Shows you fell out of love with

[clemon79]

FWIW, it's not Zoom. The contestants and celebrities have always been in the same studio, but in socially distanced "pods" where they can hear with earbuds and watch the others on monitors. Meredith herself was broadcasting from out east until things got better, at which time her pod moved to the SoCal studio with everyone else.

Huh, interesting. Then continuing with that format makes even *less* sense today.

[BrandonFG]

I thought I read that it's back to the original setup, now that the show tapes in Atlanta. Could be wrong there.

Nope, it's still the pods.

Huh. Interesting. Figured they'd change things up with the new setting.

[Kevin Prather]

My theory is that they want to keep it that way because if they went back to the in-studio setup, they wouldn't be able to mix in repeats as easily because they would seem dated.

Isn't that a feature? I honestly would rather not turn on new episodes and be reminded of why they went to playing over Zoom in the FIRST place.

I get that we're still dealing with COVID and it's likely we will be in some form or fashion for the rest of our lives. But TV (especially game shows) is supposed to be an escape and most production has gone back to "normal" or whatever passes for it these days. Take the "W" where you can get it, I say.

I always just assumed Meredith wanted to keep the social distancing because she has an immunocompromised husband at home.

[colonial]

I understand Meredith wanting to stay safe given her husband's health, but after four years of this "faux-Zoom" setup, the show looks antiquated and silly -- like the producers and others working behind the scenes don't give a flip about the audience.

As far as the original question at hand ...

-- I agree with the peanut gallery about WWTBAM. I do wonder how the show would have held up as event programming 2-3 times a year if ABC opted to keep that strategy going.

-- There were shows I enjoyed when I was a child given the bells and whistles -- Bullseye, $1M Chance of a Lifetime, Battlestars -- that I find hard to watch today given the weak formats and poor gameplay.

-- I watch J! maybe once or twice a week these days depending on the contestants and such. The "Forrest bounce" strategy that every contestant uses now can be annoying, particularly since I'm so used to 30+ years of contestants starting from the top and wrapping up said category a minute or two later.


JD

[Stackertosh]

I always thought Bill Rafferty was a better host than Bob Eubanks on Card Sharks. The thing that bugs me is when the contestant gives a long opinion/answer to the question.


The Steve Harvey version of Family Feud comes to mind. I was a huge fan in the beginning; I thought his shtick was funny, and I thought calling out the contestants on their bad answers was funny. The show quickly got annoying and repetitive, with Steve's opening line, Well, welcome to Family Feud everyone, I am your man, Steve Harvey." The cringy question writing and the sexual answers to get Steve's reaction.

[SuperMatch93]

I always thought Bill Rafferty was a better host than Bob Eubanks on Card Sharks.

I watched an episode of Rafferty CS after posting this thread and I'd have to say I agree; his wit added something to the show that Eubanks' delivery was lacking in. I also like the prize cards element.

[Strikerz04]

I always thought Bill Rafferty was a better host than Bob Eubanks on Card Sharks. The thing that bugs me is when the contestant gives a long opinion/answer to the question.

+1
Something about the Eubanks' edition doesn't engage me as much as Rafferty's (and it wasn't until both were on GSN, later BUZZR, that could have reference points to).




The other show that seemed to pass along is "Wheel," but that could be biased from a former contestant's POV (or rather, assessing my life after watching those old shopping episodes).

[chris319]

LMAD started out as a wonderful game with a minimalist format based on Lady and the Tiger devised by Hatos and Hall.

Now it's unwatchable for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the behavior of the contestants. The term "freak show" comes to mind. Most of the contestants need to be on serious medication IMO. It's a one-note song with endless contestant histrionics and screeching.

LMAD has some of the worst directing I've ever seen on television.

Wayne Brady and Jonathan Mangum are OK.

[Nick]

So anything but a comforting, predictable, repeatable "take one category from top to bottom and then move to another one" is gonna raise hackles.

Definitely something to ponder here. Definitely.

Honestly, Forrest Bouncing and Daily Double hunting don't really bother me.  It's that everybody is now playing the game this way because of one guy who "went viral" as a mega champ for doing so.  Every Jeopardy! player is now trying to break the game, and the powers that are relish the competitive spirit by selling the game as "sport" now.

Fewer unnecessary video clues = more content making it to air instead of time running out. I'm down with that.

Seconded.

[mystery7]

I know we've piled onto Barry & Enright in this thread but if you could please indulge one more.

When you're 5 and there's an electronic dragon roaring at you, or three screens swirling around in miles of neon, they've got you. You're the world's biggest fan. It's the biggest, sweetest Bubblicious bubble ever.

When you're older, you watch the shows a little more critically, taking notice of new things. You realize how easy the questions are: maybe $200/$400 Jeopardy! clues at their hardest. A lot of the charm is lost. Then you watch GSN during the Dark Period. Suddenly you realize how similar all three shows are. The Bubblicious starts losing its flavor.

Finally it hits you: Tic Tac Dough, Joker's Wild and Bullseye are not just similar...they're the exact. same. show. The formula is nearly identical: hit a certain dollar amount (or get 3 Xs or Os in a row), then go on to a bonus round you win by reaching a certain dollar amount or getting [Tic-Tac/3 bullseyes/dollar amounts], but avoid the dragon/lightning/devil. Ptooey. All that gum you've been chewing has been the same flavor, cleverly packaged in 3 different wrappers so you never noticed before. And the ingredients did not always change for the better: celebrities added nothing to Bullseye. The audience round on Joker slowed the game to a crawl, and then practically shifted it into reverse when Bill Cullen took over. And the new set and host for the final season of Tic Tac were about as effective as doing CPR on a corpse.

I don't chew a lot of gum these days.

[BrandonFG]

Finally it hits you: Tic Tac Dough, Joker's Wild and Bullseye are not just similar...they're the exact. same. show. The formula is nearly identical: hit a certain dollar amount (or get 3 Xs or Os in a row), then go on to a bonus round you win by reaching a certain dollar amount or getting [Tic-Tac/3 bullseyes/dollar amounts], but avoid the dragon/lightning/devil. Ptooey. All that gum you've been chewing has been the same flavor, cleverly packaged in 3 different wrappers so you never noticed before.

When people criticize GSN for making the same show, I always point out B & E shows follow a much stricter template. I still enjoy Joker, but like others said it's still derivative and Bullseye cribbed the "Fast Forward" category to make an ironically much slower show.

[Ian Wallis]

I'll go along with Family Feud - both Harvey and Dawson.

In the beginning, Dawson seemed like a nice guy, but when his ego started getting out of control and he was slobbering over all the female contestants all the time, it got unwatchable for me.

For Harvey, as others have said, it's the stupidity of the questions.  One thing about the Dawson and Combs versions was that at least the questions had some sort of quality to them.  They weren't in the toilet as most of today's questions are.

[Casey]

Finally it hits you: Tic Tac Dough, Joker's Wild and Bullseye are not just similar...they're the exact. same. show. The formula is nearly identical: hit a certain dollar amount (or get 3 Xs or Os in a row), then go on to a bonus round you win by reaching a certain dollar amount or getting [Tic-Tac/3 bullseyes/dollar amounts], but avoid the dragon/lightning/devil. Ptooey. All that gum you've been chewing has been the same flavor, cleverly packaged in 3 different wrappers so you never noticed before.

When people criticize GSN for making the same show, I always point out B & E shows follow a much stricter template. I still enjoy Joker, but like others said it's still derivative and Bullseye cribbed the "Fast Forward" category to make an ironically much slower show.

As we've been discussing this - I do wonder how Bullseye would have been with Jim Peck hosting.  Jim Lange isn't my cup of team for most anything I've seen him in, but Peck brought a much more energetic pace to Joker - I could see him doing the same for Bullseye.

[Neumms]

As we've been discussing this - I do wonder how Bullseye would have been with Jim Peck hosting.  Jim Lange isn't my cup of team for most anything I've seen him in, but Peck brought a much more energetic pace to Joker - I could see him doing the same for Bullseye.

Good thought. Shorter questions, since a game had so many, would have helped, too.

It’s struck me that I like the CBS run of Joker better than what came later. Players answered wrong once in a while, and three wins for the jackpot gave it more tension than five for a car.

They could have used more features like the Lucky Hundreds on CBS. It was lazy they never put anything different on the bonus wheels. It doesn’t have to be Dream Car Week, but geez, give away something special once in a while. Add a wrinkle to the “will you risk $575?” that makes the decision interesting. Maybe in the front game there’s a slide that offers a reward to skip your turn. 

Tic Tac Dough is what it is. It only got exciting when a champ was on a roll, which makes a remounting without returning champions laughable.

[TimK2003]

Despite the similarities of the Big 3 B&E Shows, TTD did have games that ended in ties, which resulted in a new match with a larger cash reward  -- a nod to the Twenty-One days -- instead of "first person to $xxxx wins".

Jim Peck would've taken the 25MPH pace of Jim Lange's Bullseye to a more comfortable 55MPH speed.  The occasional eternal contract problems still would've prevented him from opening the throttle up to  65MPH+.

Dawson's original Feud was.harder to watch when it seemed like every family had to present Richard SOMETHING they made themselves (t-shirts, crafts, etc...) or got from their local municipality (keys, proclamations, etc...).