A Handbag!
Oscar Wilde had in one of his works someone claiming that he had been left on the doorstep in a handbag but I wonder what is carried around in a handbag these days. Is it such a mystery? Would I be surprised?
It is prompted somewhat tongue in cheek because of a television programme mentioned in my blog a long time ago.
Early last year I mentioned the explosion of television quiz programmes on commercial television in the UK.
I contested whether they really should be called quiz shows as there is little if any skill trying to win a prize...you may be shown a grid with a nine letter word such as
ion
tac
Edu
and you have to work out the word and its obviously Education because whichever they put the word in the grid once you find the start letter they are in the correct order. They run a clock down to zero and take a call at some point(usually as close to zero as possible which allows more people to phone in and they could take a call immediately but they won't)as during the countdown some callers will get through and be kept on hold, others get through but are told that they have been unsuccessful and as one call is only taken to studio out of those holding on the remainder are lost and it costs 75p a time no matter how often you phone in.
Another game was a list of words maybe "What would you find in a Handbag" Perhaps it depends on how the question is asked as if you say a "Ladies/Woman's" handbag the response could be different but still I think most viewers would think we are talking of handbag belonging to a female. This is an example of such a game but is mentioned because it has been featured in the last day or two for all the wrong reasons.
They give the first word as an example Mobile Phone in the tower to help you think of an answer as you guess the remaining nine. Amongst answers given and pre determined were directions, contact lenses, driving licence even false teeth. If they pick the most obvious answers the game would be over in seconds but you've got to avoid making the game not too off the wall to be seen as unfair. I've often found myself if I have time on my hands watching fleetingly thinking where on earth did that answer come from.
Well a DJ on the radio that I listen to has mentioned this particular game that he thought to be dodgy as an example some months ago. He's gone further calling such programmes as being crooked and says to all his listeners...don't call in and waste your time and money. You could say the viewer in the end has the ultimate decision what to do with their money but some people do get addicted and part with their money very easily hence all the con tricks that exist and how people are caught out.
What is interesting is that the broadcasting regulatory body has found this example of the programme "Quizmania" as broadcast on ITV Play was in breach of its broadcasting code. Only seven out of a possible thirteen answers had been identified. Two of the remaining answers were Rawl Plugs and a Balaclava. Amazingly, only three complaints were made to the regulatory body. I guess you could put just about anything into a handbag but what's the likelihood of those two items being in a handbag in reality?
However, Quizmania came to quite a sudden end at the weekend which took many viewers by surprise. It could be finished for good that was how it seemed it was until the last few days then the suggestion was from presenters that it may be resting its difficult to say, as another phrase has been used to suggest its the end of the current series. Information is scant. This story would not be welcome publicity. This story is released, the programme goes off air, is there a connection...who knows. One of the shows creators was interviewed on BBC's Radio 5 before Christmas and gave no clue that it was ending so did they not know at that time or were they just staying quiet? Considering the criticism these shows receive daily, I am a little surprised its going has been met with little comment.
Does it get any better? Well the replacement as a variety of games but every one is accessable now only by mobile phone and only using texts. And every response costs 75p. A question last night was about a dress that had been actioned but had been featured in the Film "Breakfast At Tiffany's" and you were given three options as to who it was worn by in the film...
a)Some man(I forget who)
b)Audrey Hepburn
c)Jordan
Well, unless you really are without a clue how easy is that..Jordan is just a recent model who has made no films, its not likely to be an actor(It certainly wasn't the person they chose)so it only left the obvious answer Audrey Hepburn. So they know that they will get a massive response.
I'll not be one of them.
It is prompted somewhat tongue in cheek because of a television programme mentioned in my blog a long time ago.
Early last year I mentioned the explosion of television quiz programmes on commercial television in the UK.
I contested whether they really should be called quiz shows as there is little if any skill trying to win a prize...you may be shown a grid with a nine letter word such as
ion
tac
Edu
and you have to work out the word and its obviously Education because whichever they put the word in the grid once you find the start letter they are in the correct order. They run a clock down to zero and take a call at some point(usually as close to zero as possible which allows more people to phone in and they could take a call immediately but they won't)as during the countdown some callers will get through and be kept on hold, others get through but are told that they have been unsuccessful and as one call is only taken to studio out of those holding on the remainder are lost and it costs 75p a time no matter how often you phone in.
Another game was a list of words maybe "What would you find in a Handbag" Perhaps it depends on how the question is asked as if you say a "Ladies/Woman's" handbag the response could be different but still I think most viewers would think we are talking of handbag belonging to a female. This is an example of such a game but is mentioned because it has been featured in the last day or two for all the wrong reasons.
They give the first word as an example Mobile Phone in the tower to help you think of an answer as you guess the remaining nine. Amongst answers given and pre determined were directions, contact lenses, driving licence even false teeth. If they pick the most obvious answers the game would be over in seconds but you've got to avoid making the game not too off the wall to be seen as unfair. I've often found myself if I have time on my hands watching fleetingly thinking where on earth did that answer come from.
Well a DJ on the radio that I listen to has mentioned this particular game that he thought to be dodgy as an example some months ago. He's gone further calling such programmes as being crooked and says to all his listeners...don't call in and waste your time and money. You could say the viewer in the end has the ultimate decision what to do with their money but some people do get addicted and part with their money very easily hence all the con tricks that exist and how people are caught out.
What is interesting is that the broadcasting regulatory body has found this example of the programme "Quizmania" as broadcast on ITV Play was in breach of its broadcasting code. Only seven out of a possible thirteen answers had been identified. Two of the remaining answers were Rawl Plugs and a Balaclava. Amazingly, only three complaints were made to the regulatory body. I guess you could put just about anything into a handbag but what's the likelihood of those two items being in a handbag in reality?
However, Quizmania came to quite a sudden end at the weekend which took many viewers by surprise. It could be finished for good that was how it seemed it was until the last few days then the suggestion was from presenters that it may be resting its difficult to say, as another phrase has been used to suggest its the end of the current series. Information is scant. This story would not be welcome publicity. This story is released, the programme goes off air, is there a connection...who knows. One of the shows creators was interviewed on BBC's Radio 5 before Christmas and gave no clue that it was ending so did they not know at that time or were they just staying quiet? Considering the criticism these shows receive daily, I am a little surprised its going has been met with little comment.
Does it get any better? Well the replacement as a variety of games but every one is accessable now only by mobile phone and only using texts. And every response costs 75p. A question last night was about a dress that had been actioned but had been featured in the Film "Breakfast At Tiffany's" and you were given three options as to who it was worn by in the film...
a)Some man(I forget who)
b)Audrey Hepburn
c)Jordan
Well, unless you really are without a clue how easy is that..Jordan is just a recent model who has made no films, its not likely to be an actor(It certainly wasn't the person they chose)so it only left the obvious answer Audrey Hepburn. So they know that they will get a massive response.
I'll not be one of them.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 11:12 am
2 Comments:
Well said, Gildy. Their tactics are all too obvious and that is why I, like yourself would never play them.
You should have been around in the 1940s, when American radio began a rash of quiz/game shows that took two full decades, almost, to explode into a rigging scandal involving big-payoff shows on television. Fred Allen (who was eventually smothered in the ratings, at long enough last, by a quiz known as Stop the Music) zapped the genre and its excesses as often as he could get away with doing it (his "Break the Contestant" episode is classic; so is the way he juxtaposed his famous mock feud with Jack Benny to the quiz/game/giveaway genre via a parody of Queen for a Day). Goodman Ace even predicted, kind of, the kind of cheating that did eventually go on with such shows, first in a three-part storyline on the original Easy Aces (first aired, if I am not wrong, in the late 1930s), and then with a half-hour episode of mr. ace and JANE, both of which involved Jane getting a little advance help with the questions and answers before she actually went on the shows. (The latter kind of compacted the three parts of the former, changing only the partner in crime and the host, this time using real-life comedian Robert Q. Lewis.) You might remember my writing about the latter a short while back . . .
--Jeff (The Easy Ace)
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