The sky is falling...it really did. I had 85 mph winds and a whole lot of damage(not to mention no power for 2 damn days on top of that).....that was a helluva lot more important. I needed a reality check without TV to figure out game shows are a hobby, just that, a hobby. Some people should take the hint.

That comment will be making them "shiat pickles" without a doubt. You're on thin ice imho.

Somehow I don't think it's him.

This is only partially tongue-in-cheek: isn't it possible in this day and age to green screen every single part of the show?

Anybody remember VH1's "My Generation" music game show? Their entire set was virtually one huge green screen. That and what about Family Channel's "Paranoia"? I can only imagine how foolish that set looked in person.

-Doug

Wow, what a naive question. This is Fremantle, folks:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292770/

Well, not just Fremantle. It's Fremantle ^ S.V.

Sure, it was possible when they began. Remember when they would key in a picture on those Muntz big screen TV's. But it's such an old technology. Why don't they bring back the paper credit roll? If it's a cost problem, maybe they could get Best Buy to exchange a video wall for promotional consideration. Even the small town stores have 'em.

I'll keep making this point until I'm blue in the face:

Shut off the music, fire the models, paint the set gray, hire some Bingo caller as emcee for $60,000 per year, use pictures of all the prizes. You've saved millions but what kind of show do you have left? Answer: the USSR version.

That's not naive, it's just plain dumb. How do you fit the Eiffel tower into studio 33*? Answer: you don't. You use drops and B-roll.

*I shall forever refuse to call it the B-- B----- studio.

Something else that came to mind:

I know it's not exactly the same, but wasn't the answer board during the 1994-95 season of Feud actually a graphic superimposed onto the digital board, which was what the studio contestants saw?

Again, not totally the same, but I remember sloppy work being done on Feud (revealing the digital board beneath the graphic) that I hope doesn't get duplicated here...

Yes.

The tech wasn't ready for prime time. Look at a football broadcast for an idea of how far keying technology has come.

And it looked completely cheesy on TV, and I don't mean Supermarket Sweep or Wink's Tic Tac Dough Velveeta cheesy.

Either pony up the money for a real set, with backdrops, monitors and desks or don't do the show. The interactive text message shows, fine. An actual game show? No.

Ironically, I can't stand the amount of keying technology being done on some of the football broadcasts. There's something about it that I find almost physically uncomfortable to watch. One of the networks (I think ESPN) had a down-and-distance indicator keyed on the screen such that it was under one of the offensive linemen, and it was that part of the screen that was irritating my eyes.

By the same token, I can't stand the ChromaKey ads that are in basbeall games now, either. Something about the outline of the batter's body and bat against the green background bothers my eyes. That, and those GD backlit ads along the boards in certain hockey arenas.

Mine. Can we please move on now??

P*ssing contest is three doors down, gentlemen! D*ck comparison is next to that! Please move along -- nobody here wants to watch. :)

No doubt, it was a tmi hours ago and didn't need a bump(no TPIR pun intended either)

I thought we were allowed to say Big Bitchy?

And yet, you bumped it. May we know your age, please?
ObTopic: Can't wait for Monday!

How bout he takes a seat, too?

How has this statement flown so far under the radar? What other purposes do you mean? Like the Showcases? IUFB backgrounds? I remember there being scuttlebutt about just having pictures of the motorhomes, cabin cruisers and other bulky items meant behind the doors.

I'm sure John will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's now being used for prize backdrops.

So does that mean that they can do that "boat floating on water" trick again?

They did that without the use of a green screen, so it's hardly a benefit now.

I was there for five of the six shows taped the week of Sept. 15th.
Consider it CONFIRMED what CGJ said.

Um, which part?

Which part?

The green screen was used not only as a backdrop to a SC prize, but also a pricing game prize as well.

Don't think I wasn't fully ready to see it used to display a car as well after seeing the above the first two days.

Funny - you were sitting next to us during the first Sunday taping of the season, and you were so embittered by Roger's firing and all the changes that Syd wanted to implement that you swore to us that you were never coming back to another taping.

Reports also have you saying that you were "paying your last respects" to Studio 33 when you went to Drew's first show.

I'm not saying. I'm just saying.

High five!

Okay, thanks.

In Willy's defense, when he said that, he wasn't expecting to have free airline tickets he didn't know what to do with at the same time his city was partially evacuated for a hurricane.

It's an awfully big country to subject oneself to something one hates so much.

Five times.

And it's not like there's nothing else to do in Los Angeles.

To be blunt -- so what?


You can listen to me spin stories at Canter's while my matzo ball soup gets cold. I am now a Hollywood Tourist Attraction (that's only if you run out of things to do).

While I don't want to speak for Tim, what I gather from it was that Willy thinks very little of the show, yet he had to be the one to share the news on the board.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Have you considered that perhaps Willy is also considerably more worried about the show than you are?

Just because you don't like the direction something is going doesn't mean you quit keeping tabs on it.

Still, this appears to be another episode of Words Have Meanings. (A spinoff of Masters of the Obvious.) If he's really going around (at several different points) saying he's never-ever-ever going to attend another taping, and then he keeps showing up at tapings, I think that's a fair point of ridicule. Much like the celebrities who swore they'd move to Canada if George Bush got elected. Or, for that matter, the senior George Bush saying something like "Read my lips, no new taxes."

If you're going to make a simple, declarative statement to make some grand point, you are going to put yourself in a position to -- at the very least -- be teased when you go back on that statement.

Well said. A similar comparison, in my opinion, is people who make grandiose exits from online forums, only to return again, sometimes mere days later. You can damn well bet they get some ridicule.

This offends me. I'm leaving this place forever! Screw you guys, I'm going home!

I've got $5 on 11:15am Pacific.

11:07 Pacific. Close enough.

What did I miss?

/Or 11:18 Invision time.
//I can see the future!
///Look out for that table!

So, Words Have Meanings...is a game of definitions?

Can anyone care to call Mr. Jim Perry for confirmation?

+5

Christ, we were bound to find one *eventually.*

/bravo
//bravissimo

This is very true. I really do think, though, that when Willy originally said that, he truly had no intention of ever going back. Last week was more along the lines of, "Well, I have no electricity until God knows when, and I've got some free plane tickets...I may as well go out and see how much more they've managed to screw up."

That does it. I've had enough of this forum.

I'm back.

The problem, though, is that Willy takes that negativity to the lot with him.

My group and I sat with him for a good half-hour on the first taping of the season, when all the ineligible audience members were weeded out of the line. Every word that came out of his mouth was about how much they'd ruined the show, how the staff doesn't enjoy working there anymore, how the Sunday tape dates were a sign of something ominous, how he's never coming back, etc. There were 324 people in line for the show who were happy to be there and excited to see the new season, and Willy almost seemed intent on whizzing in everyone's punch bowl.

The only reason I bring this up is because I, as someone who attends tapings when the chance arises, found it incredibly rude and insensitive to find someone badmouthing the show to people who'd come from all across the country just to be there. It's like going to Disneyland and waiting in line at the Matterhorn in front of some guy who won't stop talking about how the place isn't the same since they got rid of Captain EO, and that he's never coming back because he knows they've got their sights set on putting in a video wall for the Country Bears show.

(And then read a month later that he has gone back - multiple times - and probably acted like a wet blanket in line each of those times too.)

If you're that pissed off about the show, then stop going to the tapings. All you accomplish is bringing everyone else down, and taking up a spot in line that could be used for someone who wants to be there.

And see, that's actually not the part I personally have a problem with. If TPIR is something you feel passionate about, then I can completely get wanting to check it out, even if only to complain about all the awful changes. (Though certainly Loogie makes a good point about why even THAT isn't such a cool thing to do.) My problem is with the simple declarative statement in the first place. When you say something like that then don't follow through, then no matter what you say from that point on, the impression you're leaving us with is that things must not be so bad after all.

We have officially debated this topic to death.

Nooo, it's only 22 pages. :)