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Watching this TTTT '80 ep, I see a few things that probably caused it to tank miserably...here are a few of them:
1. The faster pace of the show. Robin Ward seems to be speeding up the pace beyond belief. (Doubtful that's a GSN speedup, it just seems like he was auditioning to be an auctioneer) His speed reading of the statements and the reveal
2. Ward himself. He seems out of place with this panel. From what i've read of TTTT '80, they reverted to a more 'classic' panel later in the run of the show, and this appears to be one of those episodes.
3. One on One. The One On One format was confusing at best. The format of the 1991 OnO segment seems to work a lot better. Its greatly simplified and much easier to follow.
Now for the good points:
1. Alan Kalter (Letterman's announcer). Its appearant how he got the Letterman gig. He does this well and has the right vocal tones for it.
2. The panel. TTTT should never go wrong as long as you have Kitty Carlisle. She always adds something to the panel. Betty White is about the only substitute for Kitty you can get who is even close in the type of female panelist.
3. The basic TTTT format wasn't messed with.
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I thought Ward was fine. He probably would've had more of a chance to shine if the show's pace wasn't so fast. But he certainly did as well as, say, Trebek on TTTT90.
And I really don't think either One on One was nearly as good as the regular game. They were just messing with the format for the sake of trying something new, but IMO it wasn't worth the effort.
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Robin Ward was to TTTT 80 as Pat Finn was to Joker 90 in many respects...robotic.
And, lemme second the greatness of Alan Kalter. In my honest opinion, TTTT 80 was probably his best game show announcing performance. With Pyramid and Moore/Garagiola TTTT he was on a little too much Jolt cola (though he was solid), but he was perfect on the 80-81 run. BTW, I hope his shoulder is feeling better (he dislocated it as Dave mentioned on the Late Show I believe last week).
Though at first I rejected it, I can't help but like the TTTT 80 theme for some reason. I wish I knew why, but it's just catchy to me.
Question: Was there any specific reason why TTTT 80 was so glitzy looking in terms of chase and neon lighting? Was it just for the sake of being able to do so or were they attempting to give a nighttime flair to the show?
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[quote name=\'Terry K\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 09:09 AM\']2. Ward himself. He seems out of place with this panel. From what i've read of TTTT '80, they reverted to a more 'classic' panel later in the run of the show, and this appears to be one of those episodes.
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Assuming Marshall Akers' panel guide is accurate, this ep was from the 4th week of the run. And looking at the various panels for the 39 weeks of shows, it appears that every week featured at least one person who had done Moore/Garagiola's version (and prolly Collyer's too, but I can't confirm that).
Here (http://\"http://www.nmi.uga.edu/people/marshall/tttt/TTTT80log.asp\")'s his panel guide from the 1980-81 season if you want to take a look.
Doug
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Alan was outstanding on TTTT. His best work, though, was on "Money Maze.
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[quote name=\'FOXSportsFan\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 10:23 AM\']Though at first I rejected it, I can't help but like the TTTT 80 theme for some reason. I wish I knew why, but it's just catchy to me.
Question: Was there any specific reason why TTTT 80 was so glitzy looking in terms of chase and neon lighting? Was it just for the sake of being able to do so or were they attempting to give a nighttime flair to the show?
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By 1980, if you didn't have flashing lights on the set, you couldn't be a game show.
And I've always loved the theme music for that incarnation and find the disco comparison puzzling, since it's not that 145 bpm "boom boom boom" that I associate with disco. Later in the run, when they decided to turn off the applause sign and stop the sweetening halfway through the long credit rolls (although canned murmuring was kept in), it was nice hearing the bridge with the flute and piano solos.
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Don't forget about that the 1980-81 version also sanked b/c of the prize money distribution. If I were in charge of that version, it should of been $100/incorrect vote and $1000 for a stump. But noooooooooo, it was the same $500 max prize from the '70s version. But hey TTTT is a panel show. What can you do about it?
Alan Kalter was pretty decent as was the chasing lights and neones on the set.
When I first heard the theme music for TTTT '80, it sounded a lot like PW+ w/ disco flavor to me.
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I've never seen the show, but listening to the theme online, it sounds to me like it would make a good TPIR cue if cut appropriately.
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[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 09:54 AM\']And I've always loved the theme music for that incarnation and find the disco comparison puzzling, since it's not that 145 bpm "boom boom boom" that I associate with disco.
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This is because I think you are confusing "disco" with "techno". That theme is VERY disco. Go find an MP3 of The Hustle sometime. :)
ObGameShow: I've always thought The Hustle would make a great music bed for the car plug on a B-E show. "Any contestant who wins five games on our show will 'hustle' away with a very nice prize...Charlie, tell 'em about it!"
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Great minds think alike, Gus. A couple of months ago, I used Cool Edit Pro to splice together an extended intro that would work perfectly for a new main theme for TPIR...Come On Downs and all. If they ever felt they needed a change of main theme, they would sure save money. After all, if it worked for Double Dare/Card Sharks, why not here? Gotta admit TTTT80 is fast becoming one of my favorite themes.
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I've seen two episodes from this run - one many of us have seen, the Larry King episode, and this one. This one is from earlier in the run and let me say, it looks like hell. By the time the King ep. came around, the set was tidied up, the camerawork/directing improved, and Ward himself wasn't as robotic. In this episode, it seems like he's following Chris Clementson's guide to hosting TTTT to the very last letter. And it bears mentioning again that this incarnation of One on One is just stupid.
-Jason
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I thought the rotating parts of the set were awesome and it was cool the way the screen went smaller as they went to commercial.
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[quote name=\'gsnstooge\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 04:06 PM\']I thought it was cool the way the screen went smaller as they went to commercial.
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Then you obviously haven't watched '86 Newlywed Game, which is the only one airing on GSN currently.
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There happens to be 3 shows that had to make the screen smaller by a silhouette when they go to a commercial break:
To Tell The Truth '80-'81
The All New Newlywed Game(1985-87)[Seasons 1-2]
The All New Dating Game(1986-87)[Season 1]
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I seem to recall that later in the run, the panel enters the same way that Robin Ward does instead of coming down the stairs behind the desk. Or at least it was that way when Dick Clark was on the show several months back when it aired in the overnight hours as part of the Dream Derby thing.
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After years of waiting, I finally got to check this show out. Not too bad, but I still enjoy the 1990 run better. Slicker, better polished, and much smoother.
Still a helluva lot better than the 2000 version.
Anyways, this show had some faults.
1. The set was too cramped. If a set looks small on TV, then it must've been about the size of my bedroom.
2. The lighting was horrible. I don't know what it was, but I noticed during the first panel (star animal experts), the screen went from dark to light when the camera panned across the three imposters. Maybe it was just the camera filters.
3. The pacing was a little awkward.
4. They overused the outro graphic (the shot of the set flipping backward, then the TTTT logo zooming to the center on a black background). Still pretty nifty for 1980.
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[quote name=\'FOXSportsFan\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 10:23 AM\']BTW, I hope his shoulder is feeling better (he dislocated it as Dave mentioned on the Late Show I believe last week).
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Did the Late Show bear maul him?
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I may be in the minority, but the real reason the 1980 version might have failed was that the previous version went off the air just two years before -- and in some markets, probably less than that. Way too quick to bring the show back with too many different personalities than before.
Aside from that, I had few complaints (although I didn't see the show being discussed here, I have others on tape). Ward's not great, but he's palatable, I love the theme (of course, I'm a child of the seventies), and the set doesn't bother me.
To me, unless the game structure was radically altered -- and even in 2000, Fremantle had the good sense to leave well enough alone -- there's really no bad version of this show.
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[quote name=\'JasonA1\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 03:58 PM\']This one is from earlier in the run and let me say, it looks like hell. By the time the King ep. came around, the set was tidied up, the camerawork/directing improved, and Ward himself wasn't as robotic.
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Lloyd Gross had done a lot of directing for TTTT during the Moore/Garagiola era, so he was familiar with the house style (I'm assuming he took over because Paul Alter went west--I can't recall offhand if Alter did anything in L.A. before FF, though). And a move from 8H (SNL) to 6A (now Conan, formerly Dave [was Snyder working 6A then?]) prolly helped tidy things up set-wise and camerawise. Ward was bound to marginally improve. :)
[quote name=\'JasonA1\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 03:58 PM\']And it bears mentioning again that this incarnation of One on One is just stupid.
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No argument from me. The TTTT9x vision worked much, much better.
Doug -- and the countdown to 1600 begins
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[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 08:58 PM\']And a move from 8H (SNL) to 6A (now Conan, formerly Dave [was Snyder working 6A then?]) prolly helped tidy things up set-wise and camerawise.
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Tom Snyder was still there. The move to 6A probably happened very shortly after Dave's daytime show ended, and of course, he moved right back there in February 1982 (or January, if you count the unaired practice shows).
Wacky fact: Dave's 2/1/82 premiere included a tour of Studio 6A; one of the highlights pointed out by Dave was a sign posted above a snack table reading "REFERESHMENTS ARE FOR TO TELL THE TRUTH PERSONNEL ONLY" which nobody had bothered taking down. Dave apparently got a kick out of it...I have an episode from early 1987 where he wanders backstage during a skit and the sign is still there.
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Then you obviously haven't watched '86 Newlywed Game, which is the only one airing on GSN currently.
I have seen '86 NG 100 times.
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Edited to properly quote WhammyPower's statement.
[quote name=\'gsnstooge\' date=\'Oct 29 2005, 07:28 AM\'][quote name=\'WhammyPower\']Then you obviously haven't watched '86 Newlywed Game, which is the only one airing on GSN currently.[/quote]
I have seen '86 NG 100 times.
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Holds the WHOOOOOOSH! card just in case.
I think the point went over your head a bit. NG86 (among other shows--including Face the Music), also had the screen zoom/flip back when going to commercial, so using that graphic on TTTT80 was nothing special, at least when we've seen several other shows do that graphic, and it's 25 years later.
But I'm on your side too; as overused as it was, I still liked the graphic, esp. the TTTT logo zooming forward. The one nice touch that kept it from being so typical. I just wouldn't have used it for EVERY SINGLE COMMERCIAL OUTRO. :-P
As for the show, I'm still kinda surprised that Rosa wasn't a household name by 1980, considering so much had happened since the bus boycott (assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, riots, etc.). Then again, this was about 6 years before MLK got a holiday...
Then again II, the show had Thom McKee *right after* his TTD tenure.
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I'm more surprised they never really had a brief interview with her as they did with the person from the first team of challengers.
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I'm more surprised they never really had a brief interview with her as they did with the person from the first team of challengers.
Dunno if it was exactly his decision, but when Robin said there was little he could say or what not, I was inclined to agree. In the time frame they had, nothing worthy could've been asked of her.
-Jason
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[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' date=\'Oct 29 2005, 01:41 AM\'][quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 08:58 PM\']And a move from 8H (SNL) to 6A (now Conan, formerly Dave [was Snyder working 6A then?]) prolly helped tidy things up set-wise and camerawise.
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Tom Snyder was still there. The move to 6A probably happened very shortly after Dave's daytime show ended, and of course, he moved right back there in February 1982 (or January, if you count the unaired practice shows).
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By "the move to 6A," are you talking about TTTT going to 6A, or Tom going to 6A once Dave's daytime show ended?
Consider this, though--even if TTTT started in 8H, unless they taped on Sundays or confined all of their tapings to when SNL was not in production, they most likely wouldn't have been able to stay there anyway. Dave being in 6A for his daytime show probably didn't have much effect on weekend availability for TTTT to use the studio. Although, now that I think about it, wasn't 6A used for sports studio wraps from time to time--or was that later (I know it's not now)?
So was Snyder sent all over 30 Rock to do TOMORROW?
Doug -- and the countdown to 1600 continues
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I was going to use the word artificial to describe Ward but robotic will due. To me he seemed to be doing a Peter Marshall imitation.
I don't care about GSN compressed credits much but I would have like to have heard Alan Caulter at the end.
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[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Oct 29 2005, 11:48 AM\'][quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' date=\'Oct 29 2005, 01:41 AM\'][quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Oct 28 2005, 08:58 PM\']And a move from 8H (SNL) to 6A (now Conan, formerly Dave [was Snyder working 6A then?]) prolly helped tidy things up set-wise and camerawise.
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Tom Snyder was still there. The move to 6A probably happened very shortly after Dave's daytime show ended, and of course, he moved right back there in February 1982 (or January, if you count the unaired practice shows).
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Consider this, though--even if TTTT started in 8H, unless they taped on Sundays or confined all of their tapings to when SNL was not in production, they most likely wouldn't have been able to stay there anyway. Dave being in 6A for his daytime show probably didn't have much effect on weekend availability for TTTT to use the studio. [snapback]100732[/snapback]
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Dave's show ended October 24; SNL's first show of that season wasn't until November 15 (the Jean Doumanian debacle). If TTTT '80 moved around that time, it made complete sense.
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And of course, the fact that Kalter announced the studio numbers at the top of the show was partially thanks to diehard New Yorker Gil Fates wanting everyone to know that "TTTT" was coming from New York City, not from those dummies in LA.
With all due respect to said dummies.
(In other words, the city was the crucial reason there, not the NBC studio they were in.)