The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: DoItRockapella on February 16, 2016, 06:02:00 PM
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I haven't posted on here in a while, but this got my attention. I was going through the website for On Camera Audiences and, well, take a look:
http://on-camera-audiences.com/shows/Whats_My_Line
The listing says it will tape on February 27 in New York; given that it says "will tape" rather then "will begin taping", maybe it's just a pilot?
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I find this quite interesting. The fact that there's been nothing reported about it suggests to me that it may be something even less that a pilot. They (Fremantle? Who owns the production rights now?) might be noodling around to see what works, and using a studio audience as part of that effort. Much like those ghastly YouTube originals that Fremantle was playing with. We heard that if those clicked, we might see full-blown efforts on Buzzr or something. This might be along those lines. When your celebrity panel is made up of Second City troupers, this particular event is probably not aiming for broadcast.
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And here's your host, J. Keith van Straaten.
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It's more than likely an improv show looking to bring some civilians into the mix. We would have heard something about this by now if it were an official Fremantle production.
In this comedic panel game show, performers from the world famous improv theatre, The Second City, will attempt to guess the professions of real people, by only asking yes or no questions...
This kind of show has become rather commonplace lately. UCB does a Match Game thing every year as part of the Del Close Improv Marathon.
Also, the address listed on OCA is 151 West 26th Street in NYC. I've been there, it's basically a rehearsal space. Nothing to film a big-budget pilot in.
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There's been chatter about Fremantle/Debmar Mercury pitching a WML? revival in syndication for fall 2016, so who knows. Last mention of it I saw in the trades was around the time Buzzr launched.
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Just a couple of observations: I don't think I've ever seen anything on OCA that didn't have some purpose toward eventually being on TV. They're likely not going to be providing tickets for a random fun get-together by Second City. Also to note: the logo on the page is the same new logo (http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/whatsmyline/images/6/6e/WML2015.jpg) used in the pilot shot a year or two ago, so that would also make me think Fremantle has a hand in this.
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I'm on the wait-list for tickets, have put a calendar hold on the date, and will provide a fuller report as soon as I'm able.
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And here's your host, J. Keith van Straaten.
<Like>
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Some time ago on these boards, there was talk of a WML revival with Whoopi Goldberg on the panel. The mystery guest would come out as the first guest, then stay and play the game as a panelist. That sounded more appealing than this.
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So, did anyone go to this?
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Someone on the WML? Facebook page reported on it, and it sounds like it was pretty much what I thought. They told the audience they were taping a pilot, but that it wasn't for anybody in particular. He didn't recognize the host or panel, who were all Second City comics out of Chicago. They shot a variety of segments over the three-hour (yikes!) taping, including a Mystery Guest segment with Geraldo Rivera. They also did a "History Mystery" segment where the panel had to identify a famous figure from the past (King Tut). He said game play wasn't very good, and (not surprisingly) they were trying to force snarky and suggestive humor into the proceedings. Weirdest thing he described is that the host had a sidekick who kept score and served as the brunt of jokes.
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Lissa and I were there for the first taping.
There was some off-color humor from the panelists, but honestly it wasn't *more* such than you'd find on an old episode where Hal Block flirted with a female contestant or Arlene asked to feel the biceps of a strappin' young lad; it was just *different.*
Game play was not great, but then, it wasn't on the first episodes of the original series either. The panelists wore nice-ish street clothes, which seemed fine to me: gowns and tuxedos would look out of place on a comedy show--and that's what the executive producer said up front they were aiming for.
I'm not quite sure what took them so long to tape (and what the delays were between segments), or why the studio had to be meat-locker cold during the whole thing (honestly, the coldest studio I've ever been in!). There were no prizes on offer for winners, which is fine, but then why bother to make a big deal out of "10 'no's and you win the game"? (I assume, if they were to get to series, that your "prize" would be the trip to NYC or LA for the taping. Or maybe not.
The way panelists were swapped in and out from one segment to the next indicated to me that we were seeing what was not meant to be a contiguous half-hour show, even with editing. (It would be awfully weird to come back from commercial to find Dorothy and Arlene had switched seats during the break.) Perhaps these segments were intended as pilots for Buzzr's YouTube channel.
The panelists weren't terrific, but neither were the guests. There was a fair amount of obfuscation, particularly by a guest whose line was "graffiti artist," but who answered yes to questions about his product being applied to the human body. (Apparently he also does body painting, but that seems to have nothing to do with graffiti.) And don't get me started on the burning question: are 20-something men physically incapable of sitting upright in a chair or tucking in their shirt tails?
I really liked the "mystery history" segment--which was the real reason to have the sidekick around: he plays the historical character. In an improv-comedy way, his character is not given to him until the segment begins. In that case, the host needs to be well-prepared to help answer questions, lest the segment go rambling.
All in all, since I'm not sure what the market is (daytime? late night? CBS? Comedy Central? Web?) it's impossible to tell whether they came close to getting it. But I wish them well and would love to see a respectful (if comedic) revival of the franchise sometime soon.
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Who hosted?
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I knew you were going to ask that, and knew that I'd forget.
Scott Morehead, who I gather is another of the Second City-zans.
And it seems like they've been doing this for a while. A tweet from last August indicates a Second City performance of WML in Chicago: https://twitter.com/thesecondcity/status/628961681952100352
(Morehead is in the lower right of the photo; at least two of the others pictured were panelists last Saturday, and the guy in the lower left was the sidekick.)