Amateur Adventure Hour

By | June 20, 2011
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Alright, I’m hoping this might become a new series. As we all know, my favourite gameshow sub-genre is the action-adventure game. Bother’s Bar likes to champion cheap DIY productions. So why not give some time over to amateur adventure shows on Youtube?

If you are or were a young man and at no point you’ve ever put together (or thought about putting together) your own version of The Crystal Maze/Fort Boyard then chances are you are weird. Here are some Doctor Who fans doing their own version:

To be honest, the games aren’t all that good (the one with the harness is undoubtably the best one, the puzzle in the dark second best) but I think it does make quite an imaginative use of set (the treasure room is hysterical, in a good way) and the host amusingly blunt.

We love this sort of thing. If you’ve made your own Maze, version of Knightmare or used your own helicopter to make a Treasure Hunt, then I want to know about it.

In other news, I’ve just been informed that Thomas Gottschalk has retired from Wetten Dass? presumably as a result of the paralysis accident last year. Quoting Boggenstrovia on Twitter, there are going to be three specials for the rest of the year, looking back on the show’s last thirty years.

Simon Fox WINS the Bother Series of Poker 2011

By | June 19, 2011
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In a cracking grand finale, Simon Fox wins the Bother Series of Poker 2011 after a tense heads-up battle with Matt Clemson. overtaking both myself and last year’s winner Andrew Smith for the title. Simon wins the trophy, the gold medal and a £46 bonus. Runner-up Andrew Smith claims silver and £27.60, and me, despite leading the league all the way through shoved with Jacks only to find Simon’s Queens, and finishes in third place with the bronze medal and £18.40, which I will spend on kebabs most probably. Matt Clemson finishes outside the podium, David J Bodycombe off of the telly deserves a mention for a fantastic late run.

The final league tables can be found here.

Thanks very much to all of you who played along this year, it’s been a thrill ride of a six-months, to be capped in a fortnight’s time with HORSE Hilarity which anyone reading is invited to. Details to follow.

Board of Excitement 19th-25th June 2011

By | June 19, 2011
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This week is SO EXCITNG if you’re American, or know how to work an American proxy server:

  • It’s The Bother Series of Poker Grand Final! Six months of exciting poker action, and it’s it’s all going to boil down to tonight’s Superstack game. There’s decent money on the table and even though you probably can’t win the league you can still get a part of it. (8pm, Tonight, Full Tilt)
  • The Amazing Race Australia (Monday, Seven Network)
  • Fort Boyard 2010 – This week at the comedy time of 8:01pm. But ignore that, they’ve just released some of the adverts for FB 2011 and they’re brilliant.
  • Wipeout – New season has two episodes this week, a “sneak peek” on Tuesday and its regular episode on Thursday. I think this has been on a downward spiral for a while, but new season, new obstacles so. (Tuesday and Thursday, ABC)
  • 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow – The US version. More action and less counting, by the sounds of it. (Tuesday, ABC)
  • The Challenge: The Rivals New season of tough and surprisingly entertaining MTV reality show. This time former rivals are paired up in Costa Rica. Oh-ho, what will they think of next? (Wednesday, MTV US)
  • Expedition Impossible – Mark Burnett’s new adventure racing series that sounds a bit like The Amazing Race. (Thursday, ABC)
  • The Krypton Factor – If the rumours are true, Challenge TV will be showing the 1995 revamp of the show from next week. This hasn’t been shown since original broadcast, I don’t think. (7:30pm, Saturday, Challenge)
  • Penn and Teller: Fool Us (Saturday, 8pm, ITV1)

I’ve probably missed a few things off the list, so feel free to share.

Show Discussion: The Marriage Ref

By | June 18, 2011
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Dermot O’ Leary becomes marriage guidance councellor with the help of three “top” celebs who attempt to determine who is right in couple’s comedy marital arguments. It didn’t do too well in the States, but I think there’s something quintessentially British in this sort of thing so it might do alright. And if it doesn’t, you can turn over and watch Lee Mack’s All-Star Cast on BBC1 at 9:40, both of these are Endemol productions, incidentally. ITV at 9pm.

Show discussion: Penn and Teller’s Fool Us

By | June 18, 2011
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This for me is the pick of Super Saturday, I really enjoyed the pilot a few months ago and is thrilled to see it’s become a series, althogh I’m not so sure this is the best timeslot for it. Magicians perform for Penn and Teller and if P and T can’t work out how the trick is done then they get to open their show in Vegas. Tonight we get to see how John Archer and Ben Earle got on with their Vegas trip after fooling the pair in the pilot, and other magicians step up to the mark. Jonathan Ross is our host who may be with or without dodgy facial hair. ITV at 8pm.

Show Discussion: Odd One In

By | June 18, 2011
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Well, the show nobody was expecting to get a second series IS BACK!!!!!

This week, home team Peter Andre and Jason Manford take on comedians Jenny Eclair and Jack Whitehall. They must try and spot who is really Welsh, who actually injured themselves while doing something with a sausage, who is the real karate champion, who has a famous voice and who won a TV talent contest in Spain.

So there we are. I’m sure it will be amiable enough. ITV1 at 7:15.