Long Discontinued Game Show Practices (that Lasted Longer Than You Thought)

[SamJ93]

A conversation about Super Ball!!’s camera blocking led to me going to Youtube. I thought the game was retired in the mid-90s at the latest, but apparently its final playing was January of ‘98.

And even though it was apparently retired because it took up too much time, they still played both it and 3 Strikes on its last show. Utterly unthinkable today, but it doesn't seem all that long ago that such a thing was possible.

[Mr. Armadillo]

Going in the other direction, I would have sworn that Wheel only started editing out Final Spins that landed on Bankrupt/Lose A Turn/whatnot in the early 2010's, but apparently the last time they actually aired Pat landing on one was like 1998.

[Kevin Prather]

I always have it in my head that Janice and Kathleen left Price shortly after Holly, rather than sticking around until 2000.

[JasonA1]

A conversation about Super Ball!!’s camera blocking led to me going to Youtube. I thought the game was retired in the mid-90s at the latest, but apparently its final playing was January of ‘98.

And even though it was apparently retired because it took up too much time, they still played both it and 3 Strikes on its last show.

It's a bit more than that. All the interviews, etc. indicate Super Ball was retired because it took up too much time for the reactions it was getting. Which IMO was a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the prizes they put in the game rapidly declined by the '90s. The earlier playings were more in line with what I think the game needed - a prize in every door worthy of being played for on its own (hot tubs, trips, etc.) In the '96-'97 season, it was only played for a car once out of 10 appearances. The first playing I drummed up on YouTube from '96 had small appliances (microwave/mini-fridge/bread maker), a dining room and a gazebo behind the doors. Given contestants' rapidly growing apathy towards "regular" prizes, this wasn't helping (again, IMO).

-Jason

[MSTieScott]

All the interviews, etc. indicate Super Ball was retired because it took up too much time for the reactions it was getting. Which IMO was a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the prizes they put in the game rapidly declined by the '90s. The earlier playings were more in line with what I think the game needed - a prize in every door worthy of being played for on its own (hot tubs, trips, etc.) [...] The first playing I drummed up on YouTube from '96 had small appliances (microwave/mini-fridge/bread maker), a dining room and a gazebo behind the doors.

Even in that example, though, two of the three doors did contain a prize that would normally be used as the featured prize in Grocery Game, Cliff Hangers, etc. -- the problem in that case was that even though it was an expensive gazebo, nobody in 1996 cared about winning a gazebo.

What has struck me about seeing Super Ball in the season 11 episodes is that the total value of all three doors was often the same as or better than a showcase. In that 1996 example, however, the total value was $7,954, and I suspect that showcases were always more than $10,000 by that time. Which goes back to your point about all three doors needing to be valuable.

But yeah, short of it becoming a dedicated car game (and even that would have its problems -- "You won the car! Now try to win the super ball to pick up the two prizes you don't care about!"), Super Ball was eating up too much time for the fun it was capable of putting out. And I know some people here really love skee-ball, but watching somebody else play skee-ball four times isn't that compelling, in my opinion. Hole in One would be a slog if it were "Hole in One or Two or Three or Four."

[Neumms]

But yeah, short of it becoming a dedicated car game (and even that would have its problems -- "You won the car! Now try to win the super ball to pick up the two prizes you don't care about!")

They could have simplified it by playing the four small prizes at once then playing for one prize—a car—rather than three. Maybe you’re earning chances to hit the middle hole once or you’re playing to some score to win.

[Kevin Prather]

And I know some people here really love skee-ball, but watching somebody else play skee-ball four times isn't that compelling, in my opinion.

I think this is a major point. For the most part, the most memorable moments of Superball were the players who failed spectacularly at it.

[Casey]

But yeah, short of it becoming a dedicated car game (and even that would have its problems -- "You won the car! Now try to win the super ball to pick up the two prizes you don't care about!"

I agree - Master Key suffers from this with this just 1 less step involved, and it is less likely to occur.  But at least the reveal is a bit more controllable.  If a person chooses the car key and the master key, I assume Drew is told to start with the master key?  I can't remember any recent playing where the player got the car key and the master key, but I assume that is what would happen?  Otherwise it plays out exactly as you described.

Super Ball is visually entertaining, and I think it would be great fun to play.  But the payoff isn't as big as the presentation would suggest.

[wxfrcaster]

I agree - Master Key suffers from this with this just 1 less step involved, and it is less likely to occur.  But at least the reveal is a bit more controllable.  If a person chooses the car key and the master key, I assume Drew is told to start with the master key?  I can't remember any recent playing where the player got the car key and the master key, but I assume that is what would happen? 

Are there marks on the back of the keys to indicate which key is which? Or is Drew told ahead of time? I know the envelopes in Pocket ˘hange have amounts on the back to help guide the host on how to reveal them or build suspense.

[Mr. Armadillo]

I agree - Master Key suffers from this with this just 1 less step involved, and it is less likely to occur.  But at least the reveal is a bit more controllable.  If a person chooses the car key and the master key, I assume Drew is told to start with the master key?  I can't remember any recent playing where the player got the car key and the master key, but I assume that is what would happen?  Otherwise it plays out exactly as you described.

It's only happened once in the last ten years (and was unsurpisingly done by a Golden-Road regular who knew where the producers would hide the car and master key).  Drew gave him the car key first.

There are several playings from the first three Drew seasons where both keys were won and the Master Key was used first, so obviously we don't know what the other key was, but I don't think those would be representative of anything in the present anyways.

[MSTieScott]

Without going into specifics, Bob/Drew had/has a way of knowing where the car and master keys are before walking to the locks, although the specific method is different for each host.

It's up to the host to decide which key the contestant should try first, and because it's so rare for a contestant to find both the car and the master keys, it isn't surprising that in the heat of the moment, he wouldn't remember to do the nonintuitive thing and have the contestant use the master key first. I'd be willing to bet that there's at least one episode out there where Bob did that, too.

[MSTieScott]

I checked the records I saved from seasons 35 through 40. During that span, a contestant found both the car and master keys twice: in the episodes that aired November 2, 2006, and November 4, 2009. Cross-referencing those dates against online recaps, the master key was placed in the locks first in the 2006 playing while the car key was placed in the locks first in the 2009 playing.

I'm sure the situation had come up many times in the years prior to that, but I don't have those statistics.

[chris319]

I remember Super Ball being pitched by Marc Breslow during a game meeting in January, 1980. Breslow wanted a game with a prize behind each door. There was some trepidation about having a stage game with prizes more valuable than the showcases.

Breslow didn't have a mockup of the game but simply described it. He made reference to Skee Ball as played at Santa Monica pier.

[JasonA1]

Interesting to note: Marc Breslow still had his on-screen "Creative Consultant" credit in fall 1997, but by the 5,000th show the next April, his name was gone (while Ted Cooper remained). The last playing of Super Ball!! was in January '98.

-Jason

[Kevin Prather]

Without going into specifics, Bob/Drew had/has a way of knowing where the car and master keys are before walking to the locks, although the specific method is different for each host.

So the keys are actually functioning keys? I always assumed the keys were just the equivalent of "pick a number", and someone just pushed a button backstage to do the reveal.