Blockbusters

[Fedya]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jul 4 2005, 05:24 PM\']Perhaps they could've set the time Classic Concentration-style. Start it at :30 (I know--CC began it at :35) and increase it by ten seconds (I know--it was five on CC) until you nail it. Then, reset the timer to thirty if the player wins again.

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This is what the German version of BB (Super Grips) did, although if memory serves, the students retired as champions once they won the equivalent of the Gold Run.  They also only got prizes instead of cash -- but then again, it was high-school students playing.

[SteveRep]

I too thought the 2-vs-1 was what gave the show its niche. It worked better for me.

On the Rafferty version. I tolerated the 5x4 alignment. What might have been interesting is giving the champion the option of having the advantage in Game 1 or 2, then having the 4x4 in Game 3.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'mystery7\' date=\'Jul 4 2005, 04:07 PM\']

One thing they could've done differently in '87 was to make the Gold Run 30 seconds instead of :60. Cullen's laid-back style almost made the full minute a must. Rafferty and his players, on the other hand, could have done just fine with half the time.

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Cullen managed to get as many 10 or 11 questions in the 60 seconds, assuming a contestant didn't agonize too long on a question they didn't know before passing. Rafferty usually gets about 9, partly due to the second lag while the question is coming up on the monitor, and I think he reads a little slower and bobbles more often. Maybe they could have done it untimed, like the 1978 J! bonus round, where taking too long or missing a question got a strike, and three strikes ended the round.

[uncamark]

It seems to me that on the last show of the original version, among the statistics that Bill read off was that they found out that it was more or less equal in solo players/family pairs in terms of number of wins.

However, I will vouch for the fact that when I tried out for the show in Chicago in early 1982, the solo players vastly outnumbered the family pairs who were at the session I attended.  If the contestant bookers were trying to get a quota of family pairs while in Chicago, they might've been very frustrated, unless they were only hoping to maybe get one family pair.

[Jimmy Owen]

Would it have thrown the show off-kilter if they had considered husband-and-wife pairs?

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jul 5 2005, 01:59 PM\']Would it have thrown the show off-kilter if they had considered husband-and-wife pairs?

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One would suspect that Goodson didn't want a show with married couples, since that had been done and done and done.

[tyshaun1]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Jul 5 2005, 03:06 PM\']One would suspect that Goodson didn't want a show with married couples, since that had been done and done and done.

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True, but wasn't the original plans for Card Sharks '86 was to have couples? Which is supposedly why Bob Eubanks was brought on in the first place.

Tyshaun

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Jul 5 2005, 06:10 PM\']True, but wasn't the original plans for Card Sharks '86 was to have couples? Which is supposedly why Bob Eubanks was brought on in the first place.
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Great idea.  I can see the arguing couples now.  Of course, Eubanks is the perfect guy to muck things up...and make it a travesty.

[TLEberle]

Except that Couples Card Sharks has been on the air for damn near forever in the form of "Play Your Cards Right."  That doesn't mean I like the idea, nor would I want to see it, but it does work.  And Bob would be the right guy to do it.

As to something I brought up earlier, what I was wondering was which came first in the idea process: the hex grid or the two-on-one format?

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Jul 6 2005, 01:24 AM\']Except that Couples Card Sharks has been on the air for damn near forever in the form of "Play Your Cards Right."  That doesn't mean I like the idea, nor would I want to see it, but it does work.  And Bob would be the right guy to do it.

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IIRC, wasn't that the whole reason of doing a couples format...to make the show more based on Play Your Cards Right, including the car format?

[Craig Karlberg]

I think the hex board was derived before the 2-on-1 format was established.

Speaking of the hex board, if a 4x4 board was laid out, it'll never look even although  the dimensions might create a square.  That's because 2 paralell sets of adjacent sides that create the illusion of a triangle that basically bisects the hex on the left & right, thus creating an akward looking square arrangement.  In fact, whether it's 4x4, 5x4 or even 5x5, the setup won't have an even look to the board.

[Neumms]

If it was too hard to find family pairs, why didn't they allow pairs of friends? (I imagine there's some sort of reason.)

[Steve McClellan]

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Jul 6 2005, 10:35 AM\']If it was too hard to find family pairs, why didn't they allow pairs of friends? (I imagine there's some sort of reason.)[/quote]
One possible explanation, it would seem, is that allowing any two people who are really good at the game to team up would tend to dominate the game, and not leave a solo player with a shot in hell. That said, if the show ever came back, there are a couple of potential teammates who'd have me seriously considering marrying one of their sisters.

But somehow, I think I might be in the minority on that one....

[Steve Gavazzi]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Jul 6 2005, 04:22 AM\']I think the hex board was derived before the 2-on-1 format was established.

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I'm gonna take a wild stab and say you have no evidence to back that claim up.

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' date=\'Jul 6 2005, 05:04 PM\']I'm gonna take a wild stab and say you have no evidence to back that claim up.

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The key words in that post are:
[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Jul 6 2005, 04:22 AM\']I think[/quote]... which, according to some of our "crumedegons", is a contradiction in terms.

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Jul 6 2005, 01:24 AM\']Except that Couples Card Sharks has been on the air for damn near forever in the form of "Play Your Cards Right." That doesn't mean I like the idea, nor would I want to see it, but it does work. And Bob would be the right guy to do it.

As to something I brought up earlier, what I was wondering was which came first in the idea process: the hex grid or the two-on-one format?[/quote]This is pure unadultered speculation, and unlike certain others I'm not afraid to admit it.  But Travis's first paragraph might explain why they phrase "play your cards right" was used so predominantly on the '80s versions while never used on the '78-81 version.  Maybe someone at MGP considered renaming it Play Your Cards Right, since it wouldn't have been the first time a Goodson show was revived under a completely different title.

As for the second paragraph, unless anyone here keeps in touch with Steve Ryan on a regular basis, we'll never know.