New Buzzr lineup effective 9/30

[BillCullen1]

One other point:  Bauman wasn't terrible, but that was the wrong show for him.  He tried to be charming and entertaining, but I think he just had trouble reining in the celebs and trying to balance whether it was a comedy game or a trivia game show played for big money (even Goodson didn't really seem to figure it out).  He was much better suited for his other show, The Pop n Rocker Game, since it revolved around music.  Maybe someone here knows the answer to this, but why not just have Rayburn host both parts?  Did there actually need to be another host for the HS part?

Oh, and the less Fred Travalena, the better...

Anthony 

I agree (X gets the square  ). Fred was OK during MG but on HS, he was like that kid in class who just wanted attention. I had read that NBC insisted on two hosts, but Rayburn could have probably handled hosting HS with no problem. On Friday's show we got to see how they handle a tie on HS (tie-breaker question) and what happens when the contestant doesn't match any of the Super Match answers (give them $100 and try to multiply that in the head-to-head). As for Bauman, I feel he did the best he could with the situation he was given. Peter Marshall would have probably objected to the changes Goodson made to HS.

During the MG portion, three celebs sit backstage and come out for the HS portion. I noticed they had Nedra Volz play both portions for all five shows and CNR sat out for just one MG all week. All in all, it's a harmless hour of entertainment. I've seen better. I've also seen worse.

[TimK2003]

And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.

I lol'd a lot harder at this than I probably should have. You couldn't be more right! 9 year old me enjoyed this show immensely....44 year old me found three rounds of MG too long and the HS segment falling flat on its face with not being played for laughs.

It's on too late for me to see it in the evening, and football wins out on the weekends, at least during football season...Did catch, thanks to Imad Khuri, the "Lost and Found" episode with Howie Mandel. To say Howie's shtick with the first few (I turned it off after) HS questions was too long would be an understatement.

Time to build a nightmare MG/HS panel:

I'll start with a row 1 of : Howie Mandel, Fred Travalena, Jimmie Walker.

Somewhere in the Middle Tier:  Skip Stephenson.

[Sodboy13]

And McLean Stevenson.

[PPatters]

Grumpy End-of-Run Richard Dawson

[Scrabbleship]

And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.

I lol'd a lot harder at this than I probably should have. You couldn't be more right! 9 year old me enjoyed this show immensely....44 year old me found three rounds of MG too long and the HS segment falling flat on its face with not being played for laughs.

It's on too late for me to see it in the evening, and football wins out on the weekends, at least during football season...Did catch, thanks to Imad Khuri, the "Lost and Found" episode with Howie Mandel. To say Howie's shtick with the first few (I turned it off after) HS questions was too long would be an understatement.

Time to build a nightmare MG/HS panel:

I'll start with a row 1 of : Howie Mandel, Fred Travalena, Jimmie Walker.

Somewhere in the Middle Tier:  Skip Stephenson.

Somewhere up top being totally under the radar: Arlene Francis.

[Matt Ottinger]

Somewhere in the Middle Tier:  Skip Stephenson.

And McLean Stevenson.

Just to confuse people.

[tpirfan28]

Skip and McLean were both on the final week in 1982 (and younger me thought they WERE related).

Match suffered from virtually no banter between a mishmash of celebrities.  Easy fix: they used the hacked-up PM format.  Squares suffered from no written jokes and it makes it slightly dull.  Their fix: Fred Travelena.

/I'll add Alex Karras to the bad panel

[MikeK]

I noticed they had Nedra Volz play both portions for all five shows...

I had a theory about this.  Nedra Volz was 75 at the time, and the powers that be felt it may have been too difficult to scale the stairs to the top tier.  Watch how slow she is crossing the stage during the open.

[JakeT]

Oh, and the less Fred Travalena, the better...

This was one thing that didn't change in the 16 years since I first watched. The impressions got old quick.

And Travelena, in addition to his rather lame impressions, constantly commits my biggest comedic pet peeve: laughs at his own performance...he clearly thinks he's funnier than any of the rest of us do...

JakeT

[TLEberle]

My main criticism with the show has always been with the Hollywood Squares portion. I never liked the idea of a win by default but here, considering the pacing

Considering what, though? I can see the point of wanting to award money to people as quickly as possible, and as much as I like the comedians being funny where the game dropped its leg of the couch, something has to move the game along and making sure that a game won't go more than nine questions helps.

With that settled, why couldn't they just do a simple 2 out of 3 match, or 3 out of 5?

If they had it where Match Game was two rounds and Hollywood Squares was best of three you have the issue where three games happen every two shows. [/quote]Whether that's a terrible thing is up for debate (it certainly wouldn't feel as draining) they probably have to go back to the old 500-250-100 payoffs for Audience Match and a top payoff of $15,000 which isn't as eye-watering as thirty grand in daytime.

And I still find Jon's style incredibly annoying. It's like he was trying to make "you were right to agree" a catchphrase against its will.

I find it similar to watching one's kids at a recital or play. Awkwardness that you hope everyone gets out of with a minimum of hurt tears and feelings. Given Jon's other verbiage of "You're playing X" and the like I think that was more the insistence of Mark Goodson to give JB a net. Also, was Tom Kennedy too busy hosting nothing I can recall? Would Bert Convy not pick up the phone? I realize that Peter Marshall was PNG at that point but my GORD there had to be someone else in the stable to handle that portion.

I forgot but wanted to touch upon it: the cash isn't enough for me to care. In that tie game both players won $475 before sudden death. In another episode the loser took away fifty bucks. What's the point? Better to award the Match Game winner a prize package and then have the prize for winning HS the chance at the thirty grand.

It is an interesting experiment/slow-motion car crash that I'm glad was attempted once but I'm also glad hasn't been retried.

[Dbacksfan12]

It is an interesting experiment/slow-motion car crash that I'm glad was attempted once but I'm also glad hasn't been retried.

Spin-off question:  Are there two shows that you believe would meld better?  Or is MG-HSH the "peak" of a hybrid format?

[TLEberle]

Not really--I think that a good game show can stand under its own weight and doing a pairing like "Pyramid/Jeopardy" or "Hot Streak/Go!" does a disservice to both of them. Decades ago I found someone's webpage and they had fleshed out an idea where the couple that had been paired together in a game of Singled Out would then play a game of Treasure Hunt to find out where they were going/what they would win. I had put forward the idea that the central subjects of Figure it Out should have spun a prize wheel to determine what they won rather than hinging upon the ineptitude of the panelists, but I wouldn't call it a melding with The Big Spin.

[nowhammies10]

I had put forward the idea that the central subjects of Figure it Out should have spun a prize wheel to determine what they won rather than hinging upon the ineptitude of the panelists, but I wouldn't call it a melding with The Big Spin.

"The secret slime action is... landing on DECISION."

[Casey Buck]

The audience must not be very amused, because Mother Mackenzie is going crazy with "YEE HOO!" all the time. I swear, between that, the "YEAH! OO! ALL RIGHT!" track, and the "WOOO! OW!" track, they're like the Wilhelm Scream of game shows.

[joshg]

Time to build a nightmare MG/HS panel:

Marty Cohen and Leonard Frey