Buzzr Lost and Found stunt

[joshg]

I will note that YouTube account BuzzrPlus+ is likely to get some to all of this up on its channel over the coming days.

Thought this was an official account until the WTXF ID popped up. I'm amazed this is still up.

As for Star Words, you can tell Goodson didn't fake an outcome for the pilot; so there's that. Is this the offspring of Snap Judgment and Tattletales?

[Matt Ottinger]

Play For Keeps- considering the time it was made, G/T just seemed to throw something together to try and cash in on the big money shows- Sonny Fox was ill-suited as a host, for the stakes they were proposing the games were too short (this was supposed to be a daytime show), and the entire set looked cheezy (you can tell this was a pilot because the bell and buzzer logo had the word SPONSOR on it).

To be clear, this isn't something they just threw together.  It is simply a high-stakes version of their first hit, Winner Take All.  So even in the 1950s, G-T was cannibalizing its own earlier successes.

[MSTieScott]

Years ago, when GSN first aired the "Let's Make a Deal" pilot, it was preceded by a title card (which I presume was created by GSN) stating that since it was a pilot, certain game outcomes may have been predetermined. I don't know whether that was actually true of the LMaD pilot, but I've noticed that Buzzr has not run any similar disclaimers.

My question for discussion: Does it matter? For example, if Buzzr chooses to air the "Card Sharks" pilot in which the full $28,800 is won, should they disclaim that it wasn't a real episode of the show, and the outcome (likely) didn't legitimately happen? Or to use "Star Words" as an example: While I dearly hope that that gameplay wasn't predetermined, I assume that since it was just a pilot, the winning contestant didn't actually receive the prize money. Should that be disclaimed?

[Sodboy13]

Well, we got our answer on the 4-digit display tonight. Seems like the Family Feud '92 pilot was testing about four potential rulesets at once in this pilot. It's a fascinating watch.

[TLEberle]

Well, we got our answer on the 4-digit display tonight. Seems like the Family Feud '92 pilot was testing about four potential rulesets at once in this pilot. It's a fascinating watch.

Like, such as? I'm curious because really how much can you do with Family Feud. The only paradigm shift in the last twenty years has been the one-strike Triple round.

[Sodboy13]

Quick rundown of the pilot format (and seriously, you'll see how kitchen-sink this was as we go along):

- Each family given an initial bank of $2000.
- Bullseye questions aren't faceoffs; Ray goes down the line to each family member, asks a Bullseye question, and the top answer adds $1000 to the bank. There are also monitors labeled "$500" and "$250", presumably for the #2 and #3 answers, but no mention is ever made of these, so that idea must have been scratched very close to taping.
- Regular FF time, 1x-2x-3x, 300 dollars (not points) wins the game
- Standard Fast Money

Now, here comes the second half hour, with the first half's winner taking on the defending champs.

- No Bullseye leading off this time; now it's "high-stakes" Feud, with rounds played at 10x-20x-30x, and winnings deposited directly into a family's Fast Money Bank. There's no target score to win here; whichever team finishes the game with the bigger bank gets to play for it in Fast Money. The "steal answers add to the bank" rule gets added in here, as well.
- After those three rounds, now it's time for Bullseye. Trailing team goes first, and each #1 answer is worth $3000. No runners-up on the monitors this time.
- Even if the family that goes second clinches the win early, all five family members still play Bullseye to build their bank.
- Standard Fast Money

[snowpeck]

The $500 and $250 monitors might have been used in one or both of the preceding pilots (this was labelled as #3 on the grid Buzzr sent me.)

[sotcfan2004]

Just got the chance to watch TKO for the first (and last) time. Aside from the dated set, this was a pretty solid pilot. What network was this for? Too bad they didn't pick it up; I could see it having been potentially pretty successful.

[snowpeck]

Just got the chance to watch TKO for the first (and last) time. Aside from the dated set, this was a pretty solid pilot. What network was this for? Too bad they didn't pick it up; I could see it having been potentially pretty successful.

ABC. They apparently passed on it in favor of Match Game.

[sotcfan2004]

Just got the chance to watch TKO for the first (and last) time. Aside from the dated set, this was a pretty solid pilot. What network was this for? Too bad they didn't pick it up; I could see it having been potentially pretty successful.

ABC. They apparently passed on it in favor of Match Game.

Gee, what a problem to have. Two really good pilots and only 1 time slot available to fill.

[snowpeck]

Just got the chance to watch TKO for the first (and last) time. Aside from the dated set, this was a pretty solid pilot. What network was this for? Too bad they didn't pick it up; I could see it having been potentially pretty successful.

ABC. They apparently passed on it in favor of Match Game.

Gee, what a problem to have. Two really good pilots and only 1 time slot available to fill.

"Keynotes" from Reg Grundy and "The Name Game" from Edwards/Billett were also contenders for that slot.

[weaklink75]

So the mystery of the four-digit FF scoreboard is finally solved...frankly what they ended up with was better than what they tried here- it flowed a lot better.

And E-Bay as a contestant's name? I chuckled considering it pre-dated the website by 3-4 years...


TKO- I really liked this pilot. It could have used a little tweaking here or there (maybe shorten the first two rounds to 12 questions instead of 15 with no KO's 100-400 in Rd 1, 250-1000 in Rd 2, keep the third round the same but play it until two are out or a time limit where the one with the most money left wins, and add an endgame- maybe reformat the Gold Run from BB with a 4x4 board and they can win with a row, a column, or a diagonal with a 45 second time limit for $250 each or $10K for a row), but the general style of the game really worked (other than the set...what was the designer on when he came up with that?).

[MSTieScott]

During the "Family Feud Challenge" pilot, I was wishing for a rule that would result in both teams being disqualified. Exasperating game show contestants aren't a recent development.

Kind of a weird choice to jump from one half of a themed week of regular programming (the soap opera competition) to the second half of a different themed week (celebrity lookalikes). I don't know when that celebrity lookalike week originally aired, but am I safe in assuming that it was near the end of the show's run, when they were trying to goose their ratings in any way imaginable? I hope?

[Sodboy13]

Yeah, the flash on that "TKO" lettering would have triggered more seizures than Mary Hart's voice. Fun game, though, and the two-stage answering process really guarantees the playalong factor. It seems like it's just a few tweaks or refinements away from being really, really good. Seems like bad timing killed it more than anything.

[NickintheATL]

So the big difference between the Double Dare pilot and the series (other than the lack of some sound effects) is during the Spoilers round.  The contestant has ten clues to choose from and has to get five past at least one of the spoilers, and consequently has five passes.  For the series that was trimmed to eight clues (four gives/four passes).

It probably is very difficult to get one spoiler to balk five times, that and it eats up extra time and drags the show down to keep playing the round for longer than it should run.

Overall, a great pilot that was very entertaining.