Underrated, but Appreciated

[joshg]

The armchair showrunner in me would revive DD76 on AMC, lean heavily on movies/TV trivia, and call it Spoiler Alert!. 

Or just call it Dare! and have the open fly through the "A"... instant hit!

[jage]

Part of the PHD appeal I think revolves around them not being great at the pop culture clues. Not sure how you solve this with a topic-based format.

[PYLdude]

The armchair showrunner in me would revive DD76 on AMC, lean heavily on movies/TV trivia, and call it Spoiler Alert!.  Think if DD and Hollywood Showdown had a baby.

/get Tim Hortons or In-N-Out to sponsor it and rename the dare mechanic the Double Double.

I like this too, and think you could be onto something.

If for nothing else but I think you might’ve shone a light on an element of Double Dare I haven’t seen anybody shine before: it really is a format you can make centered around one particular subject (Hollywood, sports, whatever) and it would work just as well. Especially with the writing style they used for the clues.

I’d watch.

So for the bonus round, would the "Spoilers" still be PhD's?  Or would they be hardcore trivia experts?

I would figure the latter.

Although who’s to say there aren’t Ph.D’s that are hardcore trivia experts in their own right?

[mystery7]

I've always loved Chain Reaction. A simple concept that's difficult for some to master. And I seem to be one of few people who thinks the one-word-at-a-time bonus round was a great concept, no matter how many iterations it went through in the NBC run. Get Rich Quick needed polish and a different bonus round. Go was just clunky with one player constantly moving back and forth between pairs of players. The bonus round of Chain Reaction was kind of the format's sweet spot with a fun main game added on.

[carlisle96]

Part of the PHD appeal I think revolves around them not being great at the pop culture clues. Not sure how you solve this with a topic-based format.

Maybe instead of PhDs, they could use former champions as spoilers

[nowhammies10]

Like Eberle, I figure Paul Goebel, Marc Edward Heuck, et al would probably pick up the phone if asked.

[BrandonFG]

I was thinking television or movie historians, specifically ones who have written books on the matter (Adam Nedeff and Wesley Hyatt come to mind). Even bloggers from say, the AV Club, who have extensive knowledge. Degrees would be icing on the cake.

[TLEberle]

Like Eberle,

I beg your pardon.

[nowhammies10]

Like Eberle,

I beg your pardon.

Désolé, Monsieur.

[TLEberle]

I wish I hadn’t taken five years of Spanish. Most of my French comes from Mille Bornes, Coup d’Etat and Au Suivant. How would a person say “absolved” in French?

If you have a spoiler in each area of expertise I predict lots of challenger wins, unless you nominate your geek and it becomes head to head. Perhaps the main game is nondescript and functional to draw attention to the main event.

[Neumms]

Part of the PHD appeal I think revolves around them not being great at the pop culture clues. Not sure how you solve this with a topic-based format.

Therein lies the rub: If the subject is pop culture, they'd lose. If it wasn't, they'd win. I love the Spoilers concept, but it needs fixing. The outcome was based on the writing, rarely anything the contestant did.

The casting of the Spoilers was incredible. They could have played up the villain thing by having the audience boo, but simply having the dorks sit there being dorks was subtly brilliant.

[chargeradiocom]

The casting of the Spoilers was incredible. They could have played up the villain thing by having the audience boo, but simply having the dorks sit there being dorks was subtly brilliant.

Agreed. I think it would have added something to have the audience boo them as the wall was lifting (though to be fair they did boo them for a for correct answer). But having the Spoilers sit there like dorks was the right call.

Of course, in a revival today, you know they’d likely have them play up the villain part. Not like mustache-twirling cartoon supervillains (probably), but like brash, trash-talking WWE-type heels most likely. Though if they must talk trash, perhaps it would work to have them spout dry one-liners like wiseguy college professors, rather than going full Connor McGregor.

[Bryce L.]

Though if they must talk trash, perhaps it would work to have them spout dry one-liners like wiseguy college professors, rather than going full Connor McGregor.

Either that or the same smug "you don't stand a friggin' chance" attitude Ben Stein took while hosting/playing Win Ben Stein's Money.

[alfonzos]

This dates me, there is no physical evidence to support my claims, and no one has mentioned this but...

Let's Play Post Office: I was only nine years old when this aired after some other quiz game that Merv Griffin developed so I didn't know the names of most of the people who were the subjects but I enjoyed playing along. I admired the style of eschewing buzzers and having the players scream, "Stop!" when they are ready to record their answers.

[Neumms]

Either that or the same smug "you don't stand a friggin' chance" attitude Ben Stein took while hosting/playing Win Ben Stein's Money.

Stein was brilliant. Witty, good hosting, and his rotten attitude when losing was totally natural.

You're right about Spoilers' ad-libs. There'd be too many with all the pacing and they'd be horsily written and delivered. The show would have to be wrestled from Fremantle somehow.