Street Smarts

This show is fun to watch, and counts as a guilt pleasure for me. It's geared toward a younger demographic, and some of the contestants can become tiresome with all the silly attempts to prove---something. But the show itself is fun and eye opening, and the host (Frank Nicotara) is great. The premise is similar to Jay Leno's man is the street bit where he asks people he meets on the street seemingly easy questions. And the results can be very funny, and in a lot of cases down right scary. The contestants earn money by picking a contestant each time a question is asked, and then predict if that person can answer the question in the manner they predict. Trust me it's funny, and the host is a big part of the shows success, he's very entertaining.

Two in-studio contestants compete. Throughout the game, they try to predict the outcome of street interviews. In the first round, "Who Knew It?", the contestants are given a question and then asked to guess which of the interviewees provided the correct answer.

The aim of Round 2, "Who Blew It?", is the exact opposite: now the contestants try to pick which interviewee *incorrectly* answered.

In the penultimate round, "Pick Your Pony," the contestants pick one of the three interviewees and then predict, one question at a time, whether the selected passerby gave a "Right" or "Wrong" answer.

In the final round, the "Wager of Death," the players are read one final question as it was posed to all three people on the street. The contestants select one interviewee, predict whether he/she answered correctly or incorrectly, and wager [from the money they've accumulated thus far] that the prediction is correct. The high scorer won all of the money he/she'd earned throughout the game.

Let's be frank: this is the perfect example of a guilty pleasure. "Street Smarts" doesn't belong to what we know as the reality-show [a misnomer if ever there was one] genre, although this show has a lot more reality than the other rubbish-TV programs. The interviewees display a level of ignorance that simply cannot be scripted.

Geography, politics, religion, celebrities/showbiz, vocabulary/word pronunciation, the human body... these are all topics about which people prove to know very little. It really is amazing just how little some folks actually know.

The contestants aren't the brightest bulbs in the box, either. They're generally poor judges of character and they have little to no sense of strategy, especially when it comes to making the wager.

Frank Nicotero is a decent, relaxed host with a good attitude. Although he seems a little uncomfortable (or at least not very personable) with the contestants, his interactions with the street subjects are always amusing. Frank seems to be a devotee of the Bob Eubanks School of Questioning, which involves milking an ignoramus' idiotic answer for all it's worth.

[Eubanks, on "The Newlywed Game," had a famous exchange with a woman named Cathy, who didn't know what "urban" and "rural" meant. He proceeded to ask such questions as "How long has he been urban?" and "Did the doctor give him anything for his urban?", resulting in hilarity as the woman's responses further proved her lack of knowledge.]

All that said, "Street Smarts" is a game show that may seem mean-spirited in theory but actually is quite harmless. It's not exactly the most riveting game ever devised, but it can be fun. So when someone gives a clueless answer -- and acts quite certain that it is the right one -- go ahead and laugh. It's all in good fun.

The premise of going out into the street in order to solicit commentary and wisdom of the Common Man is not a new one. The late Mr. Steve Allen was very good at this; and the people around the Hollywood Ranch Market never knew just what to expect from him. His brilliance actually would make use of the public in a sketch.

Others have continued the tradition of the street right down to this very day. David Letterman has made good use of the outside. One of the funniest bits involved those times when they sent their friend & neighbor of THE LATE SHOW, Hello Deli proprietor, Rupert Gee out on the Streets of New York with a hidden Camera Crew. Mr. Letterman would tag along and tell Rupert crazy things to say to strangers..

Certainly Jay Leno is doing his part to uphold and maintain the tradition. H has made his variation on the theme under the title of "Jay Walking", which of course relies on his being out and having a hand held microphone. This has produced some of his best and funniest moments on the TONIGHT SHOW ever since he took over from Johnny (Carson!).

Bringing us down to just about the present day, we had a consortium of TV Production Companies came together to bring us their contribution to Late Night Television. So we had the likes of: 1. Dawn Syndicated Productions, 2. This Old House Productions, 3. Entertain the Brutes and 4. Telepictures Productions & Distribution combining resources and pooling their talents in order to give us this all time un-original concept, called simply "STREET SMARTS."

Being broadcast over the WB Network, it was a regular show for nearly five years. Locally, here in Chicago, it was shown over the Chicago Tribune's Flagship TV Station, WGN Television Channel 9, which is a part of that Network*. Inasmuch as WGN is also one of those "Super Stations", sending its signal out over nationwide cable and satellite hook-ups, STREET SMARTS certainly did get a wide, wide viewing area and huge audience.

The format was simple. They started with a couple of in studio contestants who would either be a winner or a looser; depending on their agreement by guessing just what the interviewee on the videotaped question session.

The Emcee, Frank Nicotero conducted both the in Studio part of the Show; as well as the videotaped questions & B.S. session. Frank, who had experience with humor and audiences as having spent some time as a Stand-Up Comic. A lot of the show's appeal is due to his relaxed demeanor and fast sense of humor.

With no originality, the recycling of old routines, the use of the most basic concepts in comedy, "STREET SMARTS" managed to fill a niche so necessarily needed in the Late Night TV spectrum.

And last, but certainly not the least, may we offer a Tip of the Hat to those unheralded participants in the shows success. So, let's hear it for the unsung heroes of this half-hour of amusement. And those are the bunch of Dim Bulbs who so anxiously volunteered to display their knowledge or lack thereof in front of the vast American viewing public.

NOTE: * The name of the Netork has been changed in about the past year or so to the CW Network after merging with the old UP (Universal-Paramount) Network.

I'm not much for game shows, but STREET SMARTS is very addictive, combing the typical elements of game shows with an aspect similar to Jay Leno's "Jay Walking" segments from THE TONIGHT SHOW. Frank Nicotero is the hysterical host, and the people he finds on the street to ask questions to often make one think of where this country might be headed in the future. The in-house contestants sometimes display too much of an ego thing, but it's probably all put on for the show. Whereas something like JEOPARDY is more for the people who know the Encyclopedia Britanncia from beginning to end, STREET SMARTS is more for the average person. I hope it stays around for quite awhile.

I watch this game show whenever I get the chance. Here's how the game goes the contestants are given a question and then they have to guess who knows the answer and if he or she gets it right they gain $100. But later in the game each person gets a question and that person can dunce their opponnent and they have to take the question and if one of the three people get it right then that person gains $200. Then the last game is called The Wager of Death and if the person selected by the contestant gets it right then that person gets the amount wagered and if the highest wins the game but if that person gets his or her question wrong then they lose the amount they wagered.