Author Topic: $ale of The Century (Read 6823 times)

golden-road · « **on:** January 24, 2005, 04:36:27 AM »

Hoping that this board doesn't invoke a "3 Strikes" rule...

Producer: Grundy International, a division of FremantleMedia North America.

Set: The 1983 - 1989 set, replacing the Fame Game board with monitors.

Host: Tom Bergeron

Announcer: Burton Richardson

Rules: Same as the 80's version. Players start out with $50, questions go +$5/-$5. Fame Game comes in after seven questions, that starts with a $10, then $20, then $30 moneycard, amongst other prizes. Two Instant Bargains, one Instant Cash, which starts at $2500 and increases by that until won. Speed Round is a minute long, with questions worth $10 a pop. Losers get another 0 put on their totals, in addition to all FG & IB/IC prizes.

Winner's Board: I just didn't like the idea of no actual bonus prizes won, reguardless of the Shopping Round's relevancy to the format. Twenty numbers, two WIN cards, cash prizes of $10K & $20K, a $25,000+ car, $10K trip, etc.

The catch is that if both WIN cards are matched up on either the first trip or any other trip the player makes, that results in an automatic clearing off of all prizes. At that point, of if tha player does it the hard way (go 10 games), they can take the goods and run or play one more game, risking over $95,000 cash and prizes in order to add $100,000 to their total. If a player loses before clearing the board, the keep all WB prizes.

BTW, OT, who distributed TTD90, and was their logo in-credit, or after the credits?

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 24, 2005, 05:05:21 AM »

[quote name=\'golden-road\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 04:36 AM\'] Losers get another 0 put on their totals, in addition to all FG & IB/IC prizes. [/quote]
So if a "loser" has a score of $130 by the end of the show; you're giving them $1300 in consolation money?

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The catch is that if both WIN cards are matched up on either the first trip or any other trip the player makes, that results in an automatic clearing off of all prizes.

Considering that you have equal chances of plucking 2 win cards off the board; as you do 2 "furniture set" cards...I don't see why one should be rewarded more than the other.

Basically, I see no improvements from the previous version...and no real reason to watch.

clemon79 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 24, 2005, 06:10:02 AM »

In addition to Mark's valid points, I have a couple to add:

1) When is this forum going to realize that BURTON RICHARDSON JUST SUCKS? He's awful. He pukes like a bulimic at an Old Country Buffet. Everyone likes to remember him fondly 'cuz he made his chops on Arsenio's Hall's wooffest when it was hot. Great. Yeah. He can hold an "O". Good for him. He's a crappy announcer, folks.

2) Your scoring system seems totally made up on the fly. Again. You more than double the starting stake (which means not a single thing ultimately, except to the losers), but questions are valued the same, you effectively leave the Fame Game bonus cards the same (but By Gawd, they're on MONITORS! OH JOY!), you have ONE SINGLE Instant Bargain that is ACTUALLY an Instant Bargain, the very basis on which the game is formed , and THEN you double things up for the Speed Round. Completely random.

3) So a player who loses their 10th game takes home over $85K in prizes, but a player who loses the 11th game wins....a lovely pendant. It's a good thing I'm in bed right now, away from all opportunities to beat my head against something hard.

And then you follow the whole thing up with a totally asinine non-sequitur of a question.

(Props to Tom Bergeron as host, though, a name that hasn't come up much in this discussion. God knows he can read, he would huckster the Instant Bargain(s) beautifully, and he skews young.)

A $otC revival CAN be done well. This is far too great of a show to be given short shrift like this.

The lesson, readers: your proposal will be taken seriously if there is evidence you actually thought it out. If it looks like you made it up while you were typing, it will be given all of the respect that you obviously gave it.

tyshaun1 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 24, 2005, 10:42:59 AM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 06:10 AM\']In addition to Mark's valid points, I have a couple to add:

1) When is this forum going to realize that BURTON RICHARDSON JUST SUCKS? He's awful. He pukes like a bulimic at an Old Country Buffet. Everyone likes to remember him fondly 'cuz he made his chops on Arsenio's Hall's wooffest when it was hot. Great. Yeah. He can hold an "O". Good for him. He's a crappy announcer, folks.

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I agree totally. Remember, he's the one that tells the audience to go "WOOOOOOOO!" after Karn says "20,000 dollars!" "I'm gonna double the points!", etc. But then again, all of Fremantle's shows have that fake hyping. But Richardson has always sounded like an actor portraying an announcer.

Tyshaun

TLEberle · « **Reply #4 on:** January 24, 2005, 01:30:29 PM »

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and presume that you actually put some thought into this, rather than employing some monkeys to annoy a word processor. That said, I have some questions:

For EVERY SINGLE CHANGE YOU MADE, WHY? Why raise the starting amount to $50? Why put the FG things on monitors? WHY in the blue hell would you give EVERY SINGLE prize on the stage to someone who got lucky? It boggles the mind. Don't change things just because you can, there needs to be a reason for it.

(I think Chris L. misunderstood, it should be two Bargains and one Cash, but that doesn't help him out very much.)

My head hurts. That means I'm done.

BrandonFG · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2005, 02:10:09 PM »

Too much changes. The 80s version worked just fine, with the shopping.

Why is it, when folks post "improvement" ideas, they end up sounding completely flawed. This is just as bad as the person who suggested that Pyramid would work by giving money for each point. And matching both WIN cards to win every single prize sounds gimmicky IMO. The shopping format makes for great suspense.

And as for TTD90, it was distributed by ITC, and yes the logo was in-credit.

Don Howard · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2005, 02:18:17 PM »

To me, the Winner's Board knocked out the big temptation aspect of the game. In my opinion, you should be risking what you won on that board every time you came back. You get lucky and match the WIN card with $10K on your first win. Do you risk it in the hope of winning tomorrow when maybe you'll get a car to go with it? Or perhaps a lovely fur?

BrandonFG · « **Reply #7 on:** January 24, 2005, 02:25:27 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 02:18 PM\']To me, the Winner's Board knocked out the big temptation aspect of the game. In my opinion, you should be risking what you won on that board every time you came back. You get lucky and match the WIN card with $10K on your first win. Do you risk it in the hope of winning tomorrow when maybe you'll get a car to go with it? Or perhaps a lovely fur?

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And to me, it helped emphasize the title of the show. Let's see, you get to buy a $40,000 car for $250. Or I could sit and try to match two cards instead. Which sounds more like a SAAALLLLLLLEEEE!.....OF THE...CENTURYYYYYYYY!!!!?

I'm all of a sudden reminded of that beer commercial.

(raises hand high in the air) Kinda like the shopping bonus round, and

(lowers hand toward the ground) playing the Winner'sBigMoneyClassicConcentration Board.

golden-road · « **Reply #8 on:** January 24, 2005, 02:37:22 PM »

You guys are right.

REVISIONS:
Player start with $20, questions go +$5/+$5. Fame Game is played on the same type of board as the 80's version, but the host turns the panels. Two IB's, one IC's (still $2500 + $2500 a day until won), Speed Round is +$10/-$10. Winner's Board remains, with two prizes won if both WIN's are matched. The player can take the prize(s) and go home, or keep playing. If a player loses, all prizes are forfeited, except for the front game winnnings. If a player can clear the board and win one more game, they keep all prizes ($95K+) plus $100,000 cash. The losers take home a flat $200, whatever IB's & IC prizes have been earned, and lovely parting gifts.

clemon79 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 24, 2005, 04:28:25 PM »

[quote name=\'golden-road\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 12:37 PM\']You guys are right.

REVISIONS:
Player start with $20, questions go +$5/+$5. Fame Game is played on the same type of board as the 80's version, but the host turns the panels. Two IB's, one IC's (still $2500 + $2500 a day until won), Speed Round is +$10/-$10. Winner's Board remains, with two prizes won if both WIN's are matched. The player can take the prize(s) and go home, or keep playing. If a player loses, all prizes are forfeited, except for the front game winnnings. If a player can clear the board and win one more game, they keep all prizes ($95K+) plus $100,000 cash. The losers take home a flat $200, whatever IB's & IC prizes have been earned, and lovely parting gifts.

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1) Random fixes are STILL RANDOM.

2) IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THE FAME GAME IS PLAYED WITH PULL-CARDS. The producers and prop departments worry about logistics.

3) So you now have....an exact duplicate of the original front game, save for a speed round that is doubled up, and an inflation-related tweak to the prize budget. As a network executive, I say to you "I canned this fifteen years ago." All you can do is sit there and dribble.

4) The double win-card thing, like much of this, screams "cheap poorly-thought-out hack" to me. If I were gonna do it, it would be like this: On a champion's first day only, there are two Win cards. Hitting them consecutively on Day One wins the Cash Jackpot. On successive days, only one Win card is on the board, so this is a one-time deal.

5) The problem wirth "risk it all or go on" and the Winner's Board is that the second a player hits something nice - the cash or the car - then nothing but nothing is gonna make 'em risk it. It's not compelling, and the odds of someone actually playing for the Lot are astronomical. And you want people to do that, and often, because it's good TV.

Just stop now. I'm begging you. Jay Stewart is still powering a turbine in his grave over the Burton thing. Please do not befoul the memory of this great game any further.

MCArroyo1 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 24, 2005, 05:28:43 PM »

[quote name=\'golden-road\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 02:37 PM\']You guys are right.

REVISIONS:
Player start with $20, questions go +$5/+$5. Fame Game is played on the same type of board as the 80's version, but the host turns the panels. Two IB's, one IC's (still $2500 + $2500 a day until won), Speed Round is +$10/-$10. Winner's Board remains, with two prizes won if both WIN's are matched. The player can take the prize(s) and go home, or keep playing. If a player loses, all prizes are forfeited, except for the front game winnnings. If a player can clear the board and win one more game, they keep all prizes ($95K+) plus $100,000 cash. The losers take home a flat $200, whatever IB's & IC prizes have been earned, and lovely parting gifts.

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It's still not better in any way than the 80s version was. If anybody's gonna propose changes to a tried-and-true format, he/she oughta make relatively large revisions or just forget it.

DrJWJustice · « **Reply #11 on:** January 24, 2005, 10:38:04 PM »

[quote name=\'MCArroyo1\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 05:28 PM\']It's still not better in any way than the 80s version was. If anybody's gonna propose changes to a tried-and-true format, he/she oughta make relatively large revisions or just forget it.

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Golden Road gets a Scarecrow Award for his so-called 'revision', and Arroyo, if you make large revisions to the show, it's simply not the same show, and that brings into question whether it's even a 'revival'. About the only show that ever did that and got away with it was TPiR, viz. the changes between Cullen's original and the version that Bob Barker has hosted for coming upon 35 years pretty soon.

Don Howard · « **Reply #12 on:** January 24, 2005, 11:45:52 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 24 2005, 04:28 PM\']5) The problem wirth "risk it all or go on" and the Winner's Board is that the second a player hits something nice - the cash or the car - then nothing but nothing is gonna make 'em risk it. It's not compelling, and the odds of someone actually playing for the Lot are astronomical.

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Even if the lot includes an escalating bonus starting at leventy billion dollars?

TonicBH · « **Reply #13 on:** January 25, 2005, 11:31:25 AM »

My concept of a revival of Sale of the Century is to keep basically everything from the 80's version the same. 2 Instant bargains, 1 Instant Ca$h ($1,000 to start, add $1,000 each time it isn't won). $20 to start, $5 for every question, speed round or none.

But if the winning contestant isn't going shopping, you might as well forget it. Albeit the two Sale eps I have come from the final year with the crappy WBMG, I think Shopping is an aspect of Sale that should never be removed.

I agree on the Burton Richardson comment, though. If only Don Morrow was still doing work, because I thought his announcing on Sale wasn't bad.

Don Howard · « **Reply #14 on:** January 25, 2005, 12:03:50 PM »

[quote name=\'TonicBH\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 11:31 AM\']If only Don Morrow was still doing work, because I thought his announcing on Sale wasn't bad.

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His announcing rules! And his pipes are still being put to work.