On November 16, 2009 I had the privilege to speak to Adam Nedff. A very big game show fan and contestant on "Catch 21".

 

 

 
Hey Adam how is your day going?
 
You caught me at an interesting time to ask that. I live in the L.A. area and Game Show Congress 7 just wrapped. I was rather heavily involved in it this year, hosting and writing a lot of the games, so I'm coming down from quite a high right now.It was a great weekend, and I can't say enough about how important it is for any game show fan to get out here and attend one if they can. It's an incredible experience.


How did you get into game shows?
 
I pretty much always was into game shows. I can't remember "discovering" them or anything. I have a theory on how I got addicted. Very early in my life, my mother ran a daycare center in our house and I was really shy, so I didn't like being around other kids. Besides that, all of the other kids in the neighborhood were my brother's age and he was five years older, so, frankly, I didn't have much to do other than watch TV under those circumstances. And...you know, bright lights, loud music, simplistic...game shows have a lot of sensory appeal for small children.


What do you think is the greatest game show period, past and present?
 
The 1970s would have to be the best period for the genre, which is why I'm sorry I wasn't around for that decade. At that point, they were just all over every channel at every time of day, and you had some wonderful formats and hosts among them. And even in the case of the duds, you at least had shows that were trying something new so that the genre wouldn't become stale. You look at shows from that period that bombed, like "Hot Seat," "Money Maze," "Magnificent Marble Machine," and "Musical Chairs," and even though they weren't hits, you have to admire them just because they tried to do something different. Game shows and their networks weren't afraid to stick their toes in the water with a new idea. It's not like what we had 10 years ago where "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" took off and suddenly we had to endure 30 different variations on it. The 1970s were a wonderful period. Not only did you have a large number of game shows, but they were DIFFERENT shows.


What's your favorite game show?


There's an objective way to determine that....go through my DVD collection and count the episodes. I have 900 episodes or so of "Match Game," so...I guess "Match Game" would be my favorite. I got GSN during, I think, my 9th grade year in high school and got hooked the first time I watched an episode. Strictly speaking, it's not a great game, but they got everything right. The host-casting was perfect, the panel chemistry was beautiful, the execution of the idea was outstanding, they just had too many things that came together at the right time. Frankly, that's why I'd like it if we could just put a stop to every attempt to do a new version. I don't think the people in charge understand that the version I have 900 episodes of only worked as well as it did as a result of some EXTREMELY good fortune.



What popular game show that many people like, that you really don't care for?
 
I discussed this with friends. There are no popular games that I truly dislike, so we have to delve into "cult hits," and the one I've never had any fondness for is "Go." It has its fans, and honestly, it's fun to play at home with friends. I've played it with friends here when we get together for game nights. But it's such an unpleasant experience to watch the game as a VIEWER because of the way everybody sounds when they talk one...word...at...a...time. That stilted, halted, monotone delivery, punctuated with "uh, uh, uh..." It's not for me as a viewer. At least not for 30 minutes. As an end game for "Chain Reaction" it worked great, but 90 seconds at a time is about as much of "Go" as I can take.

Who was the first game show host and/or announcer that you ever met?
 
Before I MET any of them, Tom Kennedy actually did something exceedingly gracious after he found out about my website and gave me an office phone number to call so I could conduct two interviews with him. He offered some wonderful recollections and some clips of the call are scattered throughout my site. We also exchanged e-mails now and again if I had a question, although I actually stopped e-mailing him altogether after a year or so because I was afraid that talking to a superfan too often would turn Tom into William Shatner. I'm paranoid and I just had a vision of sending him one too many e-mails and Tom rolling his eyes, so I just stopped e-mailing him after a time.


Which contestant did you actually first meet?
 
When I moved to LA, I was invited to a "game night" by a former Goodson-Todman staffer, Chris Clementson, and I wound up meeting a handful of contestants, like Ben Ziek ("Win Ben Stein's Money"), Jason Hernandez ("Lingo"), and Joe Van Ginkel ("Match Game" 1998). I was welcomed into their circle and they've become some of my closest friends since I've been out here.


What was the first game show you have ever appeared?
 
I did a few questions for America's Team on "Trivial Pursuit" last year, but strictly speaking, "Catch-21" was my big debut. If you're talking about any appearances at all, you can find me in a few audience shots for "The Price is Right," "Jeopardy!," and "Family Feud." And actually, fun fact; after "Price" upgraded all of their audio equipment, they had to make new canned applause tracks to match the sound quality, and I was in the studio they recorded the new tracks, so when you watch "Price" now, you can know that any time the audio is being sweetened, I'm one of the voices and sets of hands clapping. That's not exactly something fit for a resume, but there you go.


You were in the game show Catch 21, how was the experience with legendary producer Merill Heatter?
 
My interaction with Merill Heatter actually lasted about 10 seconds, if that. The contestants were being escorted to the stage and he was standing in the hallway. Being an avid photo collector, I knew who he was the moment I saw him, so I veered out of my spot in line, dashed over to him and blurted out, "I want to let you know what a fan I am of your work, especially "Hollywood Squares" and "Video Village." He gave me a smile, nodded his head, and said, "I appreciate that." Looking back, I'm surprised at how calmly he reacted to it. How many 26-year-olds are walking up to him and saying they're fans of "Video Village" these days? I don't think he was being cold with that reaction. I just took it to mean he knows there are fanatics like us out there, so no compliment you could offer would really surprise him at this point.


Which question on Catch 21 do you think was the hardest, and was there any questions that you had it on the tip of the tongue?
 
Well, hard is in the eye of the beholder. They stumped me right out of the starting gate; the first question was about a storyline arc on "Desperate Housewives" and they might has well have asked the question in Portuguese. My tip-of-the-tongue moment came when they asked a question about "a Mormon candidate for President" and I could not think of the name Mitt Romney. And by the time Alfonso read that name as one of the three choices, somebody had beaten me to the buzzer. I think I also disappointed my mother by blowing a question about "the French word for 'she.'" My mother speaks the language fluently and I got it wrong, heard the correct answer ("Elle") and thought to myself, "I'm going to catch hell for that."



During the main game and the bonus round were you nervous?
 
You know what? That's a funny thing. I had butterflies during the first round, and I finished that round dead last, so I figured, "You know what? This isn't happening, I'm not going to win. I'll just enjoy the experience." So I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to lose the game. And then something funny happened. Since I had my mind made up that I was going to lose, I just became incredibly relaxed and calm up there, and suddenly, since I stopped caring about how things turned out, the answers were coming to me more easily, and suddenly, I'm accumulating cards and points, and I look at the board and think to myself, "This might work out." And about eight minutes later, there I am being told that I have $1,000 and I'm on my way to the bonus round.


As for the bonus round, I wasn't nervous. I just viewed whatever happened next as "free money." I got the crap beat out of me by face cards and came away with $1,000. I had a chance to go for $5,000, but my two remaining hands were an 18 and a 19, so I just walked away, and of course, the next card is a 3 and I could have won $5,000. That was a bit of a bummer, but after I was escorted offstage, a prodction assistant came to me with some tax paperwork and said, "I really hope you don't lose sleep over this, Adam; NOBODY would have gambled $1,000 on the cards you had showing."


How was your experince with Alfonzo Ribero?
 
Alfonso & Micki both were wonderful to me. After the main game ended, they stopped tape to move Micki's table to the other side of the stage for the bonus round, and she walks up to me as they're doing that and says, "Just so you know, you DESERVE to be here. That was a great game." And yeah, maybe she says that to other contestants. I'm sure I wasn't the first. But that was still a pretty good feeling.


Alfonso paid me a pretty big compliment after signing off. He shook my hand and told me, "I really, really wanted you to win the $25,000 here, and I'll tell you why. The thing that got me while I watched you play is, you didn't think about any decision you had to make during the game. I spotted that while we were over there (for the main game). You always knew immediately what you wanted do with the card." And then he rolled his eyes and said, "I cannot stand it when contestants just go 'Umm, uh, uhhhhhh..." and think for two minutes about what they want to do with their cards. When I realized how well you understood the game, I began thinking, 'This guy deserves 25 grand.'" So that was an incredible feeling to have the host tell me that.


What did you do with the money you won?
 
I'm going to let it sit in the bank and collect interest.


Now going off topic.
 
You are actually fond of wrestling? Who is your favorite wrestler, past and present?
 
Roddy Piper then and Chris Jericho now. As much as I admire Chris' skills as a wrestler--and I say that because I don't want to shortchange him, he's great in the ring--I've always favored great entertainers to great wrestlers, and those guys are just the best at talking and interacting with their opponents, they're great at playing the characters they play, and they don't just talk at the fans, they talk TO the fans, and that's a fantastic thing to do...make the fans feel like they're part of the show.


Who do you think is the greatest wrestler of all time?
 
Ric Flair. There are guys who are just as good on the mat as him, and there are guys who were just as captivating when they did interviews and promos, but the thing about Ric Flair is there's never been anybody who was as good as he was at BOTH.


According to your website you tried out for professional wrestling how was that experience?
 
I exaggerated that to some extent. A 500-pound wrestler calling himself "Buddha" got into the ring one night and offered $500 to anyone who could bodyslam him, so I went in there and he surprised me by grabbing me by my neck and dropping me right on my head. I had classes the next day and I totally blacked out during Spanish class. I was fine, but...yeah. I had a little more success (and security) working as a ring announcer for a few years before I moved to California.

We're now talk about video games I have many game systems like, the NES, Playstaiton 1, and Playstation 3 (which sadly broke down).  How many game systems do you own, which one do you usually play a lot, and which games do you usually play?
 
I'm not a gamer, believe it or not. About once a month, the game show friends that I told you about earlier will have a get-together and Guitar Hero is usually on the line-up. I play Guitar Hero at those functions, but beyond that, I don't play.


You've been putting Starcade episodes on youtube.com lately so I got a question (unfortunately the videos were taken down), what is your favorite Arcade Game? 
 
When I was a kid, I could NOT leave an arcade without playing (GASP) WWF Superstars and Wrestlefest. I know about Emulators, but my computer's not that great and I'm actually a pretty low-tech guy, so I haven't played either one in about 15 years.


Other than game shows, what TV shows do you watch?
 
I've usually worked nights since I got out of college (I worked as a night-shift DJ in West Virginia, I work at a theater now, so figure it out...I'm never home for primetime) so it's hard for me to get hooked on anything. I watch "Letterman" every night, I love "The Office," and I watch "60 Minutes" and the Fox Sunday line-up. That's pretty much it outside of game shows.



Okay, I don't have anymore question so I have one more question.
 
What do you have to say to all game show folks around here?


 If you've considered attending a Congress, do it. If you've considered being a contestant on a show, do it. If you've considered starting a collection, do it. Freaking do it, whatever it is