Why Was "Joker" Retired?

[JonSea31]

I am wondering why the defunct pricing game Joker was retired in 2007-08?  I fully understand Poker Game being retired, possibly because there were nothing but 3-figure priced prizes and totalled barely more than $2,000, sometimes a bit less.  But I'd like to know why Joker got axed?

[ayoung]

because its a dull clone of shell game / bonus game

[holdme]

But wouldn't the creator of the game realize that it's a near clone of Bonus/Shell Game while creating it? If so, why release the game and then end up retiring it anyway? And why wait to retire a game for 13 years realizing it's a clone of another game?

Perhaps the dullness of the game led to its retirement, but I don't understand why it would take 13 years to decide to let it go.

[Ted]

because its a dull clone of shell game / bonus game

I highly disagree.  It's more similar to Shell Game than Bonus Game, in that the contestant got to choose which card to discard and it wasn't automatic (a la Bonus Game).  Also, the pricing concept of the small prizes was unique in Joker.

[ayoung]

I highly disagree.  It's more similar to Shell Game than Bonus Game, in that the contestant got to choose which card to discard and it wasn't automatic (a la Bonus Game).  Also, the pricing concept of the small prizes was unique in Joker.

I would like to see the small prize pricing of Joker come back in a different game.

[sjd93]

Wasn't Roger's official explanation something like, "It's lame"?

[whewfan]

Apparently the crew didn't like Joker, but Bob must've had some reason to keep it in the rotation. I know he liked Poker Game, and nobody else did. When Bob retired Roger took the opportunity to axe both games. It also meant 2 less games for Drew to learn.

One flaw with Joker is that it's still possible to lose the game with 4 discards and 5 cards.

[ayoung]

One flaw with Joker is that it's still possible to lose the game with 4 discards and 5 cards.

yes, they took out all the fun of shell game AND made it harder to win.

I dunno, maybe if Joker had a different game prop it might have helped it out.. it just seemed so dinky. I think a game like Side By Side could be a bit more entertaining if they just made the prop bigger.

[tornado772]

because its a dull clone of shell game / bonus game

I liked Joker. It should still be around today

[therealcu2010]

When Bob retired Roger took the opportunity to axe both games. It also meant 2 less games for Drew to learn.

IIRC, Drew did learn Joker, and there were plans to play it in season 36, but Roger scrapped it last minute and replaced its first playing with Bonus Game.

[wink87]

I liked Joker as well. It was sort of a different version of 5 price tags, in which you could get all of the small prizes correct and still lose.

[tpirfan28]

Joker would have been the second-to-last game that Drew would have played (Step Up was last, the next Tuesday).  Roger killed it off and replaced it with Bonus Game on that episode.

Tangently: did Drew learn Poker Game, too?

[someguy23475]

Joker was horrid and I was glad to see it axed. Poker Game however was a different story. They needed to find a way to increase the winnings though. Less than $4K is pretty cheap these days.

[Todd]

One flaw with Joker is that it's still possible to lose the game with 4 discards and 5 cards.

I really didn't see that as a flaw; rather I saw it as part of the fun of the game.

[TPIRZippy]

One flaw with Joker is that it's still possible to lose the game with 4 discards and 5 cards.

The odds are even worse with Secret X; pricing everything correctly only guarantees a 2 out of 3 chance of winning....yet Secret X lives on.

Joker wasn't my favorite game, but it did have the cool SP price reveals, and one of the best moments of TPIR was Robert (whose mother is always right) back in 2001 playing Joker.  I wish they'd kept it.

I wonder if they decided there were too many card-themed games.  Hit Me, Joker, and Poker game all went away around the same time.