Hosts who hated their shows...

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'FOXSportsFan\' date=\'Dec 1 2005, 04:33 PM\']Put it to you this way, in the brief chance I had to meet him I never got the impression he hated Double Dare.  I even mention it and he was appreciative of me mentioning it.  I mean if he hated the game, why would he otherwise have consulted for the (lesser) DD 2000?

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Yeah, but, God help me, I see Whammy5K's point...with OCD like he had, he had to go apes**t inside when they would run through that meticulously set-up obstacle course and just tear everything up.

[Kevin Prather]

I can certainly understand how a person with OCD would strongly dislike Double Dare. I just think it's wrong to make assumptions.

[FOXSportsFan]

Ya have a lil too much spiked egg nog, Chris?  : )

Yeah, I mean it had to be hell for him.  It practically was.  And, he makes it known in his book that on camera he played it cool while off camera he'd be the guy who rips the suit off in the back ASAP.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'FOXSportsFan\' date=\'Dec 1 2005, 04:33 PM\']Put it to you this way, in the brief chance I had to meet him I never got the impression he hated Double Dare.  I even mention it and he was appreciative of me mentioning it.  I mean if he hated the game, why would he otherwise have consulted for the (lesser) DD 2000?

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Marc and I have become good friends of late. Perhaps I can help clarify some of this. Marc loved and loves DD; it made him a piece of our collective memories for as long as that generation of TV viewers lives. Marc is recognized absolutely everywhere, and is happy to meet fans and discuss the show.

It is dumb luck that, of all hosts, he ended up helping to create that show's success when it presented a unique personal challenge to him. I give him great credit for doing it all those years, under difficult circumstances, and never letting it affect the show.

Marc is now well past almost all of the problems he had with OCD, and his story of overcoming the worst of it is inspiring. He readily and freely shakes hands with people he meets and works with. I learned to always ask hosts whether they are comfortable with me shaking their hand on stage during their intro to the studio audience; there are a number of hosts with quirks and superstitions. Marc appreciated me asking, but welcomed a nightly handshake when we worked together recently. That's unlike two hosts with whom I worked and learned to never extend my hand. No names   ;-)

Marc is scheduled to appear on Tony Danza's show on Monday 12/5. With any luck they'll make an unholy mess with some cooking segment!


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[Adam Nedeff]

[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Dec 1 2005, 10:30 AM\']IIRC, Geoff Edwards said about "Hollywood's Talking"; "When I got the job hosting that show, I figured that it wouldn't last more than 13 weeks........ and it didn't."
I also recall him being not too fond of Starcade as well, save for Bagman.

Tyshaun

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Nobody would hang around the studio after-hours trying to top the other staff members' scores on all the games if they hated the show. Geoff quite obviously loved it.

Sticking with the host in mind, Geoff did eventually grow to dislike "The New Treasure Hunt" after Chuck Barris' "creative input" started to disturb him somewhat. After four seasons and increasingly uncomfortable ideas for skits to do in Season 5, Geoff quit the show.

And as far as Ray Combs goes, I don't think he hated Family Feud, I think he just ended up being surprised by it. I think he approached it believing it would be something he did early in his career, not how his entire career would be remembered.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Mike Tennant\' date=\'Dec 1 2005, 12:14 PM\']I can imagine that, though he would be too gentlemanly ever to say anything publicly, Uncle Bill was probably not too thrilled with some of the shows with which he got stuck during the 1970's.[/quote]
The worst thing I can find him saying on the record was that Winning Streak "just didn't work".  Bill was smart enough not to burn bridges by bad-mouthing shows, he never knew where his next gig might come from.

Also, I think there's a big difference between hosts hating shows they're working on at the moment and hosts talking about some "piece of crap" they worked on decades ago.  Anybody who's been around for a while is going to have lesser entries on his resume, but that doesn't mean he hated doing it at the time.

[Casey Buck]

Surprised none of you have mentioned Chuck Henry and NYSI '89...he hated it so much that he requested that it never be rerun again.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Casey Buck\' date=\'Dec 2 2005, 02:55 AM\']Surprised none of you have mentioned Chuck Henry and NYSI '89...he hated it so much that he requested that it never be rerun again.[/quote]
I'm not sure that's a case of him hating the show as much as it is that seeing him as a game show host detracts from the image he's trying to protect as a Serious Newsman.

[SRIV94]

It's a possibility (I don't know how accurate it is) that Chuck Barris, even though he warmed up to the job of hosting GONG, doesn't look back on GONG with a lot of fondness.  He's said in a number of interviews that he was suffering a midlife crisis on national TV while doing the show.  He also wrote in Confessions about how people would just walk up to him in the streets and start showing him how (un)talented they were (and that he was booed while introduced at a Philadelphia Flyers game).

Pure speculation, but it's not implausible.

Doug

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Dec 2 2005, 08:27 AM\'](and that he was booed while introduced at a Philadelphia Flyers game).

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Take into account that Philly Flyer fans (especially 1970's Philly Flyer fans) would boo an announcement that the cure for cancer had been found.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Dec 2 2005, 11:07 AM\']Take into account that Philly Flyer fans (especially 1970's Philly Flyer fans) would boo an announcement that the cure for cancer had been found.

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Point taken.

It used to be said of Philly fans--"We're right behind you, win or tie."  May still be.  

Doug

[whewfan]

Gene didn't exactly say he "hated" Match Game, but he said the original format was too restraining for him (a pain in the BLANK), and that the 70s format was very weak, and a "dumb game", which is why he went out of his way to make it as entertaining as possible.

As for Starcade, Geoff told me that he just felt the format didn't allow him much leeway to ad-lib, but we all know he loves video games.

Bob Eubanks said in a TV Guide interview that of the shows he hosted, Trivia Trap and Dream House were the shows he felt had very weak formats (no mention of Diamond Head in that interview). He said Dream House should've been called "Dream Furniture", since they gave away much more furniture than houses, and he never understood why the player can't just give the correct answer to a question when he knows the answer.

[musicman]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Dec 1 2005, 04:11 PM\']

Isn't a fair statement to say Ray Combs grew to hate doing "Family Feud"? Discuss and/or flame away?

I'm not sure how much he hated it, but I remember the producer making a comment once that went something like "he wanted to do The Ray Combs Show, I wanted to do Family Feud".

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What exactly did Howard mean by that?

[Jimmy Owen]

Mr Felscher is saying the star of the show is the game, rather than the host.  He had the same concerns during the ABC run as well.

[ChuckNet]

I'm not sure that's a case of him hating the show as much as it is that seeing him as a game show host detracts from the image he's trying to protect as a Serious Newsman.

Much like Adam Arkin won't let his appearances on MG be rerun (presumably) because it might detract from his reputation ad a dramatic actor, although he kinda lost some credibility back in 03 w/Baby Bob...LOL.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")