My Mundane Mid-Life Archives

Homepage     About     Blog     Podcast     Search     Contact   

My Mundane Mid-Life
My Pet Peeves
My Live Webcams
Gallery
BJ and Gigglesnort Hotel
Bunnies!
My Weather

What's New
Sign My GuestMap

This is an archive collection of entries from  my main personal blog, My Mundane Mid-Life.


This particular entry is from December 29, 2005.



Cash Cab

Cash Cab
I happened to stumble on to what I think is a cool, entertaining, fun game show on - of all channels - The Discovery Channel.

The show is called Cash Cab.

Imagine this - you're in New York City (probably just Manhattan). You're looking for a cab to take you somewhere. A van-style cab pulls up. You get in and tell the driver your destination.

Suddenly, you hear a musical "sting" over the speakers in the cab and the ceiling of the cab lights-up (it looks like the dance floor from Saturday Night Fever, only upside down and on the ceiling). The driver (the host, Ben Bailey) turns to you and welcomes you to The Cash Cab which is a rolling television game show inside the cab. And asks you if you want to play. The cab itself has at least 4 cameras hidden in the interior of the cab and up to two others buried in the advertising sign on the roof. The cab does have a medallion on the hood and it does have a fare meter. In fact, there's no way you'd know it wasn't just a normal cab. However, it appears that the people that show-up in the cab do not have to pay a fare.

Basically, the show is just a question and answer show. If the passengers want to play, Ben will ask them a series of questions while on the way to their destination. A graphical map pops up that shows you the route Ben is going to take and how many blocks away they are from their destination. the longer the drive, the more opportunities the passenger(s) have to win more money. Or, they have to pray for a traffic jam.

The first 4 questions - on the easy side - are worth $25 each. Each round the difficulty goes up, along with the cash - $50 for the next 4, or $100 for the rest. Answer the questions - you get the cash. If you miss the question, you are awarded a strike. If you get three strikes, Ben pulls the cab over, and kicks you out - without winning any cash, no matter where you are (you'll have to catch another cab to get to your destination!) There are sound effects and the ceiling lights with each answer.

Now, if the passengers get stumped, they have 2 one-time "options" (think "Life Lines" from Who wants to be a Millionaire): One is a "Mobile Shout-Out" where you use Ben's Motorola Razr phone to call one person to get the answer, or the "Street Shout-Out", where Ben pulls the cab over to the curb and you find someone (and only one person) walking by on the street to answer your question (could you imagine a cab pulling over to the curb as you're walking by and the passengers ask you to answer a question for them?)

If the "contestants" get up to $200 and Ben has to stop at a red light, they qualify for a "Red Light Challenge". The get 30 seconds to answer a question that will have multiple answers ("other than Rudolph, name all of the reindeer"). If they get the question right in 30 seconds, they get $250 - if not, there's no penalty (no strikes), they just don't win any additional money.

If the passengers make it to their destination without getting kicked-out, they win their money in cash on the spot, doled-out by Ben. HOWEVER, Ben offers them a Double-or-Nothing chance on a "Video Bonus Question". Ben flips-up a little LCD monitor for the passengers, they watch the clip and try to answer the question (it's always the hardest question of the trip). If they win, they double their winnings; if they lose, the get nothing but a free ride and the experience of playing in the Cash Cab.

It's simple and fun. The contestants are just everyday people off the street, not people applying for a gameshow, so that right there adds a nice flavor to the show. It's amazing how many people that get into the cab that you can tell within 30 seconds if they're going to get to their destination or not!

Entertaining! Weekdays, right now at 6PM EST on The Discovery Channel.

posted at 06:25 PM | Link | TV | § |


Also on this date...


 

That's it for the entries in this particular Archive of my blog. If you want, you can look through other entries by selecting the links in the right-hand column of this page under either Archives by Month or Archives by Category, or you can search the site for specific keywords by using the Search page.

This Blog was last updated Friday December 18, 2009 13:03:12 CDT (-06:00 GMT)
3817 entries
359 comments

Powered by MovableType Version 3.2
Powered by Audblog
Powered by Blogrolling

Syndicate This Site - RSS 2.0 Full Feed - with embedded HTML - no comments

RDF 1.0

Reading blogs at work? Click to escape to a suitable site!


December 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    

Me @ Twitter

My Weather

Weather at O'Hare

My Webcams

WeatherCam LIVE
Latest WeatherCam Image
Back Yard Cam
Latest Back Yard WeatherCam Image
BunnyCam LIVE
Latest BunnyCam Image

Blogs of Note


And these sites don't PING Weblogs...

Blogroll Me!

Archives by Month

2009
December
January
2008
December
November
October
September
August
May
April
February
January
2007
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2006
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2005
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2004
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2003
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2002
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2001
December

Archives by Category

Amazing Race
Audblog
Baseball
Bears
Big Brother
Blogging
Bulls
Bunnies
Computing
Cubs
Current Events
Dogs
Entertainment
Family
Flyers
Friday Five
Friends
Gambling
Geek
Health
Hockey
Horse Racing
Internet
Job Search
Las Vegas
Memes
Movies
Mundane
Nigerian 419 Fraud
Odd
Olympics
Photos
Podcast
Puppeteering
Qik videos
Reality TV
Space
Sporting Events
Sports
Stupid Quizzes
Survivor
Technology
The Mole
Travel
TV
Twitter Tweet
Uncle Michael
Unemployment
White Sox
Wolves
Work

Blog Rings

< ? # >
< ? # >
< ? # >
< ? # >
< ? # >
< ? # >

Errata


Technorati Profile - Main Site
Technorati Profile - Alternate URL
Globe Of Blogs - Weblog Directory
Registered at Diarist.Net
The Ageless Project
My BlogTree Pedigree
check out my neighbors located geographically near me
blogchalk: Michael/Male/41-45. Lives in United States/Hoffman Estates/Hoffman Hills and speaks English. Spends 40% of daytime online. Uses a Faster (1M+) connection.
Shares of My Mundane Mid-Life are listed at BlogShares - price: $0 - p/e: 0
READ ME - The Bloggers Disclaimer
100 Things About Me
My Stats service - WebSTAT Premium
Don't forget to sign one of my GuestMaps!

My Wishlist at Amazon.com
Would you like to make a donation to the operation of this website?
The COOLEST store on the web - Think Geek!



© Copyright 2001-2009 RealLans.com - All rights reserved. EMail the Webmaster.