-
A glimpse at Bert Convy's "MG '90" pilot is included; that's worth the hour by itself. (Not ot mention Pat Sajak's "Puzzlers", although that clip's rather brief.)
VH1's decided to run this on Saturday mornings as well as evenings. There are multiple airings scheduled, but the net changes its schedule very frequently and often without warning - so get as early an airing as you can.
Ben Stein seems tired, and not just in that Ben Stein way. But the clips are great, and they span five decades to boot. Nice job by all involved!
ETA: Pad your recording time as much as you can. VH1 runs long/starts late all the time, and this morning's premiere airing was no different.
-
[quote name=\'ChrisLambert!\' date=\'May 21 2005, 01:08 PM\']VH1's decided to run this on Saturday mornings as well as evening. of course, this being VH1, you really have a million chances to catch it.
[snapback]86016[/snapback]
[/quote]
Sure do...According to my Comcast on-screen guide (all times EST):
Today: 3pm, 10pm
Sunday: 12 midnight, 1pm, 7pm
Tuesday: 4pm
Wednesday: 1am
Thursday: 8pm
Friday: 1pm, 4pm
Saturday: 11:30am, 4pm, 10pm
-
Great to see the "To Tell the Truth" dog food incident again (and unedited at that!). That was one of my favorite moments of the NBC specials.
-
[quote name=\'ChrisLambert!\' date=\'May 21 2005, 12:08 PM\']Ben Stein seems tired, and not just in that Ben Stein way.
[snapback]86016[/snapback]
[/quote]
He sounded like he had been sick to me.
Anyone happen to know what that clip with Graham Norton came from (That was Graham, wasn't it? Maybe my eyesight's worse than I thought...)?
-
[quote name=\'ilb4ever2000\' date=\'May 21 2005, 01:07 PM\'][quote name=\'ChrisLambert!\' date=\'May 21 2005, 12:08 PM\']Ben Stein seems tired, and not just in that Ben Stein way.
[snapback]86016[/snapback]
[/quote]
He sounded like he had been sick to me.
[/quote]
Yeah, I got the feeling that he was getting over a cold or something as well.
That was a great show! Good thing I got the advance tip on it, though, because that "12:00P PDT" start ended up being around 11:30...
-
[quote name=\'ilb4ever2000\' date=\'May 21 2005, 03:07 PM\'][quote name=\'ChrisLambert!\' date=\'May 21 2005, 12:08 PM\']Ben Stein seems tired, and not just in that Ben Stein way.
[snapback]86016[/snapback]
[/quote]
He sounded like he had been sick to me.
Anyone happen to know what that clip with Graham Norton came from (That was Graham, wasn't it? Maybe my eyesight's worse than I thought...)?
[snapback]86040[/snapback]
[/quote]
Thanks to all for the kind words about the special. It was truly a labor of love. This was probably one of the most fun projects I did while I was at FremantleMedia. Our team of producers and researchers, and I did everything we could in the tight production schedule to find never-before-seen clips from the huge FremantleMedia library. It was like getting the keys to the candy store!
The Graham Norton clip was from a pilot we produced in for ABC in 2003 called "I'm With Stupid." Graham was a true delight to work with. Not only was he funny as hell, but he picked up on the game structure very easily. He would be a great host for many a format...
Unfortunately, I left the company before I was able to see the final cuts, but if nothing has changed too much, there should be many more cool gems that will pop up in the next four specials.
Thanks for watching and I'd love to hear your comments about the rest of the "Bananas!"
- Mandel
Mandelweb.com (http://\"http://mandelweb.com\")
-
[quote name=\'mandelweb\' date=\'May 21 2005, 04:21 PM\']The Graham Norton clip was from a pilot we produced in for ABC in 2003 called "I'm With Stupid." Graham was a true delight to work with. Not only was he funny as hell, but he picked up on the game structure very easily. He would be a great host for many a format...
[snapback]86050[/snapback]
[/quote]
I figured it was some American pilot. Looks like it was done on the Family Feud set...
-
Hasn't the "foul ups, bleeps and blunders" idea been beaten to death? The well seems to have run pretty dry. Very few of the clips were actually humorous. Some were actually unpleasant. Going for clips from British/Australian shows didn't help, they were no better than the US clips.
And the taping should have been postponed until Stein's health was better.
-
The clip that made me laugh the most was the "let's re-crap the scores!" line by Chuck Woolery. I nearly died laughing when I saw Chuck laughing.
I was quite surprised they showed clips from pilots.
-
[quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'May 21 2005, 03:35 PM\']Hasn't the "foul ups, bleeps and blunders" idea been beaten to death? The well seems to have run pretty dry. Very few of the clips were actually humorous. Some were actually unpleasant.
[/quote]
What did you find unpleasant? I'm a pretty tough audience for these things, and I found myself laughing at most of it.
-
[quote name=\'ilb4ever2000\' date=\'May 21 2005, 06:26 PM\']
I figured it was some American pilot. Looks like it was done on the Family Feud set...
[snapback]86058[/snapback]
[/quote]
That's what it looked like to me too...
-
[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'May 21 2005, 07:52 PM\'][quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'May 21 2005, 03:35 PM\']Hasn't the "foul ups, bleeps and blunders" idea been beaten to death? The well seems to have run pretty dry. Very few of the clips were actually humorous. Some were actually unpleasant.
[/quote]
What did you find unpleasant? I'm a pretty tough audience for these things, and I found myself laughing at most of it.
[snapback]86078[/snapback]
[/quote]
The only clips that I think might be deemed unpleasant are the urine drinking segment and the mouse trap buzzer scenario. Still, there were so many great game show moments in it that to dwell on those few clips would be missing the point of the show entirely. My wife and I laughed throughout the entire show and she's not a big game show fan. I appreciated the chronological span of the clips and the variety of then. And no, the "foul ups, bleeps and blunders" never get old!
-
I'm just gonna say one thing (and Randy, I don't mean this in a bad way)...I now know why people fear puppets.
-
I don't like it when any special is loaded with clips of one particular show, and given that I'm not much of a "Distraction" fan anyway, I was REALLY sick of it by the end of the hour.
-
Distraction = the new Newlywed Game (but not The New Newlywed Game), apparently...
-
I liked it. I thought there were goign to be a lot of recycled clips, but there weren't that many. Randy did a great job of announcing (what else is new? ;)), and Ben did seem kind of sick and out of it. I noticed that a lot of clips that were from the other specials were edited down. A lot of the most funny after-effects were not there and not as funny as they originally were. I also thought those Distraction clips were unneccesary. Seeing someone drink their own urine, getting pricked by cactuses blindfolded, or getting their hand caught by mousetraps was not funny at all. Basically just painful.
I didn't get why they divided up setcions like that. It seemed after every clip there had to have been Ben's voice to prep us for the next clip, which I felt was unneccesary as well.
I did like the new clips they used! Very cool how they used pilot clips! Very entertaining!
-
[quote name=\'johnnyd1788\' date=\'May 21 2005, 09:14 PM\']Seeing someone drink their own urine, getting pricked by cactuses blindfolded, or getting their hand caught by mousetraps was not funny at all. Basically just painful.
[/quote]
You know, when I first saw Distraction, I agreed with you. But those people were not tricked into appearing on the show, nobody forced their hand; they knew what they were signing up for. And nobody made them go through with it. They could have called to stop tape at any time and walked. Free country.
So I figure if a person is gonna be enough of an attention whore to appear on a television program where they KNOW GOING IN that unpleasant things are going to happen to them, then I will be happy to sit back and laugh as they are generally physically abused.
"Oh, that hurts!" "Yeah. Dumbass."
-
Game Shows Gone Bananas was an intresting idea I thought. The game show segments they did were intresting, & the prizes(if you call a box of Little Debbie Honeybuns such) added a nice touch. Still, the clips were the "stars" on this show. Here in no particular are my top 3 "bananas":
#1-It's a good thing Scrabble got rid of a rule that requires you to fill in the missing letters(a la spelling). That mosquitos bit was hilarious.
#2-You can never go wrong with a commercial break except in this case when Art James nearly lost it when the jar of peanut butter broke & the peanut butter eventually fell off. Talk about a sticky situation.
#3-Anytine you subject a panel to do something, chances are it'll attract attention. Sure enough, the dog food bit from TTTT(1973) was a CLASSIC! I would definitely give this my "top banana" of the show award there.
-
Well, I thought it was OK. Of course, all the clips were from Fremantle-owned shows, but at least we got to see some TPIR clips. Yeah, they did pull one too many "Distraction" clips, and of course, we had to have all the dumb answers from Feud and MG, but it was awesome to see the pilot clips. "Puzzlers" looked interesting, to say the least, and seeing Convy on the MG90 set was quite the treat. I did notice that Ben was a little too somber, but that announcer was pretty good.
I give it a B.
-
My favorite of the host screw-ups: Ross Shafer on MG90 falling down the stairs after Gene Wood introduced him.
-
[quote name=\'dmota104\' date=\'May 22 2005, 09:15 AM\']My favorite of the host screw-ups: Ross Shafer on MG90 falling down the stairs after Gene Wood introduced him.
[snapback]86126[/snapback]
[/quote]
You should sometime see more of that show....As his condition "detiorated" throughout the course of the program...;)
-
[quote name=\'dmota104\' date=\'May 22 2005, 08:15 AM\']My favorite of the host screw-ups: Ross Shafer on MG90 falling down the stairs after Gene Wood introduced him.
[snapback]86126[/snapback]
[/quote]
That's how he got the nickname Kermit Schafer, you know.
And what an unexpected bonus. In the Family Feud clip about the keys, we got to see Glenn Scarpelli. Glenn Scarpelli!!!!!
-
[quote name=\'johnnyd1788\' date=\'May 21 2005, 09:14 PM\']I thought there were goign to be a lot of recycled clips, but there weren't that many. [/quote]Huh? Most of the noteworthy clips had already been used on the MOGSM shows. Surely there must be many other "interesting" clips in the vaults.
Someone asked which clips I found unpleasant. As other have noted, the stuff from the British reality-game (Distraction, I guess) were bothersome, as well as just plain uninteresting. But it was the long clips of the children that annoyed me the most.
If this episode was supposed to get my interest for the later eps, it was a big failure.
-
[quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'May 22 2005, 12:26 PM\']Huh? Most of the noteworthy clips had already been used on the MOGSM shows. Surely there must be many other "interesting" clips in the vaults.
Someone asked which clips I found unpleasant. As other have noted, the stuff from the British reality-game (Distraction, I guess) were bothersome, as well as just plain uninteresting. But it was the long clips of the children that annoyed me the most.
If this episode was supposed to get my interest for the later eps, it was a big failure.
[/quote]
And just what exactly would get your interest?
What you might find interesting might not necessarily be what we find interesting, and vice versa.
You have to keep in mind that this is a different team from the people that made the MOGSM's. I would think that they would probably use some material that was already on those specials. But there is one thing these people have that the other peope didn't, access to Price clips. If anything, maybe we'll get to see some good stuff from there (as already pointed out in this thread).
-
[quote name=\'NicholasM79\' date=\'May 22 2005, 09:31 AM\']What you might find interesting might not necessarily be what we find interesting, and vice versa.
[/quote]Well, I don't think there's any "we" that you are authorized to speak on behalf of. But regardless, I was simply giving my impression, just like everyone else. No one needs to agree.
But come on - these people had access to the full G-T library... and that was the best they could do? I was disappointed. 30+ years ot TPIR and all they showed was two short clips of people making fools of themselves when asked to come on down? Feh.
-
[quote name=\'melman1\' date=\'May 22 2005, 12:41 PM\']But come on - these people had access to the full G-T library... and that was the best they could do? I was disappointed. 30+ years ot TPIR and all they showed was two short clips of people making fools of themselves when asked to come on down? Feh.
[/quote]
Honestly, and I would tend to agree with you here, they might have found some other stuff, but remember that there are more specials to be aired, maybe they're saving the meat of what they found Price-wise for later shows.
Also, you gotta remember that they didn't have a lot of time to research the library, so they didn't get to look at every single episode to find every single moment. I'm not sure how they systemically determined what to find, if they just watched random episodes or knew what to find and where... but the point is that there is a mountainous amount of episodes in the G/T library and there was no way they could have looked at it all.
(Note: I'm not trying to belittle you here, just making conversation).
On the other hand, I personally did like the special, it was interesting, and do plan to watch the others.
-
I'm sure over time, notes were made about interesting shows. Gil Fates says in his "What's My Line?" book that they would note interesting shows to save for a rerun cycle. And in a couple Feud clips, we have even seen Richard comment that they should make a note of this show.
Since GT did probably the best job at saving their shows, I am sure all of the producers and GT folks did a great job keeping record of all of the shows.
-
Hmmm... Ross Schaffer gets the nod over Jim Peck in the top 5 foul-ups? I think Peck's bout with the stairs earns more merit! (Another conspiracy ;-p)
Was That Teri Copley in the Match Game "Bobbing for Balls" clip?
And to Randy -- the newly crowned Mr. Game Show -- I see that from your "on camera appearance" you're looking slimmer and more like Wink Martindale nowadays :-p
-
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'May 22 2005, 10:35 AM\']And to Randy -- the newly crowned Mr. Game Show -- I see that from your "on camera appearance" you're looking slimmer and more like Wink Martindale nowadays :-p
[snapback]86158[/snapback]
[/quote]
Wink was kind enough to let me borrow one of his old sets of teeth for the occasion!
I enjoyed working with Ben, and know how hard it was for him to get his voice above a whisper at times. He was a trouper working through his temporary health problem. Too bad I didn't have some of those cold remedies among the prizes on hand - "use as directed", of course.
As to mining the GT vaults for clips, I spoke with Andy, Todd, Mandel, Scott (asertv), and others who labored to put this together and still don't know how they did it. Fewer shows than I had once thought were given the TLC logging legacy that Fates left with WML. I first came to understand that from David Schwartz who has spent countless days during the past decade screening clips and doing that kind of logging for only the fraction of GT episodes that made it to GSN. And despite "owning" the clips, I believe Fremantle still had limitations on what could be used. I think they did an awesome job of finding fresh, fun stuff. See if you don't agree after watching the next 4 episodes.
I know I enjoyed working and watching. Thanks for the kind words of those who mentioned my small contribution.
Randy
tvrandywest.com
-
Good job, Randy! I thought the special was entertaining and will look forward to seeing the rest of the specials. My favorite clip was the "To Tell the Truth" dog food clip. That was hilarious! Watching the "Scrabble" clip made me really want to see that show again. I was glad when "Scrabble" got rid of the spelling part, but the "mosquitoes" spelling clip was funny. A very good special.
-
Does anyone know where they taped the Chuck Wollery segments. The clock behing him looked like the original clock from Beat the Clock in the 50's. Any guesses?
-
What a great show... can't wait to see the rest of them!
Distraction was "interesting."
What I found most noticeable came while I was watching one of the Price clips and listening to Johnny's announcing. When the clip had ended and "Gone Bananas" went to commercial, I found Randy sounded soooo much like Johnny, I actually didn't notice when Johnny's announcing ENDED and Randy's BEGAN! Unreal ! Terrific job, Randy!
-
[quote name=\'whizofthequiz\' date=\'May 22 2005, 02:29 PM\']Does anyone know where they taped the Chuck Wollery segments. The clock behing him looked like the original clock from Beat the Clock in the 50's. Any guesses?
[snapback]86164[/snapback]
[/quote]
The Chuck segments were done at the FremantleMedia offices. That old Beat the Clock clock has been a prominent fixture at FremantleMedia offices for many years. A little inside scoop...the original plan was to have him in one of the FremantleMedia conference rooms with several classic game show home games in the background - one of which was going to be the Scrabble home game.
- Mandel
Mandelweb.com 2.0 (http://\"http://mandelweb.com\")
-
[quote name=\'mandelweb\' date=\'May 22 2005, 06:10 PM\'][quote name=\'whizofthequiz\' date=\'May 22 2005, 02:29 PM\']Does anyone know where they taped the Chuck Wollery segments. The clock behing him looked like the original clock from Beat the Clock in the 50's. Any guesses?
[snapback]86164[/snapback]
[/quote]
The Chuck segments were done at the FremantleMedia offices. That old Beat the Clock clock has been a prominent fixture at FremantleMedia offices for many years. A little inside scoop...the original plan was to have him in one of the FremantleMedia conference rooms with several classic game show home games in the background - one of which was going to be the Scrabble home game.
- Mandel
Mandelweb.com 2.0 (http://\"http://mandelweb.com\")
[snapback]86180[/snapback]
[/quote]
Mandel,
Thanks for the insight! Does the clock still work? Any other goodies around the office?
-
I'll simply say right off, I could have lived without the showcasing of Distraction.
Nonetheless, I found the special to be quite engaging. No matter how many times I watch it, the Say When peanut butter blooper will remain among my favorites, even though one of my ever-so-dear friends disagrees and believes the jar was rigged to result in said outcome.
I can't wait to see what's in store with episodes 2 - 5.
I spent many days in a dub house in the valley screening as many of the 1" tapes as possible. I think I may have viewed most of the 1986 season of Price in the process
I enjoyed the Price moments as well, especially one where contestant Vicki Brooks appeared to be having a mental fit of some sort on her way down to contestants' row.
:sigh: What I'd give to fly out to California and be hired as a program screener.
:-D
Till then, I guess I'll have to stick with this cheesy little webpage I've got going here.
Anyhoo, this was a decent special. Good job!
--Jamie
-
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'May 22 2005, 01:35 PM\']Hmmm... Ross Schaffer gets the nod over Jim Peck in the top 5 foul-ups? I think Peck's bout with the stairs earns more merit! (Another conspiracy ;-p)
[snapback]86158[/snapback]
[/quote]
It does -- but as noted throughout this thread, all the clips came from Fremantle-owned shows.
Had The Big ShowDown been a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production or if it were produced by another company that Fremantle would later own, "the big fall down" would've been there.
-
Count me as a fan of "Distraction"..... not necessarily for the continued 'dumbing-down' of America, but rather, for Jimmy Carr's deadpan delivery.... and I don't mind a special loaded with clips of it, if it means we see less FFeud and Newlywed clips, which have been 'special'ed to death....
The only critique of the show, IMHO, was the on set games...boring. Period. Didn't need to see a girl pop balloons, or a guy play psuedo-Fast Money.....show me more clips to fill an hour with, or else cut the show in half.
And Mandel...I agree with your assessment of Graham Norton...most anyone who has seen his BBC stuff would agree...what was the concept for "I'm with Stupid"...and why was a pilot done on the FFeud stage?
-
[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'May 23 2005, 08:20 AM\']Count me as a fan of "Distraction"..... not necessarily for the continued 'dumbing-down' of America, but rather, for Jimmy Carr's deadpan delivery.... and I don't mind a special loaded with clips of it, if it means we see less FFeud and Newlywed clips, which have been 'special'ed to death....
[snapback]86210[/snapback]
[/quote]
The US show clips will be from all Fremantle-owned shows, correct? That would mean Newlywed gets a break from these VH1 specials.
-
[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'May 23 2005, 09:37 AM\']The US show clips will be from all Fremantle-owned shows, correct? That would mean Newlywed gets a break from these VH1 specials.
[snapback]86211[/snapback]
[/quote]
As had been stated several times in the thread, Zach, it's all Fremantle. And this just in: Newlywed Game isn't owned by Fremantle.
Speaking of the special, I thought it was decent overall, but a sick Ben Stein really brought down the whole show. I'm intrigued to see if he'll be feeling up to snuff for the rest of them. Plus, it'd be nice to see some $ale clips.......
Tyshaun
-
Bill Shatner wasn't available?
-
I only got to watch the last half-hour or so. However, I liked what I saw. I was laughing hysterically through most of it. Seeing the "Distraction" bits were a welcomed surprise, as I'm a big fan of Jimmy Carr. Ben Stein was a real trouper with him being sick and all. I hope he feels better real soon.
I didn't like the in-studio games very well. For the next one, they should be cut down IMO.
I give it 4.5/5 stars.
-
[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'May 23 2005, 08:20 AM\']Count me as a fan of "Distraction"..... not necessarily for the continued 'dumbing-down' of America, but rather, for Jimmy Carr's deadpan delivery....[/quote]
I'll have to agree with my distinguished colleague on this one. There's no possible way Distraction would work without Jimmy Carr.
As for ...Gone Bananas, not a bad concept. Hopefully Ben'll be "up to snuff" for the next 4, and the on-set games will include a little more excitement. Other than that, fine job all around.
-
Weren't they all taped at the same time? So if Ben was sick for #1.......
-
[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'May 28 2005, 06:01 AM\']Weren't they all taped at the same time? So if Ben was sick for #1.......
[snapback]86788[/snapback]
[/quote]
<ding> Correct!
Like game shows themselves, all 5 episodes were taped on the same day. The difference here was that the show opens for all 5 were taped together, all 5 of the audience member stunts were taped together, etc.
Randy
tvrandywest.com
-
[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'May 28 2005, 11:14 AM\'][quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'May 28 2005, 06:01 AM\']Weren't they all taped at the same time? So if Ben was sick for #1.......
[snapback]86788[/snapback]
[/quote]
<ding> Correct!
Like game shows themselves, all 5 episodes were taped on the same day. The difference here was that the show opens for all 5 were taped together, all 5 of the audience member stunts were taped together, etc.
Randy
tvrandywest.com
[snapback]86795[/snapback]
[/quote]
Therefore, Ben will be sick in all 5 episodes. Not what I wanted to hear, but thanks Randy.