Black GS Hosts and GS Producers

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 06:07 PM\'] I can't think of a single black U.S. game show producer or director. Anyone? [/quote]
Whoopi Goldberg-Hollywood Squares, exec. producer

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 03:50 PM\'] Randall Cunningham hosted Scramble for a year (in syndication or on cable?). [/quote]
 Scramble was syndicated. In my market at the time it would air, naturally, in that void between the Sunday NFL games and the weekend evening news.

[Adam Nedeff]

He didn't actually produce anything that I know of, but he did write "Chump Change," the theme music for both versions of "Now You See It," but even that can be nitpicked since he didn't actually compose it specifically for the series.

[Starkman]

of course the problem is most of these shows never really took off and their hosts never got a chance to shine. And then you have the Phil Moores of the world who just plain stinks.

Lynn Swann could have done well if he wasnt rushed into the job.

Now Cosby and Roker were excellent and Michael Carrington was really good, but the rest were either average or below average. Too bad Roker turned down the 2003 LMAD because I think he would have done a great job.

Now from the "is this really a game show?" department, Omar Gooding on the original Wild and Crazy Kids was quite good.

As for the late great Chief Lynne Thigpen, I dunno what to call her either, she was more than a cohost and announcer but not really a hostess either. But she WAS one of the main reasons for the show's success, definatly one of the more successful black game show personalities out there.

[Jimmy Owen]

Don Cornielius had the "Soul Train Scramble" segment for many years.  That was one game where everybody was too busy dancing to notice if the players won.

[chris319]

Whoopi is not  a career producer. She had never been associated with a game show before and never will be again. My take is that the EP title was merely an ego-boosting fillip. Brian Conn can set the record straight here but I'd be surprised if she ever set foot in the HS office.

[bricon]

Whoopi is not a career producer. She had never been associated with a game show before and never will be again. My take is that the EP title was merely an ego-boosting fillip. Brian Conn can set the record straight here but I'd be surprised if she ever set foot in the HS office.

Surprise surprise  She came to host callback auditions in our office, and even played her part as "Whoopi" during the host gameplay, with two other standins taking the part of the other eight celebrities.  Since I was not based out of the Moffitt/Lee office, I can't say if she ever physically showed up there.  I do know that things were run by her as a courtesy, she did have comments/notes on those things.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Fedya\' date=\'Feb 13 2004, 02:45 PM\']The late Monteria Ivey [sp?] hosted Think Twice on PBS back in 1994.[/quote]
And--although it's stretching it a little--"Snaps," a comedy competition that ran for three or four episodes on HBO at about the same time and based on a book he co-wrote in which "Snaps" was his word for "the dozens," the "yo mama so fat..." and "yo mama so big..." one-upping competitions so common in black communities.

The dozens, of course, was the inspiration for at least one game show parody on "In Living Color."

[Michael Brandenburg]

You can now add one more to this list, or at least you will be able to starting February 21, 2004.

   That's when the Ohio Lottery's Cash Explosion Double Play TV game show will get a new African-American host with a man named Leilani Barrett.  I got a preview of him and his new co-hostess, Michelle Duda on the Ohio Lottery's "TPD Special" that aired last night (2-14-2004) in place of their regularly-scheduled CEDP program, which will also get a set makeover when it returns this Saturday.

   As the show's new host, I think he'll do all right, but the "TPD Special" was a bomb, plain and simple, in my opinion.  They started out with 19 players who were in the running for the top prizes of $2 million in each of two of the Ohio Lottery's scratch-off games, "28th Anniversary Spectacular" and "Stocking Stuffer," but no real games were played by these players during the show -- they simply read off their names, one by one, with each one of the players eliminated as their names were read, until only one player was left for each game.  (A drawing, held in advance of the program's taping, actually determined who those two winners would be.)

   During the show, they also ripped-off the Publisher's Clearing House's "Prize Patrol" gimmick by having lottery employees show up with big checks for other winners in those games -- one supposed winner of $40,000, two supposed winners of $250,000, and one supposed winner of $500,000.  But note here that I said supposed winners -- because, thanks to my mother's big-screen TV on which I was watching that show on, I was able to spot the words "Non-Negotiable" on the checks that those winners were given!

   So, in short, these four people got checks that were actually worth $100 less than the one I got in my mail from the Kentucky Lottery three weeks after my Powerball Instant Millionaire show aired on November 9, 2002 on which I was one of the "home partners" -- and if they tried to cash them at my bank, they would have been hit for a $27 "service charge" for trying to deposit no-good checks!

   Give me Powerball Instant Millionaire over this anytime!


   Michael Brandenburg
   (and I think I can count on the Kentucky Lottery Corporation to give me a good check again, even if I win $10,000 as a Powerball Instant Millionaire "home partner" on the June 5, 2004, program!)

[johnnya2k3]

LeVar Burton did "Know Your Heritage" on WGN in the mid '80s, followed by Karyn Bryant with "Name That Video" on VH1 a few years back.

Valarie Rae Miller hosted Gladiators 2000 (with a much younger Ryan Seacrest) and Peer Pressure in the '90s before playing "Original Cindy", the Art Carney to Jackie Gleason's (Jessica Alba's) Ralph Kramden ("Max") on Dark Angel. Geez, with Jessica back in the spotlight and looking as stunning as ever thanks to "Honey" (BTW, it'll come out on DVD in late March), Valarie's next move is uncertain.

At least I would've imagined her taking Kennedy's spot on Friend or Foe...

Jonathan Allen

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'johnnya2k3\' date=\'Feb 16 2004, 03:54 PM\']Valarie Rae Miller hosted Gladiators 2000 (with a much younger Ryan Seacrest) and Peer Pressure in the '90s before playing "Original Cindy", the Ed McMahon to Jessica Alba's Johnny Carson ("Max") on Dark Angel. Geez, with Jessica back in the spotlight and looking as stunning as ever thanks to "Honey" (can't wait for it to come out on DVD), Valarie's next move is uncertain.[/quote]
Valarie also hosted the ABC "Disney's One Saturday Morning" block for at least a year before "Dark Angel."

And she was a lot better on "Peer Pressure" than that air-headed host, whose name I now conveniently forget--the best thing about that misbegotten show.

[goongas]

According to the E! True Hollywood Story on Hollywood Squares, Whoppi was active in trying to get celebrities to appear on the show, an important role for the show.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Feb 17 2004, 12:27 PM\'] According to the E! True Hollywood Story on Hollywood Squares, Whoppi was active in trying to get celebrities to appear on the show, an important role for the show. [/quote]
 Is "Whoppi" a new sandwich at Burger King?

(I could've gone a dirtier route, too...)

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Feb 17 2004, 12:27 PM\'] According to the E! True Hollywood Story on Hollywood Squares, Whoppi was active in trying to get celebrities to appear on the show, an important role for the show. [/quote]
 Hey now, that's no way to describe the Italian-Americans who work on that show.....:-)

[johnnya2k3]

And she was a lot better on "Peer Pressure" than that air-headed host, whose name I now conveniently forget--the best thing about that misbegotten show.

Nick Spano, who would later go on trying to raise hell on "Even Stevens" (I'm glad Shia LeBeouf moved on).

BTW, I remember Peer Pressure and Click (another pre-American Idol/On-Air/American Top 40 show Seacrest did) being on back-to-back Saturday afternoons; Click was well-produced while Peer Pressure looked like it was taped at a darkened lumber yard! Even the "Temptation" part had a very well-known game show that's still on the air after over three decades cry out "RIPOFF!!!"

Jonathan Allen