Monty Hall BtC

[carlisle96]

Isn't it true that Monty didn't actually select the contestants on LMAD? Weren't they chosen in advance by Stephen Hatos and Monty was simply told where each contestant or couple or sometimes trio was seated after the commercial break?

Yes that is true.  It wasn't done by STEFAN Hatos, it was done by producer Alan Gilbert.  I didn't mean to imply that Monty himself chose the contestants, but the selection process for BTC would have been done like LMAD.  They wouldn't know they were going to be contestants, until Monty pointed at them.

My understanding is Hatos chose those who got to sit on the trading floor but Monty picked the ones to play the game.

[PYLdude]

I don't care if it's the same idea behind the prior Beat the Clock series, and this one was pretty damn fun to watch. That's not an excuse for bringing in a game mechanic that breaks the entire thing.

So are you saying "awful game, entertaining half-hour of television?"

I would add "drags down an otherwise" in place of the comma, but yes.

[TLEberle]

Put it this way: how is that any worse of a method of determining who plays the Bonus Stunt than sounding a bell and yelling "THE BONUS! YOU GET THE BONUS!"

This still slays me thirteen years later.

I will once again point to the fact that you can dominate the stunt portion and lose because you can't throw a shuffleboard puck past one line. At least the celebrity portion of the run cut the stunt stakes in half, which made the Bonus Shuffle a little more sensible.

I don't care if it's the same idea behind the prior Beat the Clock series, and this one was pretty damn fun to watch. That's not an excuse for bringing in a game mechanic that breaks the entire thing.

And if you don't like it then try out for Newlywed Game or Family Feud. I'm guessing they had some practice with the shuffleboard since that's the one thing you're guaranteed to do no matter what the stunts are.

Would you have preferred that the team in the lead got a one-second advantage per $200 won in some sort of Wacky Races deal that determined the winner? Or some sort of Countdown Round deal where the team in the lead has to accomplish some feat of dexterity one fewer time than the opponent per $500 won earlier? (That actually doesn't sound too terrible.)

[PYLdude]

I actually liked the way the 2002 series did it, with the Bid-a-Note style round, but I'd have liked to see a Pyramid-styled round, where Team A sets time for Team B to beat and go from there.

[TLEberle]

Just my own, but I thought the final stunt on BTC2k was either second or joint-second worst thing on the show. First on the list was that silly question where the ladies would determine which gentleman would answer the question, and the winner of the showdown had the advantage of bidding first on the final stunt. Yee. Haw. (Bronze medal has to be the Swirling Whirlwind.)

I would do the final showdown as a Scrabble Sprint because I like the idea of the race to the plunger determining the winner rather than the judge, but we're very close. One thing that did bug me about Bonus Shuffle is you probably could have done two or three more stunts in that time frame, though I haven't put it to a chronometer or anything. It would be interesting to see how many stunts were done on the original article, even with Bud chatting to the family, doling out the board games, cameras and Roxanne dolls and whatnots.

[Winkfan]

It would be interesting to see how many stunts were done on the original article, even with Bud chatting to the family, doling out the board games, cameras and Roxanne dolls and whatnots.

Not counting the "Unscramble the Phrase" game; there were I think six or seven stunts per show (counting the "Bonus"). I'll have to go back and watch a typical episode just to see if I'm wrong.

Cordially,
Tammy