They don't make quiz shows like they used to

[culnara]

WE HAVE A QUIZ HERE IN IRELAND THATS SHOWN IN NORTHERN IRELAND CALLED WINNING STREAK AND ITS IMOPSSIBLE TO NOT WIN AT LEAST 20 K. THERE ARE SEVERAL ROUNDS OF DIFFERENT GMES ONE GAME COULD BE A ROULETTE WHEEL WHERE SAY THE LOWEST SEGMENT COULD BE 5 THOUSAND AND THE HIGHEST 50 THOUSAND


HERES AN EPISODE.

https://youtu.be/4fQs__fvBHE?si=hKlUVECfcY2H_195

Jeezo, they didn't hold back did they, that would have been a lotta cash back in 93 :O

[George 1978]

Here's another observation about old quiz shows - it used to be very rare that contestants would leave with nothing. Usually even if you went out in the first round you'd get some sort of token prize, like an umbrella on Wipeout I think, or the "bus fare home" on Bullseye. I remember a Strike It Lucky contestant winning no prizes so Barrymore just pressed a couple of screens for him at random so he had something to take home. Who Wants to be a Millionaire was probably the first I can remember where the risk of winning nothing was part of the drama, then the likes of The Weakest Link took it to a sadistic level. But now, the likes of Pointless and The Chase appear to have quietly phased out the idea of consolation prizes.

I used to find Jim Bowen's "Bus Fare Home" catchphrase quite ironic considering the fact that by the early 1990s, Bullseye was recorded at Central's Lenton Lane studios in Nottingham, which was indeed a bus ride away from where I lived as I lived just a few miles away - what it meant that just like contestants on other game shows, whoever appeared on the show had their travel expenses paid for by the TV company whether they had won prizes or not. The fact that Bowen disguised this by its initials "BFH" was almost a bit pointless - did he mean, Big Fat Hamster, I wonder? Of course not. Another irony was on the Bully's prize board - one of the prizes circa 1990 was a weekend in London; somewhere where around 15% of the UK population, i.e. almost any Thames/LWT region viewer at the time really wouldn't get excited about it due to its locality. Indeed, someone from Croydon was close to winning it, and I bet that they would have taken advantage of the "two in a bed" reversal if they did. On the other hand, I seem to recall those who did win a similar prize were from the Tyne Tees and Scottish Television regions and had probably never visited the English capital in their lives.

When Michael Barrymore did that on Strike it Lucky, he never seemed to strike a Hot Spot; the screens that he chose were on the right hand side of the viewer's screen where the contestant had not reached that far by the time their opponent had got to the Question at the end, and they seem to display more low-ley prizes such as a black leather briefcase and £150 or something - I assume that they would have been the prizes that would have been revealed anyway had the contestants had got that far across.

Around four contestants went home with nothing on Millionaire which was a lot less frequent occurrences as the 2000s went on, although only a couple of nights ago I had been watching on YouTube a montage video where around a dozen people got a question wrong such as someone thought that Jane Austen had written a book called "Jane" rather than "Emma". Thinking about it, the video could have also included some contestants from the American version as well. Even Charles Ingram managed to get to £1,000 without any lifelines, although ironically enough, he also went home with nothing if you know what I mean.

One of Anne Robinson's catchphrases at the end of each show was: "you leave with nothing". Enough said.

[George 1978]

I have heard of Winning Streak but wasn't that one of the National Lottery game shows? (He looks on the UK Game Shows website to find out, and surprisingly, he doesn't find it listed). ITV had a 9.00 pm drama in the mid 1980s called The Winning Streak, but I know it wasn't a game show.

I was going to say that Bruce Forsyth hosted a game show with that title in the United States in mid-to-late Reagan-era 1986, (around the same time that he made a cameo in Magnum PI, playing a game show host), but then I realised it was actually called "Hot Streak" (or pedantically, "Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak"). Ironically enough, no British version of that game show has been made to date.

[darren]

WE HAVE A QUIZ HERE IN IRELAND THATS SHOWN IN NORTHERN IRELAND CALLED WINNING STREAK AND ITS IMOPSSIBLE TO NOT WIN AT LEAST 20 K. THERE ARE SEVERAL ROUNDS OF DIFFERENT GMES ONE GAME COULD BE A ROULETTE WHEEL WHERE SAY THE LOWEST SEGMENT COULD BE 5 THOUSAND AND THE HIGHEST 50 THOUSAND


HERES AN EPISODE.

https://youtu.be/4fQs__fvBHE?si=hKlUVECfcY2H_195

[LilacLobster]

Here's another observation about old quiz shows - it used to be very rare that contestants would leave with nothing. Usually even if you went out in the first round you'd get some sort of token prize, like an umbrella on Wipeout I think, or the "bus fare home" on Bullseye. I remember a Strike It Lucky contestant winning no prizes so Barrymore just pressed a couple of screens for him at random so he had something to take home. Who Wants to be a Millionaire was probably the first I can remember where the risk of winning nothing was part of the drama, then the likes of The Weakest Link took it to a sadistic level. But now, the likes of Pointless and The Chase appear to have quietly phased out the idea of consolation prizes.

[George 1978]

Countdown was an alternative for those who were too old for kids' TV i.e. pensioners and the like - it's great "edutainment", and the numbers round makes me assume that it was born out of the Open University programmes on Mathematics. It's nice when showing how a mathematical sum is made gets a riond of applause.

[beccabear67]

Panther is the one that got injured in a head-first fall once, they had to carry her off. I think Jet was very popular and would shake her hair around.

I used to wonder if I could make it up that 'travellator' at the end on Gladiators... now I don't have to wonder... the answer would be no!

They say Countdown was the 'comfort' watch among game shows, that it seemed very homey... unlike Weakest Link.

[George 1978]

Brucie was a Briti8sh institution - as I have mentioned in a thread a few years ago, Play Your Cards Right was the perfect way to start the weekend. Bizarrely, it's been six years since he passed on, but I sometimes I still expect him to be on Strictly. Who is the new Bruce Forsyth, I wonder?

Gladiators was probably a way of introducing new superheroes onto our TV screens, as well as getting eye candy for those who was watching. Panther for example... I thought she was Diane Youdale but I am certain that she was Jet.

[beccabear67]

I suppose Bruce Forsythe might be a good pick for all-around game show presenter... a bit cheesy, not overly offensive, versatile... it's a very unique set of skills and maybe there really aren't too many who can do it for long without a lot of the excess drama or over-reaction that gets ratcheted up in modern shows.

Gladiators was never a quiz but I used to really love that show! It seems there were versions of it in many countries... I saw the German version maybe a year ago, and I bet they all have their baddie like Wolf.

[George 1978]

Simon Mayo made quite a good version of Confessions for TV in 1995.

And Blockbusters for Challenge - just like the Aspel (BBC 2 in 1997) and Liza Tarbuck (Sky One in 2000) versions of the quiz, the studio set was "reversed" compared to the Bob Holness versions - in other words, the single player (white hexagons) was on the right rather than the left of the studio set.

And one of the hexagonal grids during the Holness era went "YOGIL" on the bottom row - this became "LIGOY" in the Aspel, Tarbuck, and Mayo eras. I know that I was too observant when it was originally on...

[Richard1978]

Simon Mayo made quite a good version of Confessions for TV in 1995.

[George 1978]

The UK Game Shows Page would argue that Noel's House Party, as well as the Saturday Roadshow and the Late, Late, Breakfast Show were game shows as well.

Apart from his radio game shows, Steve Wright presented Home Truths in early 1994 - not to be confused with a show with the same title which was made for Carlton a few years later.

[Richard1978]

Noel Edmonds presented Telly Addicts for many years, along with a few other programmes.

I remember Steve Wright presenting something in the late 1980s, not sure if it was quiz though.

[George 1978]

Good point about radio DJs presenting game shows (Popmaster, excepted). Wogan was an obvious example here, and his Radio 2 colleague David Hamilton wasn't too bad doing All Clued Up either.

Mind you, it made me think of Mike Read's Pop Quiz when you mentioned radio DJs.

[beccabear67]

Definitely agree about Family Fortunes being best at shorter length. I think Radio DJs might make better quiz/game show presenters, although a magician could work if the concept of the show might make some use of their skills for illusion. I also like a certain amount of accident or ad-lib reality to such shows... if they are too slickly scripted out in every way it feels lacking.