When the 25th Anniversary Special aired, I was a little shy of 5 years old. My parents taped it, and I watched it over and over again until the VHS wore out. I had watched TPIR before that, but that was my introduction to the show's history. I had never seen Bob Barker with dark hair, I had no idea who Johnny Olson was, and I hadn't seen Yolanda or Pauline or Edie.
That hour of television meant about as much to me as anything that's ever hit the airwaves. Now I'm about to turn 30, and I'm very excited to watch this tonight. I think seeing the moments of the last 25 years intermixed with the 25 before that is really going to put my lifelong relationship with this show into perspective.
If I’m at CBS or Fremantle and having the conversations around putting this type of show together, I’m absolutely looking to get current celebs, with an emphasis on CBS talent. Devoting limited airtime, even in an expanded format, to previous era models isn’t where I’m putting my efforts.
I agree, but to a certain extent. I'll elaborate within my reply to
TPIRighteous. In terms of getting people from the past, as in past eras of TPIR, it really isn't necessary. On the other hand, having celebrities and stars from other CBS programming, and even stuff from ABC, NBC, FOX, ESPN, etc is unnecessary. At the very least, it's off topic from what tonight's special is all about. It should be about TPIR & its history. The show is about the fans, the real stars of the show. The celebrities can pimp whatever some other time.
As a fan of the show, I'm looking forward to stuff related to TPIR. How does a celebrity help promote TPIR? It really doesn't. Instead, time is lost in favor of someone from another show getting the chance to promote their own show on someone else's time. That being said, it's still a business, and not surprising at all. IMO, I don't see the connection, a meaningful connection between a CBS star and TPIR, other than the fact that it's the same network. Still, Fremantle would be a tad bit foolish to pass on getting their stars from other gameshows, and CBS would be a tad bit foolish to pass on getting their starts from other shows.
That 25th Anniversary Special was a special hour to me as well. While I have seen everything before that point prior to that point, it was still great to see all the stuff from the past. It was a nice celebration. I might not have ranked it with Season 15 or Season 20 and how those years were honored, but it was a time when YouTube wasn't the place to go for past content whenever you felt like it.
If I had to guess, there will not be any members of the past showing up. Unlike in 1996, there may be optimism toward seeing them in a clip or two, but that's about it. I'll be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong, but the fact is most of the casual, current audience would not know who the past stars are or were
