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Author Topic: The *worst* Game Show Ever  (Read 46176 times)

ChuckNet

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #90 on: May 31, 2005, 07:53:37 PM »
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Look out kids! The Thousand Dollar Bee is hitting the road! (Run while you still can!!!)

Anyone wanna come w/me when the tour hits NYC? <ducking>

Chuck Donegan (The Treading-Dangerous-Ground "Chuckie Baby")

Don Howard

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« Reply #91 on: May 31, 2005, 11:50:07 PM »
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'May 31 2005, 12:02 PM\']Still, god help me, I thought the little Bee Girl was cute!
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Maybe so, but she's about ten years too young for me.

Speedy G

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« Reply #92 on: June 01, 2005, 02:28:01 AM »
[quote name=\'hmtriplecrown\' date=\'May 27 2005, 06:53 PM\']I sacrificed both another half hour of my life, as well as a perfectly good episode of Super Password this afternoon in order to tape The Thousand Dollar Bee.  An 8 minute compilation video, including the entire final segment and end credits, can be found at http://www.classicgameshows.com/video/1000dollarbee.wmv  The video is 16 MB in size.

Don't blame me; I'm just the messenger.
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Wow.  Best.  Lightning.  Graphic.  Ever.

Is the TPiR Easy As 1-2-3 music part of the show, or did you add that in?  I'd guess that the music they use for Easy as 123 is stock music, but it can't hurt to ask.  Then again, by asking, I'm implying that you did more than cut the video into pieces properly sized for a Fear Factor TV-watching contest.
Solar-powered flashlight, hour 4 of the Today show, the Purple Parrots.  *rips open envelope, blows into it*

clemon79

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #93 on: June 01, 2005, 05:21:18 AM »
[quote name=\'Speedy G\' date=\'May 31 2005, 11:28 PM\']I'd guess that the music they use for Easy as 123 is stock music, but it can't hurt to ask. 
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You'd guess right. It's stock.
Chris Lemon, King Fool, Director of Suck Consolidation
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TunaHead

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #94 on: June 01, 2005, 06:03:25 AM »
Yeah, it's stock music, and it was actually released onto the trading circuit a while back... In fact, it's been used maybe more than most other stock music that's current.

HairMetalLives

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #95 on: June 01, 2005, 08:43:49 AM »
[quote name=\'hmtriplecrown\' date=\'May 27 2005, 02:53 PM\']I sacrificed both another half hour of my life, as well as a perfectly good episode of Super Password this afternoon in order to tape The Thousand Dollar Bee.  An 8 minute compilation video, including the entire final segment and end credits, can be found at http://www.classicgameshows.com/video/1000dollarbee.wmv  The video is 16 MB in size.

Don't blame me; I'm just the messenger.
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Wow. I tried, but I only lasted three minutes. And to think that I stopped ripping audio segments from "The Muppet Show" for this makes me want to down about six Alka-Seltzers. That is one of the worst chunks of television I've ever seen. (By the way: I'd like to see those kids try to spell "television!")
« Last Edit: June 01, 2005, 08:46:12 AM by HairMetalLives »

The Ol' Guy

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« Reply #96 on: June 01, 2005, 09:17:14 AM »
and there's another part of what makes this so painful - just like a few threads have made comments that it's agonizing watching clueless contestants fumble their way through simple games on The Price Is Right, the sad fact these kids have to struggle through words like they do makes you wonder about our whole education system and what these kids could become in the future. When I'm sitting in a nursing home, I don't want someone who can't read the medicine labels at age 24 handing me pills. I'll bet a fair number of kids of all races today think that if they can excel in sports or can sing three notes on key in a row, they have a rich future ahead of them that doesn't require smarts. Instead, we're breeding future fodder for Maury and Judge Hatchett episodes. The Bee is trying to help kids, but it's also a mirror of the system breaking down...and that may be what is just as hard to watch as the production values.

..and didn't I hear that the little bee girl mention in an interview that when she grows up, she wants to be a big bee girl like Anitra Ford? Bee-ware! ;-)

MikeK

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #97 on: June 01, 2005, 12:26:25 PM »
[quote name=\'Speedy G\' date=\'Jun 1 2005, 02:28 AM\']Wow.  Best.  Lightning.  Graphic.  Ever.

Is the TPiR Easy As 1-2-3 music part of the show, or did you add that in?[/quote]
The only thing I added were the transitions from segment to segment.

Some people on this group will be remembered for their humor, being on a game show, or being in the biz.  Me?  The Thousand Dollar Bee and Malcolm.

mmb5

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« Reply #98 on: June 01, 2005, 05:15:41 PM »
An E-mail I got today indicates The $1,000 Bee may have some competition:

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You have to watch TV One's Bid Whist Party Throwdown.  This show is just awful.  Besides the awfulness of the concept of televised Bid Whist.  How can I list the ways:
 
(1) TV One doesn't spring for the lipstick cameras that appear on every other gambling show.  They make the players hold their cards up for the camera to see.  (How  expensive is the X20 anyway?)
(2) The show is supposed to be a "dinner party", but all of the guest celebrities had to bring their own food
(3)  The six "celebrities" were maybe D- c elebrities.  Maybe.  I recognised Ted Lange from Love Boat, Roz Ryan from Amen, and Kiki Shepard from Showtime at the Apollo (and that was a pull).  Those were the well-known celebrities.  I have no idea who the other three were.
 
It reairs on Saturday night.  Watch at your own peril...

TV One is on DirecTV.  


--Mike
Portions of this post not affecting the outcome have been edited or recreated.

Chief-O

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #99 on: June 01, 2005, 05:35:18 PM »
[quote name=\'hmtriplecrown\' date=\'Jun 1 2005, 11:26 AM\']Some people on this group will be remembered for their humor, being on a game show, or being in the biz.  Me?  The Thousand Dollar Bee and Malcolm.
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And I'll probably be remembered for my sub-par attempt to recreate whoserman's LOTD logo.

And I think I should chime in with my opinion-----"$1,000 Bee" was just.....eeek. At least the [animated] graphics proved the existance of SOME kind of budget.
There are three things I've learned never to discuss with people: Religion, politics, and the proper wrapping of microphone cables.

CarbonCpy

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« Reply #100 on: June 02, 2005, 12:58:31 AM »
[quote name=\'Chief-O\' date=\'Jun 1 2005, 04:35 PM\']And I think I should chime in with my opinion-----"$1,000 Bee" was just.....eeek. At least the [animated] graphics proved the existance of SOME kind of budget.
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In that last sentance, I believe you just figured out where that budget went.

ChuckNet

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #101 on: June 04, 2005, 01:38:53 AM »
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The host is Sinatra?? Being a Frank fan, that was good for a chuckle.

And having caught his last name in the end credits, I can see why only his first name is used in the onscreen graphics, etc...LOL

As for Klaussie, I think you might have the storyline for a possible Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind sequel...is there anyone who'd want their memories erased after seeing that clip? Yes, the show does serve an educational purpose, but production-wise? It makes the aforementioned Million Dollar Word Game look like...oh wait, never mind. :-D

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

MikeK

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« Reply #102 on: June 05, 2005, 01:29:52 PM »
[quote name=\'mmb5\' date=\'Jun 1 2005, 05:15 PM\']You have to watch TV One's Bid Whist Party Throwdown.  This show is just awful.  Besides the awfulness of the concept of televised Bid Whist.
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I TiVoed this last night.  (Yes, I wasted valuable drive space on my TiVo for this.)  It's not as bad as The Thousand Dollar Bee.  Unlike the Bee, I didn't watch the entire extravaganza.  I fast forwarded to the final hand after about half an hour.

Certain card games translate to TV quite well--definitely poker, blackjack somewhat.  Whist?  No.  First off, let's play a game nobody's heard of!  Second, it took me three hands to understand the game and even then, I was confused by the bidding and the terminology.  Third, the lipstick cameras wouldn't work here.  How do you show 13 cards to the little camera besides one or two at a time?  Given the large number of cards in each hand, actually having the celebrities show their cards was the right way to handle this.

The production values are significantly better than The Thousand Dollar Bee.  The hosts...ugh, but they were better than the wacky Sinatra.  I thought I heard a few words which should've been caught by the censor, but maybe that was my hearing acting up.

This might be the worst card game ever, at least in the modern era.  (Televised poker, pre-lipstick cameras, is very boring.)  I wouldn't call this a game show, as I saw more eating and shots of the food than of the game itself.

Sorry, no videos this time.  There are laws against torture.

dmota104

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #103 on: June 05, 2005, 01:45:20 PM »
[quote name=\'hmtriplecrown\' date=\'May 27 2005, 05:53 PM\']I sacrificed both another half hour of my life, as well as a perfectly good episode of Super Password this afternoon in order to tape The Thousand Dollar Bee.  An 8 minute compilation video, including the entire final segment and end credits, can be found at http://www.classicgameshows.com/video/1000dollarbee.wmv  The video is 16 MB in size.

Don't blame me; I'm just the messenger.
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Just now watched the clip for the first time.  Much of the last week and a half has been spent getting married and spending our honeymoon in central Florida.  

(Side note: Meet the newlyweds at www.dougmorris.net/cindy.)

With that said, I have to ask, do they even pre-test the contestants?  The poor girl who misspelled "invest", "money" and "credit" was awful.   Hate to say it, but I shook my head along with the bee that faded in and out of the lower right corner of the graphic during her speed round.  

The lightning round wasn't too bad.  (Insert Street Smarts' "bad pun alert" sound effects and flashing super here.)  However, considering a player had to sound a buzzer first for the right to spell the word, why didn't they call this "the buzz off"?

With regard to the "bee scramble boards", show of hands, anyone thought that round was stolen from a famous Soul Train segment?  Oddly enough, the segment was named "the Soul Train scramble board".  Object for the players was to use the letters on a magnetized board to unscramble the name of an artist or musical group.

Yes, I know, unscrambling words is nothing new to the game show world (read: Caesars Challenge; wordplay categories on TTD, TJW and J!).  Still, unless Robert, BFC, et al, received Don Cornelius' blessing on this one, don't be suprised if we see Soul Train v. Thousand Dollar Bee in court.

Then, when the TDB players unscrambled their words, having the contestants use the words in sentences seemed pointless.  Equally pointless: the final story round.  Uh, hello, I thought this was supposed to be a spelling contest.

More problems now. When the kids are spelling words, they should say the word, spell it and say it again -- just like the National Spelling Bee.  In the clip, they only said the word once and spelled it (or, chronologically, the other way around).  

The "say-spell-say" method is a clear indication to everyone (s)he is finished spelling the word.  Back to the poor girl who screwed up "money", when she was given the word, her response was, "money, M-O-N-E" and about a half a second later, Sinatra gave her the next word.  

Also, from a production standpoint, the players probably need to be standing at podia -- displaying the running totals (what a concept!). Either that or step up to a microphone (a la the NSB).  That's better than Sinatra handing a mic to a contestant.

The set is absolutely crummy.  Too pre-schoolish.  Why not a backdrop similar to the '70s Beat The Odds pilot -- with letters all over the place?

And the theme song -- UGH!  I'll just leave it at that.

If the show survives beyond this season (and, per earlier posts, that's a big if), here's what to fix...

\ As noted earlier, have the players "say-spell-say".  This worked in the spelling round of WinTuition.  Why not here?  

\ Ditch the scramble boards with a round that has a series of spelling words that increase in difficulty (or at least increase in letter length: 5-letter word, then 6 letters, 7 letters, etc.).  The higher the difficulty, the higher the point value.  One misspelling and the player's turn is over.  Opponent gets a different set of words.  

\ Echoing similar thoughts throughout this thread, give the main game winner *SOMETHING* for victory.  A gift card, a "must have" toy, a box of Cheerios, *something*.

\ Ditch the story round and replace it with a round where a player is show several groups of words, four per group, and is asked to identify which word is spelled incorrectly.  Meeting a certain goal in a certain time limit -- say, six right answers in 45 seconds -- wins $1000 in savings bonds.  Better to do that than take the ultra-cheap route of giving the season-ending winner $1000 and have all the other kids come away empty-handed.

Bottom line: I'm sticking with my original take of $hopper's Casino being the worst game show ever.  But, between crummy production values, a low prize budget, a theme song at least five times more annoying than TJW90 and a game that combines too many formats, I'll rank TDB a close second worst.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2005, 04:29:11 PM by dmota104 »

clemon79

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The *worst* Game Show Ever
« Reply #104 on: June 05, 2005, 02:37:24 PM »
[quote name=\'dmota104\' date=\'Jun 5 2005, 10:45 AM\']Yes, I know, unscrambling words is nothing new to the game show world (read: Caesars Challenge; wordplay categories on TTD, TJW and J!).  Still, unless Robert, BFC, et al, received Don Cornelius' blessing on this one, don't be suprised if we see Soul Train v. Thousand Dollar Bee in court.
[/quote]
A show aimed at a black audience is never going to sue another show aimed at a black audience. Bottom line.
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