The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: SuperMatch93 on November 18, 2014, 10:03:45 PM
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This has got to be the strangest game-show related anecdote I have ever read.
From UKGameshows.com:
Monkhouse was an enthusiastic contributor to the excellent book "The Gameshow Handbook" (David Mason, 1991). One very bizarre (and rather scary) story that he recounted was that of an American gameshow host he had met, who apparently refused to read anything about or meet his contestants before the show. Monkhouse asked him what he did if the contestants were getting cocky or talking too much and the American host said that he used the 'mouth tear'. When asked what that was, he explained that he'd put his thumb into the contestant's mouth and grab hold of his/her cheek, but the camera angles were such that it appeared that he was simply putting a friendly hand on the contestant's shoulder rather than grabbing hold of his/her mouth. The host also added that he had never once been bitten and that all his contestants were well-behaved.
Does anyone have any idea who Bob could have been talking about?
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Off the top of my head, it seems Dawson would be the only one who'd have the balls to try something like that.
ETA: Didn't Groucho have a love for unscripted, spontaneous moments on You Bet Your Life? Maybe him?
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Richard Dawson totally seems the type to 1) not go through the trouble of reading up on the contestants before the show, and 2) pull a contestant towards him by the inside of the mouth.
Also makes sense that the two Family Feud/Fortunes hosts would meet at some point and talk shop.
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Does anyone have any idea who Bob could have been talking about?
Whoever the host was, should be very ashamed of himself. A mouth tear or fish-hooking is not a way to control your contestants. That's just a flat out mean thing to do. >:(
-Dan
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Richard Dawson totally seems the type to 1) not go through the trouble of reading up on the contestants before the show, and 2) pull a contestant towards him by the inside of the mouth.
Also makes sense that the two Family Feud/Fortunes hosts would meet at some point and talk shop.
Richard Dawson also was the first host that came to mind as well.
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I know the 70s/80s weren't an insanely litigious era like we have today, and contestants even then signed a whole bunch of waivers, but it still seems like an attorney worth his salt could build a pretty good assault case out of such a thing...which is why I have my doubts as to its truth.
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Thing one: how many hosts got that close to the contestants?
Thing two: isn't that asking for an ass-whipping, even if you are a game show host?
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I would've said Barker but he would have used a different body part.
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I would've said Barker but he would have used a different body part.
His "microphone."
Oh, you mean the CONTESTANTS. My bad.
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Thing one: how many hosts got that close to the contestants?
Thing two: isn't that asking for an ass-whipping, even if you are a game show host?
Agreed. I call "Horsecrap" on the whole quote.
Do you people think that IF something like this had happened in the past, you'd be hearing first about this from the deceased Bob Monkhouse this many years later?
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Thing one: how many hosts got that close to the contestants?
Thing two: isn't that asking for an ass-whipping, even if you are a game show host?
Agreed. I call "Horsecrap" on the whole quote.
Do you people think that IF something like this had happened in the past, you'd be hearing first about this from the deceased Bob Monkhouse this many years later?
I have to agree with you on that...something as notorious as that wouldn't have remained hidden for so long...
JakeT
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he'd put his thumb into the contestant's mouth and grab hold of his/her cheek, but the camera angles were such that it appeared that he was simply putting a friendly hand on the contestant's shoulder
...What kind of camera angle(s) would allow the former to look like the latter?
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What kind of makes me doubt the validity of this story is the "refused to meet his contestants before the show" part. Don't the VAST majority of American game shows prohibit hosts from doing exactly that?
And also the part about how it would look "on camera." Stand at profile, a reasonable distance from a mirror, put the hand not facing the mirror next to your mouth and then put it on your shoulder. That's enough distance that you'd see the difference.
Besides that, eventually, this kind of thing would make it into the press somehow. Everybody who comes to Hollywood from out of town and appears on a game show winds up in their hometown paper for it. In the course of researching my books, I've already had to read one contestant's account of how Allen Ludden was a snob because he didn't make eye contact during a commercial break. The mouth tear would have been written up somewhere, and honestly, it probably would have gathered steam because that's such an aggressive thing to do.
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I think the real question might be "what US game show host would have a twisted enough sense of humor to tell Bob Monkhouse that he does that?".
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Even then, I think Dawson qualifies. I say that because I remember him pretending to read a note that said, "Dear Sir, The world would be better off without you and your kind ..."
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Honestly, my first guess upon reading this was Monty Hall, since the nature of LMAD both prohibited him for knowing anything about his contestants as well as the possible need to have to control them moreso than other shows, but Dawson sounds more plausible since they both hosted Feud and Dawson seemed more touchy-feely anyway.
/Assuming, of course, that this story is even credible
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The story sounds about as credible as Bob Barker's "Historic Moments".
Thirty year recollections are always sketchy. Side story. I just started reading the book "Live from New York" about the history of SNL and Albert Brooks recalls that he came up with the host-of-the-week portion of SNL's format, while Lorne Michaels doesn't recall even first speaking to Albert when that decision was made.
In any case, I'd have hard time thinking of many game shows that have the contestants' backs to the camera as the host talks to them. Dawson seems the likeliest, but it sounds so unbelievable that someone would have the gall.