What makes a good $1,000,000 Question

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Feb 7 2004, 04:28 PM\']
BTW, I'm not sure why you used "the 50's scandals" as an example, but especially on this forum, I think you'd find an awful lot of people who would LIKE to see a million dollar question on that subject! [/quote]
 While I agree, I think you might have misunderstood Starcade, Matt. I think he was refering to the level of material used in the 50's quiz shows in question, where the material was so difficult they couldn't create an interesting game without the producers helping out.

T

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Feb 7 2004, 07:53 PM\'] [quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Feb 7 2004, 04:28 PM\']
BTW, I'm not sure why you used "the 50's scandals" as an example, but especially on this forum, I think you'd find an awful lot of people who would LIKE to see a million dollar question on that subject! [/quote]
While I agree, I think you might have misunderstood Starcade, Matt. I think he was refering to the level of material used in the 50's quiz shows in question, where the material was so difficult they couldn't create an interesting game without the producers helping out.

T [/quote]
 Thanks, that makes a lot more sense.  My bad.

[Don Howard]

A good $10,000,000 question would be one that I could answer correctly.
But wouldn't this be something: The scenario is that one of us gets into the hot seat and makes it to question fifteen and the question is, "Who was the first host of The Price Is Right?" Dimes to Dunkin' Donuts the average Joe doesn't know Bill Cullen was the man.

[Kevin Prather]

Not a $10mil question.

[TLEberle]

Really?  Why not?  Defense, please.

He's probably right: TPIR is so closely associated with Barker, and nary a mention of the original version of the show (except during the first year) that a casual TV watcher or one of those college louts at the show wouldn't have a clue, even moreso if you were to toss names like Warren Hull, Bert Parks and Jack Narz in the mix.

Travis

[reason1024]

Some reasons "Who was the original host of The Price is Right?" would probably not be a good grand prize question:

1) Too easy to PAF-Google: "original host the price is right" has the #1 link going to priceisright.info, and even has the answer in the sampler text.

2) Since the show went away and came back later, a losing contestant might think he could start a lawsuit based on the rules of what a TV show is, semantics, etc.

[Edit: the rules of what the legal name of a TV show is, dangit, that still doesn't make much sense :-P]

3) A 50 year old might know the question right off the bat, and never have to mull it over.

4) It's about a game show produced by a competing company

Cheers,
Mike

[CarShark]

[quote name=\'reason1024\' date=\'Feb 8 2004, 05:05 AM\']Some reasons "Who was the original host of The Price is Right?" would probably not be a good grand prize question:

1) Too easy to PAF-Google: "original host the price is right" has the #1 link going to priceisright.info, and even has the answer in the sampler text.

2) Since the show went away and came back later, a losing contestant might think he could start a lawsuit based on the rules of what a TV show is, semantics, etc.

3) A 50 year old might know the question right off the bat, and never have to mull it over.

4) It's about a game show produced by a competing company

Cheers,
Mike[/quote]
1) If that were to happen, than it would be great for that contestant, but I really doubt that anyone will have any lifelines going into the last question.

2) Any lawsuit can be prevented simply by wording the question in such a way so that there is no doubt as to what you meant.

3) A person of ANY age could know the answer and not have to mull it over. Besides, unless a person really followed game shows closely, or if they were on it themselves, or if they knew someone who was on it, they probably don't know. And if they had known the answer previously in their lives, they could always forget it.

4) Cute. Really.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'reason1024\' date=\'Feb 8 2004, 05:05 AM\'] Some reasons "Who was the original host of The Price is Right?" would probably not be a good grand prize question:
[/quote]
1)I'm sure that the common Joe wouldn't know to type in that exact keyphrase.
2)There's nothing to argue.  Cullen's was the original Price.  Barker's was a revival
3)And they might not, either.
4)Since all your points have been proven moot, care to try again?

[gameshowguy2000]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Feb 3 2004, 07:10 PM\'] [quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Feb 3 2004, 07:58 PM\'] After all of the discussion and posting of people's Level Fifteen questions, and wondered, "What makes a good Million Dollar Question?"

Answer however you please.  By that, not by posting your questions, but what is the makeup of such a question.
 [/quote]
IMO, simply something that isn't extremely obscure, but something that a little brainstorming couldn't fix. Something where you wouldn't have to go through 20 pages of Google archives to find a concrete answer for.

Joe Trela's "computer bug" question is a perfect example. Another would be the Silorsky helicopter one.

Bad examples: most pop culture, esp. if it happened in the Baby Boomer or Gen-X time eras, i.e. the "Laugh-In" question. Nothing involving numbers, such as the distance from the sun or when the Julian new year began. Personally, I don't like the idea of offering anything involving recalling a specific date. It seems too....."broad," so to speak. [/quote]
 Well, how about Michael Shutterly's MDQ about what group won the Grammy for best Hard Rock/Metal Performance or Stephanie Girardi's MDQ about which Shakespearean character said "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark?"

Is the latter too easy to be a MDQ or what?

[Kevin Prather]

Those are surprisingly easy, I must admit.

[gameshowguy2000]

[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Feb 17 2004, 05:22 PM\'] Those are surprisingly easy, I must admit. [/quote]
 I doubt Michael Shutterly's MDQ was easy. I wouldn't have known it, but I think it was a good idea to put that Grammy question as Question 15.

I think Stephanie Girardi's MDQ would've been better at the middle tier. I'm sure there are a lot of Shakesparean fans out there that would've known that one.

I just thought of 2 more that made good MDQ's: David Fite's MDQ about the language Anne Frank's diary was originally in, and Rob Coughlin's MDQ about what country manufactures ALL U.S. Major League Baseballs are manufactured in.

I wouldn't have known either one of them!

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'gameshowguy2000\' date=\'Feb 17 2004, 07:57 PM\'] [quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Feb 17 2004, 05:22 PM\'] Those are surprisingly easy, I must admit. [/quote]
I wouldn't have known either one of them! [/quote]
 You didn't know 50X20 either; so this isn't a big surprise.

[ChuckNet]

Being a pop music fan and Billboard subscriber, this was easy for me ("One Sweet Day"), but I was in agony watching because the contestant in the Hot Seat didn't even know who sang them, then took a wrong guess and fell to $32,000.

That was Larry Caplan, who'd previously appeared on The Challengers 10 yrs prior.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[gameshowguy2000]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Feb 18 2004, 10:56 AM\']

Being a pop music fan and Billboard subscriber, this was easy for me ("One Sweet Day"), but I was in agony watching because the contestant in the Hot Seat didn't even know who sang them, then took a wrong guess and fell to $32,000.

That was Larry Caplan, who'd previously appeared on The Challengers 10 yrs prior.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby") [/quote]
 And he's the FIRST of a handful of players to ever miss the $500,000 question, although many people remember the fall of Kati Knudsen. She had it right, then changed it. Oh! Had she not done that, she would've joined Stephanie Girardi in the "Female $500,000 Winners' Circle."

[Kevin Prather]

[quote name=\'gameshowguy2000\' date=\'Feb 18 2004, 12:05 PM\'] [quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Feb 18 2004, 10:56 AM\']

Being a pop music fan and Billboard subscriber, this was easy for me ("One Sweet Day"), but I was in agony watching because the contestant in the Hot Seat didn't even know who sang them, then took a wrong guess and fell to $32,000.

That was Larry Caplan, who'd previously appeared on The Challengers 10 yrs prior.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby") [/quote]
And he's the FIRST of a handful of players to ever miss the $500,000 question,[/quote]

Actually, he was the second. Mark McDermott missed the Titanic / Californian question about a week prior.

although many people remember the fall of Kati Knudsen. She had it right, then changed it. Oh! Had she not done that, she would've joined Stephanie Girardi in the "Female $500,000 Winners' Circle."

Yep. What was interesting was that Regis actually talked her out of going with Tonga. If I were Kati, I probably would've been mad at Regis.