Roller-coaster ride for new game show

ESTRADA. Her team is poised to emerge as the game show’s winner for the month.

On its first telecast, we gave the new game show, “Celebrity Playtime,” high marks for the inventiveness of its games and quizzes, and the good showing of its winning team of players, led by Karla Estrada.

So, the following Saturday, we caught the show again—only to discover to our unexpected disappointment that the follow-up telecast had become too shrilly “fun” and thus messy, and was no longer such a viewing treat.

The main culprits were the comedians who had made up the losing team on the program’s initial telecast. They tended to be too loud and sourly combative for comfort, even if they did manage to win one round.

Last Saturday, we caught the show again, and were heartened to see that it wasn’t quite as messy and loud as it was on its follow-up telecast. —Its roller-coaster ride has ended up—right side up.

Karla’s team still managed to edge its competitors out, and are thus poised to emerge as the top winner for the game show’s first month of telecasts.

The most difficult “musical game” last Saturday required contestants to identify a perplexing combination of one song’s music sung to the lyrics of another song!

We can only imagine the mental calisthenics and even acrobatics required to figure that confounding musical puzzler out—!

That’s what make “Celebrity Playtime” uniquely fascinating and diverting, and we hope that its new contestants will be better suited to its uniquely challenging and innovative—fun and games!

Tribute to Rey Valera

Filipino music buffs should get themselves a copy of the DVD, “The Music of Rey Valera.” Last August, to celebrate the country’s first Linggo ng Musikang Pilipino, the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra led by Gerard Salonga paid a grand tribute to the OPM icon at Solaire.

The orchestra interpreted some of Valera’s well-loved musical hits and masterpieces, and his songs were feelingly brought to life by some singing icons in their own right, like Sharon Cuneta, Martin Nievera and Rico J. Puno.

Younger interpreters like Tippy Dos Santos and Michael Pangilinan were also on hand. Those golden and glowing musical numbers come alive anew in the DVD, which can now be seen through ABS-CBN Mobile.

Incidentally, Filipino music fans abroad can also catch it on TFC pay per view until Nov. 23, through IPTV, TFC TV (worldwide) or via Satellite Cable.