Your hottest game show takes

[BrandonFG]

I don't think Patrick Wayne is anywhere near as bad a host as people make him out to be. Is he a "good" host? No - but people make him out to be the worst game show host in history. I've seen orders of magnitude worse. Ditto Mike Reilly.

I don’t think enough people in our fandom understand that hosts have people coaching them on how to act. Was Patrick great? No, but having seen him on other projects I realize someone was telling him what to do on TTD.

Another hot take: many modern audience wranglers don’t know what they’re doing and don’t realize that unless you’re TPiR or LMaD, the audience is not a member of the show and we don’t need their reaction to everything. Honestly, some shows would be improved 100% if they used a canned audience instead.

[aaron sica]

- I'm not interested in how modern game shows put such a large focus on the contestant's human interest story. Yes, let us get to know the players, but then just play the game without all the fluff. Press Your Luck's bonus round and Deal or No Deal, I'm looking at you.

So very much this. At the risk of sounding cold and heartless, I don't really care about their backstory/struggles. Just play.

[clemon79]

- PYL doesn't work as an hour show with a bonus round. It's quite predictable when the contestant will decide to stop.

Ted Slauson gave me the creeps in Perfect Bid. I couldn't care less about him going Rain Man with the prices and whether or not it was legal. The dude was just strange.

Both of these takes are so cold Imma need to find a sweater. I could have truncated Brandon's after the sixth word.

Really to Aaron's comment: the nature of self-contained game-show production is such these days that with these new shows I have to make an active effort not to watch any sort of clock or timing if I don't want the end segment totally telegraphed, and even at that it only works maybe half the time. I think this is why I stick to Jeopardy and Pyramid for the most part. (Or, you know, just accept it and replace the onion on my belt.)

[Jeremy Nelson]

- I'm not interested in how modern game shows put such a large focus on the contestant's human interest story. Yes, let us get to know the players, but then just play the game without all the fluff. Press Your Luck's bonus round and Deal or No Deal, I'm looking at you.

The show that's most criminal about this, to me, is The Wall. Mark and Patty pulled 17 dogs from a burning building and not only did they lose the $1.2 million they earned on The Wall, but you make them monologue to a marriage proposal-esque level of melodrama to find out they didn't even win turtle wax.

Really to Aaron's comment: the nature of self-contained game-show production is such these days that with these new shows I have to make an active effort not to watch any sort of clock or timing if I don't want the end segment totally telegraphed, and even at that it only works maybe half the time.

Same here. What I've found works best is when I'm doing another task while the show in on in the background, whether it's household chores or playing on my Switch. Having a primary task that commands my attention keeps me from clock-watching and spoiling the outcome for myself.

[The Ol' Guy]

Why not? The geezer weighs in...
Always enjoyed the big clunky machines. B&E had a knack for them. Immediately disliked it when Classic Concentration and Blockbusters II went to computer generated boards. Art James struck me as a somewhat awkward, though nice, host. Frequent hesitations and momentary lapses while trying to figure out what to do on shows like Catch Phrase and Pay Cards. Was fine on Temptation and WWW. So few hour games are worth the time to watch because of the stretch (including the earlier mentioned contest background and relatives pieces). Agree with praises for Rafferty. Also, the "leave with nothing after using the contestant(s) for a full show" also leaves a bad taste. A small sum like many bonus games (You didn't win the 10 grand, but here's $100 for each one you got right) would be nice.

[TimK2003]

Why not? The geezer weighs in...
Always enjoyed the big clunky machines. B&E had a knack for them. Immediately disliked it when Classic Concentration and Blockbusters II went to computer generated boards. Art James struck me as a somewhat awkward, though nice, host. Frequent hesitations and momentary lapses while trying to figure out what to do on shows like Catch Phrase and Pay Cards. Was fine on Temptation and WWW.

I've always wondered if Ron Greenberg ever thought of tapping Art James as Jack Barry's successor on Joker after Jack died since they tag teamed for the 3W's.

Speaking of B&E, I was a fan of most of their shows  when I was a kid because of the "chrome" -- lights and sfx.  Now as an adult, with the exception of the CBS run of TJW (which used challenging questions) and Break The Bank, once you overlooked the chrome, the shows were just meh. 

Ted Slauson gave me the creeps in Perfect Bid. I couldn't care less about him going Rain Man with the prices and whether or not it was legal. The dude was just strange.

Both of these takes are so cold Imma need to find a sweater. I could have truncated Brandon's after the sixth word.

/Channeling Art Fern @ the Slauson cut-off...

[SuperSweeper]

I have three...

He's rarely mentioned, but Pat Sajak is one of the best Password celebrities. He was consistently solid. I think he's overlooked because he really didn't do word games outside of Password, and with the exception of one week of Password Plus, he only did Super Password.

After having watched the entire run via Tubi, I feel that Relatively Speaking was a good show that was never going to succeed in the era in which it was conceived. I've never seen the appeal of John Byner and Jamie Farr, but they were both great here (and Anne Bloom and Meredith MacRae were fine picks for the regular panelists). I could see this working as a weekly show in the '70s or something a decade or so later (maybe on GSN?), but as a daily show in the '80s? Yeah, no. (Also, can someone please dig up the theme for this one? So, so good.)

Although I really hate the way it's utilized, Stack the Deck is far from the worst pricing game on Price today. It's clear that the staff doesn't care for it (I've seen Drew rip it at tapings, and it's one of two active games that's never been played in primetime - Check Game is the other), but it's apparently still fulfilling a purpose. I think there are much, much worse games - mostly quickies that are boring, games that really need a refresh (usually due to inflation), or both (looking at you, Squeeze Play and Range Game).

[The Ol' Guy]

Good points, Tim. I remember the time that Art James was doing announcer chores on Joker and he screwed up a prize plug, leading to Jack saying on-air, "Well said, Art." He didn't last long. I liked how one person described the B&E q&a trilogy - "the shows are like ice cream. One is vanilla, one tastes like chocolate, another tastes like strawberry, but they're all ice cream." All 5th grade level Q&As. The redeeming factor with Joker was the wheels. You could be a genius, but if the wheel spins were bad for you and better for your opponent, you could still lose despite answering every question. You always had to play the hand given you.

[TimK2003]

One correction to the B&E Chrome look, actually, an exception...

The Hollywood Connection set looked like a local TV station's attempt at a game show using a used local telethon set.

[BrandonFG]

Both of these takes are so cold Imma need to find a sweater. I could have truncated Brandon's after the sixth word.

I only have hoodies to lend you, assuming my lady didn't steal them already. I considered it a hot take because it felt like everyone loved the documentary and put him on a pedestal (even the non-fanbois), and I just didn't get the appeal.

To Aaron and everyone else's point, I definitely learned not to watch the clock with it comes to PYL. And I echo the others who said the bonus round is unnecessary. I always found it to be too much like Deal or No Deal and would rather just have two self-contained shows where the high score wins.

[Kevin Prather]

He's rarely mentioned, but Pat Sajak is one of the best Password celebrities. He was consistently solid. I think he's overlooked because he really didn't do word games outside of Password, and with the exception of one week of Password Plus, he only did Super Password.

When Celebrity WoF landed on ABC, I was hoping they'd use that as an excuse to book him on Pyramid.

[JTFriends1]

I was at a charity event featuring Pat a year or so ago with a Q&A, and actually asked him if there were any other shows he would be like to be a celebrity guest on, given his great performances on Password(s). He said it wasn't something he was interested in doing and that he really doesn't watch any game shows. Though he did follow-up with the fact he loves word games, tends to be good at them and is a devotee of crossword puzzles.

[Loogaroo]

I have never understood the appeal of Cash Cab. It's filler. It's good filler, but it's filler nonetheless.

[Adam Nedeff]

I've always wondered if Ron Greenberg ever thought of tapping Art James as Jack Barry's successor on Joker after Jack died since they tag teamed for the 3W's.

Ron Greenberg was long gone. He left while Jack was still alive; I was hunting for this clip because I KNOW I've seen it, but there's an episode of Joker where Jack wraps up the Audience Game and then announces that Ron is leaving the show, giving a nice little speech thanking him for all his fine work.

[BrandonFG]

That clip was in a YouTube video paying tribute to Ron for his 80th birthday. It also featured clips from other shows he created, including unsold pilots.

I remember trying to find the video a few years ago and it was private.