Is This Just A Rant?: Who Wants To Be Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Came across this page following a link from a page about a British game show, haven't a clue what it's for.

The description is full of YMMV and inaccuracies with a bare explanation of the supposed trope. The list of common features contains things which could apply to many game shows before Millionaire and again, YMMV. Then there's the list of alleged US Millionaire copycat programmes, which includes programmes which aren't American, and others which are on there with no explanation or because they imitate another programme.

Is there a point to this page, or is it just a rant?

edited 23rd Feb '11 8:10:51 AM by halfmillennium

I chopped a bunch of the editorializing in the description, and also chopped a bunch of the examples, that only had a couple of the elements listed, rather than most or all of them, especially if the only ones they have are Lifelines, high top prizes, or padding.

While we're at it, is this just Follow the Leader But For WWTBM?

Pretty much. I don't know that we need to keep the page, I just figured I'd scoop up the worst of the crap while we were deciding.

I don't think this page is necessary

Agree that there's nothing here that can't be covered by Follow the Leader. If there's interest in conserving the content...well, Mythbusters has a whole Follow the Leader page, Shows Inspired By Mythbusters. Maybe that's a hint to start a Follow the Leader namespace? Not a very formal one, not an enforced one (the trope should be Trivia anyway), just for those shows with so many shows inspired by it that there's too many to include on the page.

There is no reason not to have show-specific subtropes of Follow the Leader.

Shows Inspired By Mythbusters has the same problems: natter, vague description and no guidelines on how similar a programme has to be. Both could possibly work in Trivia or YMMV with a bit of cleanup, but is there a point to that?

If this page has any use apart from that, someone would need to cut any and all 'examples' which don't qualify. That means any which don't imitate Millionaire even if they imitate something else, and programmes which are only slightly similar. Someone would also need to rewrite the intro so it's either not US-centric or able to explain why.

edited 23rd Feb '11 11:27:29 AM by halfmillennium

Millionaire had such a large influence on gameshows it seems more like a Genre Launch.

edited 23rd Feb '11 5:15:22 PM by DrStarky

Genre Relaunch

Genre Relaunch might be a good idea for a new trope. I know that it's happened at least twice in the game show field alone — first, the 1960s version of Jeopardy! helped re-popularize straight-up quiz shows, and Millionaire is pretty much responsible for everything in the industry in the past 10 years (ornate sets, dramatic music for everything, ginormous payoffs, commercial-break cliffhangers, etc.).

As for this trope, it does seem to be a The Same But More.

edited 26th Feb '11 3:24:42 PM by Twentington

And how Moulin Rouge re-launched musicals on the Hollywood screen. To YKTTW!

Genre Revival would be a better name.

We seriously don't have Genre Revial?

I know we have Genre-Killer.

And Genre Turning Point. And I have Genre Populariser in ykttw.

edited 26th Feb '11 5:31:47 PM by DragonQuestZ

So what do we do with this trope then? It got cutlisted but was declined.

Here's a draft of what it might look like in the form of Genre Relaunch:

• This happened at least twice in the Game Show genre:
  • Jeopardy helped re-popularized quiz-type game shows, which were previously thought dead after the rigging scandals of the 1950s. In fact, the show's signature "answer and question" format was inspired by a discussion between creator Merv Griffin and his wife about those very scandals. Between the 1950s and Jeopardy!'s debut, most game shows were either Panel Games or very low-stakes parlor games such as Password.
  • After a rather dormant period in the late 1990s, the genre got a major reboot in 1999 with the success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The show revitalized the entire genre and was the Trope Maker for many game show elements in use today — All or Nothing, Lifelines, dramatic lighting, music and sets, Commercial Break Cliffhangers and of course, massive payoffs.

edited 1st Mar '11 10:01:43 AM by Twentington

Let's leave this page alone at least until Genre Relaunch is launched...

That's probably the logic behind not cutting. If it's being repaired, then it doesn't need to be cutlisted until the repair is finished.

YKTTW launched. I couldn't come up with more examples, so here goes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=3u049qfix204fk350198gelh

Genre Relaunch launched. Can W Wt BW Wt Ba M be cut now or no?

Well?

I say cut it.

It's a legit subtrope.

I don't claim to be an expert on American gameshows, but there need to be restrictions if this a legitimate subtrope. The trope cannot simply be 'any programme which someone thinks vaguely resembles another programme'. A lot of older gameshows, if made now, would probably be on there.

If this is a proper trope, is this exclusively an American trope, or does it apply elsewhere? How similar does a programme have to be to qualify for the trope? Is it only with reference to Millionaire, or can it include other game shows? If any of those can't be answered, there's no point in the trope.

The requirements list needs cleaning anyway. Dark studios and foreboding heartbeat-like music have been used in popular gameshows for decades.

edited 13th Mar '11 6:38:38 AM by halfmillennium

I think it's probably a combination of several tropes that could be split off on their own.