(S01E01) When you think of game shows that Hollywood stars play in to win money for their charities, you think of shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Family Feud. You normally don't think of a show like The Price is Right as a platform for this type of event. In fact, as TPIR afficionados Joel Keller and Bob Sassone would probably attest to, The Price is Right should only be played by college students, senior citizens, and women who fall out of their halter tops. The reason? Well, let me get to that later.
In the meantime, let me pontificate a bit on the premiere of CBS's Game Show Marathon. I found it to be an interesting experiment. Here's how it works: six celebrities compete in a series of classic game shows to win one million dollars for their charity. Four semi-finalists are selected, then they play until two remain. The two finalists appear with their families on an episode of Family Feud (complete with classic sets) to vie for the million dollars.
I wouldn't have picked Rikki Lake as the host of the program, but she did show a lot of spirit in hosting The Price is Right episode of the show. Heck, many people have tried but failed to match the success that Bob Barker has had for over 30 years as TPIR's host. Hopefully she'll loosen up a bit more as the show progresses. I have a feeling she'll do a bit better in the Let's Make a Deal segment, which airs on Thursday.
I also wouldn't have chosen TPIR as the game to start the series with, despite is popularity and long network run. If you'd like to know the reason jump ahead by clicking the link.
The reason is that celebrities, even those like Paige Davis (Trading Spaces) and Tim Meadows (Saturday Night Live) whose prestige has dimmed a bit, have no concept of pricing in the real world. I'm fairly sure you wouldn't see Paige or former N'sync member Lance Bass at the local Acme, Albertson's or Alpha-Beta picking up a bottle of detergent. However, the college students, senior citizens, and women who fall out of their halter tops all shop at those stores, or their equivalents, and they have a sense of what items cost when they 'Come on Down' to be the next contestant on TPIR.
That's actually another reason why TPIR should not have been used as the premiere of Game Show Marathon: you win things. If you are trying to win money for your charity why the heck would you start off with a game show that makes you bid on products that the celebrities can't take with them anyway. Granted, cell phone user's could win the contents of the Showcase Showdown by answering a trivia question via text messaging, but they won nothing when Kathy Najimy played Hole in One, Paige Davis played the ever-popular Plinko and Brandie Roderick (Baywatch) played the Race Game. I just didn't understand the concept.
While I am being critical of the first episode I am going to stick around and see what happens. I did see a number of other celebrities in the crowd during this first show (Adam Carolla, George Foreman, Betty White) that may or may not appear in this round of game shows, so I'd like to see what happens. I'm also curious how they are going to work the shows like Match Game and Beat the Clock. So watch with me and we'll see how it goes.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-31-2006 @ 11:55PM
Joel Keller said...
The show blew chunks. And it wasn't Ricki Lake; she was fine. It was the weird editing, the fact that they stretched half a TPiR episode over a full hour, and, most of all, the fact that the celebrities really didn't give a shit whether they won or lost. It's the same thing that plagued all those celebrity versions of Millionaire. Kathy Najimy's reaction when she lost the showcase is a perfect example of this; she probably gets more upset when the barista at Starbucks tells her they're out of soy milk.
I was also a little confused: were the celebs winning those prizes, or the monetary equivalents, for their charities or just the lucky home viewer? Is the only money that goes to the charity the jackpot that gets won at the end of the tournament? I'm not really sure.
Hopefully the other episodes will be better.
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6-01-2006 @ 12:16AM
Charles Wilson said...
the show sucked and it was for one reason, Rickki Lake. she is not bob barker, or for that matter no barker's beauty. it is just wrong to see someone who is not bob barker hosting the price is right, it is bob barker who set the tone for the price is right and set a very high bar for it. the other reason why it sucked is that they the price is right is a hour show with 6 contestants, but in the producers wisdom they made it into a weird 3 contestent show...what were they thinking!!! Finally, the "help contoral the pet population..." line, not the same coming from ricky lake, im sorry let bob host the price is right, let ricky host a stupid talkshow
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6-01-2006 @ 1:08AM
Andy said...
Amen, Charles. TPIR is entertaining because Bob Barker is a master host - he's pitch perfect when it comes to showing empathy for contestants without being patronizing, improvising, and creating "fun" suspense for the games. Any TPIR without Barker is doomed to be lame.
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6-01-2006 @ 2:20AM
Char Rich said...
the show wasn't as good as i thought it would be, I also tried for over 3 hours to text my answer and they kept sending me the same thing over and over again ,that they didn't receive my answer. Bull it said exactly what i put in there but they didn't receive it. Whatever.Is this a big Hoax or what. Even though they want to charge me .99 for everytime I text my answer. WHAT IS IT JUST ANOTHER WAY FOR SOMEONE TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF YOU.
I have to say that Rickki Lake really looks good after losing all that weight.
Please stick with Bob Barker, after all he is the one who made the show what it is today.
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6-01-2006 @ 2:36AM
Char Rich said...
Please I really would like to know did I do something wrong why can't I get my Answer through?
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6-01-2006 @ 7:16AM
eddy solack said...
It was a _____ start! (You can fill in the blank!) When you watch TPIR for decades and someone comes along and tries to do it there style...it is hard or painful....to watch. Sometimes it work...but not last night BUT I will still watch. I hope they do Match Game _____! And I hope Brett or Chuck show up...I guess Betty White might be there. Clebs on TPI RIGHT is WRONG!
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6-01-2006 @ 7:53AM
Rick said...
The show was Meh...BUT the hands down the best moment of the show was when they picked Leslie Nielsen to "Come on Down", did anybody see Adam Carolla's reaction?? They got a close up of him getting up and leaving!!! Don't know if it was real or just for entertainment, either way, it was classic!
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6-01-2006 @ 8:40AM
Michael said...
I watched about half of it and was totally underwhelmed. As you said, the contestants had no enthusiasm for the game. During the showdown, I thought Kathy Najimy would only clap when she felt as if the cameras would be on her. You could tell she had no enthusiams for this and was thinking--how'd I let my agent talk me into this?!?
And her overbidding was spectacularily horrific.
And did anyone else notice that the show ended incredibly early. My clock showed it was seven minutes before the top of the hour when the credits rolled....
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6-01-2006 @ 8:52AM
KMF said...
I didn't watch the show because like everyone else has said Bob Barker is the ONLY host for TPIR! And it should only be played by college students, senior citizens, women who fall out of their halter tops, and don't forget the military gets on there a lot! These are the people who know the price of ramen noodles, not celebs! It also seemed really dubious to me that "people at home" could win the prizes.
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6-01-2006 @ 9:22AM
Marc said...
Totally right, it was not the same without Bob Barker. Even though the show is/was doomed from the start, they could have atleast salvaged this by getting as many as the original hosts as possible. (And get Chuck Woolery for those hosts who are no longer with us, right?)
With that, Ricki Lake was just not right for this job. Yes, she is actually looking really good losing all that weight (good for her!), but she just didn't fit right. Neither did some of those celebrities. Kathy Najimy was an embarrassment. She had no clue how to price anything and then she botched a very makeable put, and seemed satisfied that she came "close." What?!?!
I'll be passing on future episodes of this series.
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6-01-2006 @ 9:23AM
Marion Kuebler said...
Bob Barker IS The Price Is Right....watching without Bob hosting the show would be like taking a bath in cold water using a scrub brush. No way. We love him....even drove all the way to California from upstate NY to be part of the audience .... I also gave him a shirt with his picture and the wheel with Barker's Beauties on the back. Bob Barker is IT.....
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6-01-2006 @ 9:25AM
sensitive_man said...
I agree with everyone else, it stunk. Lacked energy and genuine interest.
Even Adam Corolla saw it was a bomb and walked out (while conveniently on camera.)
BTW: Whou would pay 4500 bucks for a grandfather clock???
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6-01-2006 @ 9:26AM
Marc said...
And that stupid hanging chair was over $2600? Are you kidding me?
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6-01-2006 @ 12:25PM
Paul said...
Anyone who thinks Adam Carolla's leaving the show wasn't planned: I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Also, it's Ricki Lake - not Rikki.
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6-01-2006 @ 3:12PM
TVGenius said...
You can enter for free online, on CBS's website, as with almost every other text-message-based contest.
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6-01-2006 @ 4:33PM
Faith said...
My husband thought it sounded like a great premise so we gave it a shot. A half hour into the show and I started to feel my soul hurt. We gave up and watched one of our Deadwood (RIP) dvds and felt much better.
Where to begin? Ricki Lake was horrible; she tried but she doesn't have the warmth or spontaniety (sp?) to pull off the role of a game show host. The celebrities were awful. I agree with the others who called out Kathy Najimy as the worst. Her line about "I'm not the one who does the grocery shopping in my house" prompted me to shout, "Yeah, your maid does!" Her reaction after she missed the golf shot was, "I was pretty close, though, wasn't I?" Like she was saying, I know I just lost a lot of money for my charity (empowering women? WTF?) but look how good I almost did on that golf shot! I also agree that the celebrities didn't give a damn whether they won since it wasn't for them. Just awful. I felt a little bit of myself die just watching it.
Also, I agree with Joel Keller upthread about the distribution of the prizes. I said the same thing to my husband when they pulled back the curtains on Kathy Najimy's car. I was like, so who gets the car, the charity? Do they have to sell it or something to get the money? It was pretty confusing and they didn't explain it right at all.
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6-02-2006 @ 12:32AM
Josh said...
If you noticed the hole in one golf game was played incorrectly it is so posed to be hole in one or two they didn't allow the cotestant to putt again and i agree ricki lake should not host price is right rich fields did an awsome job though
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6-02-2006 @ 9:46AM
John said...
Adam Carolla has talked about this several times on his morning show. First off, he said he appeared on the "Match Game" episode. I believe he also said Betty White was on it with him but I don't remember that for sure.
Second, he said the producers told him and some other celebrities to sit in the audience for Price is Right and act bored and upset. He said his acting is better than he thought since he heard from several people about his "bad attitude" in the audience. :)
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6-02-2006 @ 1:55PM
Preston said...
I thought that Wednesday's Price Is Right was far better than the lousy Let's Make A Deal version on the Game Show Marathon series. Ricki Lake was better on Price than Deal. While I think that nobody can do Price better than Bob Barker, Ricki did a good job as host. Haven't seen her on TV in 2 1/2 years since her daytime talk show of 11 years. They didn't even announce that "The Ricki Lake Show" was cancelled back in 2004, so no one even noticed. I thought that Kathy Najimy really goofed on the showcase, by going over on 2 cars! Kind of went excessive and bloated on her bid. The lady on Baywatch did very well, bidding a modest bid without going over on her showcase. And Adam Carolla's camera shots were so funny--he was so sure that he was going to get picked to come on down. But he left--maybe he left the set for good! Would have wanted to see regular contestants on it, but they didn't want that college student effect that's so common on the daytime show now. The celebrities they chose seem to play it safe with the bids, not very chancey. As for the comments on $4500 for a grandfather clock or $2600 for a hanging chair, these are some very expensive items that they show! It's not 1980 anymore when showcases used to be $5500-6000! Even the living rooms/ dining rooms from Hooker Furniture in Virginia and Broyhill of North Carolina are $6500 to $7000 now. But back to Price Is Right, I think that CBS saw Deal or No Deal's massive success on NBC and decided to one up on them with this show. But today's breed of game shows focus on winning money than prizes like cars, trips, boats, etc.--they're trying to get away from the '70s campy style of game shows. Such as winning up to a million dollars or so. I think that this show came about 5 years too late, because everybody's more into Deal and Millionnaire. People remember these classic shows, and they're still fun, but it's hard to see them compete in an Internet crazy world. This Game Show Marathon might have modest success but become short lived. They sure put a lot of money on that massive stage set, my goodness, because it's big!
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