Note: Recently, I’ve been writing blog articles for thatgutwiththeglasses.com. These include posting my older videos with some text commentary as well as some original articles. Once I write a new article, I will post the previous one here. You can find all my articles with all the corresponding links in the new “Articles” section of the site. Newest article can be found here.
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Welcome to Game Show, Game Show! The Game Show (blog) where Game Shows compete to see who’s the best Game Show!
If I were to say "Show Me The Money!" what would be the first thing you think of? Well, if you didn’t think of a game show that aired on ABC in 2006, then you’re in the same boat as most of America.
"Show Me The Money" was a Game Show that premieredin the US on ABC in November 2006. The show was a response to the renewed popularity of prime time game shows that was started by "Deal or No Deal." However, like all prime time game shows that premiered after DoND, it just couldn’t match DoND’s success.
The rules of the show were very simple. Wait, did I say simple? I meant very confusing. Unless you saw the rules explanation at the beginning of the show, you would find yourself very lost. Each player was presented with 13 "Million Dollar Dancers" who each had their own stripper pole and scroll containing a certain amount of money. The values of the scrolls were random, but contained either $250,000, $220,000, $200,000, $180,000, $160,000, $140,000, $120,000, $100,000, $80,000, $60,000, $40,000, or $20,000. Before the money value was revealed, the contestant had to answer a question. They were presented with a word or phrase and three letters (A,B, and C). Each letter represented a question that all started with the same staring word or phrase. Upon selecting one question, the contestant then has to either answer or discard that questions for one of the two other questions, but they to eventually answer one and they can’t go back to a discarded question. Once a question is answered, the money value is revealed and the contestant will earn that much money if they answer correctly and lose that much money if they answer incorrectly. Yes, they can have negative money.
Wait a minute. I need to breathe. There’s still more rules to cover.
So, how does the contestant stop playing? Well, they can’t stop willingly. The game ends once the contestant does one of the following:
>Answer six questions correctly.
>Answer six questions incorrectly.
>Have a money value so deep in the negatives, it is impossible to actually win money.
> Answer a killer card question incorrectly.
Killer Card? Oh yea, I forgot to mention about that. You may have noticed that I only named 12 money values for 13 strippers er…dancers. Well, one of the money cards contains the KILLER CARD (cue dramatic evil music). If that card is selected, the contestant goes into sudden death. Only one question is available for answering. If the contestant gets it right, they continue as normal. If they get it wrong, they lose the game and win nothing.
So hopefully, you can see the biggest problem with the show. There’s too much happening at the same time. It’s too much for the viewer to process right away. That and the show was boring to watch with lackluster dancer presentation (you couldn’t see them most of the time) and questions that ranged from moderate difficulty to wow, that is so incredibly easy. Like DoND, the show was produced by Edemol USA and it shows. They try to add some things that made DoND successful and add some new twists as well. The problem is that these twists fall flat on their face.
Finally, we have the host. The show was hosted by William Shatner (yes, Capitan Kirk) mainly because he was big on ABC for his Emmy winning role as Denny Crane on "Boston Legal" (the only time Shatner has actually acted). Shatner added nothing good to the show. He presented all the questions like he was still on the set on "Star Trek" and told the dancers before commercial breaks, "Let’s [insert random dance that no one actually did here]!" Five bucks said Shatner slept with one of the dancers at some point.
Only seven episodes were tapped, but the show got canceled from ABC in only five. This lead to the Game Show Network picking up the show and the canceling it after the same five episodes. As for video and pictures of the show, this is all I could find:
http://www.tv.com/show-me-the-money/show/65610/videos.html
http://www.tv.com/show-me-the-money/show/65610/photos.html
"Show Me The Money" was by no means a good show. It just failed in almost every way. Still, there’s much worse out there and they did try to make the show good. Sometimes, however, try just isn’t good enough.
3/10
Do you have any suggestions for a game show to be reviewed? Regardless of if it is good or bad, let me know in the comment section below.
