 According to The Weakest Link Magazine (a one off that was produced in Britain 2001/02), the 45 min British show averaged 200 questions per show.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 09:29 AM\'] My guess:

Hour long Robinson: 180
Half-Hour Gray: 120

If anybody here knows for sure (without taking a tape off the shelf and counting) my guess is it would be Randy. [/quote]
 Wow Matt!

While I don't have any count of questions used on each show, exclusive of the bonus round each half hour episode was prepped with approximately 130 questions. Looking over the paperwork, it appears that few shows used all of the 130 prepped. Nice educated guess!


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[dscungio]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 02:08 PM\'][quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 09:29 AM\'] My guess:

Hour long Robinson: 180
Half-Hour Gray: 120

If anybody here knows for sure (without taking a tape off the shelf and counting) my guess is it would be Randy. [/quote]
Wow Matt!

While I don't have any count of questions used on each show, exclusive of the bonus round each half hour episode was prepped with approximately 130 questions. Looking over the paperwork, it appears that few shows used all of the 130 prepped. Nice educated guess!


[/quote]
I kept stats of the Robinson shows as they aired on NBC and posted them to ATGS.  Looking back at them now, on average, they asked about a little less than 120 questions per show.  Of course, this depended on how fast they went through them during the game.  I wouldn't be surprised if they had written 200 questions for an hour-long show.

Note: Jeopardy! has 61 answers/questions per show, plus more on hand if there is a mistake during taping.



Dean

[Kevin Prather]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 07:00 AM\']

One of the best 1M questions would have to be the Carol Brady maiden name question. The choices included Sam the butcher's last name, Alice's last name, Martin (the last name of Carol's first husband), and the correct answer (which I don't remember).

It was Tyler, and that threw me too.  Glad I wasn't in the Hot Seat for that because I was sure it was Martin.  I did see the first episode of "The Brady Bunch" again a few months after that question came up, and it's definately Tyler, but you have to listen closely! [/quote]
 You almost can't know unless you read the end credits to that episode, iirc. In the show, Carol is always referred to as either Carol or Ms. Martin.

The one question I thought was a curious choice for a MDQ was David Goodman's question, "In the children's book series, where is Paddington Bear originally from?  B: Peru   D: Iceland"

After the 50:50, it'd be a snap if you knew that Paddington is based on a real bear, and he's not a polar bear.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 06:05 PM\'] You almost can't know unless you read the end credits to that episode, iirc. In the show, Carol is always referred to as either Carol or Ms. Martin.

The one question I thought was a curious choice for a MDQ was David Goodman's question, "In the children's book series, where is Paddington Bear originally from?  B: Peru   D: Iceland"

After the 50:50, it'd be a snap if you knew that Paddington is based on a real bear, and he's not a polar bear. [/quote]
 That was a good one too...the thing that would've tipped me off was the theme song to the Paddington cartoon. The song referred to Paddington as being from "darkest Peru."

[CarShark]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 11:43 AM\'] Right on Matt, Split, et al. Glad to see some "props" for question writers. It's one of the hardest and most underated jobs in game shows. But producers know it is vital - some shows have as many as 20 writer/researchers. In fact, producers traditionally have graduated from the ranks of writers. Among the most gifted is Gary Johnson at Jeopardy.

As much as I wanted to get in the biz in the early 80s, I missed my first chance. I was doing run-throughs for Jay Wolpert who offered me a staff job if I could write 100 usable questions for one of the shows he was developing. Granted, it was a typically complex Wolpert format requiring a "twist" in each question and its 4 multiple choice answers, but when I turned in my 100 questions Jay explained why most of them were unusable. I had no idea how tough it is to write GOOD questions.

Weakest Link burned through questions far faster than any show I was ever involved with, and they had it down to a science. Two full teams of writers, researchers and authenticators, plus a database of previously used questions cross-referenced a bunch of different ways. And for security, the writers' offices shreaded more paper each day than Oliver North!


Randy
tvrandywest.com [/quote]
 I never paid much attention to the credits at the end of Millionaire before, but when I saw that they had a bunch of writers, all reporting to a head writer, I was surprised. It makes sense to me now that you would want several brains working on the job.

Does each writer take on a particular subject? One would do Art, another for Science, another for Current Events...and so on.

One thing I've always wondered is how they decided which question will be 14 and which will be 15. For the most part, they are extremely hard questions, so what would make one "harder" than another?

[Little Big Brother]

One thing I've always wondered is how they decided which question will be 14 and which will be 15. For the most part, they are extremely hard questions, so what would make one "harder" than another?

There is a concern that I have with this question in that there seems to be an assumption that 15 is expected to be harder than 14.  Most of the time, I don't think that is the case.  Question 14 tends to ask either about minute details (The word on the sign in Hopper's "Night Hawks" painting), something relatively obscure (the banned fruit in Singapore's subways), or developing an educated guess (Nancy Christy's architecture question).

Question 15 tends to fall into what I would call "placemat trivia".  In other words, a factoid that you would find on a restaurant placemat followed by the phrase "Did you know...?"  Yes, the questions are still obscure, but there is an element of greater familiarity that tends to be associated with the final question and the contestant.

However, the way that stacks seemed to be organized in the early runs of the show, particularly the first two Millionaires', seemed to be designed to play on a player's psychology.  Have the middle questions of the upper tier be really difficult, and if they negotiate that, have the final question be so easy that they second guess themselves.  After 2 Millionaires, this method of construction seemed to go to the wayside.

[mcd]

The Tolkien books were very famous long before the movies came out, and you wouldn't have to know anything about Pokemon to pick out the wrong answer out of the bunch. You're definitely right that the movies have made the question even easier.

Knowing that Frodo was from a Tolkien series doesn't mean it couldn't be the name of a Pokemon.  Someone could easily out-psyche themselves thinking that there might be, saying that it's a trick.

[Ian Wallis]

Note: Jeopardy! has 61 answers/questions per show, plus more on hand if there is a mistake during taping.

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned on one of the "behind the scenes" type shows that "Jeopardy" actually has 6 answers and questions per category.  The 6th is prepared just in case something weird happens during the reveal of one of the first five.

I wonder what kind of difficulty the 6th one has - because you can never know for sure at what point you might need it.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Feb 5 2004, 08:55 AM\']

Note: Jeopardy! has 61 answers/questions per show, plus more on hand if there is a mistake during taping.

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned on one of the "behind the scenes" type shows that "Jeopardy" actually has 6 answers and questions per category.  The 6th is prepared just in case something weird happens during the reveal of one of the first five.

I wonder what kind of difficulty the 6th one has - because you can never know for sure at what point you might need it. [/quote]
 I've seen clues that seemed a bit easier in the higher value boxes than in the lower value boxes, and in those cases I've wondered if its the sixth clue they write for each category, used because something amiss occurred during one of the other clues in the category.

[Gromit]

[quote name=\'mcd\' date=\'Feb 4 2004, 10:15 PM\'] Knowing that Frodo was from a Tolkien series doesn't mean it couldn't be the name of a Pokemon.  Someone could easily out-psyche themselves thinking that there might be, saying that it's a trick. [/quote]
 Extremely unlikely though, what with the modern penchant for litigation.

I was stunned when that guy didn't even know the Frodo question. I'd never read the books either (since rectified), but had heard numerous references to Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf etc.

[starcade]

I think an extremely hard question that you either drop-dead know or you don't have left of a clue.  Not so impossible that only the producers could tell you the answer (the 50's scandals), but not so possible that it's too easy (which see the distance-from-Earth-to-Sun $1M question).

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'starcade\' date=\'Feb 7 2004, 02:47 PM\'] I think an extremely hard question that you either drop-dead know or you don't have left of a clue. [/quote]
As we've discussed before, that accurately defines the WORST kind of million dollar question, because it removes all drama from the game.  The player either knows it and answers right away, or the player doesn't know it and he walks right away.

The best million dollar question has to tantalize the player with recognizable choices and, ideally, the feeling that he really ought to know the answer whether he actually does or not.

BTW, I'm not sure why you used "the 50's scandals" as an example, but especially on this forum, I think you'd find an awful lot of people who would LIKE to see a million dollar question on that subject!