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Author Topic: some questions  (Read 2736 times)

Sjsuman3500

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some questions
« on: September 26, 2003, 12:42:32 AM »
I have a few questions about \"The Newlywed Game:\"

1) After Bob Eubanks says goodbye at the end of the show, they never show him on camera and they always show the newlyweds during the end credits (which is legitimate).  Here's my question: does Bob leave the podium off-camera, or does he still stay there (this relates to all versions of the Newlywed game)?

2) I noticed on several episodes before the 25-point bonus question (on the 1985-1989 version) that Bob says \"We'll be right back with our 25-point bonus question........right after these words from Bob Hilton.  Robert?\"  This may sound really stupid, but does Bob Eubanks normally call Bob Hilton \"Robert\" both on Newlywed game and Trivia Trap?

The next few questions are your opinion:
1) Who do you think is to blame for the cancellation of \"Newlywed game?\"  (in my opinion, it is NEVER EVER Bob's fault--he really knows how to host this show and he is really good at it)

2) Gary Kroeger, Paul Rodriguez, or Jim Lange: who do you think is the worst host on the Newlywed Game?

DrBear

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some questions
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2003, 10:42:19 AM »
[quote name=\'Sjsuman3500\' date=\'Sep 25 2003, 11:42 PM\']
1) Who do you think is to blame for the cancellation of "Newlywed game?"  (in my opinion, it is NEVER EVER Bob's fault--he really knows how to host this show and he is really good at it)

 [/quote]
 The only one of the four that I can try to answer....

Every show gets tired. Every one. At least, people get tired of it, and it goes away for a while. (All right, so TPIR is an exception, but it makes enough changes from year to year to seem different in the same framework.)

But most entertainment shows fade out; there's only so much you can do. (One reason MASH and Cheers ran so long was because of cast changes giving them a new look).

Newlywed Game never really changes; it's still Bob drawing out embarrassing stuff from the couples. It will get old after a while, and then people miss it and it comes back.
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DjohnsonCB

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some questions
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2003, 12:21:13 PM »
[quote name=\'Sjsuman3500\' date=\'Sep 25 2003, 11:42 PM\']
1) Who do you think is to blame for the cancellation of "Newlywed game?"  (in my opinion, it is NEVER EVER Bob's fault--he really knows how to host this show and he is really good at it)

2) Gary Kroeger, Paul Rodriguez, or Jim Lange: who do you think is the worst host on the Newlywed Game? [/quote]
 First of all, I don't ever recall Jim Lange hosting NG.  He did host another show with married couples as contestants whose reruns I'd prefer to see a million times more than another NG revival...

As to the cancellation, if you mean the original ABC version, I'd say ABC probably because of the same alleged fatigue factor that prompted NBC to kill off some of their long-runners from the '60s.

But there's an interesting story most of you are probably unaware of, and for better or worse, it's become part of Central Iowa TV history:  When the 1977 fall season opened, I was dismayed to learn that none of the Des Moines stations were wiling to try anything new in the 6:30 M-F Prime Access slot.  The NBC station renewed their contracts on the previous season's checkerboard lineup (Muppet Show, Name That Tune, Hee Haw, etc.), the ABC station had My Three Sons reruns across the board, and the CBS station opted to go with The Brady Bunch four nights a week, with one night reserved for a public affairs call-in show.  Everyone else was getting new first-run game shows or other new efforts, and I was embarrassed to see the stations I had running mostly mush.

Then in January 1978, the CBS station decided to retire the Bradys and substitute a strip game show (hooray!).  Unfortunately, the show they chose was the syndie NG with more sexually-explicit questions.  The station was flooded with calls and letters from angry mothers and the like, all saying in essence, \"How can you replace a nice, wholesome family comedy with a show that seemingly takes place in the bedroom?!\", and the protests were so overwhelming and stifling that the station actually dropped NG after three airings, riding out the season with reruns of The Honeymooners and then The Odd Couple.  It made the front page of the Des Moines Register, prompting Barris associate Mike
Metzger to lament, \"What IS it about \"Dee Moines\"?  Do we have to come up with special programming just for them?\"  Having been with that market as long as I was before I moved, I tended to agree with him.

Eventually, they rescheduled NG in a late-late slot after the kiddies were supposed to be in bed.  But after the initial furor died down, I wrote the station and gave them MY take on this whole mess.  I told them that I was unhappy to see everybody get angry over taking off some dumb Brady Bunch reruns that I felt belonged at 3:30 in the afternoons and not at 6:30, but that I was also never high on Newlywed Game either...but only because it was dumb and never offered high-stake prizes.  I asked why they couldn't have gotten something like Concentration with Jack Narz or Mary Tyler Moore reruns instead for that slot (they replied that Concentration was never offered to them and that MTM reruns were too expensive for the area and they weren't doing well in a number of places).  So maybe a lot of fed-up viewers were resposible for the eventual fall of NG.
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SRIV94

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some questions
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2003, 12:26:25 PM »
[quote name=\'DjohnsonCB\' date=\'Sep 26 2003, 11:21 AM\'] First of all, I don't ever recall Jim Lange hosting NG.  He did host another show with married couples as contestants whose reruns I'd prefer to see a million times more than another NG revival...
 [/quote]
 Lange hosted the one-week revival on ABC in 1984 (Eubanks was committed to DREAM HOUSE at that time).

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uncamark

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some questions
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2003, 03:36:34 PM »
[quote name=\'Sjsuman3500\' date=\'Sep 25 2003, 11:42 PM\']I have a few questions about \"The Newlywed Game:\"

1) After Bob Eubanks says goodbye at the end of the show, they never show him on camera and they always show the newlyweds during the end credits (which is legitimate).  Here's my question: does Bob leave the podium off-camera, or does he still stay there (this relates to all versions of the Newlywed game)?[/quote]
Oh, he runs backstage, gulps down a fifth of Jack Daniels and says \"we got 'em again!\"  Honestly, I have no idea.

Quote
2) I noticed on several episodes before the 25-point bonus question (on the 1985-1989 version) that Bob says \"We'll be right back with our 25-point bonus question........right after these words from Bob Hilton.  Robert?\"  This may sound really stupid, but does Bob Eubanks normally call Bob Hilton \"Robert\" both on Newlywed game and Trivia Trap?


I don't think Eubanks ever did a toss to Hilton on \"Trivia Trap,\" since I believe that if they did contestant or ticket plugs, they were done directly out of the break without any host intro.

Quote
1) Who do you think is to blame for the cancellation of \"Newlywed game?\" (in my opinion, it is NEVER EVER Bob's fault--he really knows how to host this show and he is really good at it)


Network version--ABC housecleaning--\"TDG\" and \"TNG\" were getting old.

1977-80 syndie--Barris shut down production of all of his shows in 1980 in response to continued fallout over \"3s a Crowd.\"  Someone said that \"TNG\" was still getting good ratings and could've continued.

80s syndie--With Barris off on the Riviera and Scott Sternberg and Jeff Wald running things for Burt Sugarman in 1987, Eubanks didn't like the changes made in the format (the model-of-the-week, the bigger prizes, the change to cash scoring and the bonus question becoming a wagering question) and said he would quit at the end of the season.  Sternberg and Wald called his bluff and fired him for Paul Rodriguez and the show went downhill from there.

Quote
2) Gary Kroeger, Paul Rodriguez, or Jim Lange: who do you think is the worst host on the Newlywed Game?


Lange is simply not a comic MC, he didn't have the ability to thrust and parry with the contestants that Eubanks did.  Rodriguez did, but it just wasn't the same.  Kroeger was a victim of the revised format more than anything else.

Ian Wallis

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some questions
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2003, 04:50:50 PM »
Quote
1977-80 syndie--Barris shut down production of all of his shows in 1980 in response to continued fallout over \"3s a Crowd.\" Someone said that \"TNG\" was still getting good ratings and could've continued.


I think that it certainly could have continued.  Some stations continued on with reruns of the '77-80 verison for a couple of years after production ended, so it must have been getting decent ratings for them to do that.  After a brief hiatus, reruns of the '77-80 verison surfaced again in fall 1984, which led to the new version a year later.
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PeterMarshallFan

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some questions
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2003, 04:31:28 PM »
[quote name=\'Sjsuman3500\' date=\'Sep 26 2003, 12:42 AM\']
2) Gary Kroeger, Paul Rodriguez, or Jim Lange: who do you think is the worst host on the Newlywed Game? [/quote]
 I like Jim's version. Paul Rodreguiz, however, was awful.

ChuckNet

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some questions
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2003, 11:42:24 AM »
Quote
80s syndie--With Barris off on the Riviera and Scott Sternberg and Jeff Wald running things for Burt Sugarman in 1987, Eubanks didn't like the changes made in the format (the model-of-the-week, the bigger prizes, the change to cash scoring and the bonus question becoming a wagering question) and said he would quit at the end of the season. Sternberg and Wald called his bluff and fired him for Paul Rodriguez and the show went downhill from there.

Although the show was really going downhill by the time Jan. 1988 rolled around...the new set was tolerable, but the scoring, format change, etc. really didn't allow the show to flow as smoothly as it used to, and I missed Bob's rapid-fire \"couple#1youhave15points25wouldgiveyou40\", etc. during the final question.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious \"Chuckie Baby\")