Most Obnoxious Celebrity...

[tvmitch]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'249816\' date=\'Oct 28 2010, 09:45 AM\']If the category is "Obnoxious Celebrity Players", I think 'Nipsey Russell' is a terrible clue.[/quote]
I agree; I remember picking through others' lists in my trading days and looking forward to watching the shows where Nipsey was a guest. He was always above average and really played to win. I remember him looking at the off-stage clock often during the Pyramid front game, and telling the contestant to "hurry up" if they were being slow. He was also a great MG panelist. Actually caring about the game they play, and playing to win, makes the celeb great in my book, poems or not.

JoAnne Worley falls in this category for me too, where I understand how some people might have found her annoying, but I loved watching her on Pyramid. Pat Carroll was brought up as an annoying celeb earlier; I think she was the victim of poor writing on Hollywood Connection more than anything.

Top annoying celeb for me is Kaye Stevens, open and shut case. Never was a fan of Patty Duke as a panelist...she wasn't really "annoying," but always seemed to want to be somewhere else. Debralee Scott was a frequent Goodson celeb that I didn't care for, either.

[HairMetalLives]

I hereby nominate Professor Irwin Corey from Davidson Hollywood Squares. On the episode I have with him, he took forever to answer his questions, going off on many different tangents and wasting a tremendous (and unacceptable) amount of time, cutting the game very short. Once, he started rambling before the question was posed. Even Shadoe Stevens was starting to get ticked off. For some reason, though, Corey was invited back three more times. (?!?!?!?)

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'249816\' date=\'Oct 28 2010, 07:45 AM\'][quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'249780\' date=\'Oct 27 2010, 06:42 PM\']Nearly Every Bob Stewart show with Celebrities:  Nipsey Russell.  An opening poem, sometimes a closing poem, and occasionally a mid-game poem he gets to sneak in x5 shows a week.  Yes, he was billed as Poet Laureate(sp?) and he rarely repeated any poems, but there were times it was overdone.[/quote]
In the first place, I imagine there were rare occasions when he got to do a second poem in a show (if they needed to fill time or something), but you're making it sound like he took over a game and turned it into the Nipsey Russell Poetry Corner, and that's just not the case at all.  Nipsey was also one of the sharpest, most enthusiastic and most fun but serious-minded celebrities to play on game shows (one of the reasons he was on so many).  If the category is "Obnoxious Celebrity Players", I think 'Nipsey Russell' is a terrible clue.

On the other hand, it amuses me that you think he "rarely repeated any poems".  For a video tribute I made a while back, I took four different instances of him reciting the same poem on four different shows, and edited them into a single piece line by line.  It wasn't hard to find source material.
[/quote]
 

Nipsey Russell was an excellent game show player, I'm not questioning that aspect of the man, I just think some of the shows relied on his poems too much that it took away from the other celebrity(ies) on the show.  

Obnoxious, as compared to Judy Tenuta levels, Nipsey is not, and apologies for inferring that he hijacked the show for his own Poetry Corner, he didn't.  I guess he stands out more in my mind than others on Stewart shows since a lot of his later shows had laid back B- and C-List celebrities (David Graff, Mary Cadorette, Ed Begley...) that played the game decently but were usually less animated than their civilian contestants.

He did get a little obnoxious on the last ep. of "Your Number's Up", though.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'249816\' date=\'Oct 28 2010, 09:45 AM\'][quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'249780\' date=\'Oct 27 2010, 06:42 PM\']Nearly Every Bob Stewart show with Celebrities:  Nipsey Russell.  An opening poem, sometimes a closing poem, and occasionally a mid-game poem he gets to sneak in x5 shows a week.  Yes, he was billed as Poet Laureate(sp?) and he rarely repeated any poems, but there were times it was overdone.[/quote]
In the first place, I imagine there were rare occasions when he got to do a second poem in a show (if they needed to fill time or something), but you're making it sound like he took over a game and turned it into the Nipsey Russell Poetry Corner, and that's just not the case at all.  Nipsey was also one of the sharpest, most enthusiastic and most fun but serious-minded celebrities to play on game shows (one of the reasons he was on so many).  If the category is "Obnoxious Celebrity Players", I think 'Nipsey Russell' is a terrible clue.
[/quote]
Not only that, but when he appeared on Pyramid or Match Game, Dick/Bill or Gene would invite him to say his daily poem. It's not like he finished up a round of 7 words by doing a poem.

Even if he had recited a verse before showing his card on MG, it's not like it was taking away from anything.

[DrBear]

Resisting the obvious temptation to list Sean Connery on SNL Celebrity Jeopardy, I nominate...

Paula Poundstone on TTTT2K. She never understood that there is humor that comes out naturally in the format, but you still have to take the game somewhat seriously. (See just about any Garry Moore ep and you get the idea.)

(On the other hand, I love her on "Wait Wait" as that show does NOT take itself seriously.)

[whewfan]

My picks...

Lynn Redgrave on WML- Unprepared for questions to ask on WML... took FOREVER for her to come up with questions to ask.

Paula Poundstone on TTTT- I thought Dave Coulier would hog the spotlight with dated 80s impressions when he was on TTTT, but he played the game FAR better than Paula. Paula was just trying WAY too hard to be funny, thinking asking random questions about the Waltons was true comedy relief. The producers got the better of her though, by getting Earl Hamner, the creator of The Waltons on the show. Unfortunately she had to "recuse" herself (a term that SHE coined) because she knew who Earl Hamner was.

Kin Shriner on MG 98- He wasn't so much obnoxious as it was that it was plainly obvious he didn't want to be there. He was the Richard Dawson '78 of the era. While Nell, Judy, and Vicki and George were at least trying to make the end credits look like a dance party, Kin just sat at his seat in total boredom. He had me wanting his twin brother Wil to take his place, and that's being desperate!

Henry Morgan- I am stretching a bit with "obnoxious" here... Henry was just not a happy guy and didn't always seem to be having much fun with IGAS. He was supposedly not very nice or sociable with the panel outside of the show. Sometimes it did look obvious that he'd rather be elsewhere. However, to his credit he did a decent job of filling in for Garry Moore when he was out, so maybe Henry liked the hosting job better.

[alfonzos]

The XX,000 Pyramid - Robert Mandan would purposely lose the second game if the first contestant won the Winner's Circle round.

I agree. A little JM J. Bullock goes a long way.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'249849\' date=\'Oct 28 2010, 01:40 PM\']The XX,000 Pyramid - Robert Mandan would purposely lose the second game if the first contestant won the Winner's Circle round.[/quote]
That's a pretty strong accusation that I think I'd like to see backed up with some proof before I consider it anything but total hogwash.

[J.R.]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'249839\' date=\'Oct 28 2010, 12:24 PM\']Nipsey Russell was an excellent game show player, I'm not questioning that aspect of the man, I just think some of the shows relied on his poems too much that it took away from the other celebrity(ies) on the show.[/quote]
Dude, it was a 10 second deal on a 30 minute show.

You're making way bigger of a deal out it than it really was.

[SRIV94]

Jo Anne Worley, anyone?

Good game player.  Didn't need the operatics, though.

ETA:  Sorry--didn't see Mitch brought her up.

[MyronMMeyer]

Al Franken on Power Players Week (1997) on Jeopardy. Way too much chatter. He seemed to tighten it up on later appearances, but I remember just cringing through that episode.

-M

[Bobby B.]

Paula Poundstone on TTTT, for sure.  Several times, I heard her openly mock contestants and their stories.  One particular instance was a contestant whose story was that he had organized a campaign to teach kids not to curse.  Paula basically told him that she disagreed with what he was doing and would teach her kids that they could say anything they wanted.  She had every right to disagree with him, of course, but she said it very confrontationally.  She always seemed like the show was the last place in the world she wanted to be.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'249780\' date=\'Oct 27 2010, 03:42 PM\']Match Game '98:  Judy Tenuta (and her squeeze box -- 'nuff said).[/quote]Is it really? I'm just supposed to know?

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'249789\' date=\'Oct 27 2010, 06:07 PM\'](closed circuit for the Brits) Countdown: Jo Brand.  You're not funny, and you're definitely not good on the eyes.[/quote]"Russell!"
<clang!> CHARGE!

[quote name=\'Offshored2007\' post=\'249811\' date=\'Oct 28 2010, 05:10 AM\']Nipsey Russell and his poems, he'd always smile and laugh at the end of them egotistically.[/quote]I'm sorry, what now? A guy can't laugh at his own joke?

Game show panelists. Serious bidness.

[parliboy]

Wayland Flowers (and Madam), Hollywood Squares.  Go dig up the last question from the Vegas run.  That one question sums things up quite nicely.  Bastard basically sat on the last three minutes of the game just so he could make sure he got the last question of the series, when one of the contestants was playing for $25,000.

[golden-road]

[quote name=\'parliboy\' post=\'249870\' date=\'Oct 29 2010, 02:12 AM\']Wayland Flowers (and Madam), Hollywood Squares.  Go dig up the last question from the Vegas run.  That one question sums things up quite nicely.  Bastard basically sat on the last three minutes of the game just so he could make sure he got the last question of the series, when one of the contestants was playing for $25,000.[/quote]

Don't you mean the last episode of the NBC run?