Frank: Of course you were a part of it.. And 20 years from now, you'll be the answer to a trivia question: Who was the first contestant to win their way up on stage in one of my shows...
Let's hope you get better luck in the second.
Garvin: I am glad you enjoyed it.. I think I succeeded in my goal of breaking Billy's bank..
And, thank you for letting Rich down... I can't believe that slipped my mind.. Sorry, Rich!
I do welcome comments, suggestions or any thoughts any of you have on my first effort. In the meantime, I will share what was going through my warped little mind throughout the production of this show...
First four calldown: I had always wanted to see Bob or anyone else called down as a joke, so I figured, why not? Then, for the heck of it, decided to add Ken Jennings to the list - after all, you'd have to imagine he's the last person The Dob would want to see on Contestant's Row!
Golden Road: How can you not launch a TMDS without this game? Honestly, I was quite worried the second prize was way too easy, and quite shocked when Frank went for the 0... Ouch. Sorry about that.
And, for any of you who are curious, the Vipers came to $172,890...
1/2 Off: I probably should've kept 10 and 13 (as opposed to 10 and 14) as the last two boxes to make things a little more challenging.. But, regardless, Sternal now goes down as the first contestant to win a pricing game on one of my shows...
IUFB #3: Handling it the way I did was not an easy decision, but under the circumstances, there would've been problems keeping GB in the game. I know a few people were quite stumped that I'd toss that IUFB, but GB gave a perfect bid, and had I left it, I could just picture some very angry contestants over the fact Fireball would've come down, inheritated GB's perfect bid and "won his way on stage by doing nothing". I did what I thought was fair for everyone involved.
The Bullseye/Money Game prank: We've had April Fool's showcases, why not an April Fool's pricing game? And what better game to freak someone out than Bullseye I?
I never gave a range because Bullseye was never intended to be played, obviously... It was a prop used for a joke. Had Alfonzo guessed the price right, I would've awarded to him, but that was not something I wanted to see happen.
Alfonzo, again, thanks for your great sense of humor.
Bonus Game: Hopefully Fireball isn't upset still, nor stabbing needles into a Maddy voodoo doll. That was a huge disappointment for me to watch unfold, considering that Fireball is always the one to chime in with "Yay! Bonus Game!" everytime it's played on TV... Sorry, Fireball. I hope that didn't ruin your love for the game...
Hole In One: Now, you just know I had to play this game, between my love for it, my love of golf in general, and Happy Gilmore.. And, obvously, extra motivation that I could toss in a few Happy Gilmore quotes during its playing.
Hurdles: Well, I warned everyone there'd be retired games, and how could I not make use of my favorite retired pricing game in my debut show?
Triple Play: I admit, I cringed when Rob won his way up on stage for this one. Why? Because I knew if he got past the Ram, he had a very easy win.. The first pricing game I ever won on G-R.net was Lucky Seven for that exact same Corvette in one of Rob's shows.
The Ram, though, I did set up to be tough... Any of those three prices for it looked reasonable.. Rob picked the right one, and that was all she wrote.
Give Or Keep: Well, I had figured while "scripting" the show (picking prizes and games to use) to go with two retired games.. I figured Give Or Keep would be easier to handle than Super Ball - minor graphics error aside...
Punchboard: While Pathy was a great contestant and a lot of fun, I'm not going to lie: I was secretly hoping Punchy would win his way up for that game, for obvious reasons...
At first, I considered randomly setting the board, but thought better of it. But, there were a few numbers I couldn't use for the $50,000 slips because it'd be too bloody obvious: 3 (Dale Earnhardt), 9 (Reggie Jackson), 10 (already used that for 1/2 Off), 13 (Kurt Warner/Madonna's favorite number), 28 (Marshall Faulk) and 44 (Jackson/Jerry West)...
So, it dawned on me: Ah-hah! 80's Dodgers... Couldn't do 55 (Hershiser), because there aren't 55 holes.. So I picked 34 (Fernando Valenzuela)... and 23 (Kirk Gibson).
Needless to say, I was quite shocked when Pathy picked 23... Any particular reason you went with that hole?
As for Wink and The Dragon, well.. That should be obvious.
Safe Crackers" Always loved this game myself.. Probably should've made it a little harder, but no regrets.. I wanted it played, and it was played.
Card Game: I am sure Shellgame hates me for this game (and other things), and thinks the playing of this game is "proof" of rigging...
First off, Shelly tried way too hard to pick particular numbers, thinking I set the deck myself and picked where to put aces. No. I literally shuffled a deck of cards, and each time Shelly picked a number, I counted out cards, flipped out the card he/she picked, posted the image of it and changed the graphic (the bid)..
Second, I wanted to see the game actually played.. Not 3-4 cards drawn and seeing the contestant stop... I figured there's 52 cards in that deck, let's actually make use of some of them!
Third, this game was set up as a test.. We all gripe in the recaps about contestants bailing out too soon. I wanted to set this game up in a way to see if the person playing it would bail out as well, or keep playing...
Plinko: I am sure everyone wondered what the heck I was doing playing THIS game, considering I'm not a big fan of it.. Of course, you all saw why before the fourth Showcase Showdown... Needless to say, Plinko has been retired from my shows.
Showcase Showdown controversy: All I'm going to say here is none of these spins were rigged, and I don't feel an apology is unreasonable.
Showcases: Two things here...
1. I wanted to break the bank and offer the two most expensive showcases in history, plain and simple. And I'd say I did that, considering both showcases combined were over $535,000...
2. I hope nobody read anything into my use of Brandi with the "Most politically incorrect showcase ever". I wasn't implying anything by putting her in that role, I did it because she has a slight resemblence to Julia Roberts, and therefore I felt she would work the best for such a showcase. Between offering Pretty Woman on DVD, the boots, and coloring over scuff marks on them, she popped into my head to model the showcase because of that resemblence...
Lastly, this was supposed to be fun, and I hope it was fun.. I wanted some fun playings, some excitement, and obviously some laughs.. There was never any intention to screw anyone, rig anything or offend anyone.
I do hope you guys enjoyed it, and please feel free to share your thoughts.
