Sigma: Current SRW Champ!
Dennis Stamp
Writes about wrestling, does videos about game shows, helps transpeople, loves baseball etc.
Posts: 4,530 
|
Post by Sigma: Current SRW Champ! on May 1, 2017 14:30:18 GMT -5
Great induction. I have always used Krypton Factor 95 as a perfect example of how not to revamp a show. Another key flaw I would have mentioned is that the Super Round ended up negating the entire first half of the show; a contestant could dominate the first five rounds, but a terrible Super Round performance could see them knocked out. IIRC the series winner never won a single round throughout the series. If you're looking for other godawful British gameshows I've got some suggestions: - Catchphrase (post Roy Walker) - The Shane Richie Experience (Contestants compete for a live wedding through a series of It's A Knockout style games) - Flockstars (ITV attempt to cash in on the GBBO fad with Celebrity Sheep-herding) - Win, Lose or Draw (Televised Charades... need I say more) - Shattered (Heavily promoted C4 show hyped as a successor to Big Brother. Somehow watching people trying to stay awake didn't capture the imagination) - The Grand Knockout Tournament (Celebrity version of It's A Knockout with the Royal Family as captains) I did Catchphrase Post Walker years ago. Here's the Link: www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind074_catchphrasepostroy.htmlFlockstars and Shattered sounds amazing and would love to find footage. Win, Lose or Draw was great, so I"m not going to put that in, although I did an induction for a version of Win, Lose or Draw in the US which cannibalized the format. SRE and GKT would be interesting to see as well. I do want to do more inductions of UK shows, but footage is the main issue, along with my Patreon not paying as much as I'd like. |
|
|
|
Post by DiBiase is Good on May 1, 2017 14:58:35 GMT -5
I used to love Win, Lose or Draw. Especially when Bob Mills hosted it.
I actually still dislike Jenny Powell because of that show. If one of the contestants had no hope of catching the other team in the final round, the host would start giving out not very subtle hints at the answer just so the losing contestant could go home with a little bit more money in their pocket. One show, the female team was way ahead going into the final round and the host started giving out clues to the male team for the reason mentioned above. Jenny Powell started shouting at the host and physically prevented him from giving out the answers and basically stopped a member of the public getting an extra £30 or so.
|
|
|
|
Post by DiBiase is Good on May 1, 2017 15:05:25 GMT -5
Ok, random point but kind of relevant to the Game show theme.
On the Wrestlemania Anthology DVD set from the mid-00s, at Wrestlemania 6, Sapphire and Dusty Rhodes don't come out to Dusty's classic theme, they come out to the theme tune of the UK version of Wheel of Fortune. On the network version of Wrestlemania IV, when Vanna White comes down the aisle for the main event, they don't use the music that accompanied her to the ring on the original broadcast, she is played to the ring by ..... the theme of the U.K. Version of Wheel of Fortune. Given her day job at that time (and indeed, to this day) was that intentional?
|
|
Sigma: Current SRW Champ!
Dennis Stamp
Writes about wrestling, does videos about game shows, helps transpeople, loves baseball etc.
Posts: 4,530
|
Post by Sigma: Current SRW Champ! on May 1, 2017 15:34:39 GMT -5
Ok, random point but kind of relevant to the Game show theme. On the Wrestlemania Anthology DVD set from the mid-00s, at Wrestlemania 6, Sapphire and Dusty Rhodes don't come out to Dusty's classic theme, they come out to the theme tune of the UK version of Wheel of Fortune. On the network version of Wrestlemania IV, when Vanna White comes down the aisle for the main event, they don't use the music that accompanied her to the ring on the original broadcast, she is played to the ring by ..... the theme of the U.K. Version of Wheel of Fortune. Given her day job at that time (and indeed, to this day) was that intentional? I'm wondering what her original music was? Did she use the US WOF theme at the time or was it a generic Jim Johnston track? |
|
|
|
Post by DiBiase is Good on May 1, 2017 16:59:02 GMT -5
I've finally watched the video and wanted to pick on a couple of points.
Gladiators didn't really affect The Krypton Factor that much. Gladiators had a Saturday evening slot, traditionally one of the biggest slots of the TV week here and crucially, it's the "light-entertainment spot". It still is, with both BBC and ITV yearly fighting it out for Saturday night dominance. The Krypton Factor was (except for the first couple of years) always on at 7pm on Monday nights and most importantly was considered more of a game show than a light entertainment show (Gordon used to call it a "quiz"). The success of The Crystal Maze in the weekday evening slot was more of a threat to Krypton than anything and that's why most people see the 95 version as trying to emulate The Crystal Maze (and failing). Both shows had an all-around challenge to them, whereas Gladiators was simply a Physical test.
Gladiators was also skewed more towards a younger audience, Whilst Krypton did have some younger viewers tuning in (even if they were mostly there for the assault course and the puzzle assembly round) it was aimed at an older audience.
I 100% agree on you calling it "cold". There's no appeal to it and they were going for that awful 90s trend of making things look more "industrial". Even The Crystal Maze which was about as 90s as it got, only gave one zone and the dome itself the industrial look (and unsurprisingly, Industrial was the zone that got the boot after a few years).
The Super round was a clusterf*** and as you said it badly needed officiating. If you f***ed up an element of the assaul course, you were sent back to the beginning of that obstacle to do it again. Why was no one there to step in and tell that guy that he missed out one of the answers?
I did like the new response round but it lacked that pure moment of joy when a contestant royally bollocksed it up and plummeted the plane nose-first into the runway.
The mental agility and observation rounds were both disasters. There was no atmosphere at all with these rounds.
Also, always nice to see another person with disdain for Eamonn Holmes. The man is a dick.
|
|
|
|
Post by lemonyellowson on May 1, 2017 18:17:51 GMT -5
Hmmmm jet....
|
|
|
|
Post by DiBiase is Good on May 1, 2017 18:26:09 GMT -5
I was always a Lightning man myself. Not that I would have kicked Jet out of bed for eating crisps. Lightning still looks really good now. |
|
|
|
Post by lemonyellowson on May 1, 2017 18:33:33 GMT -5
I was always a Lightning man myself. Not that I would have kicked Jet out of bed for eating crisps. Lightning still looks really good now. Lightning was always my backup if jet said no. Hmmmm jet. |
|
SmashTV
Dennis Stamp
Big Money, Big Prizes, I Love It!
The Excellence of Allocation
Posts: 4,526 
|
Post by SmashTV on May 2, 2017 0:06:52 GMT -5
I was always a Lightning man myself. Not that I would have kicked Jet out of bed for eating crisps. Lightning still looks really good now. Lightning, Jet and Vogue were always my favourite female Gladiators, and remain so twenty years on. Add me for another Win, Lose or Draw fan in the Bob Mills era. He was brilliant on this and Gamesworld. I saw him recently on one of those cheap 'Remember the 70s/80s/90s' shows, where he was commenting rather than a subject. The years haven't been kind... |
|
Sigma: Current SRW Champ!
Dennis Stamp
Writes about wrestling, does videos about game shows, helps transpeople, loves baseball etc.
Posts: 4,530
|
Post by Sigma: Current SRW Champ! on May 2, 2017 13:18:26 GMT -5
I would love to do something on the UK version of Gladiators. Was there anything that was awful on the UK Gladiators, since I can't remember it and the 2008 Revival was surprisingly good.
|
|
|
|
Post by DiBiase is Good on May 2, 2017 13:55:21 GMT -5
I would love to do something on the UK version of Gladiators. Was there anything that was awful on the UK Gladiators, since I can't remember it and the 2008 Revival was surprisingly good. The first series of the UK version wasn't very good and the last couple of series of the original run were pretty crap to be fair. But with the second series it started to find its feet and the next two or three series were really good. Challenge TV are currently repeating the original run and they're onto the fourth series at the moment and it's pretty good stuff. Some of the terrible stuff includes John Fashanu saying "Awooga!" all the time, some truly terrible Gladiators (Falcon, Amazon, Khan, Raider) and having really long intros to events (does a pendulum moving to the top of its swing really warrant dramatic music). |
|
|
|
Post by DiBiase is Good on May 2, 2017 14:05:00 GMT -5
I was always a Lightning man myself. Not that I would have kicked Jet out of bed for eating crisps. Lightning still looks really good now. Lightning, Jet and Vogue were always my favourite female Gladiators, and remain so twenty years on. Add me for another Win, Lose or Draw fan in the Bob Mills era. He was brilliant on this and Gamesworld. I saw him recently on one of those cheap 'Remember the 70s/80s/90s' shows, where he was commenting rather than a subject. The years haven't been kind... I used to be a big fan of Bob Mills. In bed with medinner was a really fun show (and was pretty much a forerunner to TV Burp). My mate and I used to watch old clips of it at work and there's one bit with a family who have a truly horrible neighbour that is absolutely hilarious. I'd love a DVD release but considering all the the clips it used, it would probably be a pain to clear them all (and to be fair, there wouldn't exactly be a huge demand for one). |
|
