After A Month Of Whew,...Random Observations:

[TimK2003]

Now that we finally have a decent streak of consecutive episodes to watch on Buzzr or elsewhere,, and not just a couple of episodes scattered throughout the series run, here are some of my observations:

• It seems like Chargers have about an even chance of winning any given round as Blockers.  I have seen several episodes where the charger either climbs the board and makes it with little or no obstacles (blocks/wrong answers) or survives the 1 out of 3 chance of finding the longshot blooper.

• The Gauntlet can a lot tougher than we were led to believe when we only had those select pre-Buzzr episodes on Youtube -- most of those contained $25K wins.

• Seems like Buzzr gave up covering the "Stay tuned for TPIR..." spiel at the end of the show.

• I love all the different camera angles they have done at the end of the show, showing a lot of the parts of the studio and set that you wouldn't normally see during the game.

• Amazed at how many edits they have made during the timed rounds -- most are barely noticeable.

•  Along the same lines, they have been pretty liberal on the accepting of some answers that were not necessarily what they had in mind.

• Strategy-wise, it feels like the $40 column is the most ignored in both the charging and blocking. They either focus on the easier columns or go greedy on the $50's.  One player recently went right up that $40 column in lightning speed with no problems.

After 40-some years, this show has really grown on me even more than it did back then.  I can see the show being revived in the near future as it seems like a good fit with some of today's existing offerings.

[Chief-O]

• I love all the different camera angles they have done at the end of the show, showing a lot of the parts of the studio and set that you wouldn't normally see during the game.

Same here.

• Amazed at how many edits they have made during the timed rounds -- most are barely noticeable.

Same here. I guess most of that might be due to board malfunctions, wrong bloopers being revealed, etc.

I can also add that, at least with the early crop of eps. they had, they always seemed to put blocks on the $350 on level 6.

[tvmitch]

• Amazed at how many edits they have made during the timed rounds -- most are barely noticeable.

•  Along the same lines, they have been pretty liberal on the accepting of some answers that were not necessarily what they had in mind.

In an era of television producing where the strong preference was live-to-tape, these stopdowns must have riled some feathers. An episode this week had two spots in just one round where there was an obvious stopdown.

For me, the show is a must-watch every day. I look forward to it. I do think that the blockers have an advantage over the chargers, in general. I would enjoy seeing an episode where a blocker attempts a different strategy of blocking $x on every level.

[WhammyPower]

An episode this week had two spots in just one round where there was an obvious stopdown.

Most of the ones I can recall may have been situations where judging the contestant's answer may have been a little more difficult. I think this was the case here.

[BrandonFG]

• The Gauntlet can a lot tougher than we were led to believe when we only had those select pre-Buzzr episodes on Youtube -- most of those contained $25K wins.

I wonder if the Gauntlet gets easier if the contestants had the clues written for them like in the main game? There, you could focus on the underlined blooper, whereas in the Gauntlet you have to listen closely to Tom. I'm not advocating for making a bonus round easier - esp. with 25K on the line - or anything, just a theory.

[Clay Zambo]

I wonder if the Gauntlet gets easier if the contestants had the clues written for them like in the main game?

Well, of course it would. And that's why they didn't do it. The underlined words were added between pilot and series, probably for the same reason.

I do wonder if it had been considered, and if the bloopers might at one point have been displayed on the Tele-bellies. I think they made the right choice *not* to do that, though.

[BrandonFG]

I do wonder if it had been considered, and if the bloopers might at one point have been displayed on the Tele-bellies. I think they made the right choice *not* to do that, though.

Oh absolutely. With so much on the line, you're basically begging to give away the money if they do that.

From what I've seen, the Gauntlet riddles themselves don't seem to be that much more difficult, but I did notice they were a little more current events-based.

[Bryce L.]

Seems like that $100K+ they gave away in the days immediately following Randy have put the screws to the budget, since in the last week or so, it looks like players have been lucky to make it to #4 or #5 on the Gauntlet (whereas before Randy, it seemed like a typical loss landed somewhere around #8 or #9).

[Ian Wallis]

• I love all the different camera angles they have done at the end of the show, showing a lot of the parts of the studio and set that you wouldn't normally see during the game.

I agree with that.  Some of those shots are beautiful.

As far as strategy goes, I think the most effective blocking is to try to load up on a couple of levels.  It could backfire if the charger gets lucky and goes around them, but how many times have we seen two or three of those blocks hit?

It seems that more games than not end with the longshot.

Re the theme:  I'm guessing most of us here have the music, but I'm wondering how much of the closing theme was ever heard on air.  It seems that on most of the long-credit days, it never seems to go much beyond about 1:30.  There is an episode in the circuit from the Howard Wilson run where one closing runs 1:55, but that's the most I've seen.  I'd be curious if there's another along the way somewhere where it ran longer.

The reason I bring that up is there are some shows where long credit closings typically ran over 2:00; but others like Tattletales rarely ran over a minute.  Just an observation.

[SuperMatch93]

Re the theme:  I'm guessing most of us here have the music, but I'm wondering how much of the closing theme was ever heard on air.  It seems that on most of the long-credit days, it never seems to go much beyond about 1:30.  There is an episode in the circuit from the Howard Wilson run where one closing runs 1:55, but that's the most I've seen.  I'd be curious if there's another along the way somewhere where it ran longer.

The reason I bring that up is there are some shows where long credit closings typically ran over 2:00; but others like Tattletales rarely ran over a minute.  Just an observation.

I haven't heard the TVPMM reels in years (I think they're still on an old laptop somewhere) but I do remember the theme having a final section and ending rather than a fade out.

Given that the show was already pressed for time due to the newsbreak and that many final segments only have time for Tom to say "See you next time on...", I doubt they had time for much more of the theme anyway.

[Nick]

• It seems like Chargers have about an even chance of winning any given round as Blockers.  I have seen several episodes where the charger either climbs the board and makes it with little or no obstacles (blocks/wrong answers) or survives the 1 out of 3 chance of finding the longshot blooper.

I hope somebody 'round these parts is compiling a statistics book on the spaces blocked and spaces charged, Charger wins and Blocker wins and so on.  I'd be very curious to see such figures as the blocks most commonly hit and spaces most commonly charged, especially for Level 6, and ultimately if one role was usually the one more favoured to win.

• I love all the different camera angles they have done at the end of the show, showing a lot of the parts of the studio and set that you wouldn't normally see during the game.

Yeah, which wasn't really the trend back then that it is today.  Also on the subject of the set, it seemed as if Tom looked to his left for Rod on some occasions and other times to his right.  Would he have been on opposite sides of the stage depending on the studio in which they taped?  By Randy's run, they're in Studio 33, but earlier episodes show the audience layout of what looks to be a different studio.

• Amazed at how many edits they have made during the timed rounds

It's probably the most frustrating part of watching the game, and one wonders how much this may have hurt the longevity of the show given the added production costs required with all the editing.  It's not just turning around the wrong blooper.  The sound effects operator was off on several occasions, sounding the block horn when no block was hit, et al.  If this ever did get a modern-day revival, I'd have to think an upgrade to a digital board would make the production move so much more smoothly.  They seemed to be pretty strict on the clock, but contestants were often held at the mercy of Tom flubbing a syllable while reading a blooper or a delay on getting the trilion turned around and losing precious seconds in the process (Look at Steve Leblang's first game.  He's held up for a full two seconds on Level 5 waiting for his second blooper to turn around after just being hit with a five-second penalty on a block).  Still, though, for a rapid-fire game where the trilions are not being turned in sequence against the clock such as on Pyramid, you have to commend the board operators for keeping up with the pace more times than not.

I also would think the formula for rapid-fire delivery would have developed to precision.  I suppose the rules required you to say level before the level number, but I'd be dropping dollars on the blooper if they'll let me get away with that and save my precious time (Also, it is a part of the rules that Tom must repeat the level number and dollar amount after the Charger calls it?  I suppose we need to do something to fill the seconds it takes to turn the blooper around, but again, it's my precious time, and the blooper is usually still not fully turned by the time Tom is finished repeating the Charger's call).

•  Along the same lines, they have been pretty liberal on the accepting of some answers that were not necessarily what they had in mind.

Had the show lasted longer, I expect they would have worked out all the kinks in the writing formula so avoid these kinds of scenarios because contestants also lost precious seconds for judge deliberation (By the way, we hear his voice sometimes.  Anybody know who that is?).

[Clay Zambo]

From what I've seen, the Gauntlet riddles themselves don't seem to be that much more difficult, but I did notice they were a little more current events-based.

And there's no unifying subject.

[Sodboy13]

I introduced my wife to Whew! tonight. Her first impression? "What is this show? This is insane."

I mean, she's not wrong. That said, she got the rules down easy after watching Tom's rundown and seeing one round play out. But the show is, as I have maintained since my first viewing, a lot. And then she heard the phrase "Gauntlet of Villains" and was truly perplexed. The best explanation I had to offer was, "Look, there was a lot of cocaine going around at the time."

[MikeK]

Some stats for every show BUZZR has shown up to this point minus the pilot and minus the show that aired on 10/7:

34 Gauntlets have been run
8 wins

Randy has the highest main game winnings in a game thus far at $1190.  The lowest has been $130.  5 people have amassed at least $1000 in the main game.  The average amount won in the main game is $699.  There is a very weak correlation between main game winnings and how far you'll get in the Gauntlet--someone who earned $520 beat the Gauntlet, while someone who won $1000 in the main game only got through 9.

90 rounds have been played
The 5 most frequently chosen spaces to block in levels 1 through 5 are 4-20 (40 times), 3-30 (34), 3-20 (31), 5-20 (29) and 4-10 (28).  The entire column of $50 boxes are the 5 least often picked for blocking, with 5-50 only being selected 3 times.

For level 6 (non-longshots), 350 squeaks out 200 as the most frequently picked, by a 42-38 count.  500 has been chosen 10 times.

The most common first move is 1-10 (24 times), followed by 1-20 and 1-40, tied at 20 times.  1-30 and 1-50 are almost tied for least often chosen at 12 and 11 times, respectively.  The boxes most commonly picked on the board is the $10 column by a wide margin, with the exception of Level 1, where 1-10 is the 3rd most commonly picked box (34 times), just behind 1-40 (35) and 1-20 (37).  For every level besides 1, the order of most often picked to least often is 10, 20, 40, 30, 50.

When it comes to the initial selection on Level 6, regardless if it was a longshot or not, 200 has been picked 36 times, t00 has been chosen 29 times, and 350 only 19 times.

1 round has been completed in the minimum 6 picks.  4 rounds have gone 10 picks thus far.

Longshot has been called 52 times out of 90, so almost 60% of the time.  In the 37 longshot situations where the values of both blocks were known due to finding a longshot block or finding a safe block, the $500 was the unblocked box 23 times (62% of the time).  Both $200 and $350 were the available box 7 times each.

Blocking or charging:  Who has the advantage?  Blockers win by exactly a 2:1 margin, 60 blocker wins, 30 charger wins.

Whew, that's a lot of stats.

What strategies can be created using this information?  Go $500 whenever you're on Level 6.  When charging, go up the 30s, 40s, and 50s minus the 3-30 I mentioned earlier.  When blocking, block 2-10, 3-10, and 4-10, as each has an over 50% chance of being chosen.  If given a choice in a third round, block.

[TheLastResort]

From what I've seen, the Gauntlet riddles themselves don't seem to be that much more difficult, but I did notice they were a little more current events-based.

And there's no unifying subject.

No doubt they are leftovers from the main game taken from different categories.