Author Topic: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?  (Read 19091 times)

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Offline imhomerjay

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #45 on: May 24, 2020, 01:25:16 PM »
Whatever one might like or dislike about Snoop Dogg, his take on Joker was actually pretty darned faithful in the framework to the original when modernized for the 21st century. Now I say this as a regular viewer of that entire contingent of Barry & Enright shows (even, god help me, Play The Pecentages)—by today’s standards, they’re boring and easy as all he....ck. They’d require substantial updates to be viable for something like “Summer Fun and Games.”

All that aside though, what deserves a revival, or introduction, is what the network feels can work best. Millionaire had far more name recognition and familiarity than...Body Language. I mean, really...a fun show, but let’s at least be honest. This is a business after all. It’s a decent option for ABC and earned a slot in the new season based on that performance.

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #46 on: May 24, 2020, 02:58:45 PM »
Whatever one might like or dislike about Snoop Dogg, his take on Joker was actually pretty darned faithful in the framework to the original when modernized for the 21st century.

I will say it’s far more faithful and has much more respect for the original format than I ever would expect from a show with a $420 space on the slots and a category where Snoop gets questions from a talking bong.

But yeah, most old Barry-Enright formats seem very “vanilla” for today’s audiences... I have a hard time imagining them being brought back without some extra gimmick or creative reimagining.
Quote from: Bill Todman
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Offline supersaver87

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #47 on: May 24, 2020, 06:35:54 PM »
But yeah, most old Barry-Enright formats seem very “vanilla” for today’s audiences... I have a hard time imagining them being brought back without some extra gimmick or creative reimagining.

It's possible they could do without; Funny You Should Ask and Common Knowledge are as barebones as you could possibly get, and yet both are going gangbusters.

Offline Roadgeek Adam

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #48 on: May 24, 2020, 07:13:33 PM »
I will say it’s far more faithful and has much more respect for the original format than I ever would expect from a show with a $420 space on the slots and a category where Snoop gets questions from a talking bong.

But yeah, most old Barry-Enright formats seem very “vanilla” for today’s audiences... I have a hard time imagining them being brought back without some extra gimmick or creative reimagining.

Well given the bonus rounds for Bullseye, The Joker's Wild & Tic Tac Dough were all hit X or Z before hitting Y, I can understand why.

The other problem is that the shows are what you see is what you get. There's not much you can do to amplify TTD or Bullseye.
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Offline blozier2006

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #49 on: May 24, 2020, 10:45:52 PM »
There's not much you can do to amplify TTD
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Offline imhomerjay

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #50 on: May 24, 2020, 11:03:44 PM »
The red-box categories send their regards.
They didn’t really help. Joker eventually had a gimmick category in every game as well.

They were all the same game, with minor mechanical changes (not counting the short lived couples format on Percentages). It would be like one show where you spin a wheel to determine the value of a letter in a word puzzle and one where you pull a lever to determine the value of a letter in a word puzzle. Radically different, right?

Only Hot Potato went in a different direction, and its bonus game was still a kissing cousin to all the other bonus games.


Offline Roadgeek Adam

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #51 on: May 24, 2020, 11:13:26 PM »
My point is look at modern primetime game shows. Do TTD or Bullseye really work? The Joker's Wild is a strong format (outside of the X or Z before Y) that worked with the Snoop Dogg version.

Jack Barry and Dan Enright just didn't come up with enough originalism in their formats that translates in 2020.

It's no surprise shows like Supermarket Sweep are ahead of them.
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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #52 on: May 24, 2020, 11:24:45 PM »
The red-box categories send their regards.

I mean, it's something, but it's not exactly in competition for Millionaire's network primetime slot

I'd love to be proven wrong and have Tic Tac Dough 2021 Starring Hugh Jackman become the latest breakout hit, but I don't think it's got enough there to keep people coming back aside from the people who were already fans in the first place.

Millionaire stood on the ashes of a 45-year-old format, yes, but it was retooled from the ground up for modern audiences. If they had tried making The $640,000 Question in 1999 with an isolation booth and "pick your own category" multi-part questions and "let's watch him think for 30 seconds with no host interaction", it would have sucked.
Quote from: Bill Todman
"The sign of a good game, is when you don't have to explain it every day. The key is not simplicity, but apparent simplicity. Password looks like any idiot could have made it up, but we have 14 of our people working on that show. There is a great complexity behind the screen. It requires great work to keep it simple."

Offline Roadgeek Adam

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #53 on: May 24, 2020, 11:34:04 PM »
I mean, it's something, but it's not exactly in competition for Millionaire's network primetime slot

I'd love to be proven wrong and have Tic Tac Dough 2021 Starring Hugh Jackman become the latest breakout hit, but I don't think it's got enough there to keep people coming back aside from the people who were already fans in the first place.

Millionaire stood on the ashes of a 45-year-old format, yes, but it was retooled from the ground up for modern audiences. If they had tried making The $640,000 Question in 1999 with an isolation booth and "pick your own category" multi-part questions and "let's watch him think for 30 seconds with no host interaction", it would have sucked.

US Millionaire benefited from the UK being the first one to do it. Brits are incredibly strong at making quiz show formats. It was ready-tested to go and became a big hit. Also, back then, the allure of big money meant business. Then syndication happened.

The problem with the Barry-Enright shows is that they just didn't age well. I get the love for Tic Tac Dough (I personally put it with Tattletales in shows I find boring as hell) and The Joker's Wild. But only when you have 1 show with a strong format, the others suffer. Look at the Family Channel interactive games. The Trivial Pursuit one was great. The rest were a boggle jumble and shuffle of hot garbage.
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Offline pricefan18

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #54 on: May 24, 2020, 11:50:29 PM »
I mean, it's something, but it's not exactly in competition for Millionaire's network primetime slot

I'd love to be proven wrong and have Tic Tac Dough 2021 Starring Hugh Jackman become the latest breakout hit, but I don't think it's got enough there to keep people coming back aside from the people who were already fans in the first place.

What if you added a buzz-in element to the game? Make each one a toss-up....or allow the other player to try and answer any questions their opponent got wrong to capture a window themselves. Maybe that'd help?

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #55 on: May 25, 2020, 12:32:30 AM »
Most of the new "Fun & Games" shows each have a draw that makes it fun to watch, even if you put aside the "game" elements.

  • Match Game has modern celebrities and jokes.
  • To Tell the Truth is basically a comedy show.
  • Press Your Luck has the Whammies and the big honking board that makes it practically a video game.
  • Pyramid builds tension masterfully.
  • Even Joker's Wild, since it was mentioned, has Snoop joking around in those silly skits, and the whole show is rebuilt around his image.

Tic Tac Dough has, what, a big computerized tic-tac-toe board? It was novel 30 years ago, but it still just boils down to trivia and tic-tac-toe, and I can get my fill of both of those from my smartphone.

I can't think of what you could do to give it that "wow" factor the other shows have.  It doesn't lend itself well to jokes, there's not that much tension in a game of tic-tac-toe, and a big computerized board may have impressed people in the 80s but that only goes so far in 2020. You'd have to completely take the framework apart and rebuild it into something that may not even resemble the original show.

(I mean, it's not impossible. There's some old ancient Bob Stewart show about guessing prices that got rebuilt from the ground up in the 70's, and I hear it did very well...)
Quote from: Bill Todman
"The sign of a good game, is when you don't have to explain it every day. The key is not simplicity, but apparent simplicity. Password looks like any idiot could have made it up, but we have 14 of our people working on that show. There is a great complexity behind the screen. It requires great work to keep it simple."

Offline GameShowsRule95

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #56 on: May 25, 2020, 06:18:23 AM »
Well surprised to see my post created a lot of responses and turned this thread into a discussion about what game shows translate well into modern day. Let me make some points of mine clear.

1. I'm not saying you have to not like Millionaire being back in prime time. If you like it, go and enjoy it. I'd take a revival of it over another stupid reality show or a revival of that game show that requires no luck known as Deal or No Deal.

2. I think Hollywood Squares could work in primetime because it has a lot of the same elements as Match Game (celebrities, jokes, etc.), and since Tom Bergeron and Whoopi Goldberg are both doing shows for ABC it wouldn't be so hard to maybe bring them back as host and center square respectively.

3. Are you all saying The Joker's Wild needed to be turned into "The Dogg's Wild" to succeed today? I think that format could work today with a very Vegas like set. Would't that maybe attract more people to watch it? Espicially those who aren't fans of Snoop Dogg and can't take his ego. Also, if you like that reboot, like it, I just don't care to watch it.

4. I'm not saying these shows have to be revived in just network primetime format. They could be revived in syndication daytime and primetime, or if the networks get desperate maybe even network daytime.

Offline pricefan18

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #57 on: May 25, 2020, 07:06:05 AM »
2. I think Hollywood Squares could work in primetime because it has a lot of the same elements as Match Game (celebrities, jokes, etc.), and since Tom Bergeron and Whoopi Goldberg are both doing shows for ABC it wouldn't be so hard to maybe bring them back as host and center square respectively.

You suddenly have me thinking of the MG-HS hour being revived with this....and I mean given Buzzr just began reairing it last year....it'd be an interesting time to try it. Not sure they'd want to though....but at the least pairing them together back to back in an hour block I could maybe see working.

Offline Roadgeek Adam

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #58 on: May 25, 2020, 10:52:17 AM »
Any attempt at putting a MGHSH return should be sent immediately to the graveyard. The show was hot garbage because Mark Goodson goofed up the Hollywood Squares format. The concept of back to back in a block is fine, but as separate shows.

However, ABC needs to be careful, they already own a glut in the market, thankfully they spread the shows out so they can appear year-round, but you don't want too many shows on one network. CBS or NBC or FOX would likely have to swipe Hollywood Squares, which is a low priority because Nashville and Hip Hop Squares already exist.

As to the crack on Deal or No Deal, the concept of the blind luck does have gaming structure attached to it, such as Press Your Luck does. I sense you would've been a bigger fan of the short-lived Show Me the Money, which had a quiz game element to it but was a much worse show.

On the Joker's Wild, yes, the gussying up of the show was needed because Jack Barry and Bill Cullen ran it as a cerebral affair. Same for Pat Finn's, though his format was much more contrived and busy. The modern audience isn't looking for just the game only. 
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Offline pricefan18

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Re: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
« Reply #59 on: May 25, 2020, 11:49:43 AM »
Any attempt at putting a MGHSH return should be sent immediately to the graveyard. The show was hot garbage because Mark Goodson goofed up the Hollywood Squares format. The concept of back to back in a block is fine, but as separate shows.

Yeah, at the least if they were to somehow want to try it, they'd have to have Hollywood Squares revert to what it was before and after the original MGHSH, aka go back to allowing bluffs and a minimum at best of multiple choice questions. I'd have to imagine anyone wanting to revive it would be smart enough to know that though, especially if you were gonna have Bergeron host it again. I'd be stunned if anyone thought the old format would be a good idea to try a second time.