Rich Fields

[CarShark]

[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 12:18 PM\'][quote name=\'CarShark\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 11:49 AM\']Well, he's always said that if someone didn't like his announcing it was no skin off his nose, so I thought it would be OK.
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Just me, but there's a difference in saying "I don't like your announcing style" and "I'm glad you're unemployed".

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I'm not saying I don't want him to ever get a job. I'm just glad he didn't get this particular job.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'CarShark\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 10:25 AM\']I'm not saying I don't want him to ever get a job. I'm just glad he didn't get this particular job.

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Jesus.

[tvrandywest]

Kids, play nice.

As far as posters' personal preferences concerning style, no offense is ever taken by me. I purposely have never posted to golden-road.net, especially when the whole announcer debate was raging, because I wanted to keep the dialogue pure. I was already a member here, but have never wanted that to inhibit the open and honest expressions of opinions.  

As far as courtesy and politeness, why should I be given any more respect than anyone else by posters who are lacking in social graces? I've never understood the whole character asassination thing that is rampant in many net forums, but I know it's all part of the game. So talk, debate, discuss, and even flame if you feel you must. That's a problem for the moderators, not me.

Finally, to the other point raised, I don't mind having the IRS think I'm unemployed. But the fact of the matter is I'm hard at work, and still wish I could clone myself to avoid the problems associated with being double-booked and triple-booked. For example, I had THREE jobs this Sunday, 10/2, before deciding against both Atlantic City and Las Vegas to fulfill my longterm committment with Jonathan Goodson in L.A.. So, with Fremantle's extreme kindness, understanding, generosity and cooperation, I will be flying back and forth across the country in the next few days.

Finally, for what it's worth, I've slowly learned to dial down my own personal criticism of people's job performance when it comes to areas in which have have limited knowledge or experience.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[clemon79]

That might be the greatest post I've read here in a very long time.

[FeudDude]

My opinion: Rich definately has some good qualities - he shows the appropriate level of enthusiasm at all times, his interaction with Bob is solid, he has the pacing of the show down to a "T", and above all, it's clear that he is very passionate about the job.  However, I just don't think his voice is very well-suited to game show announcing.  It's not so bad when he's reading prize copy, but his "COME ON DOWN"s and other similar exclamations have a certain nasally, screechy quality to them that really grates on me sometimes.

My completely honest opinion is that Randy was the only one who had the right personality AND voice for the show (even if his voice did crack a bit).   Burton interacted very well with Bob and his pacing was on point, but he just couldn't shake off that corny "top 40 DJ puke" sound.  Art Sanders would have been fine if he had actually made an effort to interact with Bob.  Jim Thornton had solid interaction, read copy very well, and had a certain warmth to his delivery that I liked, but he just lacked that extra "oomph" needed for TPiR.   Roger Rose and Don Bishop just couldn't seem to grasp the proper timing and enthusiasm levels for the different parts of the show, although in all fairness both of them only got one week.  And the less said about Daniel Rosen, the better.

[chris319]

Rich Fields affects a style which I can best describe as a "Mr. Microphone" caricature of a game show announcer, a style which I deplore. It is not natural and not conversant. It just sounds schlocky. The people who have done this job best over the decades never affected such a style, from Johnny O. to Gene Wood to Kenny Williams to Johnny Jacobs to Charlie O'Donnell to Johnny Gilbert to Jay Stewart to Rod Roddy to our beloved R.W. -- the list goes on. They project "Enthusiasm" and "Energy", both with a capital "E", but are/were skilled enough to make it natural and conversant at the same time.

The O.P. asked for our honest opinions and we've certainly been forthcoming.

[cmjb13]

Well said FeudDude. You pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Wonder how Paul Boland would have done if he was invited back?

Art Sanders would have been fine if he had actually made an effort to interact with Bob

Wonder how you would feel if they hired Art without continuing the search as was originally planned.

[Jumpondees]

You know...if this fourm was around back in the days after Johnny O. passed on...I would bet dollars to Krispy Kremes that we would all have had this same discussion about Rod taking over for Johnny.

As for my personal feelings on the matter, I would have rather seen Randy get the gig over Rich...IMHO I just felt more comfortable listening to someone who I'm familiar with rather than a "stranger".  Rich on the other hand, who really heard of him outside of his radio work/previous tv experience prior to getting the job?  That same question could have been asked about Rod when he got the job...There were many more highly qualified announcers in Hollywood at the time, but Rod was practically an "unknown" talent himself on a national stage when he got TPIR....Yeah, Rod did a couple of game shows and some v/o work on a primetime tv series, not to mention his years of radio work before getting a job that would last him almost 20 years, but it's going to be his connection to TPIR, not Soap, not Hit Man, not PYL, that America will remember him for.

Now that it has been a year since Rich's installment as announcer on TPIR, I've gotten over some of my personal dislike for the guy because I'm now used to what is "his style", and that's what I now realize what makes that position on the show special...the style of the person doing the job.  I would love to ask Bob what made Rich stand out above everyone else...I almost bet that Bob would not have one negative thing to say about Randy, Burton, or anyone else who auditioned for the job...I almost think that it was a matter of giving a "unknown" a shot at being made into a star.

Bottom line here...We compared (in our own way, pubically or not) Rod to Johnny when Rod got the job, we're doing the same thing now with Rich, we all would have nitpicked anyone else who got the job (including Randy), and we will most certainly do the same with the person who succeeds Rich should that happen.  Everyone who does the job is going to say "A New CAR" differently...Everyone will have their own quirks when it comes to the TPIR announcing job, and I think it's about time that we lay off of Rich and let him establish himself a bit more.  Who knows, maybe in some time, Rich will work out the other things that bug us about his style...I almost bet in 5 or 10 years from now that we'll be looking at Rich in the same light as we did for Johnny and Rod....But that's just my opinion

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jumpondees\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 12:15 PM\']I almost bet in 5 or 10 years from now that we'll be looking at Rich in the same light as we did for Johnny and Rod....But that's just my opinion

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I sincerely doubt that.

[CarShark]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 02:10 PM\']Rich Fields affects a style which I can best describe as a "Mr. Microphone" caricature of a game show announcer, a style which I deplore.

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[/quote]I always thought that about Mr. West, except with constant voice cracking.

Burton always has an overly dramatic quality to his voice, that I liked on the flashy, schtick-y '94 PiR, but it seems a little "much" on Barker's show.

I hadn't heard Daniel Rosen announce much before I played the DVD game. Oh. My. Goodness. I thought you guys were just exaggerating about how bad he was. He was......just......goodness.

[MSTieScott]

Randy and Rich were my top two picks. I will admit that Rich has a tendency to yell -- I remember some warm-ups where his voice would begin to scratch from yelling, all before the taping even began.

However, one thing I noticed about Randy's performance on the show was that he had a tendency to ad-lib within the copy. Nothing major, but some changes of word order or verb tense. It all sounded perfectly natural -- in fact, I was impressed that he could make those small changes while he was concentrating on announcing. I wonder if that went into the final decision -- there are some advertisers who could be very particular about the way their copy is read, and having the announcer change words on the fly could be a liability.

Of course, with all of that copy, no one is going to be able to announce the show perfectly every day.

--
Scott Robinson

[TPIRFan]

[quote name=\'jmangin\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 07:48 AM\']I honestly can't stand to listen to Rich shriek through the copy on a daily basis.  There is no reason he should be yelling at the top of his lungs into a mic.  Yes, we all know that it is truly loud in the studio...but that's still no excuse to SCREAM.  It hurts my ears!!  His normal speaking voice is abrasive enough already without raising his volume so high that his voice cracks. 

I also find it incredibly annoying that his inflection rarely changes between introducing a car and when he plugs $1,000 worth of coinage.

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Exactly. I worry about Rich losing his voice or getting sued for busting someone's eardrum because he is so loud. Randy knew when to tone it down, Burton knew when to tune it down, There is a difference between being enthusiastic and screaming.

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 02:22 PM\'][quote name=\'Jumpondees\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 12:15 PM\']I almost bet in 5 or 10 years from now that we'll be looking at Rich in the same light as we did for Johnny and Rod....But that's just my opinion

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I sincerely doubt that.

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The only way I would not doubt that, is when/if Rich finally decides to TONE IT DOWN A LITTLE.  

In other words, Rich is awful and I will never live it down that he got picked over Burton, Randy, or Roger.

Anyway, here were my rankings.

1.Burton
2.Randy
3.Roger Rose
4.Art Sanders
5.Jim Thornton
6.Don Bishop

*insert large gap*

7.Rich Fields
8.Daniel Rosen

[TalkingHeadsFan]

I think it was Mr. Barker himself who said "when Rich tells people to Come On Down!, it's happy! It's a happy voice!" His tone of voice and his enthusiasm certainly give off a genuine, natural vibe that fits the show perfectly. In my opinion, Rich is the most natural sounding person who's ever been behind the mic, aside from Johnny O. If we were to compare Rich's performance from his auditions, to current, I'd say he's made a hell of an improvement. I hated him during auditions, but he's improved so drastically, I now think he's doing a fine job. However, considering they made Rich the permanent announcer based on that audition is quite iffy. At that time, I would not have chosen him, I would have chosen Randy.

I've always felt that the best announcers never sounded like their stereotype, which is exactly why Burton was terrible on TPiR.

[chris319]

Bottom line here...We compared (in our own way, pubically or not) Rod to Johnny when Rod got the job, we're doing the same thing now with Rich, we all would have nitpicked anyone else who got the job (including Randy), and we will most certainly do the same with the person who succeeds Rich should that happen. Everyone who does the job is going to say "A New CAR" differently...Everyone will have their own quirks when it comes to the TPIR announcing job, and I think it's about time that we lay off of Rich and let him establish himself a bit more. Who knows, maybe in some time, Rich will work out the other things that bug us about his style...I almost bet in 5 or 10 years from now that we'll be looking at Rich in the same light as we did for Johnny and Rod

This is nonsense. Crummy announcing is crummy announcing. Hire the right individual and a five-year learning curve won't be required. This is not to say that Rich Fields can't be reformed through intensive coaching. I have to question whether Rich has had any formal voice training to begin with. My guess is that he has not.

[FeudDude]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Sep 28 2005, 05:23 PM\']I have to question whether Rich has had any formal voice training to begin with. My guess is that he has not.

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Well, with all his years of broadcasting experience, I would imagine that he has had some.  Whether or not he adheres to what he learned back then is another story.