Combination Lock preview

[J.R.]

I was wondering how the thread went from five pages to four... (I have my settings to 15 responses a page)

-Joe R.
/Now it's five again!

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'137018\' date=\'Nov 5 2006, 07:08 PM\']
Sorry, I know we said that the matter should be dropped, but I'm afraid one more thing needs to be said.  As a moderator of this forum, and as someone who is passionately interested in the open and free discussion of ideas, I find it extremely disappointing, and in some ways a personal affront, that John's ultimate response to criticism was to remove his posts from this thread.
[/quote]
Not meaning to beat a dead horse (and yeah, this probably counts anyway), but I'm more baffled than insulted.  If I'm not mistaken, everything he said in the thread was subsequently quoted by someone else, so it's not as though he can pretend that it never happened.

That said, yeah, he wanted to hear what we had to say as long as it was unconditional praise and as long as all he had to do was bask in said praise.  Not only isn't that the open and free discussion of ideas that Matt mentioned (and that I also endorse), it's not discussion, period.

[tvmitch]

Extremely unprofessional and immature behavior from the get-go from someone who is supposed to be professionally working with others in any environment. Somewhat disappointing to me.

[chad1m]

This really shouldn't have been a big deal. We'll find out soon enough anyway, so give us a name so we can react sooner how we're going to react anyway. If it's poorly received, maybe it'll give you some time so you can change it because your hints seem to indicate this may not be a permanent thing. And if it isn't bad, then you can start the ball rolling on a positive note (which it definitely isn't right now).

But you have apparently "left the thread", so you're not going to see this anyway.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'chad1m\' post=\'137026\' date=\'Nov 5 2006, 08:47 PM\']But you have apparently left the thread, so you're not going to see this anyway.[/quote]
Make no mistake, anything that says Combination Lock on this forum, John is reading.

[chris319]

Make no mistake, anything that says Combination Lock on this forum, John is reading.

Without a doubt.

John never said he was under orders from Sony not to leak the identity of the pilot emcee. This leaves us to wonder whether all of this hush-hush cloak-and-dagger mystery was orchestrated by John or if it comes from Sony higher-ups. If it is the latter, we would have to respect the fact that he cannot jeopardize his relationship with Sony by divulging information he's been asked not to, and y'all would have to wait to find out. But he didn't say one way or the other. I can't imagine what purpose is served by not divulging the emcee's identity, as they're going to NATPE with it and we'll find out sooner or later anyway.

My guess is it's Wink.

[tvrandywest]

Stop the insanity!!

My source for the following info is not John, so I don't consider it a breach of his confidence. By definition it can't be a breach of his confidence or friendship since he never gave me the info. Between production staff, execs and crew members, dozens of people have been involved in the pilot tapings, and my information came from one of them who never told me it was a secret. So, my intent is simply to calm the waters and restore some sanity here.

The hosts of both CL and Joker are not names familiar from the world of game shows. Although they are both television personalities known to some viewers (not to me, btw), to the best of my knowledge neither has hosted a game show before.

Everybody good with this? Now can we let it drop? Peace out, m' homies.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[DrBear]

Just to back up a bit...

[quote name=\'cweaver\' post=\'136977\' date=\'Nov 5 2006, 10:05 AM\']
As a reporter I get requests all the time to keep something off the record and of course I would look foolish if I tried to get our anchors to go on the air and sing "We know something you don't!"  But I do keep it off the record always with the same caveat: if it becomes public in some other form the deal is off and I run with it, or if said person pipelines it to a competitor while still trying to keep me quiet (and that has happened several times), there's living hell to pay in the end for screwing me like that.  
 [/quote]

That's Journalism 101. Reporters (and I was one until last week) often get press releases with announcement dates, and on the whole, we request them. But if, say, I'm holding on for the Podunk Times, and the Podunk Daily News prints the release, by our standards the request is no longer valid. Quite often, we'd see stories on AP about, say, a release in some medical journal with an "embargo date" followed shortly by an advisory releasing the story because some other news organization has announced it.

In this case, it seems, if we get the source from someplace else, it's fair game to print here. We haven't been asked to hold it, and the producers have released it to others. My dos pesos.

(I would have written this sooner, but today's Packer game induced heavy drinking.)

[chris319]

The hosts of both CL and Joker are not names familiar from the world of game shows. Although they are both television personalities known to some viewers (not to me, btw)

Fair enough. In your estimation, if the names of these individuals were divulged here, would most people say "Who?"?

The question remains (and I pose it rhetorically): Why the big hush-hush treatment on John's part?

[cweaver]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' post=\'137034\' date=\'Nov 5 2006, 10:50 PM\']
That's Journalism 101. Reporters (and I was one until last week) often get press releases with announcement dates, and on the whole, we request them...(snip)

In this case, it seems, if we get the source from someplace else, it's fair game to print here. We haven't been asked to hold it, and the producers have released it to others. My dos pesos.
[/quote]

I wasn't even talking about embargoed news releases, I was talking about stuff my police/deputy friends tell me to hold off on reporting.  Most of the time they honor their word and let me run with it first, but there have been rare occasions when a few were trying to trick me into staying quiet to repay some buddy at the newspaper by letting him have an exclusive.  Several narcotics officers caught living hell one time for burning me like that, not just from me but from their own commanders (chief, mayor included).

Anyway your last line was my exact point.  There's nothing in the world stopping anyone else in the studio audience that night or anyone else who knows and isn't so bound to drop the same here.  I respect those who want the subject closed but I say we reopen it when someone in the know gives us a name.

[MrGameShow]

Okay, this is getting to be silly now.

While I can side with the members of the board on John's offbeat request to talk about the 'phantom host' of a show no one here knows about, I've also got to side with John because everyone here backing him against the wall needs to walk in his shoes for a minute.

Right now he's got a deal going with Sony to hopefully bring Combination Lock to our TVs; this is his JOB. He's got to answer to people that sign his checks - and if the bosses say "Don't say anything about the show", then guess what! He AIN'T SAYIN' JACK if it means that he still has a job to go on Monday morning and more checks to come on Payday. Do you honestly think that people in the industry don't surf around here? They may not post, but be assured that they know about it - and if they saw John say "It was Mr. Game Show who hosted the pilot", then obviously they'll be saying "Guess we'll end our relationship with him since he obviously can't be trusted with sensitive information." Then what is his defense? "But.. but the people on the Invision board were saying mean things and I didn't want them to be mad at me! I *HAD* to tell them!!"

Sure, none of you give a crap about that - all you care about is who did this pilot? No, wait.. you are just pissy because John asked someone not to reveal the information. So why aren't you jumping all over cmjb13 because he's chosen to abide by John's request?

How about we start going off on the others who come on the board to say "Hey, you were in the mob at '1 vs 100', and you aren't telling us how much the people won before it comes on TV! WE CAN'T WAIT! WE HATE YOU!" *stomp off to your room*

Is this all really necessary? You want to know more about the show? Here - people get numbers to make combinations to open locks to win money. NOW you can talk about who would be the best host!

[chad1m]

[quote name=\'MrGameShow\' post=\'137044\' date=\'Nov 5 2006, 10:24 PM\']Right now he's got a deal going with Sony to hopefully bring Combination Lock to our TVs; this is his JOB. He's got to answer to people that sign his checks - and if the bosses say "Don't say anything about the show", then guess what! He AIN'T SAYIN' JACK if it means that he still has a job to go on Monday morning and more checks to come on Payday. [/quote]

That's the variable right now. He has NOT stated that Sony or anyone in that general department is keeping him from releasing information. As far as we know right now, (especially since hundreds of free-willed people know) he's doing it on his own personal will as some sort of attempted powerhold.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'MrGameShow\' post=\'137044\' date=\'Nov 5 2006, 07:24 PM\']
Sure, none of you give a crap about that - all you care about is who did this pilot?
[/quote]
For the second time today, no, I don't care.

No, wait.. you are just pissy because John asked someone not to reveal the information. So why aren't you jumping all over cmjb13 because he's chosen to abide by John's request?

Because that's entirely Chris's choice. My only question (which John dodged repeatedly, and which I guess we won't get an answer to, since John once again chose to take his ball and go home instead of manning up, but, again, doesn't ruin my day in the least) was one of why he can't keep his story straight as to why he did it.

And as for the rest of your screed: you couldn't have missed the point more.

[cweaver]

[quote name=\'MrGameShow\' post=\'137044\' date=\'Nov 5 2006, 11:24 PM\']
Right now he's got a deal going with Sony to hopefully bring Combination Lock to our TVs; this is his JOB. He's got to answer to people that sign his checks - and if the bosses say "Don't say anything about the show", then guess what! He AIN'T SAYIN' JACK if it means that he still has a job to go on Monday morning and more checks to come on Payday. [/quote]

I think several of us on the board have already indicated we don't blame John so much for not telling us himself. We know that's his job, we get that, many of us work in media ourselves.  We may not understand the "big deal" but we do know he's a company man.  I can tell you what my TV station is doing for sweeps but it would involve my being unemployed tomorrow myself.

The first problem I had was that Christopher apparently was in a position where could've sang like a canary and no one could've (or would've) done anything about it, and John hushed him up.  That kind of annoyed me.  (If I'm missing something I'd like to know.  But no one has indicated otherwise.)  Second, he did that involving a piece of information the studio audience knew and can blab all night long to anyone who listens.  The fact that "they don't care and we do" means squat to me.

And finally I believe some of us questioned what we perceived as a "we know something you don't ha ha ha" mentality behind the posts and questioned the messages' usefulness under the circumstances. But it's not just even that. Some of us felt it was an unsuccessful attempt to manipulate us into generating positive buzz for something without us knowing whether it was worth our generating positive buzz about it.

[MrGameShow]

If I recall.. John DID say that it was Sony's call to not say anything.. but that seemed convieniently overlooked.

"Manning up"? WTF? I don't blame the guy for wanting to leave when all that's happening is this whining that "the board" isn't privy to the host name.

As for me "missing the point" - I already said that I can see both sides of what's going on. I'm not entirely defending John for his actions on the board; but when push comes to shove, fact is that HE will not be the one to mention anything because his bosses said so.

And as Randy said.. if the name was to be brought up, we already have heard that the host isn't familiar to game shows.. so everyone here wouldn't have much more to say other than "Okay.. now that we found out the host.. we want a full detailed writeup on the show and how the pilot will differ from the series, because now we have to over-analyze how he did in _______________ compared to what he'll be doing with this format."

It's like every other host we've heard mentioned before the show came on. Personally, I thought Howie was going to BOMB on hosting the game show.. just as I thought it was odd for Bob Saget to be brought on board for a game show.. I think they both are doing quite a fine job.

But, Mr. Lemon, please feel free to correct me on how much I've "missed the point" - sure we could squeeze a little more sourness out of ya!

CWeaver.. I understand where you are coming from - but this isn't the media. There's no "bragging rights" to jumping online on here to be "the first" to post OH BOY! I KNOW THE HOST!! I'LL BE THE FIRST TO REPORT IT!! YAHOOOOOOO! *type type type*..