Author Topic: Greatest Hosts of All Time - Results Thread (Read 111001 times)

SRIV94 · « **Reply #210 on:** October 23, 2006, 12:23:10 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'135373\' date=\'Oct 23 2006, 11:14 AM\']
Not sure what happened there. It's probably 57, but I'll check and corect it when I get home.
[/quote]
No biggie. I just couldn't resist.

And turns out Hall was my glaring omission. I liked him, and he was certainly considered but just missed my final cut (had I added five more spots, Hall would've made it). At least I didn't omit one of the Big Six (at least, I *think* I didn't).

Doug

DrBear · « **Reply #211 on:** October 23, 2006, 02:14:42 PM »

OK...six left on my list that haven't been rated, six left to go here.

What really surprises me is how high Jim Perry ranked - he wasn't on my list at all. Part of it may be I never really liked Card Sharks - to me it's got just a bit more strategy than "Deal of No Deal." And I thought Perry had too strong a style for a fairly trifling game. I probably would have preferred him in a faster-paced quiz setting. And I don't remember him doing anything else. (I never saw his version of "Sale" as I have mentioned elsewhere, and I think that would have fit him much better; the only version I ever saw was the Jack Kelly version and that turned me off completely.)
I also had Allen Ludden ranked higher - I don't know about individual personalities, but I just went with what came on the screen. After all, I'm just a simple game show fan who's been frozen in a glacier for thousands of years.

PYLdude · « **Reply #212 on:** October 23, 2006, 02:54:59 PM »

[quote name=\'DrBear\' post=\'135380\' date=\'Oct 23 2006, 02:14 PM\']
What really surprises me is how high Jim Perry ranked - he wasn't on my list at all. Part of it may be I never really liked Card Sharks - to me it's got just a bit more strategy than "Deal of No Deal." And I thought Perry had too strong a style for a fairly trifling game. I probably would have preferred him in a faster-paced quiz setting. And I don't remember him doing anything else. (I never saw his version of "Sale" as I have mentioned elsewhere, and I think that would have fit him much better; the only version I ever saw was the Jack Kelly version and that turned me off completely.)
[/quote]

If you didn't vote for him, and didn't like him, and don't know how people have felt about his hosting abilities, that's your own ignorance.

I'm surprised he didn't place a little higher, but he is much deserving of the the top 10 spot he got. I know I had him there.

I must raise this question now, because of the last line of your post, Doc, and Chris' bitch about Ludden outranking Hall (Ludden made my list, Hall didn't- I didn't like LMAD all that much, and whatever else I saw of Monty Hall I wasn't terribly impressed by)- how much of the opinions are clouded by personal opinions or misdeeds of other hosts?

cweaver · « **Reply #213 on:** October 23, 2006, 02:59:53 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'135374\' date=\'Oct 23 2006, 11:17 AM\']
My impression from Chris and others is that one's professional opinion of Allen Ludden is inversely proportional to the amount of time one has spent around Allen Ludden.
[/quote]

Wow, yikes.

Anyway, all I have to go on is what I saw at home and that's how I made my list. Seeing as how I've only actually seen one host do his job from studio level in my life (Chuck Woolery), spoke to one more on the phone (Art Fleming) and corresponded to a third via email (Peter Marshall) any list I would make based on personal experience/knowledge would be short/lame.

chris319 · « **Reply #214 on:** October 23, 2006, 03:06:17 PM »

[quote name=\'cweaver\' post=\'135372\' date=\'Oct 23 2006, 08:20 AM\']
[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'135370\' date=\'Oct 23 2006, 09:59 AM\']
Placing Allen Ludden ahead of Monty Hall is a serious slap in the face to Monty Hall.
[/quote]

Why do you think Allen Ludden is so bad that putting him two spaces ahead of Monty Hall in the top 10 would be a "slap in the face"? I've always thought he was a great host. Different style than Monty but that doesn't really make him vastly inferior I wouldn't think.
[/quote]
The simple answer is that Monty handled complex formats much more skillfully than Allen handled simple formats. I say this after having just seen Monty in the Video Village clip, and of course his work on LMAD is legendary. My personal feelings about Allen after working with him for two years were held aside.

cweaver · « **Reply #215 on:** October 23, 2006, 03:25:05 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'135387\' date=\'Oct 23 2006, 02:06 PM\']
The simple answer is that Monty handled complex formats much more skillfully than Allen handled simple formats. I say this after having just seen Monty in the Video Village clip, and of course his work on LMAD is legendary. My personal feelings about Allen after working with him for two years were held aside.
[/quote]

That's cool, I just never saw a particularly wide gap in the quality of their hosting styles. I think I actually ranked Hall higher on my list but I was still always fond of the Ludden I saw on TV. I had just dubbed Let's Make a Deal for a trade and then got back Hall's two known existing Video Village eps when I made my list. But I'm writing this after just having heard Ludden again on the first two radio episodes of what was then called College Quiz Bowl (1953). I thought Ludden handled things as smoothly as he could despite neither he nor the producers yet knowing quite what to do if someone rang in before he finished a tossup question.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #216 on:** October 23, 2006, 04:12:41 PM »

Quote

That's cool, I just never saw a particularly wide gap in the quality of their hosting styles. I think I actually ranked Hall higher on my list but I was still always fond of the Ludden I saw on TV.

I didn't dislike what I saw on TV either, but when making my list I tried to think of the whole body of work that each one did, and how they pulled it off. I had three major hosts that didn't make my top 20 - Richard Dawson, Jack Barry, and Allen Ludden. Again, not necessarily because I didn't like them (we've discussed Dawson and Barry earlier in this thread), but because, taking all things into account, I found 20 I thought were better.

When I first started making my list I was surprised at how many worthy candidates there were. I think I started with 59, and had to eliminate in several rounds to get down to 20. I thought Jack and Allen would have made the lower part of my top 20, but in the end neither one did.

chris319 · « **Reply #217 on:** October 23, 2006, 05:40:08 PM »

Password is a fairly simple format to emcee. Let's Make A Deal has a lot going on -- every show is different. The testament to Monty's skill as an emcee is that he made doing a show like LMAD look so easy, practically effortless.

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #218 on:** October 23, 2006, 07:01:06 PM »

Monty is so good that he was tapped to host two Goodson shows (BTC and, as a sub, Password) while running a competing game show factory.

Joe Mello · « **Reply #219 on:** October 24, 2006, 01:31:53 AM »

I think Allen's and Monty's ranks are by-products of what they are most associated with. Sure Monty may be the better handler, but I think there are more people who would take Password over Let's Make a Deal, which could explain the positioning

Also of note is that's it's two frigging ranks, which means little to none, especially since neither are the Big Six.

/Perry could probably outhost them both, so there.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #220 on:** October 24, 2006, 10:39:28 AM »

[color=\"#009900\"]6 Dick Clark[/color] (811, 59/68, including three first-place votes)
The Pyramid
The Challengers
It Takes Two
The Krypton Factor
Missing Links
The Object Is
Scattergories
Winning Lines
Challenge of the Child Geniuses

clemon79 · « **Reply #221 on:** October 24, 2006, 10:45:47 AM »

I want a word with the nine people whose ballots were Dickless.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #222 on:** October 24, 2006, 11:12:44 AM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'135442\' date=\'Oct 24 2006, 10:45 AM\']
I want a word with the nine people whose ballots were Dickless.

[/quote]
Turns out six of them had Richard Dawson on their lists. So technically, only three were completely Dickless.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #223 on:** October 24, 2006, 11:23:30 AM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'135443\' date=\'Oct 24 2006, 10:12 AM\']
[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'135442\' date=\'Oct 24 2006, 10:45 AM\']
I want a word with the nine people whose ballots were Dickless.

[/quote]
Turns out six of them had Richard Dawson on their lists. So technically, only three were completely Dickless.
[/quote]
There's a Bonnie Bernstein joke in there somewhere.

/Way too obscure, unless you follow TV sports religiously.

Doug

clemon79 · « **Reply #224 on:** October 24, 2006, 11:25:18 AM »

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' post=\'135444\' date=\'Oct 24 2006, 08:23 AM\']
There's a Bonnie Bernstein joke in there somewhere.
[/quote]
I'd hit it like a linebacker on Matt Hasselbeck's knee.

/oof