Reversal of Fortune: Hot Potato

A team blows it in the Big Bonus Game...or do they?

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• hot
• potato
• bill
• cullen
• game
• show

[thepatcat]

Has this sort of reversal ever happened in the other direction? Has a player been told that they've won, only to be informed later on that they've made a mistake?

[AdamNedeff]

@thepatcat It happened twice that I can think of on "Pyramid," but I don't have either clip.

[flokatirug]

Why are people acting like going to the celebrity format was Bill's idea?

[zachhoran]

It happened on a Pyramid rerun GSN aired the other day. Contestant gets the last subject with Howard Morton giving the clues(week of May 12-16, 1986). Things that Arrive was the category, then after the break, Dick says that the judge didn't disqualify "An Incoming Train" but should have because "INcoming" is a synonym for "Arriving", and the contestant had $9250 of the $10K taken away from him.

[GameShowFanMan]

Sorry Uncle Bill but bullsh*t about the "exciting" change with Hot Potato. Celebrity Hot Potato was so awful and disgusting. The celebrities were idiots who didn't give a damn about the contestants, the game or their winnings. They deliberately gave stupid answers for laughs...ugh! Barry and Enright...why didn't you learn your lesson after Celebrity Bullseye?!

[mbclev]

Thanks, Adam, for putting this up. I think I still have the videocassette of these shows that you sent me in 2002, but I have since moved to my own condo apartment (in 2004). For those that don't know this, I called Barry and Enright from a pay phone shortly after the original show aired, and the person I talked to essentially said that an apology from Bill Cullen would be forthcoming. Well, NBC did not air any such apology, possibly because the network was embarrassed at this incident.

[AdamJ617]

@crinos43 Those words doomed Hot Potato. Desperate act of abomination oby Barry Enright in 1984.

[zachhoran]

ANd of course Barry and Enright did exactly the same thing on Bullseye two years earlier, and the celebs didn't help that show's fortunes.

[goldenchick85]

@thepatcat A few times on Password Plus, if someone won the bonus round, but had their partner give them illegal clues (like using two words or something), they deducted $1,000 from their winnings, not sure if thats the same thing though, lol

[zachhoran]

And they announced the reversed decision during a celeb/contestant episode later in the run. SOmeone mentioned on ATGS they called Barry-Enright and thought this trio was wronged.

[shoredude2]

Nothing kills a game show like adding celebrities.

[BlackwoodCompany]

@imal25 Those questions sounded easy.