oops, it's a pin, so it's meant to be some meta joke, right? Below is the testament of me not getting it. Blue/red or blue/purple or any other multi-coloured lighting with contrasting and blending colours really. Named after blue, pink, and purple of bi pride flag and/or the fact the trend to use it in UA-cam video essays was started by some LGBT creators and it still has some of that association.
15:26 Winning a $500 "shopping spree" at Family Dollar is like winning an all expense paid vacation to a motel down the block, or an all you can eat buffet off of the Burger King dollar menu.
I live near a Dollar Tree and frequently walk by their smoke break area and it seems like their employees are in a constant state of emotional meltdown.
Family Dollar was founded in my hometown and I’ve been in a lot of their stores because of that. So, the thing I find weirdest is the huge conveyor belt set piece. Family Dollar stores feature a counter more similar to a gas station convenience store than a traditional checkout... so there are no conveyor belts in stores.
The only store in this dollar store grouping that uses a conveyor is dollar tree, the actual $1 store (I have all three very close together in my small town)
As someone who works in game dev, I think your conspiracy theory is 100% spot on. The weird dissonance between the shopping/saving focus and the total lack of those things in the game itself has the stink of "we had to completely retool the mechanics at the last minute based on decisions from above and now none of our aesthetic trappings make sense anymore buuut we don't have the resources or authority to fix that" all over it.
I don't understand why a game show that's supposed to be advertising a dollar store wouldn't have some sort of price guessing game. And/or some kind of challenge where you're given a budget and you have to make something with products bought at the dollar store.
If I had to guess most of the individual games that can be made out of those contests are ones that have already been done by the price is right, or supermarket sweep. And those shows owners have some form of legal claim to their individual games that makes it difficult for other game shows to create games with similar gimmicks. As a result the only way to create a price guessing game in a game show that another show can’t say you stole from us is to go with something as generic as guess the two matching prices.
First she makes a video on a forgotten doug walker series, now its dollar tree game stores. What will she do next. I have no idea what the theme of this channel is and I love it
Everything they do on this show feels like something my church youth group would have had us do except it's a real game show that they actually put on television for some reason
I work at a Dollar Tree, trust me when I say well over half of what they sell is absolute garbage. What isn't completely useless tends to be overpriced for how much you get. They prey on the poor, and it makes me sick. Unless it's the only job available (which was my case) I highly recommend staying the hell away.
Dollar stores and their deceptively small bags of chips (oooh but it's only $0.99! cheaper than the $3.49 ones at harris teeter!) prove the old adage "it takes a lot of money to be poor"
I worked in Poundland (the UK equivalent) and they're very much the same. I felt so bad for poor people being made to feel they were getting bargains when they were just being ripped off. Also they made us stand on the registers all he time because management claimed it 'projects energy'.
@@rtemis-rho I think at Kruger's? Some type of grocery store, they let the cashers sit because it's fucking stupid to stand and whoever started that mentality of standing all the time will catch my fists
This show just gives off the vibe that simply being there is one of the most depressing things ever. The bland wall colors that they used for the background of the show feels like being in the store itself (Which is one of sadness), and your earlier comment hit the nail on the head on how people are there for necessity and do not think it's a luxury. It's depressing watching the show, but I feel a sense of happiness knowing that no more episodes are being produced for it.
Okay but an extremely bourgeois dollar store where you buy tiny quantities of like *really* high quality food sounds kinda neat. (Also i feel like such a fool for listening to the video at max volume from when you mentioned the show's inaudibly quiet background music.........)
I don't care in the slightest about Family Dollar or Save to Win, but I'm blown away by your talent for building a compelling narrative out of this bizarre, terrible show. Incredible work.
Every time Mariana lovingly caresses an item it makes me viscerally uncomfortable. I know it's not her fault (it's certainly just what she was directed to do), but it just feels so upsettingly fake, and boy do I hate it.
Literally my exact same thought. Makes way more sense at least than a game show where contestants pretend to spin a big slot machine in a prescripted sequence of events and it's hosted by Jason Biggs and made by Cherry Pepsi.
That type of blindfold looks like a tiny little bra at the best of times, but the one they used looks the most like a tiny bra that a blindfold can possibly look.
As you were reading the facebook description my first thought was "they're reviving the show" but honestly it being a heinously bad concept that wasn't even made into fruition is somehow even better than the thought of family dollar having a second go at making a game show
The last 10 minutes, especially when you show the clips at 34:01, feel like when the world starts falling apart in Coraline. Amazing video, thank you so much
I went into this expecting humor and while that was there, what stuck with me is that this video is really an interesting dive into capitalism, media, and why this one small part of the world works the way it does. It reminded me of something a history professor of mine said--one of the most important historical questions you can ask is why? Why this, why here, why now, why? And this video does a really cool job of asking that question and walking through the answer in a compelling (and sometimes very hilarious) way. This feels like the encapsulation of everything I love about the video essay genre. I know more about save to win than I ever wanted to know, and that's making me think about how this show and how capitalism in general functions in the larger world. Also, this video made me laugh. Best of all worlds.
Seeing Marianna in her shitty replica Family Dollar uniform try to Vanna White-ify toilet paper or Froot Loops, complete with a delicate little pat when she puts them down, just...really embodies the problems with this game show's premise, doesn't it? Trying to apply the same sense of luxury afforded to massive cash prizes and new cars to a 12-pack of Charmin. I couldn't come up with a better image if I was trying to, it's perfect
Most broadcast networks like CW treat their Saturday Morning lineups as afterthoughts. They only run blocks like "One Magnificent Morning" to appease the FCC's Educational/Informational programming requirements, which mandates all broadcast TV stations air up to three hours of E/I programming each week. Rather than resort to running educational cartoons like PBS does, they just air repackaged live-action shows from other networks. These shows tend to have trivia blurbs appear during shows like Unlikely Animal Friends, and that is why this Family Dollar game show features said brand trivia so it can technically meet those E/I guidelines.
The whole first half of the video, I was thinking "Huh, why didn't they just remake Supermarket Sweep?" I can buy it, that that was the original plan and it either didn't work or some genius decided to change everything at the last minute, and they had to retool everything into... this.
I’m betting someone at another network still held the rights to supermarket sweep and wouldn’t let them make Family Gourmet supermarket sweep. Or they were in the process of considering a relaunch of supermarket sweep. And as a result family dollar didn’t get allowed to make dollar store brand supermarket sweep . Forcing a drastic retool of everything
Why does the second half of this video feel like the start of a creepypasta? Things were starting to get real spooky there for a second, I thought you were gonna mention a cult was involved with the show or something.
I love how you jumped from Nostalgia Critic to a dollar store game show, and still made it super interesting. Hope you make many more! And I bet that Family Dollar DID try to make a Supermarket Sweep/Price is Right kind of game show, but it probably failed in internal testing because of just how dollar store work. You have no fruits, or vegetables, or fresh meat or produce or whatever. Everything is packaged. The closest thing to meat you can find is like, frozen meals. So no one will get super excited over a "all you can get in your cart is free" game. And then everything costs between a single dollar or a couple, so there's not enough play to guess numbers in a Price is Right kind of game. A game show based on a dollar store just isn't possible, because games and shows try to imagine something greater than life, while dollar stores are as realistic and dull as you can get, where you can't even fantasize about someday getting the expensive cuts of meat, or making a huge BBQ, because that's too expensive for a dollar store. You go to a dollar store because you have to, not because you want to.
Loved this video, glad I stumbled on this channel and remembered your name from one of Sarah's videos! Immediate sub. One quick note on 32:49, and I cannot believe the paper I wrote once on game show prize law is actually going to serve me a purpose - the "meets eligibility requirements" is not as scummy as it seems, or at least it isn't inherently scummy (there are absolutely scummy things it could theoretically be hiding). That's standard legal boilerplate for game show credits and the requirements in question are typically things like: -no repeat contestants, you can't win if you've won before -no employees of the companies making the show, in this case probably both family dollar and the cw as well as any production companies that aren't part of the cw's parent company are mentioned in the contracts -exclusivity regarding other game shows - not actually sure what the reasoning is here but most game show contracts have a clause stating you can't go on or have been on another game show within a certain period of time It's mostly fraud prevention and cooperation with various federal/state/city laws regarding game prizes and television production, not the more nefarious "loophole to not actually give the prize money" it reads as to the layperson. Anyway, super excited to check out your other videos.
It’s disgusting that they’re profiting off of people in food deserts by selling unhealthy foods. It’s one of the reasons poverty and obesity in the US correlate. I’m only a minute in and I’m interested to see where you’re taking this!
My jaw literally dropped when you made the revelations about the Facebook description and the faked clips. I'm really getting a whole "conspiracy theory documentary" experience out of this "UA-cam video essay about a failed game show made by a dollar store" and I love it.
@@LadyEmilyPresents As a loyal Family Dollar shopper, I’m also excited to showcase the incredible deals shoppers can find in every aisle at their local Family Dollar store! I know our viewers at home will have a blast watching and learning all the ways to save!
They were actually playing a long con when making this show, knowing that eventually a UA-cam video would be made about it and that thus they’d be able to subconsciously advertise to the viewers of said video. (Honestly though, brands probably would prefer for one to associate them with a good video essay than a bad game show...)
That poor game show hostess in a store uniform is the saddest thing ever. And I never thought of the sheer size of the studio Supermarket Sweep had to use!! Had to be a first and last for game shows.
What I find weird as a Canadian is that I find supposed dollar stores like Family Dollar and Dollar General weirdly expensive compared to other stores like Walmart and even Target when I’d visit the States - like we have Dollarama here that works a lot like these stores but it only goes up to 4 dollars in price is it’s really cheap. Dollar Tree also is very crappy looking both product and interior wise; I guess I mean to say it’s sad how stores like these are squeezing out smaller stores just to give low income people their not greatly priced crap.
Dollar General is a good example of the "lower some prices while jacking up the others" business model. Some things actually are much cheaper there than at Wal-Mart, but then things like coffee are far more expensive. And even the things that are cheaper, like certain brands of meat, can be found at similar prices at your average grocery store like Tom Thumb if you shop the same brands. Dollar Tree is cheaper, which is ironic because people also seem to steal from them a lot more. I've never gone to a Dollar Tree without finding an open bag of chips or candy.
Once while on a road trip I needed to get gas, so I followed a sign directing me to a gas station, but it just led me to a dollar General in the middle of nowhere instead
I find it interesting that part of the argument against the old Saturday morning cartoon system was advertising within the programs, and here you have a show that is basically nothing but advertising.
The trivia bits probably just barely cover the educational requirements that killed the Saturday morning cartoon block and thats just so upsetting. PBS has been showing how to educate kids via TV for 50+ years yet networks have been choosing the laziest option available while still somehow spending too much money/time which is the antithesis of why anyone goes to Dollar Stores.
My main theories on this show's Facebook description are: 1) It was initially pitched as a Supermarket Sweep reboot but with new branding, but that deal fell through late in production. 2) That was the initial concept for the show, but the budget was slashed to the point where it'd have been financially unfeasible to construct the kind of set they needed (that set in the behind-the-scenes footage looks like it doesn't have that high of a ceiling at all, which wouldn't exactly allow for fun game show cinematography). Thus, they had to scramble mid-production to retool and scale back.
7:30 Okay this is a really small thing but I am OBSESSED with the woman using the conveyer belt because after taking each item off the belt she proceeds to pat it once, gentle, on the top, every time. I wish I had someone in my life who cared about me as much as this woman does these products
My new favorite game is trying to predict what the hell your third video essay could even be. Just making an absurd venn diagram between Demo Rell and Save to Win, and trying to figure out what *else* has all of those things. I'm sure it will be a great video essay on a topic that I have *never* considered watching a video essay on, at any rate.
Man, I feel so bad about not checking out your channel sooner because by the end of a Sarah video, my attention span is shot so I forget to hop on over. This video came up organically in the algorithm for me, is exactly the kind of stuff I adore, and was great! Definitely binging the rest of your content!
2:39 You don't understand how excited I am to see the old Coventry Poundland as an example there, that one actually shut a year or two ago while less people are in the city centre from current events, since there is already a bigger Poundland shop a 5 minute walk away. Anyway, still really cool to see it randomly.
After several videos talking about how Wikipedia didn't include a section that was obviously real and facually exist, I'm convinced that the Wikipedia community doesn't have as much dedication as the Lost Media Community. The History Guy would feel disappointed.
This video is so scary in a very special way. I’ve seen it done before as a sort of horror trope. You’re somewhere familiar but you start realizing everything around you is fake? Maybe an entire wall is just a painted set piece? That fear of everything around you being an illusion or that something precious to you could be replaced with a copy that has none of the worth of the original. Anyway I have a conspiracy theory that the contestants aren’t actually real people and that the entire game is made up by the company THUS TWO copies of the game played by the women who WON in the clip in episode 16 but LOST in the original episode. They just aired footage from a different TAKE where the ACTORS acted out WINNING. Great video gave me chills very scary in a weird way
My first thought was oh, dollar store game show, it's Supermarket Sweep with a handful of alterations, so I was genuinely taken aback that it *didn't* do that. I think it must have been pitched from the very beginning as "Let's do a Supermarket Sweep show to tie in to our new app, it'll be cheap to make and we can turn it out fast" but I bet that the reason they changed everything seemingly last minute wasn't quite for the reasons you suggested, but because they tried to straight up license Supermarket Sweep and ABC didn't bite. Here's my theory: someone at Family Dollar pitches remaking Supermarket Sweep as a marketing integration with their new app, execs love the idea- game shows are cheap, easy to get sponsors for, and when they take off they can be wildly popular even well-past the heyday of game shows. They greenlight the project, and take it to ABC, because they want to license Supermarket Sweep. ABC ends up turning them down, they want to hold on to Supermarket Sweep because it's a cheap show they can bring back at any time, and by not selling it too cheap they can cash in on it as a nostalgia property. Family Dollar says, whatever, we'll make our own spinoff anyway, it's still a good marketing idea, so they get their airtime from the CW instead of ABC and go ahead with the show as you've described its original form in the conspiracy section. You go from "the more you save the more you win," to the weird final form of the show either litigiously (ABC gets word, threatens to sue if they don't change the challenges) or financially (execs wanted the brand recognition with Supermarket Sweep, didn't land it, cut the budget for the show late in the process and they didn't have the resources to make the elaborate set they wanted people racing carts in, changed the challenges as a result) but the end result is still the same rushed, slightly eerie and poorly thought out show.
I think I watched half an episode of this once upon a time. Its clearly a memorable experience. But your video was really good! Light years more entertaining than the original product.
Without actually watching the show myself, my theory is that it was originally going to be an hour-long show with a Supermarket Sweep segment but were worried about the legal and PR ramifications of that (and/or realized the set was too small after trying to film the segment multiple times) and so they started filming a bunch of extra stuff to try and fill out the hour (maybe playing each episode to best-of-three? and that's where that alternate footage of that team winning comes from?) and then ended up editing it all down to a half hour anyway
Okay so here’s the version of this I want. I imagine a bastardized combo of Guy’s Grocery Games and Supermarket Sweep. The three teams do some trivia competition or price guessing thing (which cart is worth $10? or something). Then you knock out the lowest scoring team and the other two are given some kind of cooking challenge. Maybe they have to create a cool burger or an Asian-inspired meal, whatever for that episode. The teams are given a time limit to plan their trip using the amazing coupon app that they’re shilling and then have a time limit to race around the store and shop to pick up their items. Whoever creates the best meal for the best discount wins or something. 🤷🏼♀️
I'm really enjoying this channel. Never did I think I'd see an almost Chinatown-like investigative analysis of a sleazy Family Dollar game show, but I love it.
I work at Dollar General and I actually have seen someone spend $700 once. They had 5 shopping carts full of groceries, I have no idea how it fit in their car
Emily, this is a really kickass video, same with the Demo Reel one. Your editing is REALLY good and I love your organization. Can't wait to see where you go in the future because I'm certainly excited!
Now I need to find other things Mariana Cardenas is in. I love how she basically does a total parody of the typical overly peppy game show assistant and nobody calls her out for it. She's awesome, I could watch her all day.
WHAT THE FUCK IS BISEXUAL LIGHTING
oops, it's a pin, so it's meant to be some meta joke, right? Below is the testament of me not getting it.
Blue/red or blue/purple or any other multi-coloured lighting with contrasting and blending colours really. Named after blue, pink, and purple of bi pride flag and/or the fact the trend to use it in UA-cam video essays was started by some LGBT creators and it still has some of that association.
I thought that's what she said!
I think it's all those bright pink/purple/blue Ombre, like a bi pride flag
The things gamers have in their PC, RGB!
Pink, purple and blue lighting.
How could you expose my business practices like this
I can't believe you think coolsville sucks. Canceled.
Working for her is pay enough in and of itself !
You should be grateful 🤨
Hey look, the person who got me into this channel commenting on this channel. Wouldyalookitthat
Sarah Z < Lady Emily.
Most UA-camrs > Sarah Z
@@Jalushun i think your "" are the wrong way around lamo
15:26 Winning a $500 "shopping spree" at Family Dollar is like winning an all expense paid vacation to a motel down the block, or an all you can eat buffet off of the Burger King dollar menu.
🤣🤣🤣😂
Id just buy a shit ton of duct tape lol
@@ramdom_assortment duck tape*
I would say.... just give me the cash.
But you could buy all the month old candy bags and bootleg action figures you want
Expectation: "The more you save, the more you win"
Reality: "Stick your hand into the bowl of mystery meat"
“You can’t excite people by giving them just $1400, that’s not enough” lmaooo I see what you did there
Plz explain? Even if joke will be killed lol
@@UrsulaMajor OH oki lol thank you
Yeah you need to include a shit ton of funding for stuff like childcare. Oh wait they did include that stuff
SAME 😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
@@PersephoneDarling28 biden doesnt need simps i promise
I live near a Dollar Tree and frequently walk by their smoke break area and it seems like their employees are in a constant state of emotional meltdown.
Yeah that tracks
Y'all really saw a video essay on Dollar Tree and suddenly viscerally hate Dollar Tree.
@@WhaleManMan Man(Man), I never thought the bisexual lighting would attract someone this much.
Edit: Swapped a word for clarity's sake.
@@WhaleManMan well ive never liked dollar tree so take that
I applied to one of these places and have never been more glad to instead be employed as a graveyard shift cleaner.
There is a 0% chance this show had a live studio audience. Any cheap game show that doesn't show the audience is safe to assume its all sound effects.
And often canned laughter or applause was recorded in the 50s and 60s. So you're listening to the reactions of dead people.
@@DragonNexus Dead people with really shitty taste.
Family Dollar was founded in my hometown and I’ve been in a lot of their stores because of that. So, the thing I find weirdest is the huge conveyor belt set piece. Family Dollar stores feature a counter more similar to a gas station convenience store than a traditional checkout... so there are no conveyor belts in stores.
Yeah it's probably for dramatic effect
The only store in this dollar store grouping that uses a conveyor is dollar tree, the actual $1 store (I have all three very close together in my small town)
This is hilarious...Lol. The Family Dollar I shop at actually has a conveyor belt on one lane....
@@erikapatton1242 no we know where the one from the show went!
The ones in my town has conveyer belts
"Yeah CW wasn't putting this up against Supernatural, or even a good show."
This slight against Unlikely Animal Friends will not be forgotten.
Probably the only good show on the CW at the time tbf
I think the slight was against Supernatural.
Pat Neely saying “and now, I’m the Game Show King” with [citation needed] beneath him for 0.5 seconds got me good
As someone who works in game dev, I think your conspiracy theory is 100% spot on. The weird dissonance between the shopping/saving focus and the total lack of those things in the game itself has the stink of "we had to completely retool the mechanics at the last minute based on decisions from above and now none of our aesthetic trappings make sense anymore buuut we don't have the resources or authority to fix that" all over it.
And why the actual mechanics feel so incredibly lazy and uninspired.
I don't understand why a game show that's supposed to be advertising a dollar store wouldn't have some sort of price guessing game. And/or some kind of challenge where you're given a budget and you have to make something with products bought at the dollar store.
If I had to guess most of the individual games that can be made out of those contests are ones that have already been done by the price is right, or supermarket sweep. And those shows owners have some form of legal claim to their individual games that makes it difficult for other game shows to create games with similar gimmicks. As a result the only way to create a price guessing game in a game show that another show can’t say you stole from us is to go with something as generic as guess the two matching prices.
Especially with a chef as the host
But every price is 99 cents 0_0
@@brandonporter8509 I see why now they don't go with the idea of "Supermarket Sweep but set in a dollar store".
A dollar tree price guessing game would really suck
The conspiracy spiral over something incredibly niche and irrelevant hit me in my soul
I had this a few months ago when playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and some comments made me obsess about lore
First she makes a video on a forgotten doug walker series, now its dollar tree game stores. What will she do next. I have no idea what the theme of this channel is and I love it
I'm kind of assuming epicly bad media that absolutely no one remembers.
She remembers them so you don’t have to
Is it a series starring Doug Walker or is it about Doug walkers?
English is a confusing language.
@@ClayDress starring and made by. It was his passion project, but Doug isn't really... particularly deep. Not on purpose, anyway.
@@Virjunior01 chronically incurious
"Designed to feel compact and surrounded by stuff..."
So that's why being inside a family dollar is anxiety inducing.
I really didn't expect spending today learning about Pepsi Cherry Wild game show AND Family Dollar game show, but here we are
You too!
Lol I think we all rode the same algorithm wave to this video 😂
THIS IS WHAT I THOUGHT OF
Lmao his video is in my watch next for me 💀
Ooh i havent been recommended that one
I was not expecting to feel THIS invested in a conspiracy about family dollar game show
The lore between your and Sarah's videos is incredible
I can't believe Sarah thinks Coolsville sucks
SARAH THINKS COOLSVILLE SUCKS
(I don't know where I expected this video to go, but I dEFINITELY didn't expect it to take the turn it did; great job!)
Ahh thank you so much!! And yeah, it's such a shame that Sarah thinks Coolsville sucks
@@LadyEmilyPresents OK is this a running joke with this Sarah Z? Because it came up randomly in her video the other day.
Great comment ❤
@@coyoteartist Inside jokes I'm not a part of feels like people having fun without me.
And that's not allowed >:(
@@budsunny Emily or Red?
Everything they do on this show feels like something my church youth group would have had us do except it's a real game show that they actually put on television for some reason
Idk how to explain but Lady Emily's voice is so rich and pretty like how I imagine a countess to sound idk how to explain
thats why “Lady” is in her name… it all makes sense now… she IS a countess!!
I work at a Dollar Tree, trust me when I say well over half of what they sell is absolute garbage. What isn't completely useless tends to be overpriced for how much you get. They prey on the poor, and it makes me sick. Unless it's the only job available (which was my case) I highly recommend staying the hell away.
Dollar stores and their deceptively small bags of chips (oooh but it's only $0.99! cheaper than the $3.49 ones at harris teeter!) prove the old adage "it takes a lot of money to be poor"
I worked in Poundland (the UK equivalent) and they're very much the same. I felt so bad for poor people being made to feel they were getting bargains when they were just being ripped off. Also they made us stand on the registers all he time because management claimed it 'projects energy'.
@@snowbeast4463 you mean as opposed to sitting down? If so, isn't that standard?
@@rtemis-rho I think at Kruger's? Some type of grocery store, they let the cashers sit because it's fucking stupid to stand and whoever started that mentality of standing all the time will catch my fists
@@snowbeast4463 Isn't sitting at the register standard in the UK? I live in the US and the only store the has seats at the register is Aldi.
“You can’t excite people with $1,400” After the United States covid relief pittance, I felt that.
Can't read the word "pittance" without thinking of Diesel tossing his tag champion belt in the trash. OSW has ruined me
@@makeitthrough_You sonuvabitch, you got to it first.
with this and drew gooden's video, i am learning a shocking amount about sponsored game shows i didn't know existed
insert phineas & ferb nickel joke
This show just gives off the vibe that simply being there is one of the most depressing things ever. The bland wall colors that they used for the background of the show feels like being in the store itself (Which is one of sadness), and your earlier comment hit the nail on the head on how people are there for necessity and do not think it's a luxury.
It's depressing watching the show, but I feel a sense of happiness knowing that no more episodes are being produced for it.
secret good 18th Save to Win episode
Apple Tree Supermarket
We just not gonna talk about the Facebook profile being used is Female Goku
From what I can gather, this show is basically just the bargain bin version of Guy's Grocery Games
If Emily's conspiracy is true.
But yeah that was the show I was thinking of this whole time.
Nah, Guy's Grocery Games involves cooking. Set, though, is very similiar. It's the dollar store Supermarket Sweep, which did have a recent reboot.
No need to insult Neely by comparing him to that Delta Bravo
I can already tell this is going to be one of the best video essay channels. It feels like such a flex to be one of the first 20 patrons
my favorite type of video essay are the ones based around topics literally nobody knows about hhghfkhsg amazing job
I am not an American, so it's very anthropologically interesting to gain insight into such an exotic culture.
"If other CW shows can have conspiracy theories after they finish why can't this?"
I love it
Okay but an extremely bourgeois dollar store where you buy tiny quantities of like *really* high quality food sounds kinda neat.
(Also i feel like such a fool for listening to the video at max volume from when you mentioned the show's inaudibly quiet background music.........)
my mind went immediately to buying food at a marks & spencer’s in the uk
I don't care in the slightest about Family Dollar or Save to Win, but I'm blown away by your talent for building a compelling narrative out of this bizarre, terrible show. Incredible work.
Every time Mariana lovingly caresses an item it makes me viscerally uncomfortable. I know it's not her fault (it's certainly just what she was directed to do), but it just feels so upsettingly fake, and boy do I hate it.
Goddammit now I can't unsee it. Uncannily robotic like a literal animated character performing a regimented animation.
Dollar Store and Game Show crossover makes no sense but a lot at the same time
Literally my exact same thought. Makes way more sense at least than a game show where contestants pretend to spin a big slot machine in a prescripted sequence of events and it's hosted by Jason Biggs and made by Cherry Pepsi.
but maybe they might get the two cherries they need to win
In the alternate timeline where this show made a marginal profit, you could say "it made no sense, but it definitely made cents."
That type of blindfold looks like a tiny little bra at the best of times, but the one they used looks the most like a tiny bra that a blindfold can possibly look.
This is the best comment
Lmaoooo I thought the same thing too
the wall-e method of blindfoldings
As you were reading the facebook description my first thought was "they're reviving the show" but honestly it being a heinously bad concept that wasn't even made into fruition is somehow even better than the thought of family dollar having a second go at making a game show
Hey, it’s where “Pop Quiz Hotshot” got its props!
"if other cw shows can have wildass conspiracy theories after they ended, why can't this one?" yo a ti, family dollar
"You can't excite people by just giving them $1400. That's not enough".
Hold on, let's back up, what about The Joker Facebook page, let's go on that lore
“Bisexual lighting”
Fucking got me
The last 10 minutes, especially when you show the clips at 34:01, feel like when the world starts falling apart in Coraline. Amazing video, thank you so much
That supercut of every time that tv chef said "coke" is the quality content I subscribed for.
Let's not forget the best part of the whole travesty... Pat's "OH, NOOOOO!"
Family Dollar became part of the Dollar Tree family. Consumerism is very healthy
I went into this expecting humor and while that was there, what stuck with me is that this video is really an interesting dive into capitalism, media, and why this one small part of the world works the way it does. It reminded me of something a history professor of mine said--one of the most important historical questions you can ask is why? Why this, why here, why now, why? And this video does a really cool job of asking that question and walking through the answer in a compelling (and sometimes very hilarious) way. This feels like the encapsulation of everything I love about the video essay genre. I know more about save to win than I ever wanted to know, and that's making me think about how this show and how capitalism in general functions in the larger world. Also, this video made me laugh. Best of all worlds.
"And, like, you can't excite people by giving them just $1400. That's... not enough."
*side eyes the entire US govt*
Government: Hold my root beer.
@@GreatMewtwo Edit: Republicans: Hold my unemployment
@@TheSuperNaruto96 I don't get it
Seeing Marianna in her shitty replica Family Dollar uniform try to Vanna White-ify toilet paper or Froot Loops, complete with a delicate little pat when she puts them down, just...really embodies the problems with this game show's premise, doesn't it? Trying to apply the same sense of luxury afforded to massive cash prizes and new cars to a 12-pack of Charmin. I couldn't come up with a better image if I was trying to, it's perfect
Most broadcast networks like CW treat their Saturday Morning lineups as afterthoughts. They only run blocks like "One Magnificent Morning" to appease the FCC's Educational/Informational programming requirements, which mandates all broadcast TV stations air up to three hours of E/I programming each week. Rather than resort to running educational cartoons like PBS does, they just air repackaged live-action shows from other networks. These shows tend to have trivia blurbs appear during shows like Unlikely Animal Friends, and that is why this Family Dollar game show features said brand trivia so it can technically meet those E/I guidelines.
The whole first half of the video, I was thinking "Huh, why didn't they just remake Supermarket Sweep?" I can buy it, that that was the original plan and it either didn't work or some genius decided to change everything at the last minute, and they had to retool everything into... this.
I’m betting someone at another network still held the rights to supermarket sweep and wouldn’t let them make Family Gourmet supermarket sweep. Or they were in the process of considering a relaunch of supermarket sweep. And as a result family dollar didn’t get allowed to make dollar store brand supermarket sweep . Forcing a drastic retool of everything
Why does the second half of this video feel like the start of a creepypasta? Things were starting to get real spooky there for a second, I thought you were gonna mention a cult was involved with the show or something.
Pat in the Bisexual Dollar is my favorite Midwest emo album
I've never heard of Family Dollar and I'm fascinated!
Ahh, but can you beat Pokémon Emerald with only Pokémon you bought at Family Dollar?
Lolo
And now Cherry Pepsi has it's own game show too with the guy from American Pie. The circle of life
I love how you jumped from Nostalgia Critic to a dollar store game show, and still made it super interesting. Hope you make many more!
And I bet that Family Dollar DID try to make a Supermarket Sweep/Price is Right kind of game show, but it probably failed in internal testing because of just how dollar store work. You have no fruits, or vegetables, or fresh meat or produce or whatever. Everything is packaged. The closest thing to meat you can find is like, frozen meals. So no one will get super excited over a "all you can get in your cart is free" game. And then everything costs between a single dollar or a couple, so there's not enough play to guess numbers in a Price is Right kind of game.
A game show based on a dollar store just isn't possible, because games and shows try to imagine something greater than life, while dollar stores are as realistic and dull as you can get, where you can't even fantasize about someday getting the expensive cuts of meat, or making a huge BBQ, because that's too expensive for a dollar store. You go to a dollar store because you have to, not because you want to.
Loved this video, glad I stumbled on this channel and remembered your name from one of Sarah's videos! Immediate sub. One quick note on 32:49, and I cannot believe the paper I wrote once on game show prize law is actually going to serve me a purpose - the "meets eligibility requirements" is not as scummy as it seems, or at least it isn't inherently scummy (there are absolutely scummy things it could theoretically be hiding). That's standard legal boilerplate for game show credits and the requirements in question are typically things like:
-no repeat contestants, you can't win if you've won before
-no employees of the companies making the show, in this case probably both family dollar and the cw as well as any production companies that aren't part of the cw's parent company are mentioned in the contracts
-exclusivity regarding other game shows - not actually sure what the reasoning is here but most game show contracts have a clause stating you can't go on or have been on another game show within a certain period of time
It's mostly fraud prevention and cooperation with various federal/state/city laws regarding game prizes and television production, not the more nefarious "loophole to not actually give the prize money" it reads as to the layperson. Anyway, super excited to check out your other videos.
It’s disgusting that they’re profiting off of people in food deserts by selling unhealthy foods. It’s one of the reasons poverty and obesity in the US correlate. I’m only a minute in and I’m interested to see where you’re taking this!
My jaw literally dropped when you made the revelations about the Facebook description and the faked clips.
I'm really getting a whole "conspiracy theory documentary" experience out of this "UA-cam video essay about a failed game show made by a dollar store" and I love it.
Your arcane knowledge of the dollar store is impressive.
shopped at a family dollar today and thought of this video
Well I mean, where else are you going to get your favorite products at low prices.
@@LadyEmilyPresents As a loyal Family Dollar shopper, I’m also excited to showcase the incredible deals shoppers can find in every aisle at their local Family Dollar store! I know our viewers at home will have a blast watching and learning all the ways to save!
They were actually playing a long con when making this show, knowing that eventually a UA-cam video would be made about it and that thus they’d be able to subconsciously advertise to the viewers of said video.
(Honestly though, brands probably would prefer for one to associate them with a good video essay than a bad game show...)
This channel really feels like getting in on something awesome at the very beginning
This feels like a vision from the end of the world.
That poor game show hostess in a store uniform is the saddest thing ever.
And I never thought of the sheer size of the studio Supermarket Sweep had to use!! Had to be a first and last for game shows.
What I find weird as a Canadian is that I find supposed dollar stores like Family Dollar and Dollar General weirdly expensive compared to other stores like Walmart and even Target when I’d visit the States - like we have Dollarama here that works a lot like these stores but it only goes up to 4 dollars in price is it’s really cheap. Dollar Tree also is very crappy looking both product and interior wise; I guess I mean to say it’s sad how stores like these are squeezing out smaller stores just to give low income people their not greatly priced crap.
Dollar General is a good example of the "lower some prices while jacking up the others" business model. Some things actually are much cheaper there than at Wal-Mart, but then things like coffee are far more expensive. And even the things that are cheaper, like certain brands of meat, can be found at similar prices at your average grocery store like Tom Thumb if you shop the same brands. Dollar Tree is cheaper, which is ironic because people also seem to steal from them a lot more. I've never gone to a Dollar Tree without finding an open bag of chips or candy.
Once while on a road trip I needed to get gas, so I followed a sign directing me to a gas station, but it just led me to a dollar General in the middle of nowhere instead
That's deeply unnerving.
Insidious marketing smdh
The set looks like something from a bad dream where you know what a grocery store looks like, but in your dream it feels like a dark hell dungeon
Paused to read your joke, then slowly realised I was watching a Lady Emily, Sarah Z cinematic universe
I find it interesting that part of the argument against the old Saturday morning cartoon system was advertising within the programs, and here you have a show that is basically nothing but advertising.
No wonder why American television is dying....
The trivia bits probably just barely cover the educational requirements that killed the Saturday morning cartoon block and thats just so upsetting. PBS has been showing how to educate kids via TV for 50+ years yet networks have been choosing the laziest option available while still somehow spending too much money/time which is the antithesis of why anyone goes to Dollar Stores.
My main theories on this show's Facebook description are:
1) It was initially pitched as a Supermarket Sweep reboot but with new branding, but that deal fell through late in production.
2) That was the initial concept for the show, but the budget was slashed to the point where it'd have been financially unfeasible to construct the kind of set they needed (that set in the behind-the-scenes footage looks like it doesn't have that high of a ceiling at all, which wouldn't exactly allow for fun game show cinematography). Thus, they had to scramble mid-production to retool and scale back.
Another banger of a essay. The tiger mascot got a good laugh out of me so you aren't alone there.
"CW wasn't putting this up against Supernatural. Or a good show."
Burn.
It simply was to fulfill E/I requirements.
Which was why it was shown alongside Cesar Milian:Family Edition
7:30 Okay this is a really small thing but I am OBSESSED with the woman using the conveyer belt because after taking each item off the belt she proceeds to pat it once, gentle, on the top, every time. I wish I had someone in my life who cared about me as much as this woman does these products
this is one of my favorite videos. i watch it almost once a day and i’m so fascinated by it, i’m mad it doesn’t have more views.
My new favorite game is trying to predict what the hell your third video essay could even be. Just making an absurd venn diagram between Demo Rell and Save to Win, and trying to figure out what *else* has all of those things. I'm sure it will be a great video essay on a topic that I have *never* considered watching a video essay on, at any rate.
“Why do we like game shows”
- well I don’t so, no idea 😂
Just discovered this channel and I'm loving it. It's so interesting and relaxing to listen to while I draw.
Man, I feel so bad about not checking out your channel sooner because by the end of a Sarah video, my attention span is shot so I forget to hop on over.
This video came up organically in the algorithm for me, is exactly the kind of stuff I adore, and was great! Definitely binging the rest of your content!
Well, this was a fun and interesting video. Time to figure out what to do now that the video's winding down and-
*12 minutes left*
...oh...
God this was so good wasn’t expecting the 11th hour shift thank u for your service
2:39 You don't understand how excited I am to see the old Coventry Poundland as an example there, that one actually shut a year or two ago while less people are in the city centre from current events, since there is already a bigger Poundland shop a 5 minute walk away. Anyway, still really cool to see it randomly.
After several videos talking about how Wikipedia didn't include a section that was obviously real and facually exist, I'm convinced that the Wikipedia community doesn't have as much dedication as the Lost Media Community.
The History Guy would feel disappointed.
And this sent me down a rabbit hole where I learned about how 21 ans a bunch or other quiz shows in the 50's were riggee
That whole story is wild. The movie based on it, Quiz Show, is pretty good.
This video is so scary in a very special way. I’ve seen it done before as a sort of horror trope. You’re somewhere familiar but you start realizing everything around you is fake? Maybe an entire wall is just a painted set piece? That fear of everything around you being an illusion or that something precious to you could be replaced with a copy that has none of the worth of the original. Anyway I have a conspiracy theory that the contestants aren’t actually real people and that the entire game is made up by the company THUS TWO copies of the game played by the women who WON in the clip in episode 16 but LOST in the original episode. They just aired footage from a different TAKE where the ACTORS acted out WINNING. Great video gave me chills very scary in a weird way
i can't wait until this channel blows up
15:18
Coming from Sarah's video, I love this lore
Imagine the tension offered by Pop Quiz Hotshot with its $100 grand prize
My first thought was oh, dollar store game show, it's Supermarket Sweep with a handful of alterations, so I was genuinely taken aback that it *didn't* do that. I think it must have been pitched from the very beginning as "Let's do a Supermarket Sweep show to tie in to our new app, it'll be cheap to make and we can turn it out fast" but I bet that the reason they changed everything seemingly last minute wasn't quite for the reasons you suggested, but because they tried to straight up license Supermarket Sweep and ABC didn't bite.
Here's my theory: someone at Family Dollar pitches remaking Supermarket Sweep as a marketing integration with their new app, execs love the idea- game shows are cheap, easy to get sponsors for, and when they take off they can be wildly popular even well-past the heyday of game shows. They greenlight the project, and take it to ABC, because they want to license Supermarket Sweep. ABC ends up turning them down, they want to hold on to Supermarket Sweep because it's a cheap show they can bring back at any time, and by not selling it too cheap they can cash in on it as a nostalgia property. Family Dollar says, whatever, we'll make our own spinoff anyway, it's still a good marketing idea, so they get their airtime from the CW instead of ABC and go ahead with the show as you've described its original form in the conspiracy section. You go from "the more you save the more you win," to the weird final form of the show either litigiously (ABC gets word, threatens to sue if they don't change the challenges) or financially (execs wanted the brand recognition with Supermarket Sweep, didn't land it, cut the budget for the show late in the process and they didn't have the resources to make the elaborate set they wanted people racing carts in, changed the challenges as a result) but the end result is still the same rushed, slightly eerie and poorly thought out show.
Supermarket Sweep: Spend as much as you can
Guy's Grocery Games: Find stuff in the aisles and cook it
Save to Win: Smell it
I think I watched half an episode of this once upon a time. Its clearly a memorable experience. But your video was really good! Light years more entertaining than the original product.
what a curiosity. the conspiracy build up was terrific
Without actually watching the show myself, my theory is that it was originally going to be an hour-long show with a Supermarket Sweep segment but were worried about the legal and PR ramifications of that (and/or realized the set was too small after trying to film the segment multiple times) and so they started filming a bunch of extra stuff to try and fill out the hour (maybe playing each episode to best-of-three? and that's where that alternate footage of that team winning comes from?) and then ended up editing it all down to a half hour anyway
The social network soundtrack for the tinfoil hat sequence was on point !
Okay so here’s the version of this I want. I imagine a bastardized combo of Guy’s Grocery Games and Supermarket Sweep. The three teams do some trivia competition or price guessing thing (which cart is worth $10? or something). Then you knock out the lowest scoring team and the other two are given some kind of cooking challenge. Maybe they have to create a cool burger or an Asian-inspired meal, whatever for that episode. The teams are given a time limit to plan their trip using the amazing coupon app that they’re shilling and then have a time limit to race around the store and shop to pick up their items. Whoever creates the best meal for the best discount wins or something. 🤷🏼♀️
I'm really enjoying this channel. Never did I think I'd see an almost Chinatown-like investigative analysis of a sleazy Family Dollar game show, but I love it.
I work at Dollar General and I actually have seen someone spend $700 once. They had 5 shopping carts full of groceries, I have no idea how it fit in their car
Hm. What kind of groceries?
‘Putting this up against Supernatural...or a good show?’
That made me laugh XD
Emily, this is a really kickass video, same with the Demo Reel one. Your editing is REALLY good and I love your organization. Can't wait to see where you go in the future because I'm certainly excited!
Now I need to find other things Mariana Cardenas is in. I love how she basically does a total parody of the typical overly peppy game show assistant and nobody calls her out for it. She's awesome, I could watch her all day.