I was digging through some old posts from 2004 on here — amazing how many more shows there were to talk about back then! — and after seeing a couple Balderdash recaps among other things, that got me thinking. Has there ever been an otherwise-decent host that had just one or two minor traits that rubbed you the wrong way?

For instance, I thought that Elayne Boosler was a solid host on Balderdash, but it annoyed me how every freaking time she would say the name of the show "BALLLLLderdash." Nothing major, but it did kinda grate after a while.

Also, how many times did we see exchanges like this on Lingo?

[J][O][K][E]R

Contestant: Joust. J-O-U-S-T.
Chuck: Could be!

[J][O]U(S)T

Contestant: Joked. J-O-K-E-D.
Chuck: Is that it?

[J][O][K][E]D

(desending scale, control passes to other team)

The first couple episodes, I could understand, but he was still doing this well into the show's nineteenth fifth "season." The man hosted two shows in which letters play a major role.

The first thing I came up with was Bob Barker during Dice Game plays: When a contestant rolled a 1 or 6, he'd make the contestant say "higher" or "lower", even though we all knew what it was. I like how Drew just says "A 6! Is that right? [buzz] No, but we know it's lower!"

I was never a fan of Allen Ludden's way in which he interviewed contestants. He'd ask them where they were from and what they did, but never acknowledge their response--he'd just say "Okay" and move on. Maybe some people are into that kind of thing, but I prefer a little more warmth and interaction in contestant interviews.

Trebek does that sometimes too. I know I've seen this kind of exchange many times:

Contestant: I'm a Trinidadian amateur ichthyologist.
Alex: And what does that mean?
Contestant: It means I'm from Trinidad and I study fish, but I haven't been doing it very long.
Alex: (beat) I see. (beat) Our next contestant is Conker T. Squirrel blah blah blah.

It always bugged me when Peter Marshall would rush everyone at the end of a nighttime show, taking time to remind the stars not to take so much time because the contestants were playing for money. Hey, if it's that much of a problem, don't have the celebrities crack jokes at all. Or pay the contestants $60 a square at the end. Geez.

Ludden wasn't exactly Groucho, but he didn't seem disinterested. I do chortle when he asks women nothing but "what does your husband do?" My beef with him was that he'd roll his eyes at or outright mock lousy clues or guesses from civilians but look the other way if they were from Joan Fontaine or Doug Fairbanks.

I've noticed Wayne Brady will sometimes will address women as "Miss First Name" as in "Okay Miss Evelyn, let's hope the big deal is not behind door number 1..." I guess it's out of respect, but I find it annoying.

Of course, it WAS 1965 or thereabouts; enlightenment hadn't descended upon us all at that point. Notice if you watch a few shows it's either that or "your're a working girl?"



It's a Southern thing - my wife, who is from Georgia, does it all the time.

Currently, it's Alfonso and his responses to contestant answers on Catch 21: "...and that IS right!" Oh wait, you said 'good hosts'... never mind. But it feels better having complained about him in a public forum. Thank you for that.

Cullen had an annoying habit of scratching his nose or the inside of his ear on camera.

The latter irks the hell out of me when anyone does it on camera. I remember seeing him do that on a TJW ep. and slightly cringed.

This one has been mocked before, but Jack Barry's (and to a lesser extent, Wink) very irritating habit of drawing out the questions, to build up drama, and for what? A Chevette hatchback and $700 in cash? Oh wait, the opportunity to play for a trip to Rio in a completely random bonus game! I know that was B&E more than anything, but it still irks me.

Not that he was a good host, but I must add that I hated how Ty Treadway would always elaborate on an answer on Crosswords. When Trebek does it, it's in a very conversational tone, which makes it sound like he knows what the hell he's talking about. When Treadway did it, he sounded like he was reading the info straight from the teleprompter.

Two? You mean that Woolery left Wheel?

/Heh, this is fun

I always felt a little irked at how Wink Martindale morphed into Stereotypical Cheesy Game Show Host when he hosted Debt.

Eh? You mean he wasn't when he did TTD?

As for the Ludden/Trebek discussion earlier in the thread, my ComStudies 102 class taught us to avoid just that when doing an interview.

Roger Lodge did the same thing on Camouflage. It gets annoying when he does it after Every single answer.

Peter Tomarken -- He was the only host I knew who couldn't go 3 or 4 sentences without having to laugh mid-stream (the laughter always sounded forced).

Geoff Edwards on the Canadian Chain Reaction version -- When an answer was wrong, they'd buzz it immediately before Geoff had a chance to say anything. But when an answer was correct, he'd play it out as if it could be wrong: "Hmmm...that could be...Let's see if thats correct....<DING>..Right you are!"

On the very earliest shows -- which were recently run on GSN overnight -- the celebs actually interviewed the contestants with one or two questions, after Allen's "where-are-you-from-and-what-do-you-or-your-husband-do". I really thought it worked well, but they soon stopped doing it.

It didn't seem like interviewing to me, more like healthy curiosity. I liked it, too. As one who grew up watching the likes of Anita Gillette as a "celebrity" partner, it was quite a realization to see vintage Password with big stars and find out what a novelty it was to partner civilian with star.

I NEVER thought I'd be one to offer "constructive criticism," but Jim Peck always counted the money slowly whenever someone won the bonus game; as if TJW was an hour-long show. I was expecting him to say, "Well, that's our show for today..." right afterwards.

Then there was the brouhaha about Chuck Woolery "fondling" Stacy Hayes when she was co-hosting Lingo. Bud Collyer did the same thing to Roxanne and/or Beverly on Beat the Clock; and did anyone raise a big stink about that?!

And even though I didn't bother to view any of Barker's appearances on MG '7X/PM; I'm certain he tried to upsatge Geno at every turn. Barker probably never bothered to realize whose show he was on! If he had done the same to Peter Marshall or Dick Clark, I'm sure those two would have told him to "go soak his head!"

I rest my case.

Cordially,
Tammy

P.S. Forgive me Misters Peck, Woolery, and Collyer.....

Priceless.

You mean, the one based on complete conjecture?

On J!, sometimes all three contestants respond incorrectly, and it has a profound effect on the scores. That doesn't stop Alex from saying, "No harm, no foul."

SWAK!

Cullen was STILL asking women "What does your husband do?" on TJW as late as '83.

Kind of impressive for Cullen to host a show a still-living Jack Barry was hosting in '83. He was still pulling that on Child's Play though.

Bad traits of good hosts I can think of include Richard Dawson for speaking too softly, Bob Barker for being condescending to contestants and Ray Combs for going off on tangents with contestants instead of focusing on the game.

You misspelled "Bert Convy".

Well played.

I actually didn't think that Ray went off on "tangents," but yeah. Bert Convy would Not. Shut. Up. on SP. I didn't mind it as much on WLoD because it was a more casual game anyway.

I do agree with Paul on the other two, though. Dawson would sometimes whisper or mumble for no reason, and even with my decent hearing and the captioning on, and even though I'm used to the dialect known as Midwestern Slur and Elide, I still find myself saying, "What'd he say again?"

As for Bob, I don't mind occasional bouts of "get the HELL off my stage" moments when the contestant truly deserves it — like, say, pressing the button in Flip Flop after Bob already showed you how to flip, flop or flip-flop. But more frequently in the later seasons, it seemed like he would belittle even people who made simple goofs. And let's not forget his "That's the first time that's ever happened!" when even casual TPIR fans know it's already happened shinty-six times.

/one more pet peeve: People who don't capitalize the "Is"

Whoops. Never thought about that. I was referencing the YT video here, which the poster has titled as being from 1983. My mistake.

I was confused for a moment. I imagined Bill asking a seven-year-old girl what her husband does. "What was this, the Indian version?"

I could never watch any Winkster show. Same goes for John Davidson. I guess I just don't do smarm.

Same reason I never much cared for Bob Eubanks. I kinda wish they'd given Bill Rafferty the daytime version of "Card Sharks" in '86 instead.