TV Quizzes
TV quiz shows have always been a popular choice for a number of households because they make entertain viewing for all the family. Over the years there have been a number of varieties of quiz shows from celebrity contestants to members of the public as contestants. Over the years there have also been a number of game shows that have been extremely popular that have been classes as quiz shows. On this page we are going to look at some of the most popular TV quiz shows and game shows over the years;
The Generation Game
The Generation game, hosted by Bruce Forsyth, was a massively popular game show shown by the BBC that started in 1971 and ran until 1982 the channel Gold then took it over from 1990 until 2002. The concept of the show was that four teams made up of two people from the same family but of different generations; compete against the other 3 teams, making 8 competitors all together, which is where Bruce's popular catchphrase Lets meet the eight that are going to generate' came from and of cause his most known phases Nice to see you, to see you ...' which the audience would reply Nice'. Other hosts include Larry Garson, Roy castle and Jim Davidson.
The first two rounds saw the 2 teams go head to head in 2 different games, the first game often saw them attempting to complete a skilled task after watching a professional complete the task first e.g. salsa dancing, cake making, pottery etc then be marked by the professional. The second game was normally a quiz type section in which they would have to answer questions like naming pieces of music etc. At the end of both the first two rounds the couple with the lowest score would then leave the game.
It was then up to the 2 highest scoring couples to compete against each other in the final round, the final round was a set piece; a drama style piece, a dance or musical theatre performance in which the couple would take a role in. The couple with the highest score would then go on the famous conveyor belt round, during this round one of the members of the team would have to watch prizes go along a conveyor belt, then they have up to a minute to name as many of the prizes as they could, with them winning whatever they could remember!
Family Fortunes
Family Fortunes first started back in 1980 with host Bob Monkhouse who hosted in until 1983, it was then hosted by Max Bygraves, Les Dennis, Andy Collins and more recently Vernon Kay, in which the show has been renamed All Star Family Fortunes' with celebrity and 4 members of their family playing against another celebrity and 4 members of their family.
The concept of the game is 5 members of a family are against 5 members of another family. Both families are asked to guess the results of surveys in which 100 random people have been asked open ended questions, e.g. 100 people would be asked to name a breed of dog. At the start of every round a different member of each of the families, would g to the podium in between the separate families' podiums. They would then be asked a question and the quickest to hit the buzzer gives their answer, however if this answer isn't the top ranked answer then the opposition would be asked, and whoever had the highest ranked answer would get the round which they can either play' or pass' to the other team.
The host then asks each of that teams family members for an answer to a question, and the aim is to get the answers in the survey. If they get them all then they get the amount of points in pounds to win at the end, if they don't they lose a life'. These lives' are lost every time one of their answers doesn't appear on the board, if they get 3 then the round is passed to the other family, if they get an answer correct then they get to steal' the money off the other family.
After the first 2 rounds the 3rd would be the Double Money' round, the means that for every member who answers they would get 2. The family that got 300 first would go through to the Big Money' round. For this final round 2 members of the wining family play, one would got out of earshot while the other would get 15 seconds to give 5 answers to the survey question, they would then go out of earshot and the second member would come out and give 5 answers that had to be different from the ones given by the first member. Between both the contestants they needed to get more than 200 points to win a cash prize.
Celebrity Panel shows
8 Out of 10 Cats
8 Out of 10 Cats is a celebrity panel show that is shown on Channel 4 and first started in 2005, with host Jimmy Carr. The show is made up of 2 teams of 3 of celebrities, every week the teams are headed by Sean Lock and Jason Manford, and then every week they would both welcome 2 celebrities onto their team.
The quiz has 5 rounds, the first is; What are you talking about', in this round the teams have to guess the top 5 things the public have been talking about in that week. The second round Pick the polls' allows the team to pick a picture out of 4 given to them, they are then asked a question on that picture. The third round Believe it or not' gives the team a statistic and then have to decide whether it's true or false. The final round And the winner is' the teams are given a poll question and they have to try and guess what answer was at the top of that poll.
A Question of Sport
This is a BBC one show that started back in 1968 and is made up of two teams of well known sports starts competing against one another. The show is currently the longest running games show on television as to date there has been 890 shows.
The quiz has 9 rounds the teams have to compete in, the first is the picture board, a famous sports person's face is hidden by a number of squares that are removed individual with the quickest team to get the answer getting the point. The second round is the action round; the teams are shown a montage of sports events and then asked questions about what they have just seen. The third round is the What happened next', the teams are shown a clip of a sporting a even that is stopped at some point and they are asked to write down what they think happened next. The next round sees a Mystery guest come onto the stage and the teams have to guess the sports star who is often disguised. The next round is called the Home or Away round, for 1 point they can answer a Home' question this is a question on their own sport or for 2 points they can answer an Away' question on another sport.
The seventh round is down to the team captains to compete against one another, the next round the teams have 1 minute to answer 9 questions. The final On the buzzer round', is a quick fire round where the teams are asked questions and they have to buzz in with the answer.
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year
This annual quiz is show on channel 4 during the last week of December, and is hosted by Jimmy Carr. The quiz started in 2004 and is in the style of a traditional pub quiz, the questions are all based on events that have happened in the past year. There are 3 teams made up of 2 celebrities in each team, at the start of the show they have to come up with team names, some examples of these are;
--> Sharon Osbourne & Jonathan Ross called themselves The A-List.
--> Gordon Ramsay & Rob Brydon were Can't Cook, Don't Need to Cos I'm sat next to Gordon Ramsay'.
--> David Mitchell & Denise Van Outen called themselves The Double D's'.
--> Same Difference Claudia Winkleman & Michael McIntyre
--> Dara n Dave Dara O'Brian & Davina McCall
--> Chubb Lock James Corden & Sean Lock
The show has a number of rounds, the most common ones in include; a performance done by some young children at school re-enacting an event from the year. Word association, in this round the teams are all given the same series of pictures that they then have to work out what the chain was representing, often a famous person or popular event of the year. Another round that often appears in the show is when a member of the public come in who have at some point appeared in the News during the year, the celebrities then have to guess what News story they were involved in for example, a man who appear in the 2009 show had been in the new due to him getting a tattoo taking up the whole of his back, of the wizard Dumbledore from Harry Potter.