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OT: Unbelievable Truth panel game

Messages in this topic: 12 View All
Clitheroe KidApr 18, 2009
 

 
I'm an un-fan(?) of this new panel game.

You have to like the people who are on the panel, or like the chairman, in
order to stay with a show for 40 years, as we have with JAM. A format alone
is not enough.

I began listening to JAM simply because I liked Kenneth Williams. I enjoyed
"rooting for him" in the shows, and over a couple of years I gradually got
to know and like the other regular players.

Likewise, I enjoyed watching Call My Bluff because I liked Frank Muir. And I
enjoy Brain of Britain (which has *no* regular panellists) because I like
Robert Robinson.

I don't think you can like the format of a show, and follow it just because
of its format. The format is just the pretext for getting the people in the
show together. If the people are not interesting, the show won't capture the
involvement of the audience.

JAM worked because Kenneth Williams had lots of interesting things to say,
and was very witty with it. Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones & Clement Freud were
also people with a lot of experience, who could tell a good anecdote. Paul
Merton is a first class stand-up comedian.

If these people had been dull - if they had not had interesting
personalities in real life - it would not have mattered that they were great
actors when given someone else's script: the radio show would have failed.

You can't build a success out of a spontaneous panel game format, which
needs wit and improvisation and intelligence, without panellists who have
those qualities. That is why JAM and Clue have succeeded, and why other
panel games tend not to last.

Stephen

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dean Bedford" <dbedford@...>
To: <just-a-minute@...>
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 11:24 PM
Subject: [just-a-minute] unbelievable truth


> Just listening to this sort of update on Call My Bluff, with JAM-like
> buzzing.
>
> A very very strong cast but to me it's oddly lame and uninteresting...
>
> It's harder to get a panel game going than you might think, I guess.
>
> Anyone else a fan or un-fan of this show?
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

 
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