TPiR Help Wanted

[Steve Gavazzi]

Jimmy_1, please take a minute to learn how to quote properly.  Your posts aren't all that worth reading to begin with, so you're not doing yourself any favors by submitting them with random pseudo-HTML tags strewn all over the place.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jimmy_1\' post=\'149806\' date=\'Apr 8 2007, 06:19 AM\']
 If you don't know what "el skunko" is, the marketers will cover that market segment's interest by splashing any picture of Bob Barker on the cover - heck, they may even include a picture of the big wheel and an interview where Bob tells the story of the time "she came on down and they came on out".  Won't that be worth the price of the DVD for true devotees of the show?  Your manner gets us to the discount bin of Wal Mart next to the 2 episode "Lucy Show" DVD for $1.
[/quote]
You're not making any sense.

The point is, if someone picks up the DVD at Socket Circus and looks on the back cover, and the table of contents says "The "El Skunko" Episode", that person is going to put it back down, because they are going to have no idea what they is.

(Further, there is no way in 14 blue hells they are going to include an episode where everyone loses. But that's beside the point.)

What you don't seem to be picking up on is the same thing that the people screaming for The Original Hosts on Game Show Marathon didn't pick up on: the fanbois are going to buy this anyhow, and it really doesn't matter if it's even good, in their case. They don't need to be marketed to. It's Joe Average who needs to be marketed to.

[Jimmy_1]

Chris,
We disagree on who the product really needs to be marketed to.  The passive viewer at Socket Circus will buy anything if it's cheap enough.  They won't read the back for program descriptions, and their decision won't be based on whether it's nicknames such as "El Skunko" or general marketing spiel such as "Get ready to c'mon down.".  The true fans aren't looking for a generic episode - they have those in their collection.  It is going to take a bond with the devotee to make them want the product.  Maybe the answer is that a general interest DVD isn't for the true fan.  If there is some sort of "best of" or "director's cut", anyone who visits this or other game show sites should wait for that.

[JeffParsons]

The die-hards who want to see Cullen, James, Kennedy, or Davidson are obviously going to be disappointed.  Most people on planet Earth don't even know there was a version of Price is Right before the current one, much less that anyone other then Bob Barker ever hosted the show. It's ridiculous to even suggest that those episodes be included.

[chris319]

fanbois

Please, it's fanb0iz

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'Jimmy_1\' post=\'149820\' date=\'Apr 8 2007, 03:09 PM\']
The passive viewer at Socket Circus will buy anything if it's cheap enough.  ]  They won't read the back for program descriptions, and their decision won't be based on whether it's nicknames such as "El Skunko" or general marketing spiel such as "Get ready to c'mon down.".
[/quote]
Anyone who has so much money to spare that he'd "buy anything that's cheap enough" needs his head examined.  That is not the audience the company needs to reach for a successful product.

The true fans aren't looking for a generic episode - they have those in their collection.  It is going to take a bond with the devotee to make them want the product.  Maybe the answer is that a general interest DVD isn't for the true fan.  If there is some sort of "best of" or "director's cut", anyone who visits this or other game show sites should wait for that.

You grossly overestimate the demand for game show DVDs in general if you think that anyone other than the extreme diehards will want a "director's cut," or that this audience is anywhere near large enough to justify one.  The fact is that the diehards will buy this without any prompting whatsoever.  Yes, they'll bitch from now until doomsday about whatever episodes BCI eventually chooses, but they will buy it nonetheless.

This is no different from the discussions we've had about GSN.  GSN can't cater primarily to diehard game show fans to be successful, and neither can BCI.

[MikeK]

[quote name=\'Jimmy_1\' post=\'149820\' date=\'Apr 8 2007, 03:09 PM\']
Chris,
We disagree on who the product really needs to be marketed to.[/quote]
What's the larger market--the fanb0iz or the general populace?  If your aim is the fanb0iz, you're aiming for a niche market of maybe 1000 people while alienating the millions of other potential customers.  Will you make more money by making a set focused towards a small percentage of people or one which would appeal to more potential buyers?

The passive viewer at Socket Circus will buy anything if it's cheap enough.  They won't read the back for program descriptions, and their decision won't be based on whether it's nicknames such as "El Skunko" or general marketing spiel such as "Get ready to c'mon down.".

Really?  I don't buy stuff for the sake of owning it.  Also, the lower the price, the more likely the set will suck big time.  I'd want quality over quantity.

Using a bunch of terms which 99.999% of the population doesn't know about, terminology which would give the fanb0iz a major chubby in the TV DVD aisle of the big yellow tag store, on the packaging would be nothing short of moronic.

The true fans aren't looking for a generic episode - they have those in their collection.

Again, the set isn't being produced for several hundred or possibly a thousand folks.

[BrandonFG]

Jimmy, please consider the cost that is going into this.

Take the population of this board, which is about 2,000. Don't know how many are at G-R, so we'll go with my 2,000. Out of that number, probably 1/10 of that are die-hard fans, who use terms like "el skunko" or "First Four Breakfast Club".

ObGameShow: The Breakfast Club's Principal Vernon, the late Paul Gleason, bears a striking resemblance to Tom Bergeron. I believe Gleason is also Monty Hall's former son-in-law.

So 1/10 is what, 200, and that's a generous estimate. Now, you said something about marketing these DVDs on the cheap. Now, I've never heard of BCI until this release, so I wouldn't know if they're a start-up company or not. However, I'd like to think they'd like to pull some sort of a profit off this DVD. They're not going to make profit appealing to a tiny core of game show fans who make up their own lingo just for one game show. The memorable moments they go for is stuff that people have seen a million times on the blooper specials. People talk about the tube top, and the overweight woman chasing Bob around the stage. Yes, those are well-known. But half the stuff some of the G-R posters have mentioned are not memorable to the average game show viewer, and that estimated 200 people will not cover the production costs, and sure as hell won't pull a profit, unless this DVD is selling for at least four or five figures.

And, to any G-R regulars, I'm not slamming your site, but I am trying to keep things real. Again, I'd just love to see some old TPiRs; Bob with dark hair, cars with four digits, audience members wearing clothes without punny phrases tackily written on them, etc. Honestly, I'd be happier with just a generic episode, without the bloopers I've seen 999 times. Then again, I'm easy to please.

/That's what she said!

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'Jimmy_1\' post=\'149820\' date=\'Apr 8 2007, 03:09 PM\']The true fans aren't looking for a generic episode - they have those in their collection.[/quote]
I have to comment on this in particular, as common sense would dictate that the exact opposite is true. The people who are suggesting "El Skunko" and the like are the exact same people who have those episodes in their collections. A random episode from 1979 is something they are much less likely to already have.

(And if the response to that is "who wants a random 1979 episode" . . . TPIR fans, one would assume. Unless the point isn't the enjoyment of the game show, but rather being in a clique, making up terminology, and spit-shining their True Fan badges. Not that I would ever suggest such a possibility.)

I actually think it's cool to include the episodes that contain some of the most over-shown bloopers, because 95% of those shows go unseen. If you're sick of Yolanda, skip over those couple of minutes, and hey, classic episode!

[Jimmy Owen]

BCI's been around for about fifteen years, they used to be known as Brentwood.  They seem to cater to niches, though, as they put out season sets of He-Man (only a best-of of She-Ra, though), Ultraman and  Cool McCool, most of the Dusty's Trail series.  They're the ones behind the recent Match Game set.  Obviously, they are interested in what the fans want.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'149828\' date=\'Apr 8 2007, 04:43 PM\']
ObGameShow: The Breakfast Club's Principal Vernon, the late Paul Gleason, bears a striking resemblance to Tom Bergeron. I believe Gleason is also Monty Hall's former son-in-law.[/quote]
For the record, Joanna Gleason's ex-husband is named Paul, but is not the character actor from The Breakfast Club.

ObGameShow Breakfast Club:  As a child, Ally Sheedy appeared on To Tell the Truth.

[Jimmy Owen]

Not only did Ally appear on 70's TTTT, she was a panelist.  I used to scour TV Guide for celeb. listings and that name stuck out when I saw it.

[chris319]

[quote name=\'JeffParsons\' post=\'149821\' date=\'Apr 8 2007, 12:13 PM\']
Most people on planet Earth don't even know there was a version of Price is Right before the current one, much less that anyone other then [sic] Bob Barker ever hosted the show.[/quote]
That is the very reason the other emcees should be included. Besides, fans in their late 20s will remember when T.K. emceed, and GSN has shown plenty of New York episodes.

Has GSN shown any T.K./Davidson episodes in recent years?

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'149846\' date=\'Apr 8 2007, 11:32 PM\']
Has GSN shown any T.K./Davidson episodes in recent years?
[/quote]
GSN hasn't shown any TPiR in recent years.

Unless my memory faults me, they were airing Kennedy episodes on Sundays around 2:00 PM.  They never showed Davidson episodes.

Forgive me if this question was dripping with sarcasm.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jimmy_1\' post=\'149820\' date=\'Apr 8 2007, 12:09 PM\']
The passive viewer at Socket Circus will buy anything if it's cheap enough.
[/quote]
No.

(Well, maybe. But that has more to do with the mental capacity of anyone voluntarily shopping at Socket Circus, given other options, than anything else.)

They won't read the back for program descriptions, and their decision won't be based on whether it's nicknames such as "El Skunko" or general marketing spiel such as "Get ready to c'mon down.".

No.

The true fans aren't looking for a generic episode - they have those in their collection.

You operate under the assumption that everyone collects.

You would be, again, wrong.

Maybe the answer is that a general interest DVD isn't for the true fan.

No.

If there is some sort of "best of" or "director's cut", anyone who visits this or other game show sites should wait for that.

Aaaaaaand this line is the proof that you're not speaking from any kind of rational position on this topic, so I think we're done here.