MG/HS weirdness?

[JakeT]

As tonight's episode began, I got a brief glimpse of the Super Match board as Arsenio Hall was introduced...it is always (supposed to be) just off-camera and the spotlight picked it up by accident?

JakeT

[Sodboy13]

This happens in quite a few episodes, if you focus on that edge of the screen. I wonder if it's a case of us being able to see more of the picture than home viewers would have during the days of the bulging tube.

Also, does anyone else feel like the Super Match board was designed for an entirely different production of the show than the rest of the set?


Edited to remove a broken quote box. -knagl

[PYLdude]

Buzzr broadcasts in the same ratio as 1983 TV would, doesn't it?

If you really think about that set, the video wall becomes more abd more of a waste the more you do, doesn't it? Okay, fine, it's nice as a marquee, but what does it accomplish that the set pieces for each half of the show don't (Hollywood Squares' bathroom style notwithstanding)?

[Chelsea Thrasher]

That was probably the most convenient place to put the prop - that they'll need before the show's over - that it's mostly out of the way.   

Add in, in no particular order:

*Some episodes the camera operator is demonstrably pulling back a little too wide or is otherwise panning a little too hard left to track the celebs for the intro walk

*It's 1983 - every single display in use in that control room is going to still be CRT and thus, even as professional equipment, subject to a bit of overscan. Consumer sets at home even moreso.  The fringe 5-10% of the frame was generally not being seen when these shows were broadcast because as a function of the way old school tube displays worked, that picture data was still being captured and recorded but the sets just didn't display it.

A couple of the episodes are particularly egregious, but most of the time when it *can* be seen it's so close to the edge they quite literally wouldn't have noticed.  Even for source material pulled off dusty reels and left unrestored, watching on a computer or TV set in 2019 gives the advantage of getting to see the full frame of video.

And even when there's a more flagrant case of the prop being clearly in the shot - we're talking in the prime of the live-to-tape era.  They're not doing a reshoot or stop because you can see the bonus game board.

At most it'd be a conversation in a meeting or after the fact, and if Buzzr ever gets to showing later-era shows I'll be curious to see if it stops happening.

[tvwxman]

Legit q: Does anyone know how tall the marquee is ? How wide? I don't think it's as wide as we think...the steps leading up to it don't help the size schematics.

[MSTieScott]

Legit q: Does anyone know how tall the marquee is ? How wide? I don't think it's as wide as we think...the steps leading up to it don't help the size schematics.

At about 0:50 into this episode...



...Fred Grandy plasters himself directly against the wall.

The internet is notoriously unreliable when it comes to celebrity heights, but for the sake of estimation, let's say that Fred is roughly 5'8". He's a little taller than six squares of the wall.

To keep things at whole numbers, let's estimate then that each square is 11 inches tall. The wall is 16 squares high, so, not including the steps and turntables, the wall is roughly 14˝ feet tall.

If we assume that those squares are perfect squares (which they may or may not be... I think they may be slightly taller than they are wide), then, at 48 squares across, the wall would be very roughly 44 feet wide if it were a straight line. Because of the wall's concave shape, it wouldn't actually reach that width.

[JakeT]

Legit q: Does anyone know how tall the marquee is ? How wide? I don't think it's as wide as we think...the steps leading up to it don't help the size schematics.

At about 0:50 into this episode...



...Fred Grandy plasters himself directly against the wall.

This is easily my favorite episode of the series so far...

One of the things I felt was missing from this version was the hijinks of the 70s version...the opening here recaptured what I had been missing...

JakeT