Have you been feeling good about yourself the past few days? Feeling smart? Prepared to have that feeling taken away. It’s part two of the championship match of England’s incredibly hard quiz show Only Connect. Part three will come later this weekend.
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Alex Davis is an award winning writer, producer, and humorist based out of Pittsburgh, PA, who works out of New York, Los Angeles, and London. Alex is the head writer and editor for BuzzerBlog and is the president and head of development of 5Hole Productions, specializing in unscripted formats for television and internet play.
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13 responses to "Part Two of “Only Connect”"
I actually solved the British Throne Succession question before they rang in…and the dates question was quite clever.
PBS or Discovery should try to put a version on US TV, but maybe in a College Bowl format (teams representing different schools, do a test series with the Ivy League)…
I’m a Bond fan, so I was happy there was a Bond question there, and was pleased when I got it, myself, lol.
This is a wonderful show and a great mental exercise. I’ve enjoyed doing these kinds of puzzles in the past, but you don’t see them much, just an overabundance of crosswords and word searches *which, don’t get me wrong, are fun also*.
I’d love to see a version states-side, but, much like Countdown and other certain Brit shows, there are… how should I say this… certain TV practices, ideas, and mentalities that would need to change first before this even remotely becomes a possibility…
Absolutely this would be awesome to see in the states, but obviously it would HAVE to be on PBS.. any other network and the sequences would be stupid shit pertaining to, say, “the women on The View” or “Survivor locales”… pop culture bs. don’t count on anything actually scholastic.
I know in the last comment thread “Discovery” got bounced around a lot to put a show like this on, linked with cash cab, but really cash cab is all about the gimmick, not really about the trivia I think.
For me I think there’d have to be a new cable channel (they’re cheap to make, even more now) where it’d be PBS-genre programming, but being for-profit could have much higher revenue if it could convince advertisers that they have a valuable demo.
I think that some of the upper-class level brands could advertise(cruises, watches), as well as some education brands (brittanica, national geographic) and even some “older” brands (AARP, ensure) could give it a shot.
However, now that I’ve mention “NatGeo” (as they like to refer to themselves now) I’ve realized they have a channel. They should buy this :D
This would be great for PBS or any of the Discoery Channels. And, as MikeSant318 pointed out, they should have it in a College Quiz Bowl-type format. It would be nice to see college kids pit against each other (eg. Yale vs. LSU or Stanford vs Texas).
To Lex: PBS should expand to cable (I know they colaborated with Nickelodeon a few years ago with Noggin, of course now, it’s completely owned by Viacom), they’ll get more funding that way.
Love the format, love the challenge of the questions, pace is killing me.
What makes J! entertaining is the quick pace, rapid fire format. As this is now, it makes nice background noise, but I couldn’t see myself putting 30 minutes into it. Even having both teams have a chance at all the questions (clues revealed in X second increments) would add to it.
Something that I found interesting was the host and contestants referencing a clock that we never see. We get that bar above the clues, but without seeing the actual time, it takes away a bit of the drama.
Finally, a seated host annoys me to no end. Unless the format presents itself as a single contestant vs. host format (i.e. millionaire, mastermind) where the two are directly facing each other, have the host stand. She looks lost behind that massive desk.
@DeVares actually now with digital TV, my local PBS has 3 channels going simultaneously, one in full HD. It’s pretty neat, and may lead to more varied PBS programming….or just more cooking and home improvement. We’ll see.
@Dan Y. The seated host is quite common in british panel shows, which is almost more of what this show feels like than a “game show.” Like Qi or Nevermind the Buzzcocks, it’s got a massive 3-part desk with players to the left, players to the right, host in the middle, all seated.
Agreed that a format involving college teams might be the best option for the show if it wants to air on U.S. shores.
Thinking outside the box, would pitching a U.S. version to ESPNU be worth a shot? ESPNU specializes in college sports, but I’m not sure if the channel would stride away from its NCAA sports-heavy base to air a show that focuses on academic “student athletes”.
(Note: back when I was business manager for a popular culture-based college quiz bowl format, a few players proposed an idea of pitching said format to ESPNU. It never happened due to a series of life changes (both work and social).)
@DanY: I couldn’t disagree more.
“pace is killing me.” This is a *fast* format. There’s precious little chit chat, it’s almost all game time. You need to give the guys at least half a chance of working it out. Lateral thinking in milliseconds is not possible.
“a clock that we never see.” Yes, you do see the clock. When it’s a quarter left, there’s 10 seconds to go. The host also indicates the time, as does the music’s crescendo. I can’t see how “3, 2, 1, 0″ would add to it.
“a seated host annoys me to no end” The desk is important so that the graphic in the bottom half of the screen doesn’t cut her in two. A standing host and seated contestants sounds very odd to me, and besides isn’t it just more civilised to sit down to think about stuff?
“Even having both teams have a chance at all the questions (clues revealed in X second increments) would add to it.” – Why? That way, you’d not be able to hear the team’s discussions, which is half the fun of the show. It would be OK as a round 4 idea but not for round 1 or 2.
Glad most of you like it, though! :)
David
OC question writer/editor
Nobody gives 2 shits what you think Bodycombe, you're the guy with a $100 ebook called "How to Create a Hit gameshow" yet has NEVER HAD ONE.
To James D.: Not a bad idea. Either ESPNU or CBS College Sports. If it’s ESPNU, you can have either Mike Greenberg, Stuart Scott, or Kenny Mayne host.
To Lex: I’m aware of PBS’ Digital channels, it could work there too.
To David B.: Now that you listen to us (or, in this case, read what we wrote), please tell us that you’re pitching this to the networks in the U.S.
I can see why everyone is saying this should be done with college kids, as it’s the last place Americans are allowed to look smart. However, with using a college or HS format, you have to work around the student’s schedules, and college kids can tend to be far too busy (at least the ones that excel at academics, not their alcoholic peers.)
I think a format this “smart” could work if it was more like either “Stump the” whatever his name is on ESPN, or in a “Kenny vs. Spenny” format where two teams/people do this for honor/bragging rights, maybe have a pool of 10 or so “smarties” who do this.
What’s great about Only Connect is the lateral thinking, because if you stick with trivia at some point you just have to go into obscure minutae. With puzzles like this it’s more like YDKJ or the old 1v100 questions where you have to know at least 2 things to get the answer (like the picture round where you had to not only name the items, but then figure out they were on the Paris Metro, from round one).
I can’t help but think of this as some kind of SNL or similar sketch, with an “ugly American” team on the other side… am I the only one?