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July 31, 2006
 Gordon:
It's the last train to Whammyville.
Chico: Whoo WHOO! And I've got six tickets. Who wants to give out some tickets?
Don: Yay, free tickets!
Gordon: (makes Whammy sound and grabs some tickets)
Chico: Thanks Gordon...First up, a singing Whammy...
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Does it go to Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, or
Kellie Pickler? They all have albums coming out November 14... Which will you
NOT be blowing $10 on? |
Don: Pickler.
Gordon: Stop at BIG BOOBS...er....Pickler.
Chico: Even if it's for someone else who's into that sort of thing. Sorry,
Kellie... "All I need is cash, gimme all your money..."
Alex: That works
Chico: "I said gimme all your money. I said gimme all your money."
Gordon: We got the brainy Whammy next...
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Ken Jennings or The New York Post. Who really
deserves it? |
Alex: New York Post without a shadow of a doubt
Chico: Can we give it to both?
Don: New York Post. A sense of humor wouldn't hurt.
Chico: I'll go off the board and say whoever fed the New York Post the story to
begin with.
Gordon: So we'll send it to the Post and it's writer. Next one?
Chico: Next one, we've got the cruise ship Whammy.
Gordon: Toooooot
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"The One" caused a giant stink in Canada. In
fact, I think it's hovering somewhere near Yellowknife as we speak, so do we
send the show's producers, the CBC, or George (holds up sign saying "Stromboulopoulos")? |
Gordon: Way too many problems to blame George.
You can't blame the CBC either. Give it to The Producers.
Don: Producers.
Alex: Producers
Chico: Whammy out at four. Say it with me now... "Hasta luego... arrivederci...
bon voyage... that means goodbye!"
Gordon: byeeeee. Ironic isn't it? 4 episodes, 4 Whammies?
Chico: Irony of ironies.
Gordon: Next one... It's the Umpire Whammies who call 'Strike 3', which leads us
to...
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The America's Next Top Models on strike. Do you
blame the writers for wanting a union, or the producers for not letting them
join one? |
Chico: Producers.
Alex: Producers
Chico: They all about the cheddar.
Gordon: I agree. and this shouldn't be a show that should have those problems.
Don: Agreed.
Gordon: Next one?
Chico: Next one.
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ABC for "The One", ABC for "The Bachelor", ABC
for "Set for Life".... |
Chico: This one gets the Big Bank Insufficient
Funds Whammy.
Don: I'm sensing a theme with those choices.
Chico: Getting all new school on you. The question: suppose ABC could've taken
Celador up on more Millionaire, but didn't... which is more to blame and thus
getting the Whammy?
Alex: I'm sorry, but I send this one to "Set for Life".
Don: Hmm... I'll go with "The One".
Chico: I'd like to say the whole damn network, but that's just me. They REALLY
have no idea what their clear direction is aside from their big one-season hits
that seemed to fall off the next season.
Gordon: Actually, I'm going to go off the board and say Lost and Dancing with
the Stars. They had so much faith in those shows that they felt that Millionaire
wasn't necessary. if anything, the departure of The One may make ABC think about
bringing Millionaire BACK.
Chico: Let's hope.
Gordon: Finally, let's have a Boxing whammy....
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Any aspect of The Contender 2 that you want...or
Floyd Landis. What is the bigger sporting disaster? |
Chico: I'd like to go off the board and say the
whole of "The Contender 2".
Gordon: Judges say...they'll allow it. (DING)
Chico: It's nothing without Sly. I'm beginning to think that ESPN is becoming
one giant crater in the cable landscape... except of course for PTI.
Gordon: We gave the Contender a laundry list of improvements. They elected to
use...none of them.
Don: Yeah, they haven't really changed much of it from the first season from
what I could tell.
Chico: Sorry, Burnett.. you really got KOed on this one.
Gordon: You want to see a sporting reality competition show done right? Watch
Ultimate Fighter 4.
Don: That I'll be watching.
Gordon: And that end our allotment of Whammies. We'll see the allotment of Big
Finish...after this...
(Brought to you by Thermonuclear Global Dynamic Chain Reaction... Winners win
cash. Losers... win an ethereal phosphorescence for about a week... and maybe a
third arm growing out of your forehead)
Gordon: I'll take a letter with Arm.
Chico: Letter with arm... H.
Gordon: hammer?
Chico: Got it.
Gordon: What about a letter with Big?
Chico: Letter with big... F.
Gordon: Finish?
Chico: Start it.
Gordon: America's Got Talent...Do the changing magicians have a shot at the
finals?
Don: I think they might.
Gordon: What about...Michelle L'Amour?????
Chico: Probably... not. Aerith died for a reason. :-) Big Brother 7... are you
bored yet?
Gordon: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzwhat did you say?
Don: Let's see... Another Season 6 person in the HoH position... Yeah, I'd say
I'm getting bored.
Chico: Whoopee...
Gordon: Jase or Allison. Which one is the more annoying?
Chico: Both?! :-) Any events from across the pond?
Alex: Heh. There are 3 news events. 1- ITV picked up their own version of
America's Got Talent. With Britain's Got Talent. 2- Challenge, UK's GSN
basically, has picked up Fear Factor to air in August. 3- BBC gave away the most
money in BBC TV history tonight on In It to Win it, as a contestant won a
perfect £100,000. Biggest winner ever. In entire network/radio history.
Chico: That's like big... for BBC standards.
Alex: It's giant for them.
Chico: GSN's 50. We wanted Sale of the Century... we got Dog Eat Dog. Thoughts?
Don: I felt disappointed.
Alex: I place Dog Eat Dog in the top 50, but not above Sale and Beat the
Clock. Gordon: I can think of 30 shows better than Dog Eat Dog, and GSN's
running out of spots. If Friend or For or Russian Roulette somehow make the Top
30, I will be ill.
Alex: I think Russian Roulette deserves a top 30 slot. Friend or Foe? No way in
hell.
Chico: "I don't accept. I don't accept it. If I don't have a say in it. I don't
accept it."
Gordon: However, we will have our say in it, as we will be unleashing our own
Top 50. Our Own Top 75, as it will, but we'll get to that in a future show. Do
we have any mail?
Chico: Yeah, you're going to want to keep an eye out for that. Meanwhile, we've
been keeping an eye on our mailbag... and it's quite full.
Gordon: Then let's empty it. What's first?
Chico: First, from David Howell... our new best friend in the UK.
To: WLTI
From: David Howell
Re: DoND taping times... Regarding the UK version: it's not
quite as bang-bang-done as that, but compared to the US version it is...
three shows are recorded each day, each apparently taking around two hours
with usually a lot of banter between the contestants edited out to fit the
timeslot of (usually) 45 minutes. I'd love to see an unedited episode on
DVD, or make it to the audience myself...
The Dutch version is most certainly an example that shows up the US,
though... apparently Miljoenenjacht is actually live. I'm not so sure,
there's bits of the quiz that don't look live, but it's possible that bit is
pre-recorded and the main game is live and that would suffice to shame the
US version. Especially given the even-bigger stakes. (There's a precedent,
here in the UK at least, for a pre-recorded main game and live endgame -
The Vault. At least, I think the first part of that was pre-recorded.) The
speed of the game may be partly helped by the existence of a formula which
the offers stick to pretty rigidly.
Incidentally, ratings watch in the UK: PokerFace averaged about 4.7m for the
week, about 3.1m in the dead zone of Saturday and just over 6m for the final
- not bad for the summer here. Four new series started during that week with
PokerFace as a lead-in, and only one - the established hit Bad Girls - was
actually able to build on it; spin that how you will. The final (which aired
on a Sunday) was particularly interesting in that it was up against a new
BBC1 drama of the type that always does well on Sundays, and yet it won the
timeslot with ease; could Sunday night be a good slot for a big-money game
show here on a more regular basis?
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Alex: I blame that on the fact that we in the US
are not happy with imperfection. Everything has to be exact or it's not good.
Chico: That and Deal or No Deal is, even by primetime standards, overelaborate.
Alex: It really doesn't need to be, but it is
Chico: I mean, there's elaborate, there's Wheel of Fortune elaborate, and then
there's this.
Alex: I mean honestly, I'm fine with Deal long taping times, because it's going
to take more than 5 minutes to decide to give up a few hundred grand. But when
you have to retape a case opening because you didn't get the reaction you
wanted, that's not good.
Chico: A few hundred grand, I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat. All part of
strategy... "Get in, ride the wave, get out." But then there's the audience. No
one loves the stunned silence anymore. They think we're too dumb for that. But
thank you very much for the insight, David. Much appreciated. Next?
Gordon: Natural reaction always works better than artificial reaction. Always.
Alex: I 100% agree.
Don: Definitely.
Chico: True.
Gordon: Next up, a letter from David Ford. Thanks, David!
To: WLTI
From: David Ford
Hi, my name is David Ford and I really enjoy your website. It
is nice to see someone still cares about game shows still! Anyway, my
question is simple and I hope you can help. I (like many others) have
created a game show that I would like to pitch to an entertainment agency
that could in turn tell me they like it or it stinks and then go from there
pitching the idea to networks or not. My question is since you are somewhat
plugged into the industry, where do you recommend I go to initally suggest
my idea? I appreciate your help and hope to hear back soon!
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Gordon: Thanks for the e-mail, David. This is one
of the most popular questions we get here. Our answer is this...give me lots of
money and I'll take you places, kid.
Alex: lol
Gordon: No no no. Seriously, first thing is that you have to make SURE that it's
copyrighted by both the National Copyright Office and the Writers Guild of
America. Next up - you need to find an agent, not just because that they are
your best ways to see the big wigs, but they protect you against plagiarism.
You're better off finding a hungry one who is on their way up, as they will be
much more aggressive in fighting for you. As for where to go, do some research
and try to find one near you. The rest is up to you and use your best judgment.
The legit ones don't want money up front - they will only get paid after they
make a deal. Good luck, David!
Chico: Get the papers, get the agent, then get the deal. It's that simple. Any
more mail?
Gordon: I got one. This is from Tyler Brown. Thanks for the e-mail. This letter
is about a State of Play written about contestants Vs. image.
To: WLTI
From: Tyler Brown
I agree with you
wholeheartedly on the DoND and similar game show issues. I think the
contestants should be picked based on talent and/or enthusiasm.
I myself own an entertainment company that plays classic and 3 original game
shows with contestants from within my college dorm and across the campus, I
don't give a s(^_^) what they look like, as long as they have fun playing
the games. There are some game shows which go for the blonde bimbos with big
fake t(^_^), who have no f(^_^)ing clue as to how to play, but they try to
look for ratings, which could end up being the downfall of some game shows.
That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.
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Alex: I agree to a certain extent. It should be
based on talent on shows like Millionaire. For "Deal or No Deal", there is no
talent to base it off of. They need someone with something exciting.
Chico: Yours is a shared opinion, Tyler, if the audience at GSC5 is any
indication.
Gordon: Thanks again for the e-mail, Tyler. If you want to check his site out
,by the way, the link is
http://geocities.com/hurricanewebmaster/WME.html
Chico: Any more mail, Gordon?
Gordon: That's all I got - u?
Chico: That's all I got. So I'll just say this...
wlti@gameshownewsnet.com for all
your burning game show questions... All the cool kids are doing it.
Gordon: That's true. be cool now.
Chico: Big thanks to Jason Block, Don Harpwood, and Alex Davis for hanging out.
And no thanks to the Cape Fear Valley ER for making this the longest episode of
WLTI ever taped. Bordering on 14 hours.
Gordon: Aieeeeee
Chico: Fourteen!
Don: Wow.
Gordon: Chico needs a hug.
Chico: I'm Chico Alexander. He's Gordon Pepper. The show is WLTI. Until next
week, Game over, spread the love, and hug it out. All that stuff.
Gordon: Group Hug!
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