Not that I wouldn't like a longer air time, but TPIR had quicker games since the get-go, even back when Bob had time to chat with players. The pace might lag without them.
Insofar as it counts for anything, this happens in fan-hosted games a lot. Free from the restrictions of a budget and timeslot, you often get a lot of the longer games together, and suddenly, I'm missing Most Expensive.
That said, I’m watching “Classic Concentration” on Buzzr and the Best-of-3 to play the Car Game is a bit of a slog to sit through.
I disagree - I didn't like the perpetual speed-up rounds to jam in a second car game. Likewise with Scrabble - they overused Speedword when they moved to the self-contained eps.
I think, with both shows when they were contained, Game 1 of an episode was the show in its natural state, followed by a turn in form so drastic that we got whiplash. Could that inconsistency in pace have been fixed by including a timer for Game 1, too?
Game 1 of Scrabble was played to its own timer. Most Crossword rounds in that era got to 3 words before the bell. I've long beat the drum that I prefer that to playing it out, since it puts more weight on solving the clues quickly over getting lucky draws with the tiles.
Classic Concentration's problem in the best-of-3 era, IMO, was the artificial stretching they always did in game 1, JUST in case either game was a quick solve, and/or the match was won in two-straight. When that resulted in the awkward combo of interrupting game 2 into the ring-in-only game 3, it felt like it was unfair to get there only by virtue of Alex conducting in-game interviews.
-Jason
