Super Millionare

[Terry K]

[quote name=\'whampyl03\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 01:33 AM\']
Gameplay: There were times were the pace really clicked, (See last 10 minutes of the show) and times where the pace REALLY dragged. (See new rule explanations, and the "New Dimension" introduction.) Personally, I really have gripes about the double-dip/50:50 loophole, but I don't see it being exploited anytime soon; I will not complain. Everything else was quite peachy.
[/quote]
I agree it won't get exploited anytime soon.  The stacks appear to be structured similar to Meredith's version (which they at least acknowledged tonight existed) in that few contestants make it to the upper levels without using 2 or 3 lifelines.

[Peter Sarrett]

I was stunned that the difficulty level of the questions appears to be the same as in the original Regis era-- which is to say, easier than the syndicated version.  Tonight's $50K question is a great example-- even if you didn't know the answer, you should have been able to eliminate two of the choices right off the bat.  I was expecting tougher choices.

Tonight's player could have easily made it to the $500K question with his 50/50 and Ask the Audience intact.

Going forward, it won't surprise me at all to see people burn all 3 lifelines to get to $100K, because the free $500K guess and two bonus lifelines mean there's a substantial cushion still waiting for you after the second plateau.  I think we're going to see a LOT of money given away.  

But that 720 degree barfarama has GOT to go.

  - Peter

[Craig Karlberg]

Here's my first impression of Super Millionaire:

Set - WOW! is right.  It looked like the original version except a few new color schemes.  That white light & the spinning camera made me woozy a bit but I'll let it slide.

Regis - In spite of food poisioning, I thought he did very well.  Hopefully, he'll pick it up a notch or two as the week wears on.

Gameplay - The pace was slow & I can justify that because it's been over 2 years since the show was last aired on ABC.  The new lifelines were very unique & intresting aspects to the game.  I predict a multi-millionaire before the week is up though not the Super Millionaire jackpot winner.

Graphics - Looks alot like the original except at the upper teir level where there was a "halo" effect before the $100K level was breached.  I liked how the values of the questions changed color in the upper teir to the white hot $10M value.  The new lifeline graphics looked nice especially the 3WM one.

Music - Mostly the same package except a "slightly" modified lower teir music.  The 3WM iso cue was intresting.  The new cues were nice especially the Double Dip music.

Overall - ABC has got a winner on its hands.  I predict a return trip in May.

[mcd]

I'm not all that impressed with Super Millionaire.  I always thought the show had a particularly weak format.  The show was only interesting when contestants hit the third tier since that's when the big money was handed out and the tougher questions came into play.

I was hoping that they would have notched up the difficulty, but it appears they haven't.  All they did was up the ante.  In turn, it sets an amazingly high bar that other game shows are going to have to follow.  I've already heard this comment from someone who's a casual game show fan at best:  "And to think Family Feud only gives away $20,000.  That's five hundred times less for winning a game."

Re:  The Double Dip.  I don't really see how this is a lifeline.  All the other lifelines offer some sort of help to the contestant at no risk whatsoever (hence, "lifeline").  The double dip, however, doesn't do that.  A contestant must guarantee to go forward using it.  The only time this "lifeline" becomes safe to use is when you're at the bottom of a tier or it is used in conjunction with a 50:50 (which means then you're using two lifelines).  Additionally, it's a possibility that this lifeline will be left on the table, since people might not want to use it.

Now, if it allowed contestants to guess, get it wrong, and then walk away, then I could see the advantage of using it as a lifeline.  I don't quite understand the added "condition" of having to use it.  Perhaps someone could explain it to me.

[ChrisLambert!]

Anyone who missed it may check out a stack of screengrabs on my site at this address:

www.chris-lambert.com/SM/SM.html

How does that grab you, UK readers?

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'gtbecbp\' date=\'Feb 22 2004, 11:43 PM\'] I was a little peeved that the FF contestants were no't inroduced one by one, which took some of the drama away. [/quote]
 Seeing the FF players two at a time seemed random and weird.  I watched the show out of order--I got home after it started and watched the broadcast 'til it finished then went back to the beginning of the tape and saw the opening--and seeing two players' billboard shots during the second FF question just looked like a bad edit.

I don't think it took away any drama to do it the way they did, but it seemed ingracious of the producers not to properly introduce their "guests" to the rest of the party (i.e., viewing audience).  

I did like seeing Reege walk out to the Ring of Fire during the closing credits; that was a classy thing for him to do (and for ABC to show).

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 08:03 AM\'] Seeing the FF players two at a time seemed random and weird. [/quote]
The big reason I'm glad they did that was because that didn't give any of the ten people a chance to grace us with an allegedly humorous facial expression or gesture--see Millionaire promo on GSN for examples.

[Ian Wallis]

Well, I don't know exactly how possible it's going to be to win $10 million, but you can get a nice hunk of change if you play your cards right.

I think we'll see at least a $2.5 million winner in this series, but probably no higher.  The risk now is too great if you don't know the answer outright.

The level of difficultly suited me fine.  I thought the $1 million question was a bit obsure - and if you're going to be offering that much money you'd better make the questions tough.

Overall, I always liked the Regis version better than the Merideth version and it's nice to see him back.

One thought:  if a contestant elects to use Double Dip and gets it right on the first guess, it's almost like a wasted lifeline.  But I guess it's necessary to give some protection at the higher levels.

[MSTieScott]

[quote name=\'JRaygor\' date=\'Feb 22 2004, 10:53 PM\'] The $400,000 jump from $100K to $500K makes for some VERY Interesting and nerve-racking decisions. [/quote]
 Not really -- it's a free guess.



Quick verdict: I'll be making it a point to watch the next four episodes. But there were a couple of minor irritations to me.

I know they're trying to make everything sound incredibly important and I know this is Millionaire, but the excessive references to "the next dimension of Millionaire" (and most all of the new lighting cues) were overly cheesy and melodramatic. I did like that opening jib shot through the lights, though.

I miss the quick listing of the ten contestants at the first Fastest Finger question, but I can see why they're doing it to save time. They ate up a lot of time explaining the modified rules. Which I understand they have to do until the show becomes a huge hit and all the viewers know the rules by heart. But I still get antsy.

What happened to the old closing theme? They shortened it for the syndicated version and it carried over to the new primetime version. I wonder why they don't want to play the full theme anymore.

Regis has still got to be careful about wanting to help the contestants. I could see he wanted to try to give them advice once or twice. And sometimes I wonder if he fully understands the rules for the show. Why would anybody walk away after winning $100,000? Why even mention it as an option?

As I watched the first eight questions of the first stack, I started to get angry -- the difficulty was pretty much the same as it had always been for those ordinal positions. About the same difficulty as previous episodes of the primetime Millionaire -- slightly less difficult than most stacks on the syndicated version, even. I started to feel a little better when the difficulty increased at the $50,000 question. The $100,000 question was great for that position. And once they got into that third tier, the questions were as impossibly difficult as they should be for those huge amounts of money.

Maybe the first stack just contained questions that fell into the niches of my trivia knowledge, but I thought the difficulty of the second stack was more well-suited to the new dollar values. Maybe they wanted a slightly easier first stack to let all the viewers of the first episode see the new lifelines in use?

With the rate at which they're going through contestants, I don't want to see more than one person be able to take advantage of the 50:50/Double Dip combination in this first week. And I certainly don't want to see everybody reach $100,000. I want to feel downright stupid playing along (I'm not that great at trivia games). The question difficulty is good, but if the first stack is any indicator, I personally would like to see things just a touch more challenging.


--
Scott Robinson

[CaseyAbell]

I was generally very impressed by the new version. Frankly, I don't understand the criticisms of Regis' "rustiness." He was sick, of course, and his voice cracked now and then. But he was also as funny and gracious as he's ever been on the show. His one small goof was the "walk away" comment on the 500K question, but he caught himself on that one.

The pace was fine with me. Game show freaks like us have been chewing over the new rules for weeks now, so we might have been a little impatient with the explanations. But they were necessary for folks with no advance knowledge of the new rules (meaning, most of the audience). And the new lifelines worked very well in their first trial.

The effects were terrific. Cheesy and melodramatic...YES, and that's the way I like 'em.

Above all, the show got lucky with their first contestant. He was likeable and charming, with a cute girlfriend rooting him on.

As for the question difficulty, I posted a while back that the 50K and 100K levels would probably be real nasty traps for any remaining lifelines. On the first run-through they worked just as expected.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Peter Sarrett\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 02:16 AM\'] But that 720 degree barfarama has GOT to go.
 [/quote]
 Bah. I LIKED the new camera shots. I especially like the jib shots coming out of a break that do a dramtic swoop from the top of the studio, and zoom in neatly to the standard shot of Regis.

(Wow. Me and Casey agreed on something.

[cmjb13]

One thing that really sucks is if you actually get a chance to be a contestant, you have 1 guaranteed, maybe 2 chances (of course more if bombing out on early questions happens) of getting a fastest finger question.

And you can bet that if that guy last night didn't bail on that question, they would have milked that drama forever leaving him to come back the next day.

[tommycharles]

My thoughts:

It was great to see WWTBAM back in prime time, but I was a little unimpressed with the difficulty level of the questions (and then less impressed when I was the only person in my house who knew what a rebus was). That said, it was a good show. Reege was fine...I prefer him to Meredith, myself. The set changes aren't all that striking although I do like the video screen and the fact that they finally added the strobe lights to the floor that the UK version has had for a while.

I'll definately be watching the rest of the week.

[Mike Tennant]

[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 09:57 AM\']the excessive references to "the next dimension of Millionaire"[/quote]
That's "the next DIE-mension of Millionaire."

[MYosua]

Here's my ramblings on the technical aspects of "Super Millionaire":

Graphics - The logo is plainer as compared to the syndicated/first series, but the animation is well-done.  (I don't particularly like the "wrap-around" effect of the text, though.)  The money-tree background is a bit different (the rings are compressed), but is similar.  The shimmering upper-tier is a bit much, in my opinion.

Music - It's interesting that the lifeline "pings" went from lowest to highest, like the British version (and unlike the original U.S. version).  The new lower-tier music is good (although not that different).  The 3WM music matches the style of the original cues, although some of the newer cuts seem a little out of place, though it could just be because it's new.  Some of the switches during explanation of the rules is a bit strange.

Lighting - I thought with the WOF-styled lighting, they'd abuse it, but they changed colors tastefully.  The set isn't as dark as the original one, but is still effectively dramatic.

Camera angles - There was a bit of shaking on some shots (when Regis said goodnight), but overall it was top-notch.  The "extra dimmension" shots are interesting - I think if they slowed down the circular one a little, it would work very well.

This was very well-produced, especially hearing how long it took to tape.  The rule changes, to me, did not take away from premise of the show.  Everyone looked like they were having fun, and Regis, although ill, was at the top of his game.  I'm looking for the next shows.