http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061006/tv_nm/shatner_dc_1

Overdramatic question readings anyone?

No, just another confirmation that we'll never see "Millionaire" in prime time ever again.

Can I edit my top twenty hosts list? :)

** plays on GSF's stereo system "Lucy and the Skyward Diamonds" **

Nothing's been filmed.
Not even a tentative start date is given.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Sorry, been burned far too often. Mastermind and The $1,064,000 Question come to mind among many others.

What...BobDylan...Song...Became.....Atop10hit...For.....The.....BYRDS??????


"MISTER TAMBOURINE MANNNNN!!!!" **


** -- For full effect, you must hear his version of that song (the final 3 seconds) on his "Transformed Man" album.

That's true. After all, most recently, ABC announced Poker Face, which got dropped in favor of this show. And, had ABC not picked up this show, it would've disappeared after FOX dropped it.

In any case, audience tickets are now available. Taping begins October 14.

It sounds like ABC is trying to revive Millionaire without reviving Millionaire. The two concepts sound an awful lot alike.

It's Millionaire with Deal or No Deal elements, basically.

Play a game of luck to get a bank roll for round two, then multiply or divide your winnings by a random number if you get the question right/wrong.

Top prizwe for the British version was over £8m, but it looks like the episode I went to see recorded won't be seeing the light of day. Shame, it's quite good fun.

Is it just me or is William Shatner look more and more like W. C. Fields?

Anyone have any production company or contestant information for the show?

Endemol. The initial episodes will be shot at CBS TV-City.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

I hope his chair is securely in place in case he accidentally reads part of the answer ... *cough*blessed*cough*

There's only ONE chair big enough to fit that...........oh, sorry. Had a flashback moment from the Shatner roast.

Just a bit of advice to anyone trying out for "Show Me the Money"...Do not wear a red shirt!

May I borrow that as my sig line?

FWIW...it's yours!

The audience ticket Web site says there will be 14 dancers assisting William Shatner. I hope this isn't the train wreck I am envisioning.

All we need is a few killers and some death-row contestants, and i'm envisioning "Running Man".

Richard Dawson notwithstanding, another case of me enjoying the book far more than the film. Now that I think about it, today's Shatner probably could have filled the host role very well.

(For those keeping score at home, there was going to be a television show based on the book version; it never came to fruition.)

According to Marc Berman over at Mediaweek, Show Me The Shat..... ummm, Money gets its first airing on Wednesday, Nov. 22. It may give some of us something to watch when Lost is on hiatus (Any Lost fans here, BTW?).

Tyshaun

But that means it's up against Jericho, which is clearly the best comedy on TV today.


--Mike

Hiatus? What?

/you got yourself a fish biscuit!

Lost is set to take a 6 week breather at the end of the year , so that ABC can premiere Taye Diggs new show "Daybreak" (which, IMHO, isn't bad. Think "Groundhog Day" meets murder mystery)....This way, when Lost returns in Feb, it can run straight thru to May, with no reruns...which was a BIG problem for ABC last year

But with Lost not getting the #'s it used to, ABC may have to rethink it's idea (I doubt they will)....

My advice : take a page from Fox's playbook (did I just say that?), and hold lost till January, running straight thru till May each year, no reruns, no filler "lets catch the viewers up" episodes.... Fox does this with '24' , and it works.

For good or for bad, it sounds like roughly half the episodes of Tru Calling.

it's bad...the only thing about Tru Calling that was half-tolerable was Eliza Dushku (She shoulda done the Faith spinoff they were thinking about-yeah, I'm bitter....)

Anyway, Here's the ABC release.... I do admit, the "Million Dollar Dancers" is a catchy name (probably trying to get the DWtS fans to tune in...)

I've seen some photos of the SMtM set. (Sadly, I'm not at liberty to share them.) It may not be 1v100-huge, but, damn! We've come a long way from the days where you could play a game with four people sitting at a long table with a host standing between them.

I still don't quite "get" the gimmick of the dancers, but then, I said Millionaire would never last. This could be wildly impressive mixed with a little bit of kitsch; if they get the proportions right, who knows?

Ah, but is that worth more than the Solid Gold Dancers? ;-)

With the price of gold about $600 an ounce, each dancer actually made of solid gold would have to weigh slightly more than 104 pounds to be worth a million dollars. Of course, the price of gold in 1985 was only around $350 an ounce, so the same solid gold dancer back then would have to have weighed about 180 pounds to be worth a million dollars.

Always happy to help.

Somehow, I got this feeling SMtM is gonna turn into the game show version of Solid Gokd if we're not careful here.

Anyways, a minimum of 6 questions with 13 dancers to pick from kinda reminds me of DoND in that regard. Get it right, pick the right scrolls & you're in the money. Get it wrong & pick the wrong dancer, bye bye fortunes. This one definitely sounds intresting but the format is the question mark on this. If it doesn't pan out, at least Shatner has Boston Legal to fall back on.

Damn! Why didn't I think of this? (HITS SELF OVER HEAD REPEATEDLY WITH IRON SKILLET)

Craiggers sure has an unimitatable way of describing game shows. You mean if you get correct answers, you get dollars added? Amazing concept! You're a friggin genius!

That was from the ABC press release (not the part about the skillet).

I had a similar idea to be called "Pachyderm Payoff". Instead of dancers there would be Ezmerelda the Elephant. Each time a contestant answers a question, Ezmerelda is called upon to stomp her foot up and down. Each time she stomps her foot, $1,000 is added to or subtracted from the contestant's total, depending on whether the question was answered correctly or incorrectly. A contestant could win up to $1 million before being retired, proving this show has great potential.

Well, then, that's not going to happen. Even considering the weight of silicone, few professional dancers top the scales at 104.

Is the cost of Ezzie's peanuts deducted from the player's winnings, or does the producer supply those?

Not very helpful, though. :-p

Isn't gold still sold in troy ounces (~31.18 grams)? Your analysis is based on the gold fixing being in avoirdupois ounces (~28.35 grams).

Also, $350 in 1985 was worth rather more than $350 today. So the Solid Gold Dancers of 1985 didn't have to be worth a million bucks in 1985 dollars to be worth as much as the "Show Me the Money" Million Dollar Dancers.

Oh. My. God.

Darcel herself was worth it.

<Wayne&Garth>Errr-rrrr<end/Wayne&Garth>

Doug -- and the countdown to 2400 continues

What the hell are you talking about?

Yes, I know what Solid Gold is/was, I want to know how Craig figures an 80s pop-music show and a game show are anywhere near alike?

/My head hurts.

Actually, for once in his godforsaken life, it's the right analogy, since Solid Gold was known for their scantily-clad dance troupe as well.

I see...looks like I read too far into his comment. Mea culpa.

I'll try for relevance: Solid Gold taped at KTLA's (now Tribune Studios) stage 6 at the same time that Name That Tune taped on stage 5 at KTLA.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

As for "Pachyderm Payoff":

Is there a penalty if Ezmerelda relieves herself onstage during the show?

You could add an option where the contestant could keep the cash or trade it for whatever's in the trunk. :)

[dumps basket of peanuts on Jimmy]

Bringing together the subjects of dance troupes and trunks, didn't one of The Fly Girls on In Living Color look like she has some, as they say in the back alleys, "junk in the trunk"?

They got a clip of the first show up....

http://abc.go.com/primetime/showmethemoney/index.html

The ruleset looks good, a decent combination of knowledge and luck (and the question difficulty seems OK, especially since they're open ended)...I heard a few voice edits in the clip, hopefully it's a "first show jitters" thing....

Having watched the video online of the first 10-12 minutes, it did actually peak my interest a bit. And also reviewing the rulesheet online...as long as they maintain a good execution throughout, I think there's potential that the show can put up a good fight against Deal or No Deal.

-Dan
FLASHGames²
http://www.flashgameshows.com

Unfortunately, the multiple questions thing is completely ruined by the fact that they appear to be able to pass on all of them. On the UK pilot I saw filmed, you could only pass once per round (i.e., if you don't like the question you've got, you're stuck with the next one you pick for better or worse). Your question difficulty is much better though.

Really, they should have set a game limit on passing I think.

Oof. Welcome to Sprockets... Now we dance! That would have been a better title for this show. The game part looks interesting enough... when they get to it. I'm not watching 'Dance Fever' am I? Where's Denny Terrio? Anyway, this show is a TiVo special; hopefully they'll not s-t-r-e-t-c-h two games over the hour and a half on Tuesday.

I have to be honest, this is quite possibly the most awful thing I've seen in a reeeeaaaaalllly long time. There are TWO questions in a matter of 12 minutes. These questions are pretty easy also. I never thought there was going to be a show that will give away more money than "Deal or No Deal", but we found it. They took out the only interesting thing from the international versions: the chance to multiply/divide your money. The questions are so easy that this, more than DoND, has become a game of pick a square and get money. At least DoND has the mildly interesting aspect of The Banker. The only plus (and two very big pluses for all of them) is the dancing squad. The dancing is just, wow. I don't know how to describe it. Visually for a guy, it's entertaining. And then Shatner/Contestant break into dance, and I just watched with a confused expression on my face. I'll watch the first full episode, but wow. I was expecting good things with this, that suddenly died.