10Jun2010
“Late Night Liars” Debuts; Write Your Review and Watch a Preview
Tonight Late Night Liars will debut at 11:00PM ET on GSN. As I said in my review, I really don’t know how to accurately describe it. It’s a very weird show and it’s going to be polarizing. Having said that, the “likes” were a majority. At least give it a shot and see what you think. It’s a funny, clever show and I hope it sticks around for a while. The show has put up a preview of tonight’s episode. You can watch the first six minutes of the episode now. It’s a good look into the show. Again, I hope you enjoy it somewhat and can’t wait to see what you think for a multitude of reasons.
The Weasel is excellent.
Holy crap, this looks awesome. They finally found a way to get the old Match Game chemistry back – create fictional characters who already have a backstory and previous chemistry! The hosting needs a bit of work from this clip, but as a whole this show looks awesome. I cracked up.
I didn't hate it! The show actually seems pretty funny – I'll check it out tonight. I hope it's not just sex/sexuality jokes, so we'll see how it goes!
This looks awesome! It's Balderdash with puppets. The feel is great and I LOVE Weasel. Anything edgy from Henson has awesome written all over it. Can't wait to see the double run at 11 tonight.
Apparently, we are supposed to get this in prime time here on the West Coast. That's if GSN does not have a West Coast feed, or if our cable system is only carrying the East Coast feed. This will make a hash of the show's title, as it'll be right slap dab in prime time.
Larry Miller is no Gene Rayburn.
That said, if this clip is any indication, the show could have a good vibe, and be well-suited for a late night slot. Some of the jokes were, if not funny, at least surprising and audacious.
Weasel seems to be having fun in what could be a limited and thankless role. Is he one of the regular voice guys on Henson shows?
Just finished watching the debut episode. It's mildly amusing, but I don't see it as a surefire hit. As far as panel-based game shows go, I remember enjoying GSN's revival of I've Got a Secret more than this. For one thing, the gameplay is much too slow for my tastes. It seems simple but for some reason it seemed like they went over the rules an awful lot. The hemming and hawing over who's the liar is an especially annoying time waster.
I thought the game had its clever moments, such as the apparently not-so-random distribution of money in rounds 1 & 2. And I thought the set-up of the bonus round was brilliant, and found it especially encouraging that the contestant didn't have to gamble and that there was prize money at stake no matter how the contestant performed.
All in all, it's something I'll want to keep an eye on, but I'm not hooked just yet. Truth is, in the last year I've shifted most of my television viewing online with sites like Hulu. If I can't find it online, then odds are good I'm not going to be watching unless it's extremely convenient for me. I would probably watch LNL more often if it were available online, but as far as I know that's not the case. Do we even know when the show's regular time slot is?
We did get the East Coast feed from our cable server here in the San Fernando Valley (a part of the City of Los Angeles). This means that the show ran at eight o'clock, local time. That's hardly "late night" by anyone's definition!
The show tries hard for the old "Match Game" vibe, and at times achieves it.
Larry Miller seems to grow on one, and I hope he'll grow into this gig.
Set is functional, and quite traditional.
Endgame is cleverly written, and may be the best part of the show, from the pure "game" standpoint.
Of the characters, Weasel appears to be the most winning–although I'd affirm that I'd heard that voice in other Henson productions. "William A. Mummy" sounds like he's trying to channel Paul Lynde.
Unless our local cable server wakes up and realizes we're getting the East Coast feed, this show may attract the negative attention of the LOL's who are the perceived audience for GSN—and those LOL's may not be LOL!
I thought it was going to be much raunchier than it turned out to be. I do agree that moments seemed a bit slow, but I liked it. Thought the contestants were stupid, even for a non-nerdy show, which led to Larry's best line of the night. The thing that freaks me out (in a good way) is that about 10 minutes in, I had pegged each celeb as somebody I've met in my enlongated dabble into local theater. I'll keep watching, at least DVR it…when I figure out the regular timeslot.
This is a step in the right direction. I went in with the mindset of this being more of a comedy show as opposed to a game show and there were definitely a couple of zingers. And the fake commercials if done right could go viral.
That said, I agree with many of the previous posters that the front half of the game runs WAY too slow. If we can do 2 topics per round and eliminate the super slow reveal with the last two panelists this could be a solid comedy & game show.
That random-ometer has me scared. Two contestants could play a perfect game and have the winner decided by a scrolling money wheel behind a caricature. I smell a purple rock..
The highlight though is the bonus round. It's unique and fantastic. I'd watch it by itself. All in all, I wish Late Night Liars well and hope GSN keeps pushing original (yet semi-traditional) game shows.
You win for your Survivor reference.
For those of you who missed it, or live on the West Coast, it will be on again at 2am et/11pm pt.
That way, even those on the WEST coast can see it fit its name, "Late Night Liars"
Gee…did they get permission from David Letterman to air an clip of "Hal Gurnee's Network Time Wasters?" in this time slot…wait..this WAS an ACTUAL show? Ugh….it's not canned applause you're hearing..it's crickets. Hopefully, it improves…
That was it? It was ok, but they spent all that money on this? The end game was exactly the same as they did on Star Face, isn't it?
Hm. Well, it wasn't terrible like I was expecting…
I don't think this will have a long shelf life, though. Then again, does anything on GSN (other than Lingo, apparently)?
I really enjoyed Late Night Liars, Just fantastic!
This show was terrible. Bottom line, it was terrible, and it won't last two weeks. But knowing GSN and whatever's preventing them from making wise decisions, it's here to stay. Ugh. The comedy factor was uninteresting and annoyingly overexaggerated, the gameplay was dragged out too far and unappealing, and the host did a terrible job at, well, hosting, by trying to be funny instead of focusing on gameplay. Way to go, GSN. This is your worst show yet.
"Now is a good time to ask 'Really?'"
Have you seen Think Like a Cat!?!?!?
I love anything Henson…It's interesting to see that the game wasn't really…solid, but the characters were. I loved all the characters, and I thought Larry Miller did a great job hosting the show. I especially loved Cashmere Ramada. Henson has never let me down. This has hit all over it. The ads I had seen were great, and were plastered all over cable. Let's hope it got good ratings. What surprised me is that the second episode was…a rerun of the same episode? What was up with that?
There was no reason for there to only be three rounds in the main game. PICK UP THE PACE.
GSN, like a number of cable channels, has two feeds, an East Coast and a West Coast. Apparently, it's up to the cable system as to which one to choose.
A friend of mine lives up in Portland, Oregon, and their cable system brings in the East Coast feed of the Cartoon Network–so they get to see CN shows, whether it's "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" or "Destroy Build Destroy" three hours ahead of us here, who get the West Coast feed.
GSN actually does not have an East and West coast feed anymore. There is only one feed of the network available, and it’s biased to the east coast. They usually re-run shows 3 hours after their normal run time to accomodate the west coast (which explains the 2am re-run of LNL).
Complaining about the lack of material played is like complaining about not enough questions being played on H2. I thought the end game was clever, especially if the contestant didn't have anything to remind him/her which category is in play at the time.
I liked this, a lot more than I expected I would. The gameplay is simple but not unappealing, the presentation is top-shelf, the payouts very nice for cable, and the endgame lots of fun; it even has that nebulous “shout at the TV” factor, something increasingly rare in today’s game show world. About the only thing I didn’t care for very much was the humor, which came off as a bit forced and unnatural at times; however, that could also just be a side effect of how new the show is. It’s possible it could improve as time goes by. We’ll have to see.
I think what I like most about this is that it’s definitely more “edgy” than “adult.” Sure, we have boozing puppets and some off-color humor, but honestly there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before on a typical Match Game PM episode from 35 years ago. And compared to, say, 3′s a Crowd (the absolute nadir of Chuck Barris Productions) this show is Nickelodeon material! This sets my mind at ease, since (as I’ve commented before on this site) whenever you try to go R-rated on a traditional, non-relationship game show, the results have never been especially pretty. While this probably isn’t something kids should be watching unsupervised, it’s hardly South Park or anything like that.
Overall, Late Night Liars reminds me of a multi-car pile up involving Match Game, The Muppet Show, Liar’s Club, Balderdash, and maybe just a hint of The Cheap Show for good measure. That combination quite frankly breaks my brain trying to comprehend, but it works for these guys. I hope they get the chance to grow into it, but even as it is this is probably the best GSN Original in a long time.
I’ll just say ditto on the pace, but the thing that left me kind of uncomforable was the forced laughter going on during some parts of the show. The weasel was great though…I think after a couple shows, it will be more relaxed and a much better show. People need to just sit back and give it time instead of thinking it jumps the shark right out of the gate.
I love it it reminds me of the liar’s club/ to tell the truth i hope it stays around and the randomizer is cool too :)
Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! Typical GSN show. If I wanted to watch a “puppet show”, I would have turned on Sesame Street. What’s next GSN, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Ferry getting their own shows? Cheap dumb show, for a Cheap dumb network!
This show is not bad, IT’S REALLY BAD. I like to give thing a chance so I watch the second show not any better than the first. I suggest you shoot the creator and writers so they and produce anything else.
Chuck is mad about a puppet show at 2:27 AM… NERD!!!
I’ve seen the commercials and they blow…I can’t imagine how bad the show must be. I could never stoop low enough to watch it.