Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Let's Make a Deal

Go To

  • Awesome Music: The 1984-86 run had a pretty cool theme- lots of jazz, and a fun, bouncy feel—perfectly in tune with the show.
  • Growing the Beard:
    • The show was initially a very serious affair until people started showing up carrying signs, and later wearing silly hats, on a whim. Soon, everyone started showing up in crazy costumes and acting more excited.
    • In the Wayne Brady revival, things seem to be turning the other way—the costumes seem to be less and less gaudy, but the excitement remains.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: One All-New episodes had someone dressed as Gumby in the back. Four years later, a new Gumby series would go on air, distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures; Telepictures distributed the All-New series.
  • Memetic Mutation: The "Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3?" has been used in countless Game Show parodies. This has even carried over to legitimate game shows as well, as the doors on The Price Is Right are referred to as such by fans, and by the show itself in the prize descriptions for the now-retired Super Ball.
  • Misaimed Merchandising: Invoked with the various Zonks, with the crowner being the cactus-themed toys and pacifiers. The latter even had Wayne note how violent it is for a Zonk.
  • Newer Than They Think: The 1972 revival of Price borrowed many elements from Deal, including contestants being pulled up and interacting directly with the host, and the "pricing games" on the former being along the same lines as the "deals" on the latter.
  • Quirky Work: Invoked with the Wayne Brady version; the audience and contestants all wear various costumes, Zonks are sillier than ever before, and people break out into song every so often, among other things. Wayne's improv experience helps with adjusting to the offbeat nature of it all.
  • Replacement Scrappy:
    • Many die-hard fans hated Bob Hilton as host—so much so that Monty, who was then retired, came back for what was intended to be a temporary period. Monty's plan was to do on-air auditions, then pick one of the candidates to take over the show permanently. Didn't work—NBC opted to just can the show in January '91 and bring Wheel of Fortune back to the lineup.
    • The less said about Billy Bush, the better. Or Ricki Lake. Or Mark DeCarlo (though he at least had prior experience - he was a lot winner on Sale of the Century in 1985 and hosted a dating series called Studs in the early 90s).
    • Wayne Brady had his detractors as well, mostly because he lacks the authoritarian hosting style of Hall. As a result, he initially came off as not knowing where anything was. It didn't help that the show was slightly retooled to be more reliant upon improvisational comedy, as Wayne and Jonathan were regulars on Whose Line. These complaints faded once Brady grew comfortable in the role.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • The Super Deal, a Bonus-Bonus Round used for the 1975-76 season where the contestant could risk the Big Deal for a 1-in-3 chance of winning the Big Deal and $20,000 cash. Although a few people did win the big money, Monty wasn't really a fan, since it made the Big Deal somewhat less important.
    • The current version knocked the Big Deal from two players to one, which was derided from all corners. Some have suggested it was done for budgetary reasons, but it really just kills a lot of the excitement factor. It could also be an easier version of the Showcase round from Price (with the added bonus/detriment of not having to price anything).
    • The current version has never used games where pricing products is a key factor, which was a staple of every previous version. According to then-showrunner Mike Richards, the producers want to differentiate the show from Price, which also airs on CBS. In any case, the pricing games have been replaced by things such as spelling, latitude/longitude, survey questions, and trivia.note  Many longtime fans believe that the trivia questions feel out of place.
  • This is Your Premise on Drugs: The Price Is Right on LSD. Alternately, if TPIR is HTML, then LMAD is XML; the latter is an "improvised" version of the former, but Deal had run for almost nine years before Price returned in 1972 (and judging by Goodson's pitch film, was directly inspired by LMAD), so which show is which on drugs?!
  • Values Dissonance:
    • Most of Monty's behavior during the 1963 Pilot, especially his sales pitch before the show where he says that women "control the finances of America," and goes on to ask "What's more exciting to a woman than trading, or swapping, or looking for a bargain?"
    • On a 1969 episode, while doing the end of episode "Quickie Deals", Hall approached a woman in the audience holding a baby bottle and attempted to make a deal with her. He noted that the bottle had a removable rubber nipple and offered her $100 if she showed him "another kind of nipple", which she declined. Hall later regarded this attempted deal as the most embarrassing moment of his career.


Top