MovieChat Forums > Deal or No Deal (2005) Discussion > I don't see any tears. Is it just me?

I don't see any tears. Is it just me?

posted 10 years ago by emncaity
4 replies | jump to latest

And here we have yet another example of NBC's obsession with triple-quadruple-over-over-OVERproducing everything they do, from game shows to "reality" (yeah, right) shows to newsmagazines, documentaries, and sports. It's been going on a long time.

So on GSN today, while I'm trying to get some stuff done around the house, I'm seeing a guy who says he's playing for his alleged seven children, with one allegedly accepted to college (which was called a "huge accomplishment" by Howie Mandel), and with the dad going on about how he's a construction manager who does this and that for the underprivileged. At least three times that I've seen, the camera zooms in while he's seemingly getting emotional while talking about how he's doing all this for the kids, how his daughter told him "Daddy, don't be afraid," voice breaking, face contorting into the beginning of a good cry, with closeups of the models fanning their faces with emotion in that "you're about to make me cry myself, you awesome beautiful man you" thing, with the low-cut tops barely containing what reportedly (I don't look, myself) are really awesome t--wait...I'm getting off track here. (Hey, I didn't say it was all bad.) Only there aren't any tears at all on the contestant's face while he's making the cry-voice. Like, not one. Not on the face, not in the eyes. Bupkis. Niente.

Oh, and: The dude said he wanted the big money to buy a yacht so he could take his daughters fishing. (Because most people working with the underprivileged think in terms of six-figure yachts instead of just renting a charter for an afternoon once in a while.) Don't know what the two sons would've been doing during that time, but anyway.

Sorry, I checked five sources to try to find the original broadcast date, and I can't find it. If I run across it or find it on YouTube sometime, I'll post it.

(Update: And then right after that episode -- not even kidding here -- up comes another episode where, at the end of a show, a guy asks his girlfriend to marry him. Same deal, with the "I'm choking back tears" voice, and not one sign of any actual tear. But boy, were the cameras ever ready. So sick.)

Anyway...I mean, look, I'm not heartless. I have five daughters and a son myself. The guy might've been for real. If he was, I hope he and his kids are OK, the oldest daughter has done well at college, etc. But even if he was for real, the way NBC just milked the hell out of it and made it so artificially maudlin...it's just their habit, and it's stupid, annoying, and insulting. I'll bet they have a focus-group campaign that tells them it really works, and maybe it does with the kind of people who sign up for a $50 check to be in a focus group. But for reasonably intelligent human beings, it's just awful. (Cf. Dateline, with that goopy, creepy Keith Morrison and the canned music behind stories of real murder, rape, etc. No, they're not the only network to do it; it's just that they're particularly good at being creepy and irritating with it.)

[–] Piperson 9 years ago

I've been watching reruns of this and I agree with you that the "milking moments" are fake and ruin the show. Thank God for DVR's because Fast Forward is the only thing that saves me from putting my foot through my TV.

It is strange that you should mention the lack of tears and Keith Morrison. Keith presents those evil stories of murder with the creepy music and the sing-song bedtime story voice on DAteline. I've noticed several times that the police are convinced the husband ( or wife) did it because in the middle of all the emotional display over the lost spouse, no real tears are shed.

Juries also think they are experts on emotional behavior. I don't think emotions are as cut and dry as the cops or juries think. But I do think game show producers are pushing for big scenes. The models reveal the truth; fake.

[–] emncaity 9 years ago

Thank God for DVR's because Fast Forward is the only thing that saves me from putting my foot through my TV.

Does help tremendously, doesn't it? I agree.

I've noticed several times that the police are convinced the husband ( or wife) did it because in the middle of all the emotional display over the lost spouse, no real tears are shed.

So true. But then:

Juries also think they are experts on emotional behavior. I don't think emotions are as cut and dry as the cops or juries think.

The psychology of courtrooms and jury behavior is a pretty well-defined and almost endlessly interesting subspecialty of psychology (as I'm sure you know), and you're right about this -- juries, and people in general, have all kinds of ideas about what would be "normal" in a certain specific post-traumatic or post-crime situation, ideas that are just flat wrong, according to established research. (Also wrong: people's self-impression that they can "spot a liar"; the tendency to see certainty in a witness and extensive detail in the witness's story as evidence of truth; and so on.) People have all kinds of different reactions to trauma or extreme situations for different reasons that the ordinary person can't begin to understand or anticipate.

All of which is to say, I would agree, of course, that you have to be careful about deducing too much from the "no tears" reaction. But I do think there's a legitimate distinction to be made between the person who's just been through a genuinely extreme or traumatic situation, might be in physiological shock, disoriented, etc., versus somebody in one of NBC's little dramas. I have a really horrible fascination with this show (Deal or No Deal) in particular, because it's just such a perfect example. Get the guy from Texas with the big Texas-shaped belt buckle and have him chew the accent, work the Texas thing for all it's worth, etc. Or the cheerleader. Or the really adorable young tennis player (I mean, of course you're going to wear the tennis outfit to the show). And so forth. And all while they're just ignoring the math of the thing, acting shocked when something happens that had a high degree of mathematical probability, being certain that for some reason (because God knows their family needs the money more than other families, because it's just time for their "luck" to hit, whatever) the decision they just made that makes absolutely no sense by the numbers is going to work out (and then being devastated when it inevitably doesn't)...it's just grand lowbrow drama. It's almost to the level of something like the TV-show production on the Hunger Games, but with less lethal results. I guess DOND just ran out of ridiculous broad stereotypes to milk for drama value eventually, but man, these reruns...

[–] Piperson 9 years ago

Yes to all you've said. I too am fascinated with people ignoring the mathematical probabilities in favor of what they wish would happen. I think that is what Las Vegas is founded on.

[–] emncaity 9 years ago

Tellin' ya. You watch these people on DOND get into casino mode, egged on by the crowd, getting that rush every time they slam the plexiglass box back over the "deal" button and say "no deal," and the crowd goes wild...and they think of it as "going for it" and "being courageous" and "being a winner" or "not being a quitter," it's quite a study in gambling psychology. You're right, it's what keeps Vegas rich, for sure.