Best & Worst #3

[Winkfan]

Well, I've picked on Nickelodeon and ABC Family (or what's left of the latter), so here goes: Not counting 'off-network' or 'off-syndie' repeats, what was the BEST and the WORST 'original' game show to air on USA?

My choices are:
BEST: Bumper Stumpers, Jackpot, and The New Chain Reaction (The 'Canadian Trifecta' of the 1980s)

WORST: The Big Date

Cordially,
Tammy Warner--the 'Carol Wayne of the Big Board!'

P.S. If you're tired of these 'Best & Worst' polls, I'll cease doing them.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Winkfan\' date=\'Jun 1 2004, 03:51 PM\'] BEST: Bumper Stumpers, Jackpot, and The New Chain Reaction (The 'Canadian Trifecta' of the 1980s)
 [/quote]
 Jackpot I agree with. I couldn't abide the other two. And how does Free-4-All not at least make a LITTLE splash in the "worst" category?

P.S. If you're tired of these 'Best & Worst' polls, I'll cease doing them.

They beat the HELL out of reading completely inaccurate Jeopardy recaps. Knock yerself out.

[cmjb13]

Smush?

[Jimmy Owen]

There really weren't that many to choose from, but "Jackpot" was the best of the ones I saw.  "Chain Reaction" just didn't have the same spark as the old show though I did enjoy the banter between Geoff and Rod Charlebois.  Worst show on USA: "Gonzo Games."

[dzinkin]

Best: Jackpot.  I did like the first run of USA's Chain Reaction, with the two-person teams; with people playing alone it lost whatever charm it had left -- which, admittedly, wasn't much compared to the NBC version.

Worst: Quicksilver.  Ron Maestri is the anti-Christ.  (Okay, he's right behind Scott Baio. :-)

[The Ol' Guy]

Best : Bumper Stumpers - at least an original original, even if shared with the Global Network. Snappy theme, clever concept. PDQ meets vanity plate.

Worst - tie between Free - 4-All, Love Me, Love Me Not and the remade Chain Reaction.
Didn't get to see Smush. Was it anything worth writing home about?

[BrandonFG]

Best: I remember USA for it's reruns more than the originals, but I'd say either Bumper Stumpers or Chain Reaction.

I thought Quicksilver was a clever little game with good play-along. But, the format was badly executed. It also had one fugly set made up of what looked like backstage props (I think it inspired the current Jeopardy "set"). Pretty decent effort from Stone-Stanley, but needed some tweaking (and a set!).

Strip Poker was a fun little guilty pleasure of mine. >:-)

Worst: Free-4-All...could a game show be any drier? Family Feud w/trivia, but none of the charm that Feud has.  Another bad set.

[quote name=\'The Ol' Guy\' date=\'Jun 1 2004, 09:14 PM\']Didn't get to see Smush. Was it anything worth writing home about?[/quote]
Smush was pretty cool, it had decent payouts for cable ($8,000 seems kind of uneven for a top prize though), but I would've lost the party atmosphere in favor of a more traditional approach. There was one round where you had to repeat the entire Smush chain in order to continue. Seemed fun, but confusing as hell. :-)

[toddyo]

Who owns the Reg Grundy rights and Jackpot, etc?

I keep reading about a MGM/Sony merger.  If so...does that mean Davidson Hollywood Squares might appear?

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'The Ol' Guy\' date=\'Jun 1 2004, 09:14 PM\']

Didn't get to see Smush. Was it anything worth writing home about? [/quote]
 It had four players answering questions a la the Before and After category on J!. One player was eliminated in each round(low scorer). THe third round had the remaining two players repeat a "Smush chain". A question was asked, and a player could buzz in and answer it. After that, a player buzzing in had to give all the answers used in the round plus the new one. At the end of that round, the leading contestant played the bonus round. The bonus round was pretty easy, answer five questions in forty five seconds. There would be a root word, and the answer to the question read would Smush onto either the beginning or the end of it. $1K per correct answer, getting all five won $8K. This game was based on a computer game by Jellyvision.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jun 1 2004, 07:45 PM\'] This game was based on a computer game by Jellyvision. [/quote]
You are wrong, O Cheeto Breath.

"Smush" was Jellyvision's first foray into television production (if you don't count the many many years they spent getting the television version of "You Don't Know Jack" to air), but was not based on any previous Jellyvision concept.

(EDIT: I should qualify this. It wasn't based on any Jellyvision concept that made it to store shelves. They may well have had the Smush concept on the shelf for other reasons, I don't have the insider information to know.)

[Craig Karlberg]

My favoritte USA original was Bumper Stumpers with Jackpot(Canadian) & Chain Reaction(also Canadian) a close runner-up tie.

As for the worst, the tandem of Quicksilver/Free 4 All.  Both of them didn't do too much for me gameplay wise.  Smush was OK for a while but it got monotonous soon afterwards.

[Don Howard]

THE BEST: Going with the crowd on this one--Jackpot!
RUNNER-UP FOR BEST: Chain Reaction post Blake Emmons and before the $40000 format
THE WORST: Quicksilver---they replaced $ale of the Century for thaaaaaaaaaaaat?

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jun 1 2004, 11:21 PM\'] [quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jun 1 2004, 07:45 PM\'] This game was based on a computer game by Jellyvision. [/quote]
You are wrong, O Cheeto Breath. [/quote]
 How did you get close enough to Zach to know this?  Are you reviving "What's That Smell?"  'Fess up, Chris! ;-)

[HairMetalLives]

I'm not familiar with USA originals, so I'm gonna lay out of this one.

[quote name=\'Winkfan @ Jun 1 2004\' date=\' 05:51 PM\']P.S. If you're tired of these 'Best & Worst' polls, I'll cease doing them.[/quote]

Keep churning them out; I think they're fun!

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jun 2 2004, 04:04 AM\'] THE BEST: Going with the crowd on this one--Jackpot!
RUNNER-UP FOR BEST: Chain Reaction post Blake Emmons and before the $40000 format
THE WORST: Quicksilver---they replaced $ale of the Century for thaaaaaaaaaaaat? [/quote]
 ..........I just remembered that USA *did* can $ale for Quicksilver, and I remember how pissed I was. Hmmm...my fondness for Quicksilver just diminished greatly. ;-)