"My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" (2008/I) TV series

Director:

Michael Simon

Seasons:

1

Genre:

Game-Show | Reality-TV

Plot Keywords:

Non Fiction

Cast

Dan Cortese

...

Himself / ... (10 episodes, 2008)

Also Known As:

My Dad (USA) (short title)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Hotchkiss Industries

Movie Connections:

Version of "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" (2008/II)

Family Double Dare Meets American Gladiators

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

My Dad is Better Than Your Dad is the new competition show in which four father/child teams compete for a chance to play for up to $50,000 in cash. The idea itself is not too bad, but the execution needs a little fixing.

The game breaks down like this; first, the four teams compete in mini-physical challenges, such as chopping down desks in order to collect the wood or hurling their kids at a giant-sized dartboard. After two of these, the lowest scoring team is eliminated. The three remaining teams will then be tested on trivia, with the children buzzing in and their fathers answering them. Another team is eliminated, then the remaining two fathers will go through another challenge, this time even more intense. The winner moves onto test how well he knows his child by answering a series of questions. For each question answered correctly, $10,000 is won. A top prize of $50,000 can be earned.

This would seem like good criteria for a game show, but the presentation needs some work. For many of the time-oriented challenges, the clock is rarely shown on screen. This contrasts to other shows where the timer is always displayed and you know how much is left until the challenge is over. Many of the dads are good sports and often root for their opponents, but the children (especially the daughters) are the opposites. They always shout at their fathers to "Hurry!" and go as far as to taunt their opponents.

I have noticed that there has been inconsistent judging for one particular event. In the challenge where the fathers send their kids flying towards the giant dart board, sometimes they will not accept darts thrown at the board and other times they will. This does not make sense because it unfairly puts teams that play by the rules at a disadvantage.

The structure and commercial pacing for My Dad is Better Than Your Dad is worse than other current prime time game shows. Sometimes, you can predict when they cut to commercial, but usually they do not break in between events. One time, they cut to commercial right in the middle of the "Braver" challenge and another time, they did the same thing after it had ended but before we found out the second team's score (just like the time, it was not displayed on screen for that function).

Overall, My Dad is Better Than Your Dad is worth watching, but it could be better if these things were corrected.