Deal Or No Deal

[KrisW73]

I'm just reading the comments, can someone explain what ADR means please?

[cmjb13]

The family on set is annoying as hell. At any moment, I expected them to start yelling "Good Answer!" "Good Answer!"

Well, it isn't like people weren't warned. It's like Millionaire, where chatting and knowing the contestant is equally, if not more, important than the game. Shut up and play the game.

If you're not going to have the banker audible on the "phone", Howie should be allowed to have a little bit of fun with it.

Howie does. It's just edited out.

The editing on Day Two was just that much worse, especially the ADR which was not only badly done, but badly done and overused.

It looks like he's really not saying anything at points where the ADR kicks in. But he's adding information that any dolt could figure out.

One thing that might be a bit more impressive, just for what it's worth - why just one banker?

$$$?

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'nbcburbank\' date=\'Dec 20 2005, 03:21 PM\']Yep, Obviously the Banker is there for visual appeal. Isn't that what Television is all about, VISUAL APPEAL? The Banker makes things seem more official. That is the whole point of him being there.

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A one-sided phone conversation with Howie saying "OK...I'll tell her" is not visually appealing. If the Banker makes things seem official, then he needs to "officially" make the offer, and not just have Howie standing there nodding like a trained seal. As it is, it looks silly and almost defeats the whole purpose.

[Neumms]

Two more cents' worth:

The banker doesn't bother me so much. It should give Howie a chance to milk the moment. The trouble is, he doesn't do enough with it.

And there ought to be enough visual interest--after all, we do see the banker, even if he is shaded. He's the flip side of Charlie on "Charlie's Angels"--you can see him, but the interest comes from never hearing him. He just needs to be more of a character. Maybe he should be less shaded.

Also, it's an exciting moment coming off the high of the suitcase reveal to hear the phone ring.

[Neumms]

And another thing. . . is the set TOO big? Everybody's jumping and running all over the place, be it Howie, the player or the player's family. (Except the models, of course, who frankly could stand to do a little more jumping.)

The player should be in a more confined space, more like the King of the Hill on "Jackpot." That way, their energy is contained and focused. In a way, they're on the witness stand. There would be a great release of tension when the game is over and they finally join their family.

[chris319]

ADR = Automatic Dialogue Replacement, or adding lines in post-production such as Howie saying "You have a bla-bla percent chance of winning bla-bla-bla".

[chris319]

[quote name=\'nbcburbank\' date=\'Dec 21 2005, 12:02 AM\'][quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 21 2005, 01:36 AM\']Is no one bothered by Howie saying (something along the lines of) "the contestant wins whatsever in the case"?

Whatsever?

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 Nope. I'm not particuarly bothered by it at all. Must just be you.

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Darn those college-level English courses I took.

[wheelloon]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Dec 20 2005, 02:41 PM\'][quote name=\'wheelloon\' date=\'Dec 20 2005, 10:24 AM\']The Banker telephone call to Howie was different, it helps build drama,
[/quote]
I just gotta say I'm finding it really amusing to see who's lining up on the side of the idiotic Banker Phone being a good idea.

(Everyone involved in the decision is either on PL or is wearing an IFB. There is zero reason for that phone, especially if we're not gonna hear some Banker/Actor make the offer in a sinister voice. Period.)[/quote]

I didn't say the banker phone was a particularly good idea, it was different. Sure it's pointless, but you can't say that part of the reason behind it being there isn't for some sort of drama boost. As other people said, it also gives Howie a chance to build up the moment. To some extent, it gets the job done.

Some of the editing did seem choppy, and the pacing seemed off at times, but reducing the number of cases to 22 or 24 could solve some of that,

You think it will be fixed by removing four cases when the first fourteen or so choices are pretty much irrelevant?

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That's why I inserted the word SOME in that sentence. No, it's not gonna solve all of the choppy editing problems, I was just agreeing with what some other people said about trying to fix it. If you can help it, don't put words in my mouth.

I think Howie did a better job hosting last night than on Monday. He seemed to have loosened up and had gotten more into the game. I also think contestant Amy will definitely cause a good amount of people to continue watching tonight with the $500k and million-dollar cases still in play. She seems to be the easily excitable type, and seeing what havoc they wreak is always fun to watch.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Dec 21 2005, 10:41 AM\']And there ought to be enough visual interest--after all, we do see the banker, even if he is shaded. He's the flip side of Charlie on "Charlie's Angels"--you can see him, but the interest comes from never hearing him.

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Wait. That's it! John Forsythe could be the voice of The Banker.

[nbcburbank]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 21 2005, 10:58 AM\']ADR = Automatic Dialogue Replacement, or adding lines in post-production such as Howie saying "You have a bla-bla percent chance of winning bla-bla-bla".

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  I don't think the average viewer notices, but YES they can be annoying. I noticed a bunch of them last night. Trump does the same thing on the Apprentice. Equally annoying.

[The Ol' Guy]

Okay, so I went a bit overboard. I'll settle for 4 banker figures and business-like behavior.
I brought that up for one reason - unless I'm really, really missing something, I'm not sensing a "connect" between the banker and the cases. Howie says, "WE have put various amounts of money in the cases...", which could be interpreted as it's all the producer's work, and the banker has nothing to do with anything in the cases. Now if this was the banker's money (or acting as the producer's proxy), I could see why he's pushing to save as much of it as he can. Or, is the banker a mysterious independent speculator, hoping to buy a high value case at a bargain price? I'm just feeling that there's no skin off his nose no matter what you choose, and he's just there to torment you. Can the banker "win"? He is "THE banker" - not our banker. Am I making any sense, or have the meds totally destroyed my mind? I'm still enjoying the show, but I'd like to know why the banker cares about anything. Otherwise, just put up a bunch of envelopes with cash amounts. Fill me in if I've missed something - otherwise ---
flame away.

EDIT: Okay - tonight (wed) I heard Howie say "our" banker. I'm happy!

[Steve McClellan]

[quote name=\'The Ol' Guy\' date=\'Dec 21 2005, 01:27 PM\']but I'd like to know why the banker cares about anything.[/quote]
Okay, from what's osmosized into my brain over the past few days:

Well, it depends on which banker you're talking about. The guy whose silhouette you're seeing? He cares that they're paying him to look the part.

If you're talking about the person actually coming up with the offers, that would be the producer. Presumably, what he cares about is making compelling television, and it seems that the best way to do that is to make offers (at least toward the end) that will leave the contestants with decisions that they're going to have to think twice about, given their tendencies.

In short, what does the banker care about? Just the success of the show.

[Jimmy Owen]

Maybe they could do a "Who is the Banker?" home game for thirteen weeks, with the winner correctly guessing Don Trump.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Dec 21 2005, 01:57 PM\']Maybe they could do a "Who is the Banker?" home game for thirteen weeks, with the winner correctly guessing Don Trump.

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Or a monkey. But we're being redundant.

/get the hell out of my office

[uncamark]

Boy, that took a long time to read.  

Marc Berman put "DOND" in the "Winner" column for both nights.  The show seems not to be hurting CBS any ("King of Queens" was also in the "Winner" column Monday night, "NCIS" had solid numbers for repeats last night), but is drawing from the other networks.  In my mind, Monday night so far was the toughest with first-run competition (the CBS sitcoms and "Wife Swap"), but "DOND" did OK.  Last night, first-run competition was just an episode of "Rodney" on ABC that "DOND" chewed up and spit out.  Tonight, it's the "Home For the Holidays" special that I don't really think CBS puts on as a ratings-winner that's the only first-run competition in the hour.  We shall see.

As for the show--I agree with a lot of the negative things that have been said in this thread.  However, I was caught up in the last two nights and do think that Howie's doing a great job.  Will I be as caught up by the end of the week or a few months--hell, a few years--down the line?  That I'm not sure about.  This is not one of those cases of instant love for a show, but I'll stay with it for the rest of the week.