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What 70's/80's Game Show format do you think would be most successful if brought back TODAY. Pick from these or offer your own suggestion.
1. The Cross-wits
2. Whew!
3. Press Your Luck
4. Scrabble
5. Battlestars
6. Pitfall
7. Let's Make a Deal
8. Sale Of The Century
9. Dream House
10. Password
11. Match Game
12. Name That Tune
13. Tic Tac Dough
14. The Joker's Wild
15. To Tell The Truth
Dizzy
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Concentration.
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Blockbusters would also work very well today.
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I've been thinking lately with all the empahsis on casino shows, TJW or Card Sharks might be worth a try.
I've always thought CS was a pretty solid show. The survey questions were always entertaining (You hear that, FreeMangle?), it had a possible big money payoff, and wasn't a really difficult show.
TJW Is a very solid quizzer with that extra element thrown in of a giant slot machine. The classic format also allowed for returning champions, thus opening the door to another KenJen, perhaps.
Fact is, though, that Sony and Freemantle need to recognize that these formats are good as is. Not much really needs to be added, other than perhaps a slight uppage in money due to inflation (though $32,000 is a pretty high payoff even these days)
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We've already proven that Deal and Truth didn't have the noodles for a modern audience. Match pretty much met its match as a format in 1998, and Fox shelved their pilot for What The Blank? last year - not a good sign. Tests were not good for Kennedy's remake of Scrabble. And PYL, of course, is hanging in by a thread as Whammy!. Of what's left, Password would have the best chance of them all, but even that'd be a slim one unless it either involved a $1,000,000 Alphabetics round or became a team show with vote-offs. And I don't see either of those happening (fortunately).
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I'd really support a revival of "Split Second." I think it'd cash in on some of Jeopardy's recent success, with its focus on general knowledge and its breakneck pace. Blockbusters could work, but only if producers (and the host) could speed up the game considerably.
As for TJW, the slot machine element would probably be too gimmicky for today's audience. Besides, why watch a show that only suggests a casino theme (but actually has little to do with a casino), when you can watch the real thing on cable?
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If it worked for over 21 years, and it's now coming back with today's Aussie audience, I am sure a nicely done, Sale of the Century would work. No added tweaks, no added swimming with piranhas stunts after the Instant Bargains as a Sale Suprise.
Just solid, good old Sale.
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[quote name=\'dizzy\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 06:45 PM\']What 70's/80's Game Show format do you think would be most successful if brought back TODAY. Pick from these or offer your own suggestion.
1. The Cross-wits
2. Whew!
3. Press Your Luck
4. Scrabble
5. Battlestars
6. Pitfall
7. Let's Make a Deal
8. Sale Of The Century
9. Dream House
10. Password
11. Match Game
12. Name That Tune
13. Tic Tac Dough
14. The Joker's Wild
15. To Tell The Truth
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There's no reason why any of these formats wouldn't work today - except maybe Battlestars, which wasn't particularly successful in its initial run. It's not like 20 or 30 years means the format doesn't work - although it may no longer hold an audience's attention.
That's why some formats were changed for the better (Password, Match Game). Other format switches were bad ones (The Joker's Wild, Card Sharks). With enough testing, they might have figured that out, but that's the way it goes.
A couple of years ago, I gave Newsday columnist Marvin Kitman a list of shows that would work if they were brought back (instead of Twenty-One. I don't have the list handy (I don't really want to wake my son up to get the article), but among the shows I listed were Sale of the Century and Whew! - along with Split Second and The Big Showdown.
Honest, CBS puts those on Saturday nights with an hour-long TPIR in the middle, they might not be too bad off.
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Always enjoyed the "three people with buzzers" shows. Take the innovations of $ale, SS and TBS and create a great new show. Monty and Ron Greenberg worked together at one time, maybe it's doable.
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[quote name=\'dizzy\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 06:45 PM\']What 70's/80's Game Show format do you think would be most successful if brought back TODAY. Pick from these or offer your own suggestion.
1. The Cross-wits[/quote]
Possibly, could use it as a decent celebrity vehicle, but don't make the game about them. *cough*Pyramid*cough*
2. Whew!
Complicated in 1979, and the attention span of the average viewer is probably even worse. If you can simplify the rules without watering down the game, it could prolly work.
8. Sale Of The Century
9. Dream House
I'm slightly surprised neither of these were pitched during the Big Money craze of 2000. At least with these two, the gratuitous high-priced merchandise fit the shows. ;-)
12. Name That Tune
VH-1 had a decent effort with Name That Video. I think if the show is given a modern feel, "Tune" could still work.
15. To Tell The Truth
Paula Poundstone kinda rubbed me the wrong way...or was that her adopted daughters?*
*I'ma gonna go to Hell when I die...I'ma gonna go to Hell when I die...
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[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 05:40 PM\']9. Dream House
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This was brought back... isn't it called Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?
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[quote name=\'dizzy\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 06:45 PM\']6. Pitfall
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It would be great to have it back. Loved the bonus round.
The only problem is that the set would cost too much to build if it was based off the original run.
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Gimme "Blockbusters"!
It was hugely popular in England, for many years, as a game for college students. I'd love to see it done that way on, say, MTV.
As for another former Cullen vehicle, I've always thought some hip young comic could do a bang-up job on a remake of "Eye Guess". The comedy possibilities with this game are practically endless, and there could be plenty of bawdy stuff included for the modern audience.
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[quote name=\'geno57\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 08:02 PM\']Gimme "Blockbusters"!
It was hugely popular in England, for many years, as a game for college students. I'd love to see it done that way on, say, MTV.
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Frankly, I'd like to see BB back too, but MTV?!?! The only way they'd put it on is if they had those repugnant Real World/Road Rules imbeciles playing.
Seriously, Blockbusters would be a great show to revive. Just the possiblities of a hybird gameboard (combining the on-set board of the original show with the nifty CGI of the 1987 incarnation) have me drooling.
And that's before we even mention the great gameplay.
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[quote name=\'Game Show Man\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 08:16 PM\']Seriously, Blockbusters would be a great show to revive. Just the possiblities of a hybird gameboard (combining the on-set board of the original show with the nifty CGI of the 1987 incarnation) have me drooling.
And that's before we even mention the great gameplay.
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Instead, you get Quicksilvers's set budget and WOF's contestant coordinators. Congratulations.
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The "buzzer show" is alive and well with Jeopardy! so
a new one might not be fresh enough to be a breakthrough hit.
I'd vote to revive the panel show, e.g. TTTT, in network prime
time. But with engaging celebrities, not stand-up comics trying
to advance their careers at the expense of the game.
Second choice: Password or Concentration because they've been
gone for so long and, in the case of the former, Betty White
is still around to give it a proper kickoff.
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It's impossible to consider these remakes in the abstract, and I'll give you the perfect example. Card Sharks with the elder producers of Goodson-Todman at the helm is a totally different show from Card Sharks 2001 with the learned scholars of Fremantle at the helm. Whether (INSERT NAME OF SHOW) would "work" today is entirely dependent on who is mounting the show, and that goes for both the production company and the network or syndicator involved. This scenario has played out over and over again in recent years, not only with Card Sharks but with Match Game, To Tell the Truth, Pyramid, Let's Make A Deal, etc. Put morons in charge and a debacle is a foregone conclusion.
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[quote name=\'matchgame\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 09:05 PM\'][quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 05:40 PM\']9. Dream House
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This was brought back... isn't it called Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?
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MakeOVER....MAKEover....MakeOVER....LOOOOOOOOOOOOOSER! doesn't have the same ring to it...
ObThisTopic: Given North America's track record since the mid '90s, only Spanish language companies like Televisa should be allowed to do game show revivals.
Ob#2: There should probably be a moritorium on shows with guest stars, since very few mainstream ones have the class and/or intelligence the panelists/guests of game shows past had.
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Put me down for Match Game. If you could find two, three solid regulars like we used to have, it'd work today. It's the interaction between the celebs that makes it work, not the game itself.
Though I'd also make sure the game stayed out of the gutter.
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I'm sorry; but I'm of the mindset that Match Game will not work today. How do you push the evenlope; make things funny; without putting the game "in the gutter"?
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[quote name=\'dizzy\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 06:45 PM\']What 70's/80's Game Show format do you think would be most successful if brought back TODAY. Pick from these or offer your own suggestion.
1. The Cross-wits
2. Whew!
3. Press Your Luck
4. Scrabble
5. Battlestars
6. Pitfall
7. Let's Make a Deal
8. Sale Of The Century
9. Dream House
10. Password
11. Match Game
12. Name That Tune
13. Tic Tac Dough
14. The Joker's Wild
15. To Tell The Truth
Dizzy
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Out of the ones you listed, TTD would have the best shot. It needs little retooling.
As to what little to retool...
\ Center box is worth $1000; others $500; makes for a possible and decent $5000 pot if all 9 boxes are captured by the players.
\ In case of a tie, pot carries over to the next game but the values of the boxes stay the same (something TTD90 probably should've done).
\ Hold off on any "red box" categories until about the 4th or 5th season.
\ Bonus game: Certainly up for debate -- but how about a flashback to $otC's winner's board? Four pairs of prizes (including cash) plus one dragon. Keep picking numbers until a match is made or the dragon is found. The matched prize is replaced with a new prize.
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 26 2005, 12:29 AM\']I'm sorry; but I'm of the mindset that Match Game will not work today. How do you push the evenlope; make things funny; without putting the game "in the gutter"?
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Is there no comedy on televison nowadays? Of course not. Humour doesn't have to be constantly in the toilet to be funny.
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[quote name=\'Gromit\' date=\'Apr 27 2005, 09:06 PM\'][quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 26 2005, 12:29 AM\']I'm sorry; but I'm of the mindset that Match Game will not work today. How do you push the evenlope; make things funny; without putting the game "in the gutter"?
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Is there no comedy on televison nowadays? Of course not. Humour doesn't have to be constantly in the toilet to be funny.
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You're preaching to the choir. Tell that to the current crop of TV producers, willya? :)
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[quote name=\'Game Show Man\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 10:16 PM\'][quote name=\'geno57\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 08:02 PM\']Gimme "Blockbusters"!
It was hugely popular in England, for many years, as a game for college students. I'd love to see it done that way on, say, MTV.
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Frankly, I'd like to see BB back too, but MTV?!?! The only way they'd put it on is if they had those repugnant Real World/Road Rules imbeciles playing.
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"Welcome back to MTV Blockbusters! Contestants, what B is an insect that buzzes and stings?"
{sound of crickets chirping}
"Dude, these questions are, like, way too hard."
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[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 10:39 PM\']It's impossible to consider these remakes in the abstract, and I'll give you the perfect example. Card Sharks with the elder producers of Goodson-Todman at the helm is a totally different show from Card Sharks 2001 with the learned scholars of Fremantle at the helm. Whether (INSERT NAME OF SHOW) would "work" today is entirely dependent on who is mounting the show, and that goes for both the production company and the network or syndicator involved. This scenario has played out over and over again in recent years, not only with Card Sharks but with Match Game, To Tell the Truth, Pyramid, Let's Make A Deal, etc. Put morons in charge and a debacle is a foregone conclusion.
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Sorry for the late reply, but once again Moderator Chris has stated perfectly why I am highly pessimistic about the future viability of the genre (to the point that when WOF, J!, and TPIR finally end their runs, I believe there will never be another well-produced, enjoyable game show on the air again in my lifetime). The industry of today looks down on game shows as a low form of television, plus the segment of the industry that might produce them has shifted near-completely to the so-called "reality" genre. With so few game shows being produced, much less in the pipeline, there is almost no one to teach the next generation of TV producers on how to properly produce one. Given all this, and my own losing the love I once had for game shows, I can't help but believe that the game show may very well become extinct within two decades.
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[quote name=\'Game Show Man\' date=\'Apr 25 2005, 11:16 PM\']
Frankly, I'd like to see BB back too, but MTV?!?! The only way they'd put it on is if they had those repugnant Real World/Road Rules imbeciles playing.
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Host: "What M does this show air on?"
Contestant: "MSNBC?"
yeah........Train wreck waiting to happen. :)
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 26 2005, 12:29 AM\']I'm sorry; but I'm of the mindset that Match Game will not work today. How do you push the evenlope; make things funny; without putting the game "in the gutter"?
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And I'm of the mindset you're wrong. Any game can work if it's done right. The 1990 version worked fine; the game can't be messed with to appeal to whoever. As has been said, you can have comedy and humor without having overt vularity and so forth at every turn.
But "MTV Blockbusters"? Whew...
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[quote name=\'Tony\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 09:42 AM\']I am highly pessimistic about the future viability of the genre (to the point that when WOF, J!, and TPIR finally end their runs, I believe there will never be another well-produced, enjoyable game show on the air again in my lifetime).
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You are, at most, 28 years old. If yer average, you have 50 years left. Broadcast television as a whole is barely 60, and the landscape of it has changed quite a few times in that period. You planning on dying anytime soon?
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 12:52 PM\']You are, at most, 28 years old. If yer average, you have 50 years left. Broadcast television as a whole is barely 60, and the landscape of it has changed quite a few times in that period. You planning on dying anytime soon?
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While I don't plan on dying soon, I have a sneaking suspicion that I will die early (don't ask).
Besides, in that 60 years of television, when has any TV trend that was previously abandoned returned to stay for a good long time? (I mean longer than 2 or 3 years)
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[quote name=\'Tony\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 03:17 PM\']Besides, in that 60 years of television, when has any TV trend that was previously abandoned returned to stay for a good long time? (I mean longer than 2 or 3 years)
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Gameshows seemed to disapate in the early 80s....but when Wheel went into syndication in '83; steam was built, running through about 1990.
I hope you don't make your living as a motivational speaker.
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 03:23 PM\'][quote name=\'Tony\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 03:17 PM\']Besides, in that 60 years of television, when has any TV trend that was previously abandoned returned to stay for a good long time? (I mean longer than 2 or 3 years)
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Gameshows seemed to disapate in the early 80s....but when Wheel went into syndication in '83; steam was built, running through about 1990.
I hope you don't make your living as a motivational speaker.
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More recently, the last 9 or 10 years have been pretty steady, from about fall 96 up until last fall. Game shows seemed pretty dead c. 1995, when it was just Wheel and Jeopardy in syndication and Price in daytime (I'm not counting reruns of STYD or SS b/c they were just that--reruns). I think games were at their peak around 2002, when it was 8 new shows in syndication.
It's all a cycle, and things will pick back up by the end of the decade.
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[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 06:35 AM\']"Welcome back to MTV Blockbusters! Contestants, what B is an insect that buzzes and stings?"
{sound of crickets chirping}
"Dude, these questions are, like, way too hard."[/quote]
"Ooh, I know!" (buzzes in) "Crickets!"
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The industry of today looks down on game shows as a low form of television, plus the segment of the industry that might produce them has shifted near-completely to the so-called "reality" genre. With so few game shows being produced, much less in the pipeline, there is almost no one to teach the next generation of TV producers on how to properly produce one. Given all this, and my own losing the love I once had for game shows, I can't help but believe that the game show may very well become extinct within two decades.
The industry has looked down on game shows for decades but for a different reason than the one you give: game shows don't deliver young demos. That, combined with the facts that a) the networks have forfeited so much of daytime to the affiliates, and b) the entreprenurial game show boutiques of yesteryear no longer exist, fairly guarantee that we will never see another era of a network airing half a dozen game shows each weekday.
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I would venture to say that most of the syndicated talkers are distributed by entities tied to the networks anyway, so there is no incentive to try and get that time back.
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[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 03:44 PM\'][quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 03:23 PM\'][quote name=\'Tony\' date=\'Apr 28 2005, 03:17 PM\']Besides, in that 60 years of television, when has any TV trend that was previously abandoned returned to stay for a good long time? (I mean longer than 2 or 3 years)
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Gameshows seemed to disapate in the early 80s....but when Wheel went into syndication in '83; steam was built, running through about 1990.
I hope you don't make your living as a motivational speaker.
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More recently, the last 9 or 10 years have been pretty steady, from about fall 96 up until last fall. Game shows seemed pretty dead c. 1995, when it was just Wheel and Jeopardy in syndication and Price in daytime (I'm not counting reruns of STYD or SS b/c they were just that--reruns). I think games were at their peak around 2002, when it was 8 new shows in syndication.
It's all a cycle, and things will pick back up by the end of the decade.
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I absolutly agree with that.
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Okay, I get all of your points. I haven't lived long enough to really know everything yet :).
BTW, I can also take a joke. I wouldn't want me as a motivational speaker either:D.
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I'll say this for Fremangle; they've at least tried with CS, FF and TTTT2K. It's not their fault that they really aren't very good at it. They've usually managed to screw up one thing that makes the show less watchable - in order above, the gameplay, host and panel. Add the 20,000 Osmond Pyramid (good host, good contestants if unknown celebs, but botched gameplay) from Sony and I think game shows have had a fair shot. What we really need are GOOD game shows, not just retreads with a fresh coat of paint. (Although I will say that my 32-year-old wife, watching some of the 90s TTTT that are running now, thinks that should be given another shot. Find some reasonably intelligent panelists and it could be).
Oh, and one that I'm surprised hasn't been given another shot on some offshoot of the Discovery Channel is College Bowl. After all, there are plenty of high school versions around the country (hey, Matt!) and the format is familiar; I'd think if you're trying to draw college-age kids, show them college age kids.
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[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Apr 29 2005, 12:11 PM\']Oh, and one that I'm surprised hasn't been given another shot on some offshoot of the Discovery Channel is College Bowl. After all, there are plenty of high school versions around the country (hey, Matt!) and the format is familiar; I'd think if you're trying to draw college-age kids, show them college age kids.
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I doubt it; unless the kids who are watching are parts of the "Geeks R Us" club on campus. I know of very few people; let alone students who would be interested in such a stagant format.
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 29 2005, 01:30 PM\']
I doubt it; unless the kids who are watching are parts of the "Geeks R Us" club on campus. I know of very few people; let alone students who would be interested in such a stagant format.
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I don't know, Mark....At first, I'm inclined to agree with you, but there still are a lot of local shows at the high school level with the "It's Academic" format.......
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 29 2005, 10:30 AM\'][quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Apr 29 2005, 12:11 PM\']Oh, and one that I'm surprised hasn't been given another shot on some offshoot of the Discovery Channel is College Bowl. After all, there are plenty of high school versions around the country (hey, Matt!) and the format is familiar; I'd think if you're trying to draw college-age kids, show them college age kids.
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I doubt it; unless the kids who are watching are parts of the "Geeks R Us" club on campus. I know of very few people; let alone students who would be interested in such a stagant format.
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I don't know how things are in Hickville, Iowa, but Ray is right: there are plenty of smart kids who would love to have a chance to compete in that sort of format, where they might not excel elsewhere.
I don't know what you mean by "College Bowl" being a stagnant format, maybe that's just your being needlessly negative, but I think one of CB's strengths is that it's very simple, toss-up, bonus, toss-up, bonus, and so on. The "High-Five Challenge" in Portland is all toss-ups, and gets very boring very quickly. I'm sure that the right producer can jazz up the format without removing the essence of the game. I think QB is just the right mix; after a few toss-up/bonus cycles, the show changes gears to something else. And it all makes for very good watching.
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[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Apr 29 2005, 12:43 PM\']I don't know what you mean by "College Bowl" being a stagnant format, maybe that's just your being needlessly negative, but I think one of CB's strengths is that it's very simple, toss-up, bonus, toss-up, bonus, and so on.
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Tepid and repetitive. Wouldn't work here--not saying that it wouldn't someplace else. Just not here.
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 29 2005, 03:22 PM\']Tepid and repetitive. Wouldn't work here--not saying that it wouldn't someplace else. Just not here.
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I didn't realize Iowa was a hip, trendsetting hotspot...
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[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Apr 29 2005, 01:22 PM\']Tepid and repetitive. Wouldn't work here--not saying that it wouldn't someplace else. Just not here.
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Y'know, I never thought of the "College Bowl" format as lukewarm tap water...
That said, not everything has to be flash and pizazz these days: Jeopardy? Still on? And Aaron's right: the basic quiz bowl format can be found all over the country, if you know where to look. Iowa must be a special case.