…board update.
In honour of German television’s second greatest German (behind Stefan Raab), and because this week hasn’t given much to comment on, I’ve put up some new old features. But first, despite the fact I linked to it a few days ago, Gottschalk’s Haus Party:
Tremendous.
Now, I’ve done three articles and they are:
- Wetten Dass…?
- Wanna Bet? (the 1993 CBS pilot, not the Ant and Dec one)
- Glücksritter
Enjoy, keep your fingers crossed for a review of the The Crystal Maze iPod game at the weekend.
I have a suspicion that Gottschalk was cbosen not just for his CV but for his Edmonds-esque (without the beard, obv.) look. Then again, I think Leslie Crowther was chosen for the original UK TPiR because he looks a bit like Bill Cullen.
Currently I am watching a recorded episode of Big Money from the channel NDTV imagine (831 on Sky). It bears fairly clear inspiration by both WWTBAM? and The Weakest Link minus the elimination.
At the risk of admitting my ignorance of the practical linguistics of (at least some part of) India, the show is mostly in Hindi, but every now and again there is an English-language phrase that appears out of nowhere. I particularly like “Let’s fix it!”, which is the catchphrase with analogy to “It’s my final answer”. Other examples: “Wish you all the very best”, “Let’s play for (e.g.) 2 lakhs”, “Welcome to the show, thank you very much for coming” and so forth. (“Fingers crossed… fingers, toes, eyes, everything crossed!”) The show takes place on a nice big set with a background of square grids of lights that can pulse different colours to create a pixellated lava-y image.
Four adults play as a team. I guess they are unrelated celebrities because they occasionally put on short turns (singing, dancing/lip-synching what I imagine must be a famous Bollywood number, possibly a quick recitation…) and they may well be playing for charity. This contestant call suggests otherwise, but perhaps I might have been watching a celebrity special. The default appears to be that the teams are made up of four related family members, with children as welcome as adults.
In turn, each one is asked a question with two possible answers, often relating to a video clip they have been shown; the four clips and questions have a thematic link. The questions and answers appear first in English but then turn into Hindi. Correct answers turn the player’s podium green. Four correct answers earn advancement up the money tree, which runs 1 lakh, 2 lakhs, 3 lakhs, 5 lakhs, 10 lakhs, 25 lakhs, 50 lakhs, 1 crore (100 lahks).
The players can swap positions with each other between rounds; I’m not sure if there is significance such as an order of increasing or decreasing difficulty. There are three lifelines, each of which can be used once: “family discussion” (the four players can confer), “exchange” (another player from the team temporarily swaps place to answer the question) and “insurance” (which, I guess, acts as a portable safe point).
After the team has won 3 lakhs and starts going for 5 lakhs, they are awarded another “family discussion” lifeline, but the quesitons now have four options. A money tree graphic suggests something else happens (no options at all, perhaps, in the Tout Le Monde Veut… stylée?) after the team has won 10 lakhs and starts going for 25 lakhs. An incorrect answer seems to break the chain and end the game – no clue about incidental prizes (the point at which insurance was taken, I guess?) but games appear to be able to straddle between episodes and thus I haven’t actually seen what happens yet. Possibly I should have watched more than one episode before telling you about it.
The host is young but friendly, seems to control proceedings well and gets quite a few laughs.
The music follows a simple progression (possibly II-III-IV-I, but it’s been years since GCSE Music) that reminds me of a sport jingle used by our local BBC Radio station. That doesn’t help you, does it? One of the sponsors is a brand of spices with a jingle that sounds like the theme from The Big Breakfast.
I will be quite pleased to see the show in the background next time I go to our local (and very good) Indian takeaway, but I haven’t set a series link for it.
Unrelatedly, has Partypoker.com The Big Game IV skipped a week on five? I don’t appear to have recorded anything for it this week and Demand Five doesn’t seem to have anything for it this week either, but the Series Link does have a recording scheduled for next week. (This would seem to imply an answer of “Yes”, but this strikes me as unusual behaviour.)
I don’t think it’s ever been on Demand Five has it? It’s always irritated me that poker isn’t on 4oD.
I thought I saw it in my EPG 2-3 days ago, but I don’t know if that was the original airing or a later-in-the-week repeat.
Am I right that this (despite trying) Germany is still the only overseas territory that the BBC and Unique managed to sell the format of ‘House Party’ to?
WAsn’t there a Dutch version called Monte Carlo?
I remember reading somewhere that the Dutch version asked the BBC what the gunge was made of.
The Dutch version fell under my radar (or at least Broadcast Mag never mentioned they sold the format to them whilst I was buying the weekly tipsheet before it became a very expensive comic)
I very vaguely remember hearing some other nation – and I think I want to say Spain, but may well be making the whole anecdote up – reportedly queried whether it was important that Mr. Blobby was pink rather than some other colour.
(Another Gottschalk clip features a character of a big pink rabbit, who I’m guessing is Das Herr Blobbenstein.)
Also semi-related, those of you who are lucky and have Dead Rising 2, one of the casinos has what is basically Grab A Grand.
And the “Terror Is Rality” multiplayer is a hybrid of Gladiators/Takeshi’s Castle…with Zombies!
Yes, it is. In fact there’s Atlaspheres in there. Sadly I wouldn’t know for sure, because the EU got it before the US, therefore there is nobody bloody online.
That, and I’m too busy spraying zombie catgirls with whipped cream.