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#115 - Pressure 1
Tryptophan sounds like a more apt title to me.
Syndication: (September 1999 - September 2000)
Last week, we were introduced to Peer Pressure. As you have seen in the induction, it was loud, obnoxious and the situations that were put in place were painful to say the least. In short, it was one of the worst kids game shows to come out of the 90s. So, in 1999 when Click got cancelled, the stations turned to the folks at Wheeler-Sussman Productions to make another show to fill the gap in their schedules. What they came up with was the polar opposite to Peer Pressure. Where Peer Pressure was very loud and obnoxious, this was so subdued that it would put people to sleep. So turn back into bed as we delve into Pressure 1.
Instead of the annoying and over the top duo of Nick Spano and Valerie Rae Miller, we only have one person doing both the announcer and host ob in Mark Long. Fans of Extreme Dodgeball might recognize him as a member of The Reef Sharks. However, here he didn't quite get hit with the ball that gave him personality, or caring no less. His voice just drones in your mind like the high school science teacher who tries to explain to you the digestive systems of a frog and what you want to remove from them.
Unlike the first show, this show actually has an ok format. First round has all 4 players playing a generic buzz-in round. The contestant in control picks from one of two categories and then Mark reads off the question. First to get it right gets a point. The first three people to get 2 points moves on to the second round. It's ok...
But I wish they'd had put a little more effort into these buzzers. Maybe different styled bulbs or something. This just looks really cheap, like it was done for a class project. You'd think now that after 2 seasons of a show that they only needed to make 1 season for and just re-edit twice to get even more money, they'd spend some money on boosting a show, but instead it looked like it went to paying for Mark Long's hair gel. Anyways, after the three vacant spots for round 2 have been filled, you'd think the one that didn't make it would be let go backstage....
but nope, instead they get a video played about their most humiliating moment. Yeah, classy as always guys. Makes me glad I didn't watch this that much when.....Crap, I watched it every week. I have no life.
Round 2 changes things up a bit. The person in control is shown 2 categories, they pick one to answer themselves and the other one is passed to their opponents to answer. It's an interesting concept of "Which one won't my opponents get?" It's fun and all, but after awhile, it kinda drags on and on. I also must complain about the setup of things. All the setup is consists of the same buzzer systems from round 1 and the contestants are underneath them, sitting down in some ugly chairs. Each right answer is worth 10 points and the two with the most points and the end advance to the final round.
The last round is the "Pressure Point" round. One contestant is put into a sound-proof booth and the other answers questions. The goal is to try to answer 5 questions. The first half has the first contestant trying to answer the questions while the timer aka the Pressure Gage goes up.
Then afterwards the 2nd contestant has to answer the same questions in a quicker time. Whomever gets to 5 in the quickest time gets the grand prize package. At the end to make sure there's no hard feelings on everything....
DANCE PARTY!!!!
Interesting way to end this show. While the format is solid, it's quite bland and boring in the grand scheme of things. However, it's hampered by Mark Long who looks really uncomfortable hosting the show, and using the same lame theme song that Peer Pressure used. When doing a kids game show, you need the contestants to act lively and be engaged to the game. This game didn't quite do that. I'll give them credit, it was a better show than Peer Pressure, but that's like saying weight loss is the best part of chronic diarrhea. The viewing public agreed and this show, along with a re-repackaged version of Peer Pressure, known as Pressure 2 were cancelled in 2000. To be fair, they did learn and came up with the innovative Trivial Pursuit: America Plays in 2008, which also lasted 1 year due to bad clearances and other interesting nuances.
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