Lights, Camera, Action!

[Jay Temple]

Not sure about my favorites, but within shows ...

After converting my old Pyramid shows to DVD, I found that I too liked having the winners' clips followed by a dark studio.  (However, I thought having a player already in the Winners' Circle diminished that effect.  For those occasions, it would have been better to have him seated where he won the game and then bring him over.)  And one of the many changes I didn't like on Osmond's show was having the celebs already seated.

Similar to the celeb note, I wish J! still had contestants walk on.

[JMFabiano]

There can be only one...nothing matched the electricity when Larry told us, "In a moment, the game that intrigued a nation..."

Oh sorry, I'm not posting on Bizarro World...

One I can't believe hasn't been mentioned yet AFAIK was the intro to Password Plus, probably my real favorite of all the PW opens.

[Craig Karlberg]

Not only was P+ 's opening was good, but Super Password may've outdone it IMO.  I liked how the diffrent colored Passwords would be spelled out & each of its diffrent colored letters would drop from the top.  Then when they morphed into one, the word Super was drawn in a curseive font style.  Together with the synthesized opening, it was neat.  Then the cleberties came out followed by Bert Convy.  That was neat too.

Another one of my faves is Scrabble's.  In its opening where a home-viewer submitted clue was read, the solution was placed letter by letter untill the audience said the word.  Then the letters of Scrabble started to dance around before they forned its name, that was cool.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'JMFabiano\' date=\'Jan 3 2005, 01:45 AM\']There can be only one...nothing matched the electricity when Larry told us, "In a moment, the game that intrigued a nation..."

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Pity that was as good as that version of the show got. And Larry was correct. "Intrigued"--past tense. The 1990 edition did nothing to get the ol' mojo risin'.
By the way, PaulD, if you either agree or disagree with me, you may simply e-mail me privately.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Jan 3 2005, 02:43 AM\']Not only was P+ 's opening was good, but Super Password may've outdone it IMO.  I liked how the diffrent colored Passwords would be spelled out & each of its diffrent colored letters would drop from the top.  Then when they morphed into one, the word Super was drawn in a curseive font style.  Together with the synthesized opening, it was neat.  Then the cleberties came out followed by Bert Convy.  That was neat too.

Another one of my faves is Scrabble's.  In its opening where a home-viewer submitted clue was read, the solution was placed letter by letter untill the audience said the word.  Then the letters of Scrabble started to dance around before they forned its name, that was cool.

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Wow, really? I don't think any of us have ever seen those before. Thanks so much for the vivid description.

(Personally, among the Passwords, I'm in the P+ camp, but I can't say anything definitively until I've seen a Password All-Stars open. Overall, the title has to go to either Whew! (damn, I love that theme), or MGHSH...for all of its faults, that gigantic wall just SCREAMED "this is a big freakin' deal".)

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Jan 2 2005, 11:43 PM\']Similar to the celeb note, I wish J! still had contestants walk on.

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Yep. I always thought the "Now entering the studio are today's contestants!" line was synonymous with the show, and should be preserved. Or maybe I'm just too much of a Weird Al fan.

(you've all heard that song, right? )

[tyshaun1]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 3 2005, 11:49 AM\'][(you've all heard that song, right? )

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No, I have not.

In other news, the song "Celebration" by Cool and the Gang was used in a puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.

To stray back on topic, gotta love "WHEEL-OF-FORTUNE!" 80's style, PYL and Pyramid flashback openings, and TPIR's energetic opening.

Tyshaun

[Jimmy Owen]

"Winning Streak" had a pretty good open, thought the show wasn't one of Bill's best.  Any show where the house lights are dimmed with just the chase lights doing their thing was pretty cool.

[uncamark]

I tend to warm to a show that uses its opening to set the premise entertainingly.  The 60s "YDS!" opening of celeb-with-back-to-camera giving clue, Tom Kennedy wisecracking and the celeb saying "no..." and giving the correct response and their name while turning to the camera explained the basic game play, introduced the celebs with minimal bombast and set the tone for the show--which is the most important thing in an opening.  And that's considering that some of Tom's wisecracks were corny or lame.

I also have weaknesses for the "Whew!" opening and anything that uses clips from past shows.

I also like an opening that drops you immediately into the game--not too many shows did that and "Double Dare" did it the best--with Marc Summers' "On your mark--get set--GO!" and Harvey's voice-over explaining the stunt and "...the first team to do it will win $20 and control of the sloppiest show on TV...", you got the game going and set the premise and tone.

[JMFabiano]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Jan 3 2005, 01:43 AM\']Similar to the celeb note, I wish J! still had contestants walk on.

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Which was best in the '80s when the played the theme from the beginning, so the lion's share of the walk-on intros (maybe even the whole open) would have that dramatic synthesized music before the main theme in the background.  To a lesser extent, the near the middle section of the Perry Card Sharks theme playing to "open the board and get to the cards," especially with the Money Cards, makes you feel like something special awaits behind that receding wall of cards.

[GSWitch]

Gotta agree with one poster, the 1978 Jeopardy! march opening.

I also liked the opening suspenseful themes to Bob Stewart's Jackpot (NBC) & Pass The Buck.

For animation sequence, it goes to WHEW!

For most dramatical opening starts with a heartbeat (thump-thump) where a lucky lady could win $25,000 (or $20,000-$50,000).

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Jan 3 2005, 09:01 PM\']
For animation sequence, it goes to WHEW!

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How many other shows with animation sequences?

Nonetheless, "Whew!" had an awesome opening. The copy was terrific, too.

"Match Game '7x" is my favorite. How'd anyone pipe up in the meeting with, "you know, I think we need some flashing orange thing twirling around"? And there's good audience murmuring at the start, just as on 80s "Jeopardy!" which should never have gotten rid of it.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Jan 3 2005, 09:44 PM\'][quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Jan 3 2005, 09:01 PM\']
For animation sequence, it goes to WHEW!

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How many other shows with animation sequences?

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Blackout, Shopping Spree, and To Say the Least come to mind.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Jan 3 2005, 09:44 PM\']

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How many other shows with animation sequences?

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I think most Jay Wolpert shows had them, except for Hit Man maybe. Other than what Zach mentioned, I can think of some 70s LMaD episodes and Monty Hall's Beat The Clock. For B&W, there's 50s Beat The Clock (Hickory-Dickory-Dock) and WML (CBS and syndie versions).

And this might not count, but in the "3-D" category, there's Wheel of Fortune 10th anniversary and "big band" intros from the 90s, and Povich's 21.

[JMFabiano]

re: animated opens, would the caricature Monty and his flying carpet on some of the '70s LMADs count?