More Concentration!

[Casey Buck]

Which rebus design do you like better? I think I prefer the Narz version's rebuses; having 5 extra squares to work with does help a bit.

[TimK2003]

Which rebus design do you like better? I think I prefer the Narz version's rebuses; having 5 extra squares to work with does help a bit.

For the episodes I've seen thus far, there seems to be more drawings used as part of the rebuses on the Narz version. And I'm not just talking about the Double Play rounds.  Maybe because of the extra row of squares?

[Sodboy13]

I wonder how far away and partitioned Johnny's podium is. We can't hear the board at all during the head start plugs.

I'm listening to it with my headphones tonight, and you can hear the board rotation quietly in the background behind Johnny's voice.

[clemon79]

having 5 extra squares to work with does help a bit.

"Better cut that pizza into four pieces, I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat eight."

[chrisholland03]

having 5 extra squares to work with does help a bit.

"Better cut that pizza into four pieces, I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat eight."

Bravo! I couldn't have said it better!

[MikeK]

I like the 30-square board.  You can have a one-row puzzle filling the entirety of the board, a two-row puzzle (each row of the rebus fits nicely in a block of 15 squares) or a three-row puzzle (each row being 10 squares), with no overlap into another row, i.e., there won't be something dangling from the first row of a 3-row rebus behind square 11.  It seems Concentration has less empty squares than Classic, particularly in the corners.

[Adam Nedeff]

Interesting that Jack mentioned a couple of times on Thursday's (4/2) episode of a "new twist" to the game play.  At first, he thought it was in Game 2, but then when he came back from commercial, he mentioned that it will premiere "on a future episode".

Any guesses as to what he was referring to?

"Call 3."

I know we don't really have a big enough sampling of episodes to draw from, but I found it interesting that they introduced this rule after we've seen four episodes demonstrating that the rule change wasn't really needed. The game already moved at a fast clip with good players and they often had to pad for time after two games and two Double Plays. Why a rule change to speed the show up?

[Blanquepage]

Interesting that Jack mentioned a couple of times on Thursday's (4/2) episode of a "new twist" to the game play.  At first, he thought it was in Game 2, but then when he came back from commercial, he mentioned that it will premiere "on a future episode".

Any guesses as to what he was referring to?

"Call 3."

I know we don't really have a big enough sampling of episodes to draw from, but I found it interesting that they introduced this rule after we've seen four episodes demonstrating that the rule change wasn't really needed. The game already moved at a fast clip with good players and they often had to pad for time after two games and two Double Plays. Why a rule change to speed the show up?

Perhaps to squeeze in more puzzles, leading to more time for the players to amass more prizes / play Double Play?

[knagl]

There must have been some sort of offstage signal for Jack indicating the puzzle had been solved, or else he was briefed on it before the show started (which seems less likely).

On an episode of Classic that I happened to see recently, Alex made reference to part of a puzzle that he thought was slightly confusing when he was briefed on it before the taping.

Granted, different production, different era, but I'd suspect that Narz (or any host) would be given a sneak peak at the puzzles before each game so that he wouldn't potentially end up in a situation where he's explaining the puzzle on camera and can't figure out part of it.

[snowpeck]

There must have been some sort of offstage signal for Jack indicating the puzzle had been solved, or else he was briefed on it before the show started (which seems less likely).

On an episode of Classic that I happened to see recently, Alex made reference to part of a puzzle that he thought was slightly confusing when he was briefed on it before the taping.

Granted, different production, different era, but I'd suspect that Narz (or any host) would be given a sneak peak at the puzzles before each game so that he wouldn't potentially end up in a situation where he's explaining the puzzle on camera and can't figure out part of it.

Alex frequently mentioned that he was briefed on the puzzles and their solutions before the show, and would usually then joke at that point that he had forgotten what the solution was.

[Ian Wallis]

I'm predisposed toward the show anyway, but I always thought The Money Maze had a great music package (which only exists on YouTube in a short promo). The tunes were repurposed for two other shows by different production companies: The Guinness Game, of course, but also Match Game used one of the themes as think music for a very short time (presumably somebody recognized it).

I love The Money Maze theme as well.  Oddly, this one is missing from TVPMM.  The one they have there is the theme to the pilot.  I believe the prize cue is correct thought.  Would love for this to surface.

[chrisholland03]

I would love to hear a Concentration/Tattletales mashup.  It feels like one could seamlessly blend from one to the other.

[jage]

Wow, also noticed the similarity - TheTT theme right before the bridge along with the Concentration head starts.

[SRIV94]

"Call 3."
Clip from tonight's episode with this change:

Channeling its inner NBA.  ("Three to make two.")

[JasonA1]

I know we don't really have a big enough sampling of episodes to draw from, but I found it interesting that they introduced this rule after we've seen four episodes demonstrating that the rule change wasn't really needed. The game already moved at a fast clip with good players and they often had to pad for time after two games and two Double Plays. Why a rule change to speed the show up?

I think the bigger function of the rule change was to justify the show being on for so many years (i.e. look what we're doing NOW!!). But I also realized tonight (catching up on backlogged Concentration on the DVR) that speeding up one game of the two helps add the time necessary to play two pre-Double Play matching games to determine what prize the winner is playing for. I'd be willing to bet, if/when we get there, that the pre-Double Play matching game episodes have far fewer time filler segments (Money Game, $50 Double Play, etc.) than the ones Buzzr is showing now.

-Jason