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Author Topic: Question cards on Blockbusters  (Read 8040 times)

roadgeek

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Question cards on Blockbusters
« on: May 27, 2005, 11:31:37 AM »
Watching Blockbusters, I've always wondered how Bill gets the question card he needs, considering it has to correspond with the letter called (and to have additional questions ready for wrong answers).  I would think that 20 different question piles would be out of the question, but maybe there's a way to make that work.

Other shows that would seem to have this issue would be TJW, TTD and Bullseye.  Any ideas?

Clay Zambo

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Question cards on Blockbusters
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2005, 11:54:03 AM »
I'm betting they were in a rack, one letter's worth of questions per slot, rather than in piles, either organized alphabetically or in the same configuration as the board.
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clemon79

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Question cards on Blockbusters
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2005, 12:44:56 PM »
[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' date=\'May 27 2005, 08:54 AM\']I'm betting they were in a rack, one letter's worth of questions per slot, rather than in piles, either organized alphabetically or in the same configuration as the board.
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Alphabetically would be my guess, with index tabs of some sort. I would think there would be too much chance of accidentally pulling a question a space above or below (plus it would be a ROYAL pain to switch around his cards between games) if it were based on board pattern. Alphabetically, you load up the podium before you roll tape, and yer set for the show.

Gold Runs, depending on how well Bill could read small text (he DID wear awfully thick glasses) were prolly printed on large sheets of paper in board pattern, but I'm speaking wholly ex-rectum.
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uncamark

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Question cards on Blockbusters
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2005, 02:24:25 PM »
[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'May 27 2005, 11:44 AM\'][quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' date=\'May 27 2005, 08:54 AM\']I'm betting they were in a rack, one letter's worth of questions per slot, rather than in piles, either organized alphabetically or in the same configuration as the board.
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Alphabetically would be my guess, with index tabs of some sort. I would think there would be too much chance of accidentally pulling a question a space above or below (plus it would be a ROYAL pain to switch around his cards between games) if it were based on board pattern. Alphabetically, you load up the podium before you roll tape, and yer set for the show.
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My best guess, as well.

When I tried out for the show, there was a box next to the game board with the questions laid out in the same order as the board, but they used the same configuration for every tryout game.  (And in case you wondered, since there were many more solo players than family pairs trying out, they put the family pairs together, handed out white and red sticks for the people trying out to hold while playing the game--raising them was buzzing in--and after they'd gone to each family pair the last one would hand their white stick to the next solo player.)

JasonA1

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Question cards on Blockbusters
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2005, 08:45:32 PM »
I have a few tidbits to contribute. On an episode aired near the end of the gold cyclorama period, Bill was talking about being confused when a contestant jumped about the board. We see him hold up a Gold Run card which has hand-printed on the back "GOLD RUN - ABC" or whatever initials it was. When I asked Chris C. about this sometime back, he said he wasn't with the company at the time, but would suggest lights.

Hypothesis: it was cards, arranged like the board, but Bill only turned them over and read them when its light lit up on the podium.

-Jason
Game Show Forum Muckety-Muck

zachhoran

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Question cards on Blockbusters
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2005, 09:05:23 PM »
[quote name=\'roadgeek\' date=\'May 27 2005, 10:31 AM\']Watching Blockbusters, I've always wondered how Bill gets the question card he needs, considering it has to correspond with the letter called (and to have additional questions ready for wrong answers).  I would think that 20 different question piles would be out of the question, but maybe there's a way to make that work.


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If you're talking about Rafferty, he didn't use cards. All questions on that show were seen by the host via a monitor, correct? It was the first show to have the host look at a monitor.

Matt Ottinger

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Question cards on Blockbusters
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2005, 10:29:54 AM »
I know this isn't relevant to the discussion, but I saw "Question cards on Blockbusters" and thought that there might be some of you haven't seen what one looks like:

http://userdata.acd.net/ottinger/cullen/shows/block.html
This has been another installment of Matt Ottinger's Masters of the Obvious.
Stay tuned for all the obsessive-compulsive fun of Words Have Meanings.