Deal or No Deal Goes Star Wars

Ratings had to have gone off the charts for NBC's Deal or No Deal which ventured into a galaxy far, far away with a two-hour Star Wars-themed episode Monday night (April 28). The network publicized the taped show well in advance, and the only ones surprised were the two contestants. And they were understandably floored.

The popular show has a simple premise but is addictive viewing for millions. This time, Deal Or No Deal went for the ratings boost by tying its winning forumla in to the Force and did a bang up job with it.

From the Heart of the Empire

Breathing-challenged Darth Vader served as the banker, coldly extending cash offers to contestants, based on the likely odds the contestant would get the biggest pay-out, $1,000,000. But, as host Howie Mandel explained, it was a winner-take-all game. Whoever had the most at the end of the game, whether from opening all the suitcases or from taking Vader's high offer at some point, would claim the entire total winnings of $2,000,000.

Contestants and Star Wars fans Elyse McCrillis and Brad Flinchum struggled to reach the $2,000,000 winner-take-all goal.

Twenty-six Imperial Stormtroopers entered with suitcases to start the game. McCrillis received celebrity assistance from Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, her Star Wars role model.

Flinchum's celebrity advisers were the growling but speechless Chewbacca and the loquacious but equally undecipherable R2D2. Not quite the appeal of Princess Leia, but the 26 Deal-or-No-Deal girls entered with their suitcases dressed in the bikini-and-apron costume worn by Leia while Jabba the Hut's slave girl in the third movie, Revenge of the Jedi.

Star Wars cliches filled the air and the contestants, especially McCrillis, exchanged corny banter in the early moments with Darth Vader, before focus tightened on the task.

The game was deliberately set up so that the suitcase-bearers were different from one contestant's game to the next and even a new audience was seated when Flinchum was brought in so he couldn't learn how much McCrillis, who preceded him, had ended with.

By the end of the show, Finchum had won with $196,000 offered by Darth Vader, well over McCrillis's $13,000 total. He got the $2,000,000.

Where Next, Obi-Wan?

This raises possibilities for the future. Where might the show go for another ratings boost. A Halloween episode with horror movie icons, most of them conveniently wearing hockey masks or some other type of face covering? A superhero theme show, again with masks as well as a couple of well-known ringers like Dean (Superman) Cain or maybe another cult movie tie-in like Star Trek? (In some ways a better choice than Star Wars. They'd have to wait a suitable length of time, but the Star Trek franchise is now so big they could get a lot of guest stars cheap, if they wanted, and match them with actors in alien make-up.)

Contestant Results

Audience sympathy was with Vietnamese-American McCrillis who wanted to help family members still in Asia to come to the United States.

Memories of Star Wars

Choking up a bit, McCrillis explained that as a girl, her refugee family had little money to spare and explained how she walked three miles to watch Star Wars and was captivated by it and Princess Leia. She teared up when greeting surprise guest Fisher. Fisher said she had flown in after hearing McCrillis' story, determined to be there for her.

In 1977, Flinchum said his dad took him to see Star Wars and the story clicked with him. His dad passed away a few years later and the memory of their shared movie experience stayed. Flinchum admitted he's seen each of the Stars Wars movies 20 or 30 times.

Deal Or No Deal has broken ground with the Star Wars theme. We'll see where they go next.