Staging problems...

[Dbacksfan12]

Some gameshows placed things very poorly amongst their shows. Among them:

Taking a commercial in the last round on "Whammy!"
Doing the contestant intros on "Finders Keepers" in the middle of Round 1
Taking a commercial break during a round on Daytime Wheel.

Anyone else think of such annoyances?

[Jimmy Owen]

Interupting Matt O's mo on J! with a commercial because he was about to happen on the Daily Double.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 05:36 AM\']:


Taking a commercial break during a round on Daytime Wheel.

Anyone else think of such annoyances?

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[/quote]

NBC's game shows had six one minute breaks in the 70s on the early days of Wheel, nothing could be done about that(it was later reduced to five during WOF, but the other shows at the time had only four)

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 05:59 AM\']Interupting Matt O's mo on J! with a commercial because he was about to happen on the Daily Double.

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Taking a commercial in the middle of the first round on J! can often break someone's rhythm. You often hear the contestant call for a category/amount before Alex says it's time to go to break.

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 08:08 AM\']Taking a commercial in the middle of the first round on J! can often break someone's rhythm. You often hear the contestant call for a category/amount before Alex says it's time to go to break.

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Absolutely.  I haven't watched in a while, but generally 15 questions are asked in the first round before a commercial break is called (less if the Daily Double is called during that time), so it's easy for me to know when to call out a category and when to lay back.  But I've no doubt that isn't a consideration when one is up on stage.

[Robert Hutchinson]

Osmond Pyramid--grinding the game to a halt halfway through each round to ask inane questions of the celebrities.

[sshuffield70]

It's like they couldn't do it for just a minute before the game starts....just like Clark used to do...........oh, wait......this isn't supposed to be like Clark.......neverdamnmind.

[BrandonFG]

I always thought it was awkward when a show took a commercial at the top of the show, following the contestant interviews (I think most of the TNN games and Marshall HSq did this).

One staging method that I DID like was used on most of the H-Q shows of the 70s. Coming in from commercial, the host (in the cases I saw, Wink or Trebek) would say something like "Our contestants will receive blah-blah," and then Kenny Williams would describe the prize, then cut to the show logo..."Gambit/HR will be back after these messages."

[Unrealtor]

The first toss-up on Wheel does nothing for the flow of the show. It's relatively fast paced, gets the game started, then you lose all that momentum by going immediately to the contestant interviews.

I think that the later years of Bergeron H² were the best example of getting a little bit of game in before doing the contestant interviews. The open, a couple questions, then the first break with the interviews immediately after. Overall, I prefer the shows that get straight into the game. J! and TPIR have been doing this for years, but, otherwise, it seems to be a fairly recent trend.

[WhammyPower]

Shall we mention the king of bad edits.....

GSN?

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Unrealtor\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 02:31 PM\']The first toss-up on Wheel does nothing for the flow of the show. It's relatively fast paced, gets the game started, then you lose all that momentum by going immediately to the contestant interviews.
[/quote]
I'm no Wheel fan, but you know why this is REALLY broken? The opening tossup, aside from the cash award, doesn't mean jack, because they have that SECOND tossup to determine who has control of the first puzzle.

They'd keep that "momentum" of which you speak a little better if they played the FIRST tossup for control, then Pat introduces and does his schtick with the players, and then after that Pat said something like "Okay, Bob (or whoever), you solved the tossup, so you'll start us off on THIS puzzle <ding-ding-DING-ding>...a Thing. Let's go."

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 07:47 PM\']They'd keep that "momentum" of which you speak a little better if they played the FIRST tossup for control, then Pat introduces and does his schtick with the players, and then after that Pat said something like "Okay, Bob (or whoever), you solved the tossup, so you'll start us off on THIS puzzle <ding-ding-DING-ding>...a Thing. Let's go."

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Wasn't that how they used to do it when the toss-ups were first invoked?

Doug

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 09:46 PM\']Wasn't that how they used to do it when the toss-ups were first invoked?

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I'm pretty sure that the current configuration has been the only configuration.

[Steve Gavazzi]

No, the first year they were used, there were only two of them, and they were both worth $1000.  I don't remember whether the first one happened before or after the interviews, though.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 09:30 PM\'][quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Dec 18 2004, 09:46 PM\']Wasn't that how they used to do it when the toss-ups were first invoked?

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I'm pretty sure that the current configuration has been the only configuration.

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Guess I should've Googled before I asked.  From Chri$ Lambert's page:

Also that season, "Toss-Up" puzzles were played prior
to rounds 1 and 4. These puzzles were filled in one letter at a time, and any
contestant could buzz in and answer for $1000 and the right to start the
round. In 2001-02, two "toss-ups" were played at the beginning of the show,
with the first worth $1000 and the second worth $2000 plus control of the
first round. The pre-fourth round toss-up was increased to $3000.

So basically, the first toss-up is just throwing away $1000 to somebody (not that I wouldn't take it ;-) ).  Sure, it might be the $1000 that wins somebody the game, but it might also be superfluous.

Doug