Bring back "The Joker's Wild"!
Dean
Game shows are a RARITY anymore most ANYWHERE on TV! That's a shame!
I don't mean shows like "Singled Out" and "Sandblast" on MTV, or "No
Relation" on fX. These shows are just plain CHEESY, not worth clicking the
remote for!
I mean the game shows that USED to exist!
One game show in particular that I miss is "The Joker's Wild".
I enjoyed how Jack Barry would ask questions, then the contestants had 5
seconds in which to give the right answer. If they did, they won whatever
the dollar value was on the Joker Machine. They scored $25 for categories
appearing in one window, $50 for categories appearing in 2 windows, and
$100 for "triples" (categories appearing in all 3 windows). And in the
original version (which ran during the '70's and early '80's), if the
windows all landed on jokers, that person spinning the Joker Machine had a
chance at winning the game outright.
And in the original version, the bonus game was cool as well! The
contestant would play for extra prizes and money. They would continue
spinning the Joker Machine from a big lever at the other end of the stage.
So long as it continued to land on money amounts, the money would continue
to accumulate in the pot. But if an animated "devil" showed up in any of
the windows at any time, the game was over and the contestant would lose
all the money in the pot, sending him back to the contestant booth to play
another regular game against a new opponent.
Then the producers of the show attempted to resurrect it in the fall of
1990. This time the show would have a new host (since Jack Barry had
passed on several years before). This time the show wsa hosted by Pat Finn
(of "The New Shop 'Til You Drop").
However, the new version turned out to be quite a bit different from the
original. First, where there would be 2 contestants playing against each
other in the original, there now were 3. These 3 contestants would play
against each other, buzzing a buzzer when they had the correct answer (or
in the case of the person who had control of the Joker Machine, he'd have
the first chance to answer). If that person answered incorrectly (or
failed to give an answer in 3 seconds), the other 2 contestants would have
a shot at giving the right answer. And in the new version, there were no
questions. Pat Finn would give them a word, phrase, person, or place; and
the contestants would have to tell him what it meant. What a joke! And as
for what was on the wheels during the regular game, there were only money
amounts...never ANY visible categories (except in Round 2 where Pat would
give the contestant a choice of one of 2 categories). There was only one
window (the right window) where the Joker appeared, and when it appeared,
it tripled the combined dollar amounts in the other 2 windows. And as for
the bonus game, all that was done here was Pat would give the contestants
up to 3 definitions of a word (all of them beginning with the same letter
for you Sesame Street fans out there), and the contestant would give him
the actual word. The contestant would have 60 seconds to give him as many
words as he could, and then he would get that number of spins on the Joker
Machine. On the Joker Machine in the bonus round would be pictures of
prizes, money amounts, and jokers. If the contestant got all jokers in one
spin, he would win "The Joker Jackpot" which would start at $5000 and
increase in increments of $500 each day the Jackpot wasn't won. Whichever
prize showed up in all 3 windows in the allotted spins (the contestant
could freeze an image to a window), he would win that prize. And if a
joker showed up in one of the windows, he'd have the option of turning it
into one of the other 2 prizes that were in the other windows. Whey they
decided to change the regular game to be more like the original Joker's
Wild, it was too little, too late.
Not to mention that I didn't see any stations in Iowa which carried the new
"Joker's Wild" when it aired on syndication.
It's time to bring back a new version of the show. One which is more like
the original, rather than the ill-fated new version!
Thanks for your time!
Dean
de...@nwiowa.com
Stephen W. Johnson
In <01bbc159$3af05660$6a1648ce@dean> "Dean" <de...@nwiowa.com> writes:
>
>Game shows are a RARITY anymore most ANYWHERE on TV! That's a shame!
>
Game shows are becoming MUCH more popular, as now even Fred Silverman
likes them.
>I don't mean shows like "Singled Out" and "Sandblast" on MTV, or "No
>Relation" on fX. These shows are just plain CHEESY, not worth
clicking the
>remote for!
>
>I mean the game shows that USED to exist!
>
>One game show in particular that I miss is "The Joker's Wild".
>
>I enjoyed how Jack Barry would ask questions, then the contestants had
5
>seconds in which to give the right answer. If they did, they won
whatever
>the dollar value was on the Joker Machine. They scored $25 for
categories
>appearing in one window, $50 for categories appearing in 2 windows,
and
>$100 for "triples" (categories appearing in all 3 windows). And in
the
>original version (which ran during the '70's and early '80's), if the
>windows all landed on jokers, that person spinning the Joker Machine
had a
>chance at winning the game outright.
of two jokers. The first person to $500 won the game, but I'd up the
values to $100 $200, $300, and $500 for three jokers. First person to
$2,000 wins, tell you about the bonus game in a minute.
>
>And in the original version, the bonus game was cool as well! The
>contestant would play for extra prizes and money. They would continue
>spinning the Joker Machine from a big lever at the other end of the
stage.
>So long as it continued to land on money amounts, the money would
continue
>to accumulate in the pot. But if an animated "devil" showed up in any
of
>the windows at any time, the game was over and the contestant would
lose
>all the money in the pot, sending him back to the contestant booth to
play
>another regular game against a new opponent.
Barry-Enright "try to avoid the bad guy" games. Actually the New
Joker's Wild bonus game wasn't all that bad except for the definition
part (switch to regular questions and make Pat Finn's robotic voice go
away!) and bring in much, MUCH more valuable prizes.
>
>Then the producers of the show attempted to resurrect it in the fall
of
>1990. This time the show would have a new host (since Jack Barry had
>passed on several years before). This time the show wsa hosted by Pat
Finn
>(of "The New Shop 'Til You Drop").
I think a good host for a new JW would be Peter Tomarken. He would be
good at trying a quiz show for once and, since all my favorite hosts
are either passed away or too old, he's the best man for the job.
Speaking of TJW...refresh my memory...what is a CDi system and where
can I get one and a Joker's Wild game for it? How much do they cost?
I support Dole/Kemp '96.
But that doesn't have anything to do with this sig file, so why do you
care?
Sam Johnson
john...@ix.netcom.com
71673...@compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohnsonS/