The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Jeremy Nelson on June 15, 2011, 03:44:37 PM
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I have a feeling that just about every game show related topic has been brought up here at some point, but this is one I don't recall ever seeing (at least not in relatively recent memory): What game shows had bonus rounds that just didn't fit the show to you?
For me, I've got two that stick out:
Split Second: For such a great quizzer, the bonus round seemed almost like an afterthought.
Chain Reaction: I guess you could say that the clue givers were creating a "chain" of words, but that's a stretch.
Any others?
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Well, if you go Split Second, you have to go with the 1980s Hollywood Squares round too...same principle.
While we're on Squares, the Big Money Round is on the list too- totally out of place.
Few others: The Turnabout Round on Child's Play- the whole point of the game was to guess how kids defined words, right? Why change it? The Big Numbers Round on Las Vegas Gambit- call me crazy, but why are you going to bring dice to a game based on blackjack if you really don't need to? Casino theme notwithstanding?
(Considering where these threads tend to go, perhaps some of you might find it funny to see that, when you click on "Reply", it says "Replying To This Makes No Sense To Me." Yet I did it anyway. Bad me. Bad bad bad.)
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I can think of three-
The Big Showdown- the dice rolling is exciting, but doesn't fit with the hard quiz front game.
Winning Lines- great endgame in the Wonderwall- but really didn't fit well with the front game.
Pitfall- good endgame, but front game should have been Q&A as well instead of predicting audience responses...
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Winning Lines- great endgame in the Wonderwall- but really didn't fit well with the front game.
In a case like this, as well as Pitfall, I would say that the argument should be in reverse- an end game with an unfitting front game.
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-The Winner's Big Money Game from $ale of the Century is another bonus that had nothing to do with the main game.(Solving 4 six clue puzzles in 20 seconds had nothing to do with answering questions and shopping.)
- The Battlestars Two from Battlestars also comes to mind (uncovering and guessing the picture of a celebrity had nothing to do with capturing the celebs or agreeing/disagreeing with their answers.)
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Well, if you go Split Second, you have to go with the 1980s Hollywood Squares round too...same principle.
The Split Second Bonus Game may not be related to the main game, but it was fun. If you haven't seen the Robb Weller pilot for the Split Second revival, be grateful... that bonus game, also based on luck, had NONE of the excitement of the Kennedy or later Hall version.
While we're on Squares, the Big Money Round is on the list too- totally out of place.
Few others: The Turnabout Round on Child's Play- the whole point of the game was to guess how kids defined words, right? Why change it?
It was either changed because the original format was too hard or too easy. Also, it's possible that they felt the children should be featured more and allow Bill to play Art Linkletter to get more "gems" out of them.
The Big Numbers Round on Las Vegas Gambit- call me crazy, but why are you going to bring dice to a game based on blackjack if you really don't need to? Casino theme notwithstanding?
The original bonus game was a "live deck" of cards. Audience members represented cards, and it was identical to the original Gambit bonus game. I suppose that didn't work out and not having a better bonus game, just played the High Rollers bonus game instead.
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Four Words; Sale of the Century.
Four more words: Winner's Big Money Game.
I know NBC was trying to cut costs at the inception of this bonus round, but could they have whipped up something a little better? Solving a series of word puzzles - to me, anyway - had nothing to do with the premise of buying lavish prizes at decent prices. My least favorite era of what was an excellent game show.
The Inquisitive One
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Four Words; Sale of the Century.
Four more words: Winner's Big Money Game.
I know NBC was trying to cut costs at the inception of this bonus round, but could they have whipped up something a little better? Solving a series of word puzzles - to me, anyway - had nothing to do with the premise of buying lavish prizes at decent prices. My least favorite era of what was an excellent game show.
The Inquisitive One
I'll add the Winner's Board as well. Since when did $otC become CLASSIC CONCENTRATION?
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Four Words; Sale of the Century.
Four more words: Winner's Big Money Game.
I know NBC was trying to cut costs at the inception of this bonus round, but could they have whipped up something a little better? Solving a series of word puzzles - to me, anyway - had nothing to do with the premise of buying lavish prizes at decent prices. My least favorite era of what was an excellent game show.
The Inquisitive One
By no means did this bonus round cut costs. If anything, it added more. If you won all Winner's Big Money Games, you'd take $95,000 right off the bat. Then you add a car, all 7 the "prizes of the day." THEN you have instant bargains, instant cash and fame games to add in there.
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I believe the word from Mitt Dawson was that NBC wanted $ale to have an actual endgame, thus, the WBMG.
-Jason
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Few others: The Turnabout Round on Child's Play- the whole point of the game was to guess how kids defined words, right? Why change it?
'Cuz here's why. (http://"http://gameshow.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=7399&view=findpost&p=80117")
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I'll add "$ale" and the Big Money Game as well. Felt really out of place for that kinda show.
As for "Split Second" and "Big Showdown", I forgive those two as their bonus rounds were more of a light reward for the hard work and strategizing the contestant just went through. Both were mentally taxing, but brilliant shows.
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On "Big Showdown," in retrospect, since it was so hard to win $10,000 on the first roll, I had a returning champs suggestion that if you win the next day, you could have the fives and sixes covered with Show and Down, on the third day the fours fives and sixes, etc. until you reach your fifth day when only the ones were uncovered, thus virtually assuring you the ten grand as a reward for 5 days of play. A player would be retired after 5 days if he or she was unable to roll Show Down. This would only be on the initial roll. For the 30 seconds of timed rolling, the normal Show Down dice would be rolled for $5000 and the player retired if successful.
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If you haven't seen the Robb Weller pilot for the Split Second revival, be grateful... that bonus game, also based on luck, had NONE of the excitement of the Kennedy or later Hall version.
How was the bonus played on the pilot?
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Disagree somewhat on Big Showdown end game being out of place. The whole game was loosely based on craps - hitting a "point" exactly, categories worth 1 to 6 points as indicated with sides on a die. Would've liked it if they had made the first-roll jackpot a progressive with a $10,000 base.
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If you haven't seen the Robb Weller pilot for the Split Second revival, be grateful... that bonus game, also based on luck, had NONE of the excitement of the Kennedy or later Hall version.
How was the bonus played on the pilot?
Three monitors were presented. A trip graphic was shuffled amongst the three, and the champ had to pick the right number.
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The car game that was played on the '80s version of "Crosswits" whenever the Crossfire Round was won.
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A couple more:
Rayburn's Break the Bank - what a fiasco!!
Povich's 21 - six true or false questions - they didn't have anything better?
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As for "Split Second" and "Big Showdown", I forgive those two as their bonus rounds were more of a light reward for the hard work and strategizing the contestant just went through. Both were mentally taxing, but brilliant shows.
I get your argument- I'm not opposed to what you're selling here, but in the case of Split Second, I might have rather preferred to see the game end after the Countdown Round, with the winner getting some sort of cash bonus and returning the next day; I've been thinking of a logical bonus round for a while for Split Second, and the only thing I could think of that fit the show was the Countdown Round. Maybe making the round a timed solo game would work, but it's fine the way it is.
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As for "Split Second" and "Big Showdown", I forgive those two as their bonus rounds were more of a light reward for the hard work and strategizing the contestant just went through. Both were mentally taxing, but brilliant shows.
I get your argument- I'm not opposed to what you're selling here, but in the case of Split Second, I might have rather preferred to see the game end after the Countdown Round, with the winner getting some sort of cash bonus and returning the next day; I've been thinking of a logical bonus round for a while for Split Second, and the only thing I could think of that fit the show was the Countdown Round. Maybe making the round a timed solo game would work, but it's fine the way it is.
A few years ago, I came up with something similar, a timed (:30 or :45) solo Countdown Round, with 10 points...maybe less one point for each day you come back.
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I'd add two games to this list that both later added "Celebrity" to their titles: "Hot Potato" and "Double Talk."
Brendan
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Povich's 21 - six true or false questions - they didn't have anything better?
Six questions, twenty-one possible points, and weren't there true-false questions in the main game as well?
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I'd add two games to this list that both later added "Celebrity" to their titles: "Hot Potato" and "Double Talk."
Brendan
You'd also add something that doesn't fit the criteria of what the OP is asking for.
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I too will go with the Big Money Game from $otC as well as the Big Money Winners Board, All you're really doing is matching prizes Concentration-style. There was one good upside to all of that. Once you cleared the board, you have one more chance to risk everything you won on the board for a shot at a $50K grand prize jackpot. Winning the last game gets your prizes back + the cash jackpot. Losing that game meant forefieting your bonus prizes(but NOT your Instant Bargains, Fame Game & Instan Cash prizes along the way).
Also, the NBC version of HS had a bonus round that was strictly luck-based at one point. It's where each celebrity had an envelope with the description of a prize on it. I'd rather have Peter Marshall ask one more question for the chance to win that prize instead of haphazardly finding the prize instantly like that.
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the bonus round for Italy's Tic Tac Dought was... Pyramid's Winners Circle
and when Mike Bongiorno revived the format the bonus became... the Golden Medley
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Double Talk's bonus game could've been closer to the main game if the clue giver had to give the "double talk" for a phrase, instead of description... for example "no relinquishing of the boat" could be double talk for "don't give up the ship". The phrase to be guessed could still have the first letters of each word.
On the show, the same phrase could have as a clue "if you're a sailor in a battle you..."
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Back in the ATGS days, I thought of a bonus round for Split Second:
Winner gets three three-part questions. $500 for each correct answer; get all nine and you get $10,000.
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By no means did this bonus round cut costs. If anything, it added more. If you won all Winner's Big Money Games, you'd take $95,000 right off the bat. Then you add a car, all 7 the "prizes of the day." THEN you have instant bargains, instant cash and fame games to add in there.
I don't disagree one bit with anything you said. It did add more, but my theory always was that NBC wanted to make the game harder while adding the prospect of a large cash prize. Here are my reasons:
- In order to play game eight for a chance at $50,000, you had to win the car in game 7, otherwise you retire.
- The game itself: while you had a chance to miss twice before an automatic game over, the time was so tight that passing or missing one, outside of a miracle, was failure.
I just thought there were more hurdles to jump for the big money. The Winner's Board era took less effort, despite the option to put the Board on the line for $50,000 in optional game 11. The Shopping Round was simply dependent on how much money the champion accumulated in the course of a day.
I completely understand the need to make the game harder in order to make the contestant earn his or her keep; I laud it. I just thought the WBMG was a good concept trapped in the wrong game.
The Inquisitive One
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I'd add two games to this list that both later added "Celebrity" to their titles: "Hot Potato" and "Double Talk."
Brendan
You'd also add something that doesn't fit the criteria of what the OP is asking for.
HOT POTATO FRONT GAME: Name an item on a list in a given category or challenge one of your opponents to do so.
HOT POTATO BONUS GAME: Here's a question and two possible answers. Which of them is the correct answer?
DOUBLE TALK FRONT GAME: Correctly identify a phrase or title that is "double-talked."
DOUBLE TALK BONUS GAME: Play the front game of "Pyramid," only instead of single words, you'll describe multi-word titles and phrases.
Neither one of those bonus games is directly related to the front game. Isn't that what the OP asked about?
Brendan
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Neither one of those bonus games is directly related to the front game. Isn't that what the OP asked about?
Sure sounds like it to me.
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The way the post was worded didn't immediately lead me to believe that he was talking about those two programs' bonus games, only the changing of their respective names and/or formats.
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I'll go along with everyone else in saying the WBMG from $otC was out of place.
I haven't seen the Robb Weller-hosted pilot for "Split Second" -- but I have seen the pilot for "Money in the Blank" with Kevin O'Connell.
The bonus round is basically "(amount) on the (color)" from "Three on a Match". It provides a few comical moments and I do get the literal depiction of money in the blank. But this endgame basically slowed down an other fast-paced show. (No wonder this didn't sell.)
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Povich's 21 - six true or false questions - they didn't have anything better?
The six questions were worth a total of 21 'points', and the rest of the show was a quizzer, so it's close enough to the maingame's format for me. We don't want the endgame to be exactly like the front game.
Besides, I would argue that anything tougher than true/false would take too much away from the press-your-luck focus of the endgame.
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Where is it written that bonus games are supposed to be the similar to front games?
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To me, the ideal is for the main game and end game to be related, but not identical. Some good examples:
Pyramid: What is the word? vs. What is the idea?
Musical Chairs: Choose the next line vs. know the next line, or Choose the next line from 3 choices vs. Place the lines in order.
Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak: High scores in the main game come from guessing what words your teammates hadn't already used; win the main game by guessing what words they will come up with.
I don't usually like shows where the two parts are completely different, but when the end game just feels like the solo version of the main game, it feels like an end game for the sake of an end game. (See: Wheel.)
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when the end game just feels like the solo version of the main game, it feels like an end game for the sake of an end game. (See: Wheel.)
Which is why I tolerate/enjoy Instant Reaction on Chain Reaction vs. let's just play another chain.
-Jason
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Which is why I tolerate/enjoy Instant Reaction on Chain Reaction vs. let's just play another chain.
Especially on Chain Reaction, where it felt completely tacked on. And then there was the absolutely laughable jackpot of $2,000 split two ways.
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Rayburn's Break the Bank - what a fiasco!!
I would put BtB'85 into the same "main game that doesn't fit the bonus round" pile as Pitfall.
I don't usually like shows where the two parts are completely different, but when the end game just feels like the solo version of the main game, it feels like an end game for the sake of an end game. (See: Wheel.)
Meh. Bonus Land™ has worked for 30 years so far, and its only real changes were just patches to prevent everyone from picking the same prize and letters every time. (It really took them 7 years to think of a solution to everyone picking RSTLNE?)
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I think it's been said in the past, but a better endgame - if you must keep within the format - could have involved Missing Link puzzles against the clock.
-Jason
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The way the post was worded didn't immediately lead me to believe that he was talking about those two programs' bonus games, only the changing of their respective names and/or formats.
Ah. Good point. I probably should have added "coincidentally" when referring to "Celebrity" being in both titles. Rereading the post, I can see how it could have been misleading.
Speaking of "Double Talk," though, did the bonus round of "Shoot for the Stars" always have the same end game -- which DID relate directly to the main game -- or did it eventually morph into DT's bonus round?
Brendan
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Speaking of "Double Talk," though, did the bonus round of "Shoot for the Stars" always have the same end game -- which DID relate directly to the main game -- or did it eventually morph into DT's bonus round?
By all indication, it did not morph. Like Bob Stewart was wont to do, the Double Talk endgame came from the unsold pilot "$50,000 a Minute," where it made more sense as a follow-up to that format's front game. I imagine one could discover several genesis pilots for all the different ideas he'd later reuse in this show or that show, out of context. To wit, Chain Reaction's bonus came from Get Rich Quick; the 50k-a-Minute front game was Twisters' endgame...
-Jason
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I don't usually like shows where the two parts are completely different, but when the end game just feels like the solo version of the main game, it feels like an end game for the sake of an end game. (See: Wheel.)
I do see WHEEL, and I also see a difference. In the front-game there's the risk of losing your turn to another player by choosing a letter that's not in the puzzle (or hitting a bad wheel-space), but you can learn from your opponents' mistakes, and you have the option to push your luck and spin again. In the bonus game, you see the puzzle and get to call all your letters at once--no more, no fewer. If they're there, great; if not, tough luck. I've always found the Wheel bonus (even in the days when everybody chose RSTLNE) to be an elegant variation on the main game.