The Anderson WML pilot

[edholland83]

I've always heard of the rumors about the pilot and that it was done a few years ago, with Harry Anderson being on the show in some capacity. I've heard it was also a complete disaster, could someone fill me in about it and how much of a difference it was from the older versions?

[PeterMarshallFan]

I read about it in Usenet last week. The panel blew, apparently. Despite the fact that Harry Anderson had huge potential as host, he couldn't do it because of the lackluster panel.


Matt O. probably knows more.

[Matt Ottinger]

Matt O. probably knows more.

A little more, but still not as much as other members here.

I'm told there were two pilots, though I've only seen one, and not even all of it.

It's really hard to place blame, but there's certainly enough to go around.  The panel, IIRC, was Betty White, Al Franken, Catherine Bell from JAG and Bryan Cranston from Malcolm in the Middle.  Not a bad line-up as far as star quality goes, but completely miscast.   The problem is that this is a deceptively difficult game to play, and if you don't have at *least* two people who know how to play it, you're just going to have a big awkward mess on your hands.  And not even Our Betty had a lot of experience with this one.  No one, not even Franken, tried very hard to be funny, so what you had was four very earnest people who didn't know what to do.  It was like watching Little Leaguers, with that same mix of frustration and pity that you feel when you're not seeing more capable players.

Anderson was OK, but felt compelled to give a lot of heavy-handed clues to get easy laughs in that \"we know something the panel doesn't know\" kind of way.  The set, which ought to be intimate (something the Oxygen IGAS did very well) looked to be about a football field long.  I also seem to remember them giving too much money away, but since I maintain WML? shouldn't be played for money at all, I'm sure I've repressed the details.

The one thing I wish I could repress is the bizarre game they added.  In addition to a regular Mystery Guest round (Milton Berle in the pilot I saw), they played a second round with a famous person the panel had to identify.  But instead of actually having the famous person there, they showed black and white footage of their \"guest\" from a classic WML? episode, and used \"yes\" and \"no\" clips extracted from that earlier appearance to answer the questions.  Trust me, even if that does sound like a neat idea to you in a weird tribute-y kind of way, in practice it looked really, really dumb.

I don't think there's anybody who'd rather see WML? return to television than me.  After seeing the pilot, and realizing that THIS is what the people in control of the property think should be done with it, I nearly changed my mind.

[Kevin Prather]

you scared me! i thought you meant Louie Anderson! LOL!

[Terry K]

I think if I were going to revive WML, you do need a couple people who know the game and can play it and play it WELL.

I think a lot of the problem with panel shows is that the producers aren't thinking out of the box.  They're looking for names or people who will work cheap.  The original WML made celebs out of Bennett Cerf, Kilgallen, and Arlene.  They had the big name every so often (who often played WML because they enjoyed dropping by), but didn't rely on them to get people to tune in.

If the producers tried to put together a GOOD panel instead of just a panel, they'd be onto something.  On TTTT2K, they didn't get it.  They put at best a B-Rate panel on there, and it showed.  Save for Kitty's one and only appearance, there weren't any overly good players.  Taylor was just okay, but they could have done better.  

If you can get someone who plays well, they'll be worth what you pay them.  

When G/T put together the WML and TTTT 7x panels, they got it right.  Having Arlene on WML *made* for a better panel because you can bet she gave pointers to new panelists which helped eliminate bad panelists.  

On TTTT, I believe Peggy Cass had played the 60s version a few times, and it didn't hurt that Cullen had played IGAS which was a similar game.

[DrBear]

[quote name=\'Terry K\' date=\'Jul 7 2003, 11:08 AM\'] I think a lot of the problem with panel shows is that the producers aren't thinking out of the box.  They're looking for names or people who will work cheap.  The original WML made celebs out of Bennett Cerf, Kilgallen, and Arlene.  They had the big name every so often (who often played WML because they enjoyed dropping by), but didn't rely on them to get people to tune in.
 [/quote]
 Agreed to a point... but you can go too far the other way, and you have a response like ABC got for \"I'm A Celebrity...\" In short, who ARE these people. If you're doing, say, WML, you need at least two people a good chunk of the audience will have heard of, and let the others grow on you.   By the time TTTT 7X was put together, the Big 3 of Carlisle-Cass-Cullen were all pretty well known, either from the old TTTT or Bill being on every third game show in existence (plus, syndication, NBC sports and so on).

Taking Oxygen's IGAS as an example, you had two pretty well known panelists in Teri Garr and Jim J. Bullock. OK, so they're both airheads. But they're FAMOUS airheads. Of course, there, they were stuck on a network with lousy clearance, so who knew?

Paula Poundstone would have worked on an IGAS, which doesn't take itself seriously. TTTT always did, and she didn't work there, nor did Brad Sherwood or any other comic-only panelist.

To bring this back to WML, the humor always came from misunderstandings, so you need people who are a bit serious about the game, but able to laugh at themselves for asking a stripper \"Is a special outfit required for your work?\"