Your hottest game show takes

[BrandonFG]

You know darn well in the current TV world where nearly all 30-minute non-network reruns  are aired back to back for at least one hour at a time, the alternate unaired version with the specific 30-minute intros/outros will never see the light of day in reruns.

What did/does GSN run when they air Strahan Pyramid? Full hours or the half-hour edits?

It’s the hour eps. Weren’t they aiming for syndicated reruns, but as separate episodes?

[Jeremy Nelson]

* Bill Rafferty is the best host of every single show he's ever hosted.

I know many of us view Bob Goen as the quintessential "guy who deserved more work based on his skill level", but I'd campaign just as hard for Bill Rafferty. To your point, his version of Card Sharks is the only one where I'm not skipping through just to watch the Money Cards.

On that note, I'd argue that Card Sharks might be the most high-profile game show with a serious track record of miscasting its hosts.

[chad1m]

You know darn well in the current TV world where nearly all 30-minute non-network reruns  are aired back to back for at least one hour at a time, the alternate unaired version with the specific 30-minute intros/outros will never see the light of day in reruns.

What did/does GSN run when they air Strahan Pyramid? Full hours or the half-hour edits?

It’s the hour eps. Weren’t they aiming for syndicated reruns, but as separate episodes?

The show just recently left the schedule, but for a decently long stretch of time (months? A year?), they aired both: Hour-long episodes daily, and half-hour edits on the weekend (preceded by an hour-long episode?). I have a series record of The $100,000 Pyramid for YouTube TV, which, by default, captures new and repeat episodes. I can watch any of the hour episodes, but I also have 33 half-hour episodes currently saved. (ABC also reran half hour cuts of a few games in April 2024.)

[TimK2003]

Ah, so Sony DID get use out of both formats via GSN, which I don't get at home.  Thanks for the additional info.

[BrandonFG]

The show just recently left the schedule, but for a decently long stretch of time (months? A year?), they aired both: Hour-long episodes daily, and half-hour edits on the weekend (preceded by an hour-long episode?). I have a series record of The $100,000 Pyramid for YouTube TV, which, by default, captures new and repeat episodes. I can watch any of the hour episodes, but I also have 33 half-hour episodes currently saved. (ABC also reran half hour cuts of a few games in April 2024.)

I sit corrected...I think I vaguely remember the weekend reruns.

[BrandonFG]

* Bob Barker should have taken his victory lap in 2001-02 then left after Price's 30th season - and I will forever believe the main reason he stuck around (besides cash) those last few years was because his ego demanded he first first keep going into his 80s (2003), then get the "50 years on TV" thing by sticking around to December 2006. It's not a coincidence that latter one is when he retired.  Many of his episodes from the last ~five years are just genuinely bad. The degree to which I hate Rich Fields as an announcer has some bearing in that as does the stuff that went down with Janice, Kathleen, and Paul Alter, but honestly? After around season 30 Bob just isn't able to be consistently 'on' in host mode anymore and until the adulation comes in for his retirement year he's just a crochety cantankerous old asshole who can't host a fraction as well as he used to and has run out of patience or the ability to improvise as well when things go sideways.

* Related: Firing Roger Dobkowitz is the single best production decision that The Price is Right has made since 1972, even if it took a couple of years to get to the good part in the aftermath.  The calcification of that show into the fixed form it held from the late 80s into the first year of Drew's run rests largely upon Roger when it isn't Barker, and the show is orders of magnitude better since the early 2010s than it was at any point since the 80s. (The host's also a way better person which helps, but the producer changes had a massive amount to do with why Price with Drew is good).

Recently I watched an episode from the early-90s and realized the show didn't really need the youthful boost it got from Bob's cameo in Happy Gilmore. There was still a very palpable energy between 1992-96 that was only rivaled by what Arsenio Hall put out every night. And honestly, the college-age crowd did not gel with the cruise control mode the show entered around 2001. Say what you will about the goofy "Fried Chicken!" showcase, but it was way more tolerable than the "Things associated with the word ___" showcases that they ran into the ground. And don't even get me started on the "Historic moments". The last six or seven years became more and more of The Bob Barker Show that just happened to give away cars, trips, and hot tubs, and was comfort food that simply existed, similar to Wheel up until last year.

Oh and another hot take: 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.

[Chief-O]

Another one:

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

Not a hot take. I've never thought the bonus round was that necessary.

* Bill Rafferty is the best host of every single show he's ever hosted.

Also not a hot take; I'd put him second to Perry (and a *very close* second at that) among CS hosts. I've spoken here before on how he'd hype up car wins (just going on about whatever until he gets to the word (flips over card) "CAR"!!!). I'd probably have to re-watch some BB....both Rafferty *and* Cullen......and take notes, though.

[JTFriends1]

Fun thread. Here's a few more:

- Mike Richards was as great a choice for a TPIR showrunner as he was a terrible choice for a Jeopardy host.

- Pay the Rent is a terrific pricing game that rewards LFaTs with smart strategy.

- The wheel is the least interesting part of Wheel of Fortune, and needs a refresh as significant as what’s been done with the rest of the show.

- Boom! was one of the more unique and engaging formats we’ve seen in many years and deserved a better fate.

[rebelwrest]

As someone who consumes a lot of good sports talk media (The Dan Patrick Show being my favorite), this forum doesn't naturally have "Hot Takes".  We have discussions that are full of nuance
(heck another thread had a math joke) whereas a "hot take" is meant to elicit a strong reaction and an argument.

Example:

Normal discourse: I know that restaurant is your favorite, but I don't like it.
Hot Take culture: YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO EAT IS TRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We don't take the bait, and that's the main crux of "Hot Takes".  We don't want a foil to our argument.  Remember a decade ago the website gameshowconfessions? I kind of attribute this thread to that.

/Why yes, I do think ESPN should forfeit their profits every year because they introduced us to Skip Bayless.
//I have really, really, really mean Skip Bayless if anyone is interested.

[Neumms]

But the game to me has a fatal flaw in that you have to wait for Tom to finish reading the entire blooper before the charger can answer and to me that's cheating the contestant for the sake of getting a joke in.    And the proof of this flaw is that an overwhelming number of times the charger loses. 

I agree with both of these, yet love Whew.

I never liked Bullseye, Ernest Borgnine’s appearance notwithstanding. There may have been the seed of a game there, but it wouldn’t go with the circus-y set and spinning things. To this day, I don’t understand what happened when there was a wrong answer. Jim Lange was both awkward and dull.

I never liked Chain Reaction, either. The set was chintzy as hell, and it looked weird that the players all had to stand. The celebs were lamer than lame. The game itself is okay but devoid of action. When they finished a chain, geez, SOMETHING should have happened.

Possibly hot take: I don’t like Mark Summers. Big caveat: I was too old for Double Dare, but I find him charmless and aggressively dull on anything else, even his Food Network show. I’m sure he’s nice in person, though.

[steveleb]

I honestly thought a decently produced two hour block of game shows in the afternoon had the ability to attract a decent audience.

I still do.

[Clay Zambo]

I didn't think I had one, but after watching that late '89 WOF recently linked, I do:

Rolf didn't get a fair shake.

He seemed really pleasant and engaged in the contestant interviews, and I think he could have grown into the hosting role nicely.

[chris319]

1. Drew should stop doing the Spay and Neuter signoff. He's found his own cause telling people to take care of their mental health, and often times those two messages seem like too much of a mouthful. As a friend recently mentioned, the show is still doing a Pet Adoption Week, so there are ways to honor the positive parts of Bob's legacy without being beholden to a magic phrase that doesn't resonate with people anymore.

I'm on the phone to Evelyn Warfel.

[jw2001]

Possibly hot take: I don’t like Mark Summers. Big caveat: I was too old for Double Dare, but I find him charmless and aggressively dull on anything else, even his Food Network show. I’m sure he’s nice in person, though.

Nicest guy in the business! Marc is also very funny.

A few of my hot takes:

- I find Tic Tac Dough to be boring. I loved watching it when I was a little kid, mainly for the visual and graphical aspects, as well as the bonus round. Wink was a great host, of course. As an adult, the show can't hold my attention. "Strategy, knowledge, and fun." Okay, but where's the fun? I am interested to see how GSN's update will be though.

- 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.

- I don't care for the Showcase Showdown anymore. Whenever I do watch TPIR, I just mute that segment.

- My favorite version of Hollywood Squares is John Davidson's version.

[DoItRockapella]

I didn't think I had one, but after watching that late '89 WOF recently linked, I do:

Rolf didn't get a fair shake.

He seemed really pleasant and engaged in the contestant interviews, and I think he could have grown into the hosting role nicely.

In a somewhat similar vein:


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.

None of this is to defend either Tic Tac Dough 90 or Monopoly 90, both of which had much greater issues then who was hosting.