To suggest that Chris Mann’s TPIR book will be nothing but or primarily people “complaining” shows total ignorance about his well-liked 3s Company book and the NBC tv movie that followed that used him as a producer. Nearly every cast and major crew member of that show interviewed for that book, and John Ritter applauded Mann in many national TV interviews. And I even remember Joyce Dewitt talking favorable about the book on The O’Reilly Factor!!!

Mann’s also written for TV Guide, Emmy Magazine and Radar, according to his official web site, http://www.Retroality.TV. So calling him an “unknown author” is ridiculous.

I read his 3s Co book and loved it, even though it finally told the truth about Suzanne Sommers, which was tough to accept even in a book that was way more factual and balanced than her biography. I think once Barker’s self-serving book is published in 2009 and America is finally ready to hear the real story about Bob, Mann’s book will fly off the shelves.

In my opinion, whether you like, love, or hate a show, and certain elements of the genre itself, it is, and STILL is a great time to be a game show fan! The activity on blogs like this is just one piece of proof of that. Also, I along with many feel this seasons’ two new game show entries will do a lot better than last years shows!

Oh BTW, Golden-Road.net is back up again! The forums are all working, and some upgrades are being made as well, there is also a “Future” discussion thread where members are “Split,” so to speak, on the potential changes to the show. However, it seems like everyone has calmed down and are having rational discussions again. Also, it seems like the vibe is quickly trying to get back to a positive one.

Folks, I still believe TPIR will continue on and be a great show, “changes” be damned! I am not really that worried about it.

Now, in theory they could finally take Guiding Light out behind the woodshed and reconfigure the lineup, since most affiliates already run GL in the morning.

But what needs to be taken into account is that there’s a reason Price is the last of the network games: the genre just didn’t work that well anymore. Daytime Millionaire actually does relatively well in today’s landscape (those post-news clearances on stations like WABC and WPVI etc. help), but Family Feud hangs on by the skin of its teeth.

There was buzz at the beginning of the Millionaire wave in primetime that it would signal a rebirth of the genre in daytime. Thing is, most of the prime time games have tanked, the only current exceptions being 5th Grader and Deal. The last two syndicated games were abysmal failures, even by the justifiably lower standards today. Maybe Deal will succeed, and maybe 5th Grader will come to syndication after all, but that’s a lot of speculation at this point.

There seems to be a great denial going on on the part of the hysterical GoldenRoad.net posters. Just because something worked for 35 years does not mean it will continue to do so. Today’s daytime TV landscape is radically different. When Price premiered, independent broadcast stations were no threat, airing what could charitably be described as filler material in daytime for the most part. Today, with the flood of syndicated talk and court shows, they’ve taken a piece of the audience. Cable networks have not only grown in number, they’ve turned their attention to building daytime audiences as well in many cases. Whether it’s full-time channels sucking off the parents-and-kids audiences (a la PBS Sprout, Playhouse Disney, Nick Jr. etc.) or lifestyle and information shows on the likes of WE or reruns of current or recent prime time shows, there’s much more competition for a set of eyeballs that isn’t growing all that much. (Let’s not forget DVDs, video games, etc.–the list goes on, and that’s just things to do with a TV!)

No, the View is no powerhouse like it once was either, for the same reasons. But several days a week on average, it’s besting Price.

How anyone can rationally argue that changing nothing will ensure success is beyond me.

Oh, and to a previous poster, I miss Hurdles, too!!!

Ratings for daytime soaps are plunging across the board, and the networks are looking at anything to save the shows, from cutting budgets to changing the look and feel of soaps (CBS has done that with two of its soaps, to negative reviews overall). There may not be a single network soap on the air in 10-15 years.

The View is not the ratings juggernaut it was a few years ago, and the daytime “news” shows are also experiencing problems (the fourth hour of “Today,” for instance, has been a ratings stinker, particularly since KLG became co-host).

TPiR is in the same boat. No one knows what will happen with TPiR post-Dob, but we need to take a “wait and see” approach, and await to hear from witnesses of Season 37 episodes, before we declare the show better, worse or dead.

I’m curious if there was any tension backstage among Carey, Carey’s people, Fremantle execs (who back Carey) and Barker loyalists which could have led to Dobkowitz being bounced. This reminds me of the NBC late-night scene back when Jay Leno became permanent host, where you had a Tonight Show set full of Leno supporters, Carson loyalists and people who wanted to see David Letterman, not Leno, win the job (and there were plenty of Carson loyalists who fell in the Letterman camp). IIRC, it probably took a good 2-3 years before Leno was able to make Tonight “his” show, not a Carson carbon copy. Perhaps Carey is in the same boat, and it will take him 2-3 years to truly make TPiR HIS show.

OMG they moved the prop 3/16 of a micrometer THEY JUST RUINED THE WHOLE SHOW FOR ME!!!!

Seriously I love watching the spazzing out that’s going on. Sure it’s a shame that Roger was fired but life goes on. I heard about the news and went about my life as normal, no sobbing spells or anything like that.

But what do I know? If I ever got the chance to be on the show, I’d probably be one of those contestants that get bashed because I dont have the prices psychotically memorized and lose because I didn’t know some asinine trick that only a handful of people know.

Drew Carey is a breath of fresh air. Fremantle owns the show. It their right to do with it what they please, like it or not. Perhaps not a good track record with retools, but this season was fresh and different in many ways, and I watched again.

Idea: Go to four pricing games, have a four-way spinoff (one spin each, with the two top spinners to do a traditional showdown of two spins, advantage to the higher spin in the first round), then a showcase which is longer and more entertaining and exciting. Slow the pace a bit, let Drew shine, and allow the reduction in pricing games to increase the prizes for each one and the showcase. Get rid of the 10-second pricing games which have been there only to allow a total of six to be played(One Right Price comes to mind).

Really, it’s time for another retool. If Fremantle decides it’s time for a new captain of the ship, so be it, and wish Roger well for a long (and I’ll bet stressful) career.

FROM ALEX DAVIS:
———————-
It lead to a level of game show hysteria I’ve never seen before. It’s not exaggeration; read some of the message boards. You could even read my inbox which was literally flooded with emails of people complaining that I wasn’t investigating this situation well on July 4th.
———————-

You’ve never seen this kind of hysteria before? I’ve seen it before, quite a few times!

First, in 2000. When the Nintendo GameCube was announced, Shigeru Miyamoto said that there would be a “more mature Mario”. Immediately, fanb01z went batcrap insane over the prospect of the Super Mario Bros. series becoming Nintendo’s Grand Theft Auto. And the grand irony? Mario STILL hasn’t become more mature, not even with Super Mario Galaxy! It’s just the same old damn “save Peach from Bowser” biz. To paraphrase HomerJaySimpson above me, Mario has become a car sputtering regularly, like Bob Barker did in his last few years.

Then in 2005, DeviantArt founder Scott Jarkoff was fired, and he tried to lead the site in a revolution not all that dissimilar to what Marc Green and the others are doing with Golden Road.net over The Dob’s firing. The grand irony is, I did some investigation of that controversy from the spring of 2007 until I was banned a month ago, and I found out that Jark actually deserved his firing because, like Bob Barker, he was warm and friendly online, but offline…was a different story!

And now, here in 2008, everything old is new again. I expected the fanb01z to go batcrap insane when they heard the news…after all, that’s what they did when Bob Barker retired. But Marc Green, ClockGameJohn, FPGWillyT, and all the other mods are supposed to be the “level heads” on the site. They’re supposed to be “above the fray”, maintaining order. The fact that they are participating in and even ENCOURAGING all this drama is UNACCEPTABLE!!!

Will The Dob’s firing ruin the show? Maybe. But we have to watch first and find out. Going insane like this when Season 36 hasn’t even ended yet and when taping for Season 37 won’t begin until three days after the end is just plain wrong! >___<

The Budget of the show is usually very flexible, and adjusts to certain periods throughout the season. I’ve this noticed over the last few seasons. For example, when this season started there was a lot of winning! There were several perfect shows and Double Showcase winners in the first few months. This caused the show to be over budget, and “budget mode” as they call it went on for a couple of months. But, when the show’s budget was back in line, the bigger prizes became available again, just like that. I assume when a new season begins, the show resets itself and a fresh untouched budget is activated, which can be worked in any way the producers see fit.

As far as GR.net is concerned, they really need to STOP IT! Look, I’m a fan and all, but personally, I could care less if a certain pricing game is staged differently, or played in a certain slot. I don’t obsess over camera angles, wipes, turntable shots, or how many times a certain game gets played. Also, all those other points you made, it seems the good people GR.net haven’t actually taken all this into account, and that’s why they are acting they way they are. Is there any way we can get through to them?

Finally, I would like to add that maybe Fremantle’s plan is indeed to try to do something to breathe new life into the show. I still think that the show will be O.K., and it will continue to be popular. Heck, hiring Drew Carey in the first place was really the first step in making the show more fun and loose. The ratings for the MDSs were great, too. The change in the Million-Dollar format was brilliant, I thought.

The “don’t fix what isn’t broken” idea is a fine philosphy, but Price has been showing signs of fading for quite some time. No–it’s not near death yet, but the last few years of Barker were the equivalent of a car starting to sputter regularly: it’s still moving but not like it once did.

The fact is the show’s audience has continue to see its average age climb far too high. The much-ballyhooed college kids who watch between classes are great, but the gap in between is troubling. Make no mistake, there are enough desirable viewers in daytime to make money for many programmers, from homemakers to shift workers to work-at-home types sneaking a glance at the TV for company during the day. But Price isn’t keeping pace.

The choices facing CBS are letting the institution die for sure–perhaps slowly, but that’s the way it’s heading if nothing is done–or taking a stab at breathing some new life into the formula. It may turn out that nothing can save it; sooner or later, everything runs its course. And to be sure, there is room for second guessing the changes that are made–whether they were the right adjustments, or the right areas to tinker with. But to smugly assume all would be well if you do nothing is silly, to be charitable.

Even a major set overhaul should not cause the wailing seen on GoldenRoad.net. If you’re really a fan of the GAME, of seeing people win prizes by playing a rotating series of pricing games, then Drew standing on a turntable or in front of a video wall is irrelevant. The color of the floor is irrelevant. The use of flashing lights or LED strips is irrelevant. And the GR.net crowd should remember their particular obsession isn’t shared by all fans, no matter how loyal. Not everyone is going to tune in, see a more modern look, and decide that they now don’t like seeing little old ladies from Omaha win a “NEW CAR!” or play Plinko. People didn’t stop watching Jeopardy when the big letters vanished; they didn’t stop watching Wheel of Fortune when the shopping went away. Keeping pace with the times, even if it means resembling other shows, is not the worst thing that can happen.

As to the issue of four games instead of six–as has been SPECULATED, not confirmed–none of us know if CBS may have taken yet more time away from the show for commercials. As it is, the hurry-up elements are obvious, and taking any more time would only increase that issue. Dropping back to the next-lower even number of games might allow for game play more like the earlier days of the show. It may also allow for Drew to play to his strengths with contestants. For people obsessed with how many times the most obscure pricing games get played, it may mean less of their favorites, but, again, average viewers don’t care how many times “Let ‘Em Roll” is played. What’s more, it’s possible the budget is tighter. As has been noted, when times are lean, the games become harder to win. If you go into a season with a lower budget, the increased number of losses will be more pronounced in a six-game format.

Frankly, nothing will make many of the GR.net people happy. They’ll complain if Drew ties his shoes the wrong way. Making some changes now that he’s settling in as host makes business sense. It’s a gamble, but the alternative is certain failure in a few years.

Having said that, and having known about the drama behind the scenes for a long time (although without as much detail as I saw posted), it’s kinda a sad commentary on things, when there’s so much backbiting, ego-tripping, “taking sides,” and playing poliitcs behind the scenes. It’s something like finding out the celebrity you’ve had a secret crush on is either married, or involved in a relationship, as that may taint, if not dilute, the fantasy, even if only a little bit.

There were two movies made back in the ’50s (both personal faves of mine); one was titled “The Great Man.” Based on a novel, it told the story of a radio & TV personality, whose untikely death in a car accident, becomes just short of a national tragedy, as he was beloved by the public. A broadcast journalist assigned to cover the events leading up to the funeral, interviewed parctically everyone who had either known or worked with this person, only to discover he was as reviled behind the scenes, as he was revered by his fans.
The other movie was “A Face In the Crowd,” which starred Andy Griffith (”as you’ve never seen him before”-pre Andy Taylor) as a cheap booze-swilling, guitar-playing lowlife drifter, who after being interviewed in a local jail by the daughter of a small-town radio station owner, becomes an “overnight sensation,” eventually winding up a major network TV star. Yet, his taste for liquor, and women, along with his ego, and two-faced nature (not unlike “The Great Man”) eventually show him for the phony he really is.