The Countdown Thread

[XIII]

I know Stelling did Alphabetical but I'm surprised he'd not been asked to do more gameshows as he's very good with the public.

[nwtv2003]

You wouldn’t have known that it was Anne Robinson’s final show today, other than a mention from Susie in the Origin of Words segment, there was no mention.

The conundrum was LOATHSOME.

It all seems very abrupt, but here’s to Colin Murray from tomorrow.

[Brekkie]

Oh, that's top trolling from the Countdown team.

[Jon]

You wouldn’t have known that it was Anne Robinson’s final show today, other than a mention from Susie in the Origin of Words segment, there was no mention.

No mention on the All 4 version, possibly added in later? That or just was a very subtle reference to it.

[CameronYoung]

Oh, that's top trolling from the Countdown team.

And not for the first time we've had a somewhat apt conundrum - Richard's last one was a bit spooky to say the least

[Brekkie]

You wouldn’t have known that it was Anne Robinson’s final show today, other than a mention from Susie in the Origin of Words segment, there was no mention.

No mention on the All 4 version, possibly added in later? That or just was a very subtle reference to it.

I got the impression she quit after filming her final eps.

[SuperSajuuk]

Been reading Apterous for information about the episodes, since i have been too busy to properly follow Countdown for a while now. Maybe its just me, but in the Anne Robinson era, there has been a horrendously high number of errors made, and odd in-episode edits that wouldn’t have been seen during previous eras with Jeff and Nick.

There’s also instances of words being edited out from declaration despite not being very offensive (such as one declaration of fannies being removed from broadcast, even though that isn’t offensive in of itself), and there was also an episode recently which was pulled completely, with no info on it at all. In the case of fannies, that just feels like something they could’ve beeped out if they had to, i don’t see the actual offensiveness here. In the past as well, bad words would have just required the player to select a new word and that newer selection would have been used in the played-out episode, instead of the apparently “bad” one.

It makes the episodes pretty hard to follow since you can no longer work out if something was edited after the fact and made to look legitimate. Hopefully this practice of excessive editing and bad decision making doesn’t continue being a thing when Colin Murray takes over.

[Brekkie]

I'd imagine that is more covid related than the fault of Anne.

[SuperSajuuk]

I'd imagine that is more covid related than the fault of Anne.

Perhaps and to be clear, i was not suggesting the errors are Anne’s fault, but dictionary corner has been certainly allowing a lot of erroneous word selections [including offering words which weren’t even there to begin with: an example of offering BOOMER when there was only one O in the selection, a really basic error that should have been noticed by such an experienced team behind the scenes who offer the words in the first place to Dictionary Corner]. The pulled episode i mentioned was recorded, but then they just told c4 they weren’t airing it, could be covid, but could be other reasons that aren’t being made public, which is strange because i don’t remember there ever being an episode that was literally never aired at all? Not in recent memory that is.

[Critique]

Although, if Popbitch is to be believed...

https://popbitch.com/emails/the-filth-and-the-furious/

(fourth story in)

[DE88]

Speaking of America, I wonder if any copies of the 1990 Guber-Peters pilot are lying around? I'd *definitely* like to see Woody Harrelson trying to make a word out of OMETHINGS, or whatever, while Alan Hawkshaw's music plays:

http://www.usgameshows.net/x.php?show=Countdown1990

Well, that page isn't researched well enough. It says Channel 4's Countdown started in 1983, when it's famously the first show aired on the channel in 1982.

Also, the Run for the Money page on the same site says "In 1987, Reg [Grundy] tried to import his British show Going for Gold, which itself was an importation of the French show Questions pour un champion. Bill Rafferty and some staff flew over the pond to film this show in England for the taping."

In fact it was RFTM that came first, then GFG, then QPUC. And RFTM wasn't filmed in Britain, but at ABC's Hollywood studios.

Probably worth pointing out that neither this page nor the Countdown one have been updated since the end of 2009.

[Steve in Pudsey]

i don’t remember there ever being an episode that was literally never aired at all? Not in recent memory that is.

Not quite the same but I believe there are a couple of one off episodes with Richard and former players that were made to be shown on days when Countdown was expected to be replaced by cricket but the Test Match finished early that were never shown.

Going back a long way, I think Countdown Masters - the shortened version featured on the Channel 4 Daily with former players - was pulled mid series and never returned due to the Gulf War and the Daily going to a near rolling news format.

[CameronYoung]

I believe they re-recorded nearly an entire series because of the letter tiles* - they went for a red and white scheme for them and someone noticed that it could/would/did (delete as appropriate) cause problems for people with epilepsy, although some episodes weren't re-recorded, apparently due to availability. Would be interested to see one of those.

*Thinking about it, they probably just re-recorded the selections, but still.

[JAS84]

They won't have needed the contestants for that, just Carol. All they'd have had to do is refilm her putting the tiles on the board.

[CameronYoung]

That's what I was thinking but according to apterous:

This series saw the change of letter tiles to a new red and white design as well as a new set. After several episodes had been recorded, someone realised that this would cause problems for epileptics. An attempt was made to record all the shows again with the original contestants and different tiles, but this caused issues as some were no longer available. This resulted in some shows, notably in the series finals, still having to be screened with the problem tiles.

https://wiki.apterous.org/Series_18