GSM: Card Sharks

Gotta go with Temptation, they seemed to think that Eubanks didn't even exist! How nice of them to have some of the clips be from his version, but no mention or clip of him whatsoever!

Other than that, and the weird car bonus round, it was very good. 7 of 10 in my book (would go higher if they wouldn't have dissed Eubanks)

Maybe, just maybe, there is some legal reason they didn't have Eubanks in the clips? Maybe him and CBS are on bad terms from back in the day?

[CANUKTPiRFan]

i really liked this episode but i was wondering about the money cards (in the game after you get a buzz dont they move the card up to the next level and continue from that point).

MATCH GAME ROCKS BUT NOT AS MUCH AS TPiR.

[LiteBulb88]

I belive the only time the card gets moved up to the next level after a wrong answer is if it's on the first level and the player goes bust.  Then the card gets moved up to give the player the amount of money they would get at the start of that row ($400 in the Eubanks version, $1000 last night).

[Superballer]

I liked it a lot.  Some of the questions they asked seemed a little risque for the audience the show would expect to generate (and are waiters really going to tell a person with a camera if they've really...well, you know), and I would agree they made the car part a little too soft (I would have liked it a little more closer to the actual Eubanks car version), but other than that they nailed it right on.  The set was quite good (although if they'd raised the Card Sharks sign any higher they would have put it through the roof) and I liked the card designs.  Another great show.

[shellgame69]

If they were to do a car game, then they should have used the question graph on Eubanks during the last 8 months.  

And Litebulb, the only time the big bet is not used is when a player bankrupts on the second line at any time.

[Nick]

The second-most anticipiated episode of mine, and I've got to say they did fairly well with this one.  The set didn't quite measure up to Press Your Luck, but at least they used Perry's version and not the Eubanks version.

Speaking of the Eubanks version, I'm still very puzzled as to why they made no mention of it despite including clips from it (and they didn't even mention the Rafferty version while they were at it).  You would think they would since it was the CBS version.  Glad they left out the pitiful 2001 revival, or with it's blink-and-you-missed-it history, maybe they forgot about it.

The opening of the game was fantastic.  My jaw dropped as to how close it resembled the original, but they butchered the opening poem beyond what was acceptable.

I am glad that Paige is out of the game now.  She started as the best celebrity in the game and then became the most annoying.  That "sixty-nine" crap was beyond stupid.  Brande became the more-likeable contestant, but honestly, neither of them were overly impressive.

Nice to see clips even make it into the game.  It was really nice that they used some of the pilot.  I wonder how hard it would be to chop those parts into my atrociously-awful video quality copies of them...

The maingame was farily enjoyable, but Money Cards irked me a bit.  They recreated the Money Cards board well enough, but what was up with the contestant podium?  It had little to no resemblence to the original.  The might as well have gone podium-less like the Eubanks version.  Plus, if they were playing for $144,000 possible total, why then didn't the display have seven digit displays?  That thing they had wouldn't have even displayed beyond $10,000 without dropping the dollar sign.

And the car round...I'm not completly up to date on the Eubanks version, but if I remember correctly, the car game was played with ten cards with the contesant having to choose the card that said "CAR," right?  Why then did they butcher it with a format that wasn't even used?  Did they have to involve their group of ten that much?

Speaking of the group of ten, nice that they included that element of the game.  Now, why didn't they have any "educated guess" questions?

Overall, not totally bad, certanily not the worst episode of the series, but there were a lot of places where they could have easily done a lot better.

Robert Searcy wrote:
That was the pilot episode (or one of them......IIRC, I think there were 2 pilots shot for this, but don't hold me to that).

Yes, there were two pilot episodes.  Both were actually shot the same day.  The clip of the $28,800 Money Cards win comes from the second pilot.

[Joe_Capitano]

Nick wrote: Glad they left out the pitiful 2001 revival, or with it's blink-and-you-missed-it history, maybe they forgot about it.

Definitely deliberate. CS2K was NOT the classic game we remember - it was garbage, so there was no point even bringing it up.

BTW: I've been as disappointed as the rest of you with the history montages. I couldn't think of a good reason for leaving out Bob or Bill, though Bill's voice was heard in one clip. Also, I didn't think showing the simulated max-out from the pilot was the best idea. Norma's win should have been spotlighted as the ONLY max-out win in the show's history.

If there's a C$M2 (I've a feeling there might be), they need to follow the Ant & Dec formula - spend a few more moments with it and, if possible, include thoughts from the principals.

Nice seeing Rebecca again, but why didn't someone didn't tell her the fanfare moves were out of place here.

Finally, no more nitpicks on the set, please. Why is there this expectation that the sets will be 100% exact with the originals? It was close enough for me. As long as the spirit of the game is intact, it should not be the thing that spoils it for anyone.

Bottom line: good show. Bring it back, but only if it's faithful to the original. Host like Perry, dealers like Lacey & Suzanna, and no clip chips.

[shellgame69]

Yeah, Joe, I was wondering why Norma Max Out hit wasn't seen.

Good, no clips from Bullard's CS, which as Simon Cowell would say, was "Simply Dreadful."  Man, I'm still furious as to why they let this junk past the pilot stage.

Hey Shell, I agree. Ya know what CS2k1 is more like...Street Smarts. I've only seen that piece of crap in flipping channels(never watched a single one!)

[LiteBulb88]

I gotta speak up to that last one.  Street Smarts was a solid show!  Granted, the 'game' was only a way of finding a way to have a TV show that showed how unknowledgable people on the street can be, but it was funny!  There was almost nothing good about CS'01.  Maybe the increase in the Money Cards money, but nothing else.

[MSTieScott]

LiteBulb88 wrote:
As I recall, the Perry version had a Sportstype board to register the player's guesses, so why not use that?  It's not like CBS doesn't use Sportstype!

Actually, what was the last pricing game created to use that type of display? Especially considering that they had a bunch of eggcrates left over from Press Your Luck, it was the easier thing to do.

Nick wrote:
Speaking of the group of ten, nice that they included that element of the game.  Now, why didn't they have any "educated guess" questions?

I'd say because the educated guess questions were out of place compared to the other question types (which were about gauging public opinion). I was very happy that they didn't do any educated guess questions.


Now I'm surprised that we didn't see any $420 bids on the Price episode...


I thought they did a really good job adapting the game for a one-hour special while keeping the spirit of the show very much intact. Good episode.

[edmojautis]

I thought this was fairly good.

The montage clips were fun to watch but leaving the faces of Bob and Bill out was simply not cool. Great to see clips from the pilot and Lacey and Susanna .

Some of the questions were a bit ridiculous and they do belong on a crappy talk show.

Brande and Paige played very well and I knew (and I know indefinetly everybody else did) Brande would win it. It looks like poor old Paige now has to take the walk of shame.

The set was very unique. The turntable use was very cool.

That Money Cards scoreboard was so uncool.

The car bonus round may have looked a bit out of the ordinary, but it was fairly good. Good for Brande winning that car for a lucky home viewer.

Rich should've took some time with that opening poem and I do wish Gene Wood was still alive so we would all hear his fabulous voice again. God Bless Gene.

Rebecca (YAY YAY!!!) and Phire did pretty well too.

Ricki did her best, but nothing like Jim or Bob or Bill.

CS2K1 was a joke and we don't want to see an atrocity like this again if "Dis"mantle ever tries to bring back a revival.

BTW: There's a man (who I shall leave nameless) thinks that version was better than the originals . What was he smokin'?

[Nick]

MSTieScott wrote:
I'd say because the educated guess questions were out of place compared to the other question types (which were about gauging public opinion). I was very happy that they didn't do any educated guess questions.

Yeah, they were out of place, but it would have fit in vintage-wise if they had thrown in an educated guess question.

[SteveGavazzi]

MSTieScott wrote:

LiteBulb88 wrote:

As I recall, the Perry version had a Sportstype board to register the player's guesses, so why not use that?  It's not like CBS doesn't use Sportstype!

Actually, what was the last pricing game created to use that type of display?

I never realized this until I was talking to Casey about it last night...but it's Penny Ante.  In fact, the newest sportstype displays still in use are the ones on Dice Game (regardless of whether or not new ones were built when they redid the board in the late '80s).

[Casey]

temptation1979ga wrote:
When they started with the "69" joke, I was so disgusted, I changed the channel.

I am not enjoying the series at all and won't be tuning in to any more of the episodes.

But you don't change the channel after $420 bids or bids ending in 69 on TPIR?