TV may be getting overrun with quiz shows but you’ll need to make room for Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee from tonight.
New Zealand’s Guy Montgomery serves up a nonsense offering that is unapologetic in its whimsy and for that reason alone is a welcome addition to our schedules.
Firstly the set, is a gloriously nostalgic throwback to the 1970s (or is that the ’60s?) with gaudy orange and pink, classic music, huge lecterns, and a Romper Room bee.
Even host Guy Montgomery dwears a great bag of fruit while sidekick, the irresistible Aaron Chen, appears to have wandered straight from an Italian wedding. L-o-v-e it. All that’s missing is Pete Smith Speaking.
Guests for episode one are Urzila Carlson, Danielle Walker, Nazeem Hussain and Tom Gleeson.
The gameplay, which appears to be secondary to the banter, is built around several spelling rounds. The winner will become a returning champ, while the loser must don a Dunce’s camp.
Each must choose from three random pools of varying difficulty, the Coward’s Cup, Person’s Purse and Bucket of Bravery.
Some words prove so simple I can’t believe the players ask for Country of Origin or an example by way of a Sentence (D-r-e-a-m, really?). Are they complete numbskulls? Ok they are celebrities….
Round Two sees Chen highlighting Australian cash with related spelling questions. Again it’s very silly but these people could read the phone book and it would be entertaining.
Round Three brings in some creativity with contestants challenged to reinvent the spelling of a more complex word.
Round Four ‘Hometown Hero’ draws upon the town of origin of our players. Wait for the Townsville Girl Guides leaders as a video lifeline for Danielle Walker.
A Fifth Round (this is beginning to feel very long) adds audience participation with our trusty 4 expected to spell the name of a random audience member correctly. Choose wisely, Obi-Wan.
Other rounds will feature in other episodes.
Effortlessly linking this all together is the cheerful Guy Montgomery, who developed the format on zoom during the worst days of the pandemic. Like Don Quixote or The Pilgrim’s Progress, penned in prison, some good did come out of l-o-c-k-d-o-w-n.
There are a couple of baffling production choices however, which I feel could have made this even more enjoyable. The length at 46 mins without ads is very long for ABC, which has always erred on the side of brevity in panel shows where commercial television has proven greedy. Less is more, methinks.
The other -and I may be wrong here- centres around whether a laugh track has been sweetened to the studio audience mirth. Either that or there was a lot of red cordial in the ABC studio that day.
But these are moot m-o-o-t points. Guy Montgomery, you’re a very silly man with a very fun diversion.
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee screens 8:30pm Wednesdays on ABC.
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