Deal Or No Deal

[spinsterliz]

wentonspildit said:

I like it when the contestant tries to hug Howie. He always looks like he wants to die.

Yeah, Howie has big-time OCD. I remember reading once that he has two houses on his property and that one is the "dirty" house and the other is the "clean" house. As someone with OCD, I feel kinda sorry for him when the players jump on him. On the other hand, a gameshow host has to expect that excited contestents will be hanging all over him and hugging him and all that junk, especially with the way he pumps them up. Howie does himself no favors with the way he always tells the players how terrific their odds are (even when they aren't).

[Wenton]

spinsterliz said:

As someone with OCD, I feel kinda sorry for him when the players jump on him.

I've heard about his OCD, too. I didn't mean to sound like I find it uniformly hilarious when someone with OCD is made to feel uncomfortable. It's just that after seeing Howie's jerkweed "torment innocent people when they're going about their business" comedy bits on the Tonight Show, I take a certain perverse pleasure in seeing him agitated.

Topic: I'd be horrible on this show. As soon as the banker offered me over fifteen grand, I'd be so out of there.

[LurkerNan]

Unless things go horribly wrong and the entire left side of the board gets cleared in the first two passes, most people would probably see the highest offers at the third or fourth offer. That's where I'd take him up on it.

I hate to see the desperation on folks' faces when they realize the chance they took to make huge money just lost them 100-200 grand.

[spinsterliz]

wentonspildit said:

I've heard about his OCD, too. I didn't mean to sound like I find it uniformly hilarious when someone with OCD is made to feel uncomfortable.

Oh, I never thought you meant it that way. In fact, I thought it was funny the way you said Howie "looks like he wants to die" because he totally does! And then he does that dumb thing where he knocks knuckles with the players instead of shaking hands, which to me doesn't seem like it would make him any less "dirty."

I have to say Howie actually looks good with his head shaved. It suits him. He had too much messy hair before. I admit I watch this show partially because he's the host and he's always fascinated me in an awful way. I read that he used to take fifty showers every day when his OCD was at it's worst. Damn-who would even have time to do anything else, with all that showering?

Can't wait to see more idiots lose money tonight! And I, too, would be an awful contestant. As soon as they offered me about $30,000 I'd say, "Deal!" I mean, cripes, I need any money I can get. But I have a feeling that the producers purposely do not let players like that be on the show. I think they pick the greediest people they can find, because that makes it more suspenseful. I know that if I was on this show everyone would boo me for not dancing around like a drunk whilst screaming, "No deal, Howie! You tell that banker that I'm sayin' no deal! You hang up that phone! NOOOOO DEAL!"

[Deleted]

I love the Evil Banker. I'm quite sure he's, like, the loser unemployable brother of the producer or something. All he has to do is sit in a dark room! Sign me up for that job!

[tamaradixon]

I'm hooked, but hating it. Its like a car wreck, I can't help myself.

I think I'll starting taping it though, I could fast forward through most of it and probably watch an entire ep in about 10 mins.

[LurkerNan]

Last night that young lady who was a boxer and wanted to move out of her mom's house was a prime example of someone who will spend a long time regretting listening to their family when they screamed "No Deal!" Her momma looked like someone who might lose a lot in Vegas, because she was not thinking. Her male friend that told her that 103K was a downpayment on an apartment in Manhattan was the person to listen to, too bad she didn't.

Why does it seem like all the contestants are being pulled from Central Casting? The cheerleading coach, the military guy, the cute young lady who boxes? And each of them come with their own set of gimmicks, which annoy the hell out of me. I want to see some normal shlub up, not only the pretty and/or patriotic!

[spinsterliz]

To be fair, I missed the last episode (I taped it but haven't gotten around to watching it yet) so I may be wrong on this but-you know how each contestant first picks one case to save until the end of the show? Well, from what I've seen, nobody has ever picked a case worth more than about $5,000. I'm really starting to find that fishy and am wondering if the contestants are told beforehand which case to pick first. What are the odds that not a single contestant has yet to pick a case that contains a huge prize?

Imagine the contestant's face if he/she took a deal for $65,000 and then Howie opened up the original case and it contained $750,000. Why hasn't that happened? Are the producers afraid it wouldn't make for good t.v.?

[lallybroch]

spinsterliz said:

To be fair, I missed the last episode (I taped it but haven't gotten around to watching it yet) so I may be wrong on this but-you know how each contestant first picks one case to save until the end of the show? Well, from what I've seen, nobody has ever picked a case worth more than about $5,000. I'm really starting to find that fishy and am wondering if the contestants are told beforehand which case to pick first. What are the odds that not a single contestant has yet to pick a case that contains a huge prize?

Imagine the contestant's face if he/she took a deal for $65,000 and then Howie opened up the original case and it contained $750,000. Why hasn't that happened? Are the producers afraid it wouldn't make for good t.v.?

I'm sure I saw that happen a few weeks ago...the guy made a deal for 100K and his case had 400K. But I think the casting people just have a knack for choosing morons. Rigging an actual game show (and not an American Idol, where the winner is ultimately up to the show's discretion in the fine print) would be a huge risk for a network; if it that kind of tampering were discovered the government would get involved.

[topher]

Saw one where the guy had 750K in it but took the deal.