Author Topic: Greed  (Read 6406 times)

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Offline ooboh

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Greed
« on: November 04, 2019, 12:13:42 PM »
Greed, one of the many Millionaire copycats that aired around the turn of the century, premiered on FOX. It was hosted by game show legend Chuck Woolery and labeled itself "The Richest, Most Dangerous Game In America". In its short time on the air, it produced many memorable moments, such as Curtis Warren winning $1.41 million and (for a brief period) becoming the biggest winner in the history of game shows. There was also Dan Avila, who to this day, is known for getting the most valuable question ($2.2 million) ever seen on a game show wrong.

What were your thoughts on this short-lived, underrated gem?
« Last Edit: November 05, 2019, 06:45:44 AM by therealcu2010 »

Offline ThomHuge

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2019, 08:54:38 PM »
ENOUGH with the clickbait thread titles already.  :roll:

Offline geniusinmath

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2019, 08:57:57 PM »
Greed was how you say very interesting. I try to play along with this show anytime it was on.

Offline bigblue999

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2019, 08:58:40 PM »
Getting back on topic, I always considered Greed the best non-WWTBAM show of the million-dollar craze. It's also pretty much the only good game show FOX has put on. It should've last longer than 44 episodes.
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Offline jude_este

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #4 on: November 04, 2019, 10:15:31 PM »
Greed is up there in the top three in my list of the million-dollar shows that were on during the craze following the success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in the late 90s/early 2000s. And could have gone on for at another year or two had it not been based on that rumor the Fox network president not liking game shows.

Offline pricefan18

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #5 on: November 04, 2019, 10:21:57 PM »
Greed is up there in the top three in my list of the million-dollar shows that were on during the craze following the success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in the late 90s/early 2000s. And could have gone on for at another year or two had it not been based on that rumor the Fox network president not liking game shows.

What's the 3rd on that list? Or 2nd and 3rd if Millionaire isn't there.

Offline jude_este

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #6 on: November 04, 2019, 10:40:21 PM »
What's the 3rd on that list? Or 2nd and 3rd if Millionaire isn't there.

This is getting off-topic, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is second and The Weakest Link is the third pricefan18. And to steer this back on topic, would Greed have lasted another year or even two had circumstances been different, or would it have been one season and done?

Offline ooboh

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2019, 02:16:01 AM »
This is getting off-topic, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is second and The Weakest Link is the third pricefan18. And to steer this back on topic, would Greed have lasted another year or even two had circumstances been different, or would it have been one season and done?

Apparently, Greed was renewed for a second season but FOX executives pulled the cord abruptly.

Offline blozier2006

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #8 on: November 05, 2019, 02:54:43 AM »
Apparently, Greed was renewed for a second season but FOX executives pulled the cord abruptly.
If memory serves, when "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" tanked, Greed got pulled alongside it.

Offline tpir04

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Re: On this day 20 years ago…
« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2019, 08:33:06 AM »
If memory serves, when "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" tanked, Greed got pulled alongside it.

Why they did that I have no idea. Only thing I can think of is that they figured Greed would have the same fate. But why not wait until the ratings went south, instead of cancelling in advance?
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Offline COINBOYNYC

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Re: Greed
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2019, 01:02:24 AM »
My favorite moment on that show, and I think one of my all-time favorite game show moments, was on the 3/3/00 episode where the team got the first question wrong.  I don't know how many times that happened in the history of the show, but what makes this particular one special is that a) the question was about Chuck Woolery, and b) the contestant said he'd been following Chuck's career so he was confident in his answer.

Greed - 3/3/00 (Chuck Woolery question)
Fun fact: Evelyn Wong, the 5th person to be called on the first show (9/4/72), was actually the very first contestant to directly be called to come on down!  The original first four (Sandy Flornor, Paul Levine, Connie Donnel, Myra Carter) were individually told to stand up, and then, as a group, were invited to come on down.

Offline tpir04

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Re: Greed
« Reply #11 on: November 10, 2019, 03:58:58 PM »
Got around to watching the pilot episode, and I must say, I'm impressed. The whole "kill or be killed" idea is phenomenal and it never gets boring. Chuck was a great choice, as he knows exactly when to joke around and when to be dead serious. I'm especially fond of the Terminator, as the chance for a player to directly challenge the leader layers on a whole new level of excitement.

In sum, great show. If it's revived well, I'd gladly watch.
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Live for the present.  Embrace the future.  Our favorite game show is still producing excellent, high quality, exciting, hour-long* shows every weekday throughout its traditional season window.  It’s as good as it’s been in a long, long time.  If the 1980s were the ‘good ole days’ for the Barker era, so is RIGHT NOW for the Carey era.  Don’t worry about what the future holds.  It will play out in due time.  Enjoy what we have right in front of us in the meantime!

Offline blozier2006

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Re: Greed
« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2019, 09:38:41 PM »
Got around to watching the pilot episode
Where was this?

Offline tpir04

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Re: Greed
« Reply #13 on: November 10, 2019, 10:02:08 PM »
Not the pilot episode, the premiere. Sorry for the mix up.
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Offline gamesurf

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Re: Greed
« Reply #14 on: November 11, 2019, 01:49:24 AM »
Greed was, for lack of a better word, good. Not outstanding, and it did have flaws, but with enough good qualities to be worth watching. It probably would have worn thin after too long, but I would have liked to see it get more of a chance to try to evolve.

Chuck was great. The Terminator was cutthroat (Bob Boden later pointed to it as the start of “meanness” in primetime games), but it was dang cool. They handled the spectacle of it without becoming a parody, the big cash prize felt earned, and it was suspenseful enough without being too slow or resorting to overly cheap tricks.

I wish they'd let players confer a bit more. The Captain having to make blind decisions without knowing the expertises of their players never sat well with me.

Millionaire is great cause you have a constant window into the contestant's thought process. On Greed contestants were not allowed to say what they knew and did not know, they were only allowed to say something like "I'm very confident it's Michael Douglas" on their turn, and then play passed to the next player. Why not let them say "I am 99% Michael Douglas won Best Actor for Wall Street"? When Chuck asks the captain "The next category is 'History', will you play for $500,000 or will you stop?", the audience all shouts for them to either go or stop, but the contestants can only stand there awkwardly in their split-screen trying not to react too strongly. What's the point of showing them on-camera if they're not allowed to react to it? It'd be much more interesting to show them trying to persuade the captain to go or bail.

Also, wasn’t a fan of the survey-based questions they relied on towards the end. Questions like "According to this one study, which four are the mostest..." aren't really fair questions in a game where you need to have all players "know" the answer or go home with nothing. No amount of knowledge can help in that situation; nobody can possibly "know" that for sure.
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