Hardest Show for Celebrity Panelists?

[Ian Wallis]

The topics about hardest and easiest shows to emcee got me thinking about the hardest and easiest shows to be a panelist on:

Many people have stated in the past that "Pyramid" was one of the hardest to do, but I think "To Tell the Truth" must have been hard for the panelists.  Whether the subject was something you knew about or not, you still had to come up with intelligent questions to fill your time and make a decision on who to vote for.  Gene Rayburn even talked about that once on one of the GSN interstituals when they first went on the air.

[Neumms]

I agree with TTTT. Rayburn and Tom Poston especially showed so much varied knowledge when asking their questions that it almost seemed unfair. The guessing part, well, that's just multiple choice.

Pyramid involves more pressure, with the time limit and the good chunk of dough you could lose for the contestant.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Oct 8 2004, 12:36 PM\']I agree with TTTT. Rayburn and Tom Poston especially showed so much varied knowledge when asking their questions that it almost seemed unfair. The guessing part, well, that's just multiple choice.

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Peggy Cass also showed some great smarts on that show, too. You could vote for anyone and justify it any way you wanted to, but you really had to ask the right questions.

[zachhoran]

Pyramid involves more pressure, with the time limit and the good chunk of dough you could lose for the contestant.

The Password incarnations from the 1975 ABC civilian format-on had some of the same pressure, especially on SP where one illegal clue makes the potential winnings only $900 instead of $5000 or more.

[The Ol' Guy]

These statements about TTTT lead me to a question I've long wondered - the panels for most of the other GT panel games, like What's My Line and I've Got A Secret, developed an incredible system of deductive questioning to narrow down what they need to know to solve their puzzle...which was focused on one contestant. I grew up amazed at the ability of the TTTT panelists to come up with a variety of questions on so many different subjects, hunting for the one of three challengers who has the highest percentage of right answers. I wondered if the panelists had been given any information, notes, suggested questions or whatever - not in a "rigged" sense - to help them in their search. For example, let's say the challengers were mountain climbers. Would there have been perhaps some ideas for suggested questions, like "How high up can you climb before you need an oxygen mask?"  - no answer supplied, no suggestion as to which challenger to ask - provided by anyone before the game? I know they were incredibly worldly and bright panelists - but did they benefit from any help to keep the game from dragging if they had little knowledge of the subject?

[MyCapableAssistant]

[quote name=\'The Ol' Guy\' date=\'Oct 8 2004, 08:53 PM\']These statements about TTTT lead me to a question I've long wondered - the panels for most of the other GT panel games, like What's My Line and I've Got A Secret, developed an incredible system of deductive questioning to narrow down what they need to know to solve their puzzle...which was focused on one contestant. . . [/quote] Yep...

I wondered if the panelists had been given any information, notes, suggested questions or whatever - not in a "rigged" sense - to help them in their search. 

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I've wondered a very similar thing when watching WML. When some of the
panelists start a line of questioning which ultimately leads to *their*  revealing the contestant's line, I've wondered if they may have had prior knowledge as to the "types" of lines that would be appearing - not so much
on that particular DAY, but down the road, or in general. Some of these questions start out awfully bizarre, you HAVE to wonder, I think.  

Obviously they "get" the majority of MGs using prior knowledge of who may be
in town which fit the description. I've often wondered what knowledge they
may have had when guessing "ordinary"   lines?

[The Ol' Guy]

I doubt it. On WML and IGAS, they got a starting hint, then they asked deductive questions and were so practiced they knew how to work quickly as a team. TTTT is as much a game of knowledge as it is deduction. Panelists ask the challengers mostly factual questions, hoping to weed out the knowers from the don't-knowers. If you don't know the answer to the question you're asking, you could fall for a bluff - so it's a game of who's trickier - the panelist or the challenger? The only reason panelists are stumped on WML and IGAS is because there are limits to the questioning. If there was no time limit or wrong answer limit, the panel would eventually guess every occupation/secret. There's a bigger burden on the TTTT panelist.

[Don Howard]

I'd include Celebrity Whew! because if the stars didn't have the knowledge, their contestant partner was screwed blue.

[chris319]

I've been told that on the 1990 version of TTTT, panelists read the affidavits in advance. Whether this was true for all versions I don't know. I agree that the panelists were AWFULLY good at thinking up a non-stop barrage of questions on such a wide variety of subjects.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'The Ol' Guy\' date=\'Oct 9 2004, 02:55 AM\']I doubt it. On WML and IGAS, they got a starting hint, then they asked deductive questions and were so practiced they knew how to work quickly as a team. TTTT is as much a game of knowledge as it is deduction. Panelists ask the challengers mostly factual questions, hoping to weed out the knowers from the don't-knowers. If you don't know the answer to the question you're asking, you could fall for a bluff - so it's a game of who's trickier - the panelist or the challenger? The only reason panelists are stumped on WML and IGAS is because there are limits to the questioning. If there was no time limit or wrong answer limit, the panel would eventually guess every occupation/secret. There's a bigger burden on the TTTT panelist.

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It's possible, too, that Gil Fates had his choice of starting panelist depending on what sort of person was sitting next to John Daly. The other night, there was a lady garbage truck driver, and the questioning started with Hal Block, who got a few laughs, then Dorothy, then Bennett, who each got some inadvertent laughs, and then Arlene, who nailed down the guest's line at the $15 mark. Remember, too, that Gil and the panelists sometimes participated in the "gambit" scheme where Gil would suggest some lines of questioning to pursue in order to get laughs from a Hal Block or Steve Allen or Fred Allen type.

[ChuckNet]

I'd include Celebrity Whew! because if the stars didn't have the knowledge, their contestant partner was screwed blue.

Someone who appeared as a contestant during the celeb era posted to ATGS a few yrs back that he was a victim of just that...in his first game, celeb partner Elaine Joyce followed his planned strategy, they won the game, and almost successfully ran the Gauntlet (he won $900). In the next game, new partner John Saxon refused to follow his strategy, and you know how that turned out...

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' date=\'Oct 8 2004, 03:26 PM\'][quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Oct 8 2004, 12:36 PM\']I agree with TTTT. Rayburn and Tom Poston especially showed so much varied knowledge when asking their questions that it almost seemed unfair. The guessing part, well, that's just multiple choice.

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Peggy Cass also showed some great smarts on that show, too. You could vote for anyone and justify it any way you wanted to, but you really had to ask the right questions.

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When Peggy was a Mystery Guest on the Blyden "WML?", Larry didn't ask her to stay through the break, as he often did on MGs he knew.  The reason he probably didn't was because when they came back (and it turned out that they still had 30 seconds left), Larry said something like, "You know, that Peggy Cass is one smart lady.  You can have a conversation with her on almost anything, from show business to archaeology to politics to sports and she'll tell you things you never really knew.  She's just one bright lady.  (Cut to panel nodding in agreement.)  Have fun and see you tomorrow..."

Obviously, Larry didn't want to embarrass Peggy, so he complimented her when she wasn't on stage to get red-faced--I don't really remember what she did when (and if, although I supposed she did) came out for the mill-around over the credits.