What the F Week: “Who Killed J.C.”
It’s “What the F Week!” where we’re going to attempt a full week of coverage and videos of recently announced shows that are making me go, “What the F.” The lucky thing about word of GSN’s shows in preproduction being announced is they got spread everywhere so I’m basically all clear to finally start ranting about some of it. We’ll start with a Spanish import called Who Killed J.C.? which is a dark comedy/game show. The basic idea seems to be the first half of the show is a scripted sitcom type murder mystery a-la Clue. In the second half contestants try to figure out who murdered J.C. (or whoever the central character becomes) and wins some money. Here’s the pitch film from the production company.
While the idea isn’t horrible, I’ll be absolutely floored (if and when it makes it to air) if it does anything. For the millionth time GSN’s audience is the little old ladies in their houses with their army of cats. Obviously that’s not all of the audience. We get a lot of hits and they are predominately all men, but in terms of Nielsen households GSN is an middle age-to-old lady’s network. Something like Russian Roulette, which just dropped people through holes, didn’t fly. Something like Friend or Foe?, which just had a bit of bickering, didn’t fly. Do they expect a murder mystery to win over those old ladies?
Of course I’m just going by the pitch film, but we see more than enough from it. It’s an intriguing idea but it doesn’t really blend with the audience GSN has been unable to get rid of despite their best efforts this decade. Maybe this will be the one that clicks. But GSN doesn’t exactly have the highest budget for stuff and I’m almost afraid of the production values of the sitcom part of the show. We’ll find out once it makes it to air. If nothing else it sounds better than Bingo America.
This is a really old idea. I don't remember the exact name of the pilot, but Groucho Marx was part of a panel on a show just like this except that it was not a sit-com, but a whodunit drama. It was included on the You Bet Your Life dvd set, so I assume it could be somewhere on Youtube. It didn't fly then, and I doubt that it will today. People like shows that are either one format or another, and sitcom and game show just do not mix, IMO.
I'll just flat out say it – this sounds like a Comedy Central game show rather than GSN.
The show sounds like it would last an HOUR, but that will be too lengthy to have on any network.
Make the show 30 Minutes Long, First Part being the SITCOM, Reduce the Detectives to Three or Four. And possibly make the grand prize $10,000 or something.
I'm going "WTF?" But I'm giving this a chance, if it passes on another network.
I'd like to think this would work fantastically. The UK had a few seasons of "Cluedo" (link), based of their version of the US board game "Clue" (or vise versa, I can't remember whose version came first). While the scenes are played way more for drama than comedy, the few episodes I've seen on YouTube were fun to play along with and try to beat out the contestants at the "Who-with-the-What-in-the-Where" answers. Putting a comedic spin on the whole thing (especially in the high-energy-swing-meets-old-school-noir style they seem to be implying in the pitch video) would be quite worth the viewing, if not for the game, then just to see the absurd murders they come up with.
BUT! I'm still not entirely convinced this would work. I agree with the target demographic thing, but there's something about the game play that doesn't seem quite right. A lot of the games seem to be based on guesswork, rather than the coherent solving of the crime, and I wouldn't be surprised if more often than not, a dimwit who happened to be lucky with their guesses but couldn't put two and two together makes it into the final and blows the final guess. From what I saw in Cluedo, the mystery was always solved with coherent deduction (like the board game), but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I'd like to think this would work fantastically. The UK had a few seasons of "Cluedo" (link), based of their version of the US board game "Clue" (or vise versa, I can't remember whose version came first). While the scenes are played way more for drama than comedy, the few episodes I've seen on YouTube were fun to play along with and try to beat out the contestants at the "Who-with-the-What-in-the-Where" answers. Putting a comedic spin on the whole thing (especially in the high-energy-swing-meets-old-school-noir style they seem to be implying in the pitch video) would be quite worth the viewing, if not for the game, then just to see the absurd murders they come up with.
BUT! I'm still not entirely convinced this would work. I agree with the target demographic thing, but there's something about the game play that doesn't seem quite right. A lot of the games seem to be based on guesswork, rather than the coherent solving of the crime, and I wouldn't be surprised if more often than not, a dimwit who happened to be lucky with their guesses but couldn't put two and two together makes it into the final and blows the final guess. From what I saw in Cluedo, the mystery was always solved with coherent deduction (like the board game), but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I'd like to think this would work fantastically. The UK had a few seasons of "Cluedo" (link), based of their version of the US board game "Clue" (or vise versa, I can't remember whose version came first). While the scenes are played way more for drama than comedy, the few episodes I've seen on YouTube were fun to play along with and try to beat out the contestants at the "Who-with-the-What-in-the-Where" answers. Putting a comedic spin on the whole thing (especially in the high-energy-swing-meets-old-school-noir style they seem to be implying in the pitch video) would be quite worth the viewing, if not for the game, then just to see the absurd murders they come up with.
BUT! I'm still not entirely convinced this would work. I agree with the target demographic thing, but there's something about the game play that doesn't seem quite right. A lot of the games seem to be based on guesswork, rather than the coherent solving of the crime, and I wouldn't be surprised if more often than not, a dimwit who happened to be lucky with their guesses but couldn't put two and two together makes it into the final and blows the final guess. From what I saw in Cluedo, the mystery was always solved with coherent deduction (like the board game), but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I'd like to think this would work fantastically. The UK had a few seasons of "Cluedo" (link), based of their version of the US board game "Clue" (or vise versa, I can't remember whose version came first). While the scenes are played way more for drama than comedy, the few episodes I've seen on YouTube were fun to play along with and try to beat out the contestants at the "Who-with-the-What-in-the-Where" answers. Putting a comedic spin on the whole thing (especially in the high-energy-swing-meets-old-school-noir style they seem to be implying in the pitch video) would be quite worth the viewing, if not for the game, then just to see the absurd murders they come up with.
BUT! I'm still not entirely convinced this would work. I agree with the target demographic thing, but there's something about the game play that doesn't seem quite right. A lot of the games seem to be based on guesswork, rather than the coherent solving of the crime, and I wouldn't be surprised if more often than not, a dimwit who happened to be lucky with their guesses but couldn't put two and two together makes it into the final and blows the final guess. From what I saw in Cluedo, the mystery was always solved with coherent deduction (like the board game), but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I'd like to think this would work fantastically. The UK had a few seasons of "Cluedo" (link), based of their version of the US board game "Clue" (or vise versa, I can't remember whose version came first). While the scenes are played way more for drama than comedy, the few episodes I've seen on YouTube were fun to play along with and try to beat out the contestants at the "Who-with-the-What-in-the-Where" answers. Putting a comedic spin on the whole thing (especially in the high-energy-swing-meets-old-school-noir style they seem to be implying in the pitch video) would be quite worth the viewing, if not for the game, then just to see the absurd murders they come up with.
BUT! I'm still not entirely convinced this would work. I agree with the target demographic thing, but there's something about the game play that doesn't seem quite right. A lot of the games seem to be based on guesswork, rather than the coherent solving of the crime, and I wouldn't be surprised if more often than not, a dimwit who happened to be lucky with their guesses but couldn't put two and two together makes it into the final and blows the final guess. From what I saw in Cluedo, the mystery was always solved with coherent deduction (like the board game), but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I'd like to think this would work fantastically. The UK had a few seasons of "Cluedo" (link), based of their version of the US board game "Clue" (or vise versa, I can't remember whose version came first). While the scenes are played way more for drama than comedy, the few episodes I've seen on YouTube were fun to play along with and try to beat out the contestants at the "Who-with-the-What-in-the-Where" answers. Putting a comedic spin on the whole thing (especially in the high-energy-swing-meets-old-school-noir style they seem to be implying in the pitch video) would be quite worth the viewing, if not for the game, then just to see the absurd murders they come up with.
BUT! I'm still not entirely convinced this would work. I agree with the target demographic thing, but there's something about the game play that doesn't seem quite right. A lot of the games seem to be based on guesswork, rather than the coherent solving of the crime, and I wouldn't be surprised if more often than not, a dimwit who happened to be lucky with their guesses but couldn't put two and two together makes it into the final and blows the final guess. From what I saw in Cluedo, the mystery was always solved with coherent deduction (like the board game), but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I'd like to think this would work fantastically. The UK had a few seasons of "Cluedo" (link), based of their version of the US board game "Clue" (or vise versa, I can't remember whose version came first). While the scenes are played way more for drama than comedy, the few episodes I've seen on YouTube were fun to play along with and try to beat out the contestants at the "Who-with-the-What-in-the-Where" answers. Putting a comedic spin on the whole thing (especially in the high-energy-swing-meets-old-school-noir style they seem to be implying in the pitch video) would be quite worth the viewing, if not for the game, then just to see the absurd murders they come up with.
BUT! I'm still not entirely convinced this would work. I agree with the target demographic thing, but there's something about the game play that doesn't seem quite right. A lot of the games seem to be based on guesswork, rather than the coherent solving of the crime, and I wouldn't be surprised if more often than not, a dimwit who happened to be lucky with their guesses but couldn't put two and two together makes it into the final and blows the final guess. From what I saw in Cluedo, the mystery was always solved with coherent deduction (like the board game), but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I sound like a broken record probably, but this reminds me of Murder In Small Town X. In the show, the killer leaves a video of a murder they did with 1 of the victim's reading a statement written by the killer, saying that there are 15 suspects, one of which is the killer, and that the contestants aka "investigators" had to track him/her down and play by their rules, which had 2 of the investigators go to 2 different remote locations, 1 would find a clue as to why the killer is committing the murders, while the other person would be eliminated and a "murder" victim, as the killer was hiding and waiting for the contestant.
Sorry for rambling….. Anyway, I think this could be a good show, but like said before by Jordan, for like Comedy Central or possibly Spike. Kind of a take on Murder in Small Town X, and my favorite show on Earth……….. The Mole. Like both shows, you can actually play along with it at home. And Cluedo (or just Clue) is my all time favorite board game. If this does make it to the air, I will deffinatly watch.
We've seen versions of this before over the decades — I can remember Ed McMahon's "Whodunnit" in the late 70s, and FOX did "Murder in Small Town X" earlier this decade. The problem is that none of these shows were hits, and I can't see an American version of this succeeding either.
Activities like murder mystery dinner theaters and cruises are popular — and many of them have a comedic flair that make them popular with attendees. But you can't translate that into popular television. Mystery dinnery theater is a niche activity that you could do, at most, once a year. Watching this on a weekly basis? Pass.
It seems as if GSN wants to do what game show producers have been trying since the mid 1990's – try to target game shows for the audience that better sells to advertisers.
This is what is wrong with game shows these days. Too many game shows are trying to focus the audience on the lucrative 18-34 market. That's not the audience that wants Game Shows the most, despite me being one of those in that market.
STOP trying to appeal to ONLY 18-34's. Hosts and futuristic sets have targeted this group, so have the players that producers have selected. Most of them are young and energetic. Very few shows have been successful doing that for too long. And the ones that have been successful — ran out of steam once the networks scheduled them too much, or depended on gimmicks.
GSN is losing sight of their target audience, because they want to target the lucrative audience more. And because of this, they're losing the battle… and we, the viewers, are the ones suffering.
That's a good point, my friend. I mean, if GSN wants to target an audience, it needs a show that actually "speaks" their "language" whatever it is. Sure the 18-34 market is lucrative, but does GSN REALLY wanna approach that audience with a murder mystery game? Nuh-uh! That belongs on Comedy Central.
If they want to target a audience, why not a kids game show block on GSN on Saturday and Sunday morning? I'm not saying make this show a kids show, but make an hour/2 hour block of new kids game shows. When ever kids see something they like, they won't stop talking about it or watching it. Im just saying cause, really, the only kids game show that is on is that "BrainSurge" game show on Nick and "FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman", which I don't really count as a kids game show.
Go to Mike Burger's Pilot Light, there's another pilot which this show just seems to smack of, Vincent Price's "Key Witness".
"STOP trying to appeal to ONLY 18-34's. Hosts and futuristic sets have targeted this group, so have the players that producers have selected. Most of them are young and energetic. Very few shows have been successful doing that for too long. And the ones that have been successful — ran out of steam once the networks scheduled them too much, or depended on gimmicks."
But "Wheel Of Fortune" is still on the air!
@juliaz12345: The show was called "The Plot Thickens".
As for "Who Killed J.C.?", I don't mind the occasional murder-mystery show. But I have to say that, if it's all up to chance, then it's really a pointless show. Even if comedy is the focus of the show, it should still have a coherent mystery with clues that neatly tie it together (plus, of course, one or two red herrings to increase the fun).
Unfortunately, the "best parts of a sitcom" thing isn't exactly my thing — I hate sitcoms.
Or maybe — bring some of the old Nickelodeon shows that have collected dust since the end of Nick G&S back on during a kids show block 7am-9am weekdays; 7am-Noon Saturdays.
It would have to be at 9, cause the channel does paid programing from 4 AM til 9 AM. If Nick brought GaS back and new eps of the game shows that were on it, that would be great. But since they canceled Double Dare 2000 and screwed up GaS in '05, Nick and Viacom have messed up so badly. Bad cartoons, the Nicktoons channel is basically all current nicktoons, I call it the 24/7 SpongeBob channel (the worst cartoon ever). All the shows that MADE Nick what it is are gone, and that sucks. But about GSN, I don't think Nick will give up the rights to the old game shows, so their best bet is to make their own.
If the GSN audience is as Alex says, they could do well with this.
Women love soaps (the only reason they're failing- is the target audience is at work now) If combining this with a game element is done correctly, that could finally put the network on the map. The acted segment would have to be more dramatic,with a chessy, almost accidental comedic tone, just like the worst of soaps.
I agree with Jordan, except the game's prize needs to $25,000 ($10K for solving the crime and the max if the villain is captured- in a certain time frame.)
An interactive element: online and/or the home text in game could work here. Lastly, GSN could just target the 25-54s (the news junkie audience-CNN, the evil Fox news;etc.) for this.
@captparis1: I agree. GSN needs a little shot in the arm right now, and this show could do it (and, in something totally unrelated, I thought I was the only one that thought Fox News was evil).
@ Pat: You’re right. Viacom effed up Nick GAS in 1995 when they start airing countless hours of either Double Dare or Legends of the Hidden Temple and pull other game shows like Finders Keepers and Nick Arcade. And don’t get me started on NickToons.
The gameplay seems interesting, interesting enough that a certain major network *cough*ABC*cough* should pick this up.
Correction: (@ Pat: You’re right. Viacom effed up Nick GAS in 1995). I meant 2005.
Wow, some one actually agreed with me. haha. But yeah, I had no problem with Legends of the Hidden Temple and Double Dare. 2 of my all time favorite shows. Nick Arcade was on at 4 til 5 in the morning, and that was too damn early for me. Its used to have vintage Wild and Crazy Kids, vintage Double Dare (every version), all versions of GUTS, every single game show aired on Nick, and in the end it was an hour of Nick Arcade, Figure It Out, Legends, Double Dare 2K, Get The Picture, and GUTS (except Global). How the hell does Viacom and Nick work? Do they throw a dart at a dart board or something????………… So thats how we got non-stop SpongeBob……..
Okay, I remember the mystery game show "Whodunit?" hosted by Ed McMahon in the 1970's. Celebrity gets "killed", contestant who solved it won $10K.
But are they required to air paid programming until 9am, or is it because viewership would be so low that it's not worth airing anything else?
This may be an interesting concept for a game show. I'll probably watch it if it came on.