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Post by Mandoli on Mar 7, 2014 16:42:50 GMT -5
The only show I've seen clips of prior to the compilation clips is Treasure Hunt. Go watch some clips of it on YouTube if you haven't done so already. Great stuff.
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Post by thekid965 on Mar 7, 2014 18:45:08 GMT -5
▲ And the funny/ironic thing is, Geoff was on record as saying he really didn't like the direction Treasure Hunt was going, especially towards the end of the '70s run. One story I'd heard, and it was long enough ago that it may have been apocryphal, involved Chuck Barris -- who by this point was in his Gong Show-era prime of utter chaos -- pushing hard to do a bit where it would seem that a Treasure Hunt player had been Klunked, lead her [1] through a series of reversals and prop-heavy skits that seemed to end in her winning a new car. This was done many times during the run of the show, in fact, but now Barris wanted to take things even further; it would have been a really expensive or desirable car, like a Cadillac or a Bentley... but at the very very end of the skit, he'd have Geoff reveal that, in fact, the player had only won, say, the windshield of the car, or just its steering wheel.
The story also goes that when Geoff heard these plans and others that were almost as cruel if not worse, he realized that Chuckie Baby had finally popped his cork, as it were. He quit the show shortly thereafter, which is why that run of Treasure Hunt ended as abruptly as it did. In later years, I remember an interview he gave in which he claimed the only reason he even came back to do the five-a-week 1980-81 revival was because Barris was actually not directly involved in that production, lending only his name to the credits and his signature to the paychecks. In looking at clips from that version now and comparing them to the arguably better-known weekly syndie, it seems clear that Geoff is having a lot more fun and was far more at ease with that version than he was by the end of the earlier ("New") show.
[1] In case you didn't know, Treasure Hunt contestants were exclusively female, intentionally and by design. The story has always been that Barris was concerned that, if a male contestant were taken on one of the show's trademark roller-coaster rides and ended up with a Klunk, he might haul off and punch Geoff in the face over it. In truth, however, I do think there was a bit of mild chauvenism on Barris's part here; he always did feel that women gave better "TV" reactions to whatever zaniness he could cook up than men.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Mar 8, 2014 9:56:07 GMT -5
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Post by thekid965 on Mar 9, 2014 21:35:54 GMT -5
And now, a four-part series of highlights from my personal favorite Geoff Edwards-hosted show, B&E's short-lived but fondly-recalled survey game/Q&A hybrid Play the Percentages from 1980. Hidden behind the spoiler tags to avoid clutter:
The first part demonstrates this show's first, and superior, married-couples format; the other three are all taken from the second, Twenty One-inspired rework. Part 4 also features the last segment of what proved to be the series finale, making Play the Percentages a rarity among syndicated shows of the era in that it actually got to acknowledge its impending doom (after a fashion, as you'll notice).
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Post by Frank on Mar 10, 2014 15:45:59 GMT -5
My favorite clip from that is Judge Von Erik has made a mistake, then a close 2, Where do women go that they don't want to, New York
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Post by thekid965 on Mar 10, 2014 16:30:55 GMT -5
▲ Ah yes, Judge Von Erik... Only Geoff Edwards could take the standard "Voice of God" offstage judging of a typical B&E quizzer and turn it into a running comedy routine.
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Post by Kaos on Mar 10, 2014 18:15:07 GMT -5
I don't know, Jack Barry and the "Voice" had an interesting moment over "Charles Schulz".
Go to the "Game Show Moments Gone Bananas" thread for more on that...
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