Still Reaction Shots

[ChrisJ812]

Do you think TPIR shud bring back still reaction shots of them winning or losing their pricing games like they used to do in Bob's era?

[PayingTheRent]

Should they? I would certainly be in favor of this!

Will they? Almost certainly no. Not when those couple of seconds can be used elsewhere, and I would say damn near every episode these days has more than a few seconds shaved off in editing as it is.

[jhc2010]

Did they bring these shots back for any of the throwback episodes they have had over the years?

[ThomHuge]

Did they bring these shots back for any of the throwback episodes they have had over the years?

I can't remember these being used at all since Drew took over. Considering how much of the show's airtime is given over to commercials, I doubt they've been used in that time, and I also doubt we'll ever see these again.

/Then again, according to an article I saw on LinkedIn not that long ago, NBC is finally seeing reason and cutting back on commercial time during their primetime shows. It sounds like they're starting to realize one big reason they're losing out to streaming platforms is the latter is commercial-free.

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[Drew72]

I liked those still frame reaction shots... They really didn't seem to take any additional time, as I remember.  Instead of a 3 second audience pan shot leading into commercial, they showed a 3 second still instead, sometimes 2 back to back with different expressions.  The replay they did on Hole in One yesterday as they led into commercial felt like a throw-back to that era. (Yes, it was video and not a still shot, but it had that Bob era feel).  Didn't they mainly use the still shots in the late 80's into the 90's? I don't remember them in Bob's later years.

[ThomHuge]

I liked those still frame reaction shots... They really didn't seem to take any additional time, as I remember.

They always showed the stills after Bob did the toss to commercial before fading to black. Had it not been for the stills, they'd have simply faded to black. Therefore they did take additional time, even if it was just 2-3 seconds apiece.

[htmlcc92]

They did do one on the season 42 Valentine's Day episode, after Secret "X," as evidenced here (about 3:36): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMIezW1qCQU

[Sizeman]

When I attended the show which aired 2007-02-28, this topic was brought up during the Q&A with Bob as they weren't doing them anymore even at that point.
I documented the exchange at: http://www.golden-road.net/index.php/topic,2479.msg40067.html#msg40067

After that discussion, the still shot was revived for at least one subsequent episode (http://www.golden-road.net/index.php/topic,2501.msg40327.html#msg40327) but I don't think it lasted much beyond that.

[brosa0]

I don't like the still reaction shots at all. They frankly seem very antiquated and are better left in the past.

[ChrisJ812]

I loved them and they shud bring them back esp for crushing losses and great wins!

[dmaingame]

I miss those freeze-frame shots of contestants' reactions going into commercials.  Those were common when the late Paul Alter was directing TPIR in the late 80s and 90s.  I hope the new director will see the tradition Alter gave us and bring them back.

[urbanpreppie0004]

I don't like the still reaction shots at all. They frankly seem very antiquated and are better left in the past.

Agreed.

[Axl]

I don't like the still reaction shots at all. They frankly seem very antiquated and are better left in the past.

Especially the ones that are literal stills, with no movement at all.  Those were done at a time when the technical director had to freeze off those shots on the fly and put them up in real time at the end of the act.

But these days, they could do a Ken Burns-style moving montage of 2 or 3 stills, or slo-mo isolated reactions like they do sometimes going into sports breaks.  It's easy now in post-production.  Those would take up 5-8 seconds apiece, so time could be a factor.  But I'd prefer a well-done montage to a shot of a contestant holding up a novelty license plate.

[pannoni1]

I feel that these should be brought back for critical situations, like painful losses and huge wins, time permitting. It was a nice smooth transition between the show and commercial break.

Also, remember when Wheel used to have slow-motion replay shots when the contestant won the bonus round back in the early 2000s? Basically, the video would replay at around seven frames/second.

[jhc2010]

While watching Card Sharks with Bob Eubanks, I noticed that show also used still shots before throwing to commercial after players play the Money Cards. I wonder if the same any of the same staff worked on both shows since they were both taped at Studio 33.