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Post by thekid965 on Aug 13, 2014 13:44:33 GMT -5
To be honest, I wasn't really a big fan. It felt too busy, like it was trying to cram as many different formats into a single half-hour as possible. The first round, the Double Puzzle thing, was fine, as was the Photo Finish endgame. That championship game, however, just seemed to drag on interminably, even with the different variations in gameplay. That's not a good sign, honestly.
If it were me, I might have done it this way: Drop the championship game altogether, and instead just play with the three contestants (one of which is the returning champ). Have six or so different puzzle categories to choose from, with three puzzles in each (worth progressively $100, $200, and $300 as they get more difficult). Buzz-ins all the way; first player to $1,000 wins and goes to Photo Finish as in the actual pilot. This, I think, would do what they wanted (get a bunch of different puzzle formats into a single show) while keeping things moving at a brisk enough pace that it never drags down too much, as it did (for me, anyway) with the second round.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Aug 14, 2014 13:20:07 GMT -5
This Puzzlers pilot was so obviously taped at NBC studios it's not even funny.
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Post by thekid965 on Aug 14, 2014 14:06:54 GMT -5
The Gambit episode is up, but to my disappointment it's not the actual finale -- it's the Tuesday show of the finale week. Apparently something got lost in the Telephone Game somewhere along the way. But hey, more Gambit is always good, right? ^^; Here 'tis, with original commercials yet.
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Post by carpetcrawler on Aug 14, 2014 14:22:24 GMT -5
I'll take more Gambit any day of the week, plus it has its original commercials. I can live with that sort of mix-up. Also apparently there will be more episodes in the future, so maybe we'll see even more...? Excited for what's coming next!!
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Aug 14, 2014 14:46:52 GMT -5
I think the finale is supposed to be up tomorrow. I remember a pic of the original beta tape being posted on Wink's Facebook page and the label on it said there were two episodes from the last week.
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Post by thekid965 on Aug 14, 2014 15:36:34 GMT -5
I think the finale is supposed to be up tomorrow. I remember a pic of the original beta tape being posted on Wink's Facebook page and the label on it said there were two episodes from the last week. Doesn't necessarily mean it'll be the actual final episode; it could be the Wednesday (which would be the next consecutive episode from the one posted today) or Thursday show from that week. Guess we'll know soon. (Even if we do get to see the finale, will the fact be acknowledged on-camera? The presence of a contestant plug on this episode, just days before it all came to an end, would seem to suggest the plug-pulling decision was made only after the last taping, as was the case with many a CBS game show.) On another note, was that or was that not one of the craziest Gambit Boards? With all those Swap cards (a pretty neat idea, I thought) I had a really hard time keeping track -- and I think Wink did too, if you notice. This is what I mean by a game collapsing under the weight of its own gimmicks. I wonder how common it was to have a situation like this crop up (maybe not on this level, but certainly having multiple potential Swaps in play).
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Aug 14, 2014 15:53:36 GMT -5
I don't know (yet at least) whether or not Gambit was cancelled with Wink/Lee/HQP knowing ahead of time. But to point out, there's a contestant plug on the Eubanks Card Sharks finale, and there's a ticket plug at least once during the last week of Super Password. So those things tend to happen regardless.
The reason being from what I've read is that if it's for a certain address -- like CBS's Television City -- they'd use any post cards that were actually written in for a cancelled game show as possible inquiries to other game shows still on the air that were either shot at the same building or done by the same producers.
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Post by thekid965 on Aug 14, 2014 19:37:20 GMT -5
...Who's "Lee?"
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Aug 15, 2014 0:29:35 GMT -5
my bad, I meant Elaine Stewart. For some reason I was thinking Lee Meriwether when I wrote that. Also, I checked Wink's FB status. That was actually the first of *4* fresh Gambit episodes discovered! Can't help but notice the similarities in the bonus round of Puzzlers to the Blockbusters Gold Run, which makes me wonder who on G-T devised Puzzlers? Based on that I'm thinking it might have been Steve Ryan.
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Post by thekid965 on Aug 15, 2014 9:24:34 GMT -5
my bad, I meant Elaine Stewart. For some reason I was thinking Lee Meriwether when I wrote that. I suppose they did look kind of alike. Actually, my first thought was that you were confusing her with Lee Menning, the dealer towards the end of Las Vegas Gambit (replacing Beverly Malden in that role). If he's referring to the same four fresh episodes he was a few weeks ago, then I hate to be a bubble-burster, but there's only one more show from the CBS run in this batch. The other two are both Las Vegas episodes -- and based on the preview clips that were posted, both of them come from late in the run, after the Gambit Board was dropped in favor of the Big Numbers. So it's really kind of " Gambit Lite." I wouldn't be at all surprised. The picture-puzzle elements certainly reminded me of Steve's Classic Concentration work.
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Post by carpetcrawler on Aug 15, 2014 23:55:57 GMT -5
I'm expecting the rest of the stuff to be released once Wink's Facebook or YouTube reaches some random milestones again, just like with the rest of the Concentration episodes we haven't seen yet.
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Post by thekid965 on Aug 18, 2014 16:32:32 GMT -5
What the so-called "Donnymid" could have been...
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Post by fandude41 on Aug 21, 2014 17:34:01 GMT -5
How about a Pilot Reel for Catch Phrase (US), with Fearless Leader himself hosting? That is Mr. Todd Newton, by the way.
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Post by Mandoli on Aug 21, 2014 17:38:56 GMT -5
How about a Pilot Reel for Catch Phrase (US), with Fearless Leader himself hosting? I love you for saying that. Whammy Army. Ah, yes. The good old days.
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Post by thekid965 on Aug 22, 2014 10:25:47 GMT -5
I had heard GSN was once looking into a Catch Phrase revival, but never realized it got as far as a pilot being shot. I still think it'd be a good idea. If it worked for Lingo, which was similar in that the show bombed in the US originally but became a huge success overseas, there's no reason to believe it couldn't also work for Catch Phrase. Changing gears, the Vault has also recently added the finale of The Price is Right from the NBC era (airdate: 6 September 1963), featuring a comparatively rare on-camera appearance by the recently-passed Don Pardo:
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