Game Show Consolation Prizes: The Not So Perfect Ten | East of the M60 East of the M60 BBC , Entertainment , ITV , Media , Quiz Shows , Television , The Not So Perfect Ten mancunian1001 This month’s starter for ten With the possible exception of Eggheads, Pointless, and The Chase, there are few quiz shows originating from the 21st century which offer contestants any of the following: A solid intellectual challenge in their given subject area or wide ranging subject areas; Gloriously crap consolation prizes; Questions where multiple choice is the exception rather than the rule. For the purpose of this month’s Not So Perfect Ten, I shall be focusing on the second point: Gloriously crap consolation prizes. By this, trophies not worth the balsa wood they were made from; miniature follies which serve little or no purpose. Some may have a quite useful purpose, though not the sort of thing you would buy as a suitable birthday/Christmas/wedding/Labour Day/National Pie Week present.

Our ten prizes: XYZ: A mug tree; Lucky Ladders: A model pair of ladders (Lennie’s Losers’ Ladders); Crackerjack: a pencil; Bullseye: bendy Bully, chalk holders, darts and tankards; Runway: a newspaper of your birthdate; Larry Grayson’s Generation Game: a door trophy; Family Fortunes: silver framed family photograph; Wheel of Fortune: watch and electronic game; Wipeout: paperweight, umbrella. 1. All for the sake of my little mug tree XYZ (BBC One, 1993) Presented by George Marshall as a hastily created replacement for the lunch time showing of Eldorado, XYZ was a letter based game show where contestants scored points for any word which used an alphabetical string. For example, ‘student’ would gain a good score, owing the position of S, T and U in the alphabet, as would ‘definite’ (with D, E and F), irrespective of word length. Losing contestants would take home a XYZ mug tree. Great for the kitchen or staff room, but hardly commemorative. * * * 2.

‘But we don’t want to give you that…’ – years before Chris Tarrant’s quizzical juggernaut Lucky Ladders (Anglia/ITV 1988 – 93) Anglia brought us The Quiz of the Week in the late 1970s, but their late 1980s gem was one of ITV’s most popular daytime quiz shows. Launched in 1988BJK [Before Jeremy Kyle], Lucky Ladders was a word association puzzle game where contestants would build a word ladder using the top and bottom words, ultimately meeting in the middle. Hosted by Lennie Bennett, the programme went out at 9.25 am for five years, sharing that slot with other contemporary shows like Chain Letters, Crosswits and Runway. Winning contestants would leave Norwich with a holiday, whereas losers would take home one of Lennie’s Losers’ Ladders. For the first series, they only had six of these diminutive trophies and never left the studio with their consolation prize in tow. (They were mailed to their home address shortly after). During its first series, all contestants came from the Anglia region. * * * 3.

‘It’s Friday, it’s five to five, and it’s…’ Crackerjack (BBC One, 1955 – 1984) Crackerjack was a long running children’s variety programme which had a game show element as its main feature. Though the programme was an apprenticeship for Leslie Crowther, Michael Aspel and Eamonn Andrews, it was the latter person’s game show element Double or Drop which was the apogee of most Crackerjack viewers’ favoured parts of the show. Children would balance on a box and hold either as many prizes or cabbages. For a right answer, he or she would hold onto a prize, such as a board game. For each wrong answer, he or she would be given a cabbage. By the time they are weighed down by the cabbages, or if they lost balance, they lose the lot. Win or lose, each contestant would be given a Crackerjack pencil, a relatively low value item of heightened status owing to its prospective collectibility and exclusivity value. For a time in the 1970s, they ditched the pencils, revived them, then upgraded them to pens.

Today’s contestants may prefer something more substantial than a pencil these days, possibly a Crackerjack branded Android phone. * * * 4. ‘You’ve rejected tonight’s star prize, the British Leyland Mini…’ 3-2-1 (Yorkshire Television/ITV, 1978 – 1988) For anyone who hasn’t seen the repeats on Challenge TV, nor remember this show the first time around, 3-2-1 is based on the Spanish quiz show Un Dos Tres. The English counterpart darkened our screens in the second half of 1978 and ran for 10 years. The first part involved a general knowledge quiz with the second and third parts taken up by the variety spectacular (often based around cruise ships or something else of similar escapism, featuring either the Brian Rogers Connection or Wall Street Crash). Early episodes included an elimination game in the second part which took the part of an observation round, or a Breakout clone. There was rich rewards for the winner, whether the couple wishes to take home the Ford Fiesta or a fitted kitchen, or win the holiday.

Anyone familiar with the vagaries of Ted Rogers’ Saturday night quiz and variety show, would shoot me down for saying that the consolation prize was a brand new dustbin. They’re partly right. The brand new dustbin was awarded to anyone whom after trying to decipher the show’s clues in the third part who ended up with Dusty Bin. The consolation prize proper was Dusty Bin himself, a ceramic one for persons who came last in the quiz round or the elimination round. * * * 5. ‘Two minutes, Jim? What’s it all in? Twos and ones…?’ Bullseye (ATV; Central Independent Television/ITV, 1980 – 1995) Besides being a comedian, one of Norman Vaughan’s significant footnotes in television history (along with Andy Wood) is the co-creation of Bullseye, a popular game show based along darts. Much lampooned by Peter Kay, revived by Challenge TV in 2006 with older episodes still rerun, it was part and parcel of many a Sunday afternoon with roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Losing contestants left the Nottingham studios with a bendy Bully toy.

Previous consolation prizes included a set of darts and a tankard. In early episodes, the consolation prize was a dart shaped chalk holder. By contrast, the Challenge TV revived version, hosted by Dave Spikey saw cheaper electronic prizes, often a budget level MP3 player. * * * 6. A Birthdate With Destiny (Or: The Foreign Holiday Wasn’t Meant To Be) Runway (Granada Television/ITV, 1987 – 1993) Presented by Chris Serle in its first series, then succeeded by Richard Madeley, Runway was one of two travel orientated quizzes of Granada TV’s stable shown between 1985 and 1993. Three contestants would ‘check in’ with their birth date and occupation with questions based around birth dates. A further three rounds included Departure Board, where contestants would (Wipeout fashion) decide which of the nine answers were correct names of, for example, London railway stations. The third round, Dirty Tricks, was a quick fire general knowledge one with a difference. Anyone answering correctly could take four points for themselves, or take two off a rival’s tally.

The first contestant to reach 40 points would reach the final round, where nine sections of ‘runway’ needed to be lit for the star prize. Runners up would receive a copy of the newspaper printed on their birthdate. As consolation prizes go, this was among the better ones dished out on late 1980s quiz shows, and a worthy talking point as well as a keepsake. Contestants who failed to light up all nine sections of the runway would receive ‘Runway’ branded travel luggage, which, being a Granada quiz show, may have come from Chadderton’s very own Constellation brand. (Feel free to correct me on this). * * * 7. ’25 million viewers who tune in each week can be wrong, despite the song, which gets up our noses…’ Larry Grayson’s Generation Game (BBC One, 1978 – 1981) Succeeding Bruce Forsyth following his high profile poaching by ITV (Bruce Forsyth’s Big Night), Larry Grayson’s take on the BBC’s most popular quiz show, with Isla St. Clair accompanying him ensured the format’s continued success.

Based on the Dutch quiz show Een Van De Aacht, its ability to reinvent itself with different hosts and hostesses ensured its continuation well in to the 21st century. Larry Grayson’s take on the show was more irreverent with the man himself pratting about in some of the games! For bowing out at the first stage, each couple would take home a trophy as a reminder of their trip to Lime Grove [the now demolished BBC Television Theatre – also at one point home to Crackerjack]. The trophy would be a silver plated door inside a wooden frame, a reference to Larry’s ‘scores on the doors’ catchphrase. * * * 8. ‘To steal, we have…’ SupaSnaps Family Fortunes (ATV/ITV; Central Independent Television/ITV; Carlton/ITV; ITV Productions, 1980 – to date) With only Mastermind, A Question of Sport and University Challenge enjoying longer runs, Family Fortunes has seen five presenters, five major set changes and in more recent years, ordinary families eschewed in favour of celebrities.

Unless you’ve been a total recluse for forty years, Family Fortunes is based on the American Goodson Todman format Family Feud. A survey of people would be asked for an answer within a given subject (i.e. Things You’ll Find in the Kitchen). Contestants try and get the top answers to gain bigger cash prizes, ultimately winning the grand cash prize in Big Money, or the holiday, or the car. What about the runners up? For their troubles, they would return home with a black and white photograph, 10″ x 8″ or thereabouts in a silver frame. Winners, whether they win Big Money or not received a colour version of the photograph, again in aforementioned silver frame and along with their winnings. * * * 9. ‘Look at the studio filled with glamorous merchandise…’ Wheel of Fortune (Scottish Television/ITV, 1988 – 2001) Most of the UK’s much loved quiz shows are based on American formats, as stated above with Vernon Kay’s present day programme.

The late 1980s to early 1990s saw long standing US favourites like The Pyramid Game, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune gain popularity at peak times and early mornings. The 19 July 1988 saw the UK version of the US version of Wheel of Fortune grace our living rooms for the first time. Confusingly, Michael Miles presented another show with the same title from 1969 to 1971 (Southern Television/ITV). The centrepiece is the titular wheel, the chance to gain or lose cash prizes at the turn of a roulette style wheel and a haul of prizes fresh from Argos or MFI. For consolation prizes, the cheapo electronic gadget reigned supreme. In this case, a LCD electronic game of Wheel of Fortune and a watch which replicated the movements of the wheel itself. * * * 10. You’ll love this prize, not a lot… Wipeout (BBC One, 1994 – 2002) In its first four years, Paul Daniels presented the general knowledge show where contestants would try to find as many correct answers within a video wall.

Again, using our London stations example stated in the Runway entry, our contestant(s) would try to choose ‘King’s Cross’ instead of ‘New Street’, or ‘Waterloo’ instead of ‘Waverley’. Cash prizes per correct answer would increase after two, three or four successive right answers. If the contestant chose a wrong answer, he or she would be wiped out with all monies gained from previous correct answers lost. Wipeout winners for their troubles would win a holiday, but losing contestants came away with something more modest: a paperweight. By 1998, a change of time slot and presenter (this time, Bob Monkhouse) also saw a change of consolation prize. This time, an umbrella. * * * More than anything, the consolation prize is used to remind contestants and other family members of their day trip to Television Centre, South Bank, Lenton Lane, Quay Street, Norwich or any other studio one cares to mention. By the late 1980s, consolation prizes started to lean towards consumer goods instead of ornaments. More modest prizes leaned towards a simpler time when we would have been impressed by a framed photo of ourselves stood next to Bob Monkhouse.

Some of the prizes have a sense of kitsch and collectable value. Though low value, some carry the sense of exclusivity, obviously gained by appearing on the show. With today’s quiz show prizes weighted towards cash, the novelty element of appearing on a quiz show is somewhat lost. Perhaps modern day consumerism killed off the gloriously tacky consolation prize, but today’s schedules are woefully devoid of cheap and cheerful game shows where general knowledge is key, such as the modern day Lucky Ladders and Chain Letters of this world. Quiz shows seem to be bigger budget productions and sometimes sterile. The pullover count is vastly reduced, word games have gone, some only have two possible answers or perspex boxes. And not a single Blankety Blank cheque book and pen between them, or the like. S.V., 12 May 2012. "Peep peep", said Thomas. (@ Salford Central Railway Station (SFD) - @ nationalrailenq ) swarmapp.com/c/kKPxyWmLbjr 15 hours ago RT @ sanglesey : "I want access to your snooker club but I won't pay for entry. I'll need to borrow your cues.

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fb.me/1YrEk63QX 3 days ago And Bully's Special Prize – why game show prizes were better in the 70s and 80s | Metro News Alice Wright for Metro.co.uk Tuesday 10 Mar 2015 2:17 pm Gameshows today have got it all wrong, contestants don’t want to win luxury holidays, brand new cars or life-changing sums of money. No, they want to go through strange contrived games and quizzes in order to be in with a chance of taking home some garden furniture or a carriage clock. Back when game shows were actually great the prizes might not have been up to a modern audience’s standard. But they were certainly bloody funny. Today TV viewers can just send a text to be in with a chance of winning enough money to pay off their mortgage. It’s just not on. I mean look at what you could have won… 3-2-1 (1978-88) Consolation Prize: Ceramic Dusty Bin. I would have killed for one. The best bit about this extremely convoluted gameshow was watching Ted Rogers do his fast finger acrobatics to mark out 3-2-1.

After the couples had competed to win a whole ONE POUND per correctly answered question they then had a chance of winning oddities such as a St Bernard Puppy (for real), a sheepskin coat and a year’s supply of brandy. I really hope I didn’t imagine that there was once a brown suedette sofa that actually converted into a mini pool table? This poor couple were gutted to miss out on a years supply of fish: But many ‘winners’ went home with a shiny new metal bin after misreading the bizarre cryptic clues. The Price Is Right (1984-88) Consolation Prize: Originally a medal, followed by a Teddy Bear called William, but you’d be very unlikely to go home with nothing on this show. A series of mini-games within one big gameshow meant there were just so many goodies on offer. Everything the 80s household could need – carriage clocks, swan-shaped teapots or how about a fridge freezer with defrost function? Or what about this delightful highly polished revolving book shelf?

All modelled by beauties of the age, you just had to ‘come on down!’ Blankety Blank (1979-90) Consolation Prize: Cheque book and pen. The infamous trophy. Probably worth quite a bit today? Back then the absolute pits. After trying to replicate the answers given by a panel of celebrities of the day – Kenny Everett and Beryl Reid being stalwarts. The winner would take part in the Super Match Game and hope to be in with a chance of securing a pair of ladies and gents’ matching dress watches or a ships crystal decanter (filled with port). Even presenter Les Dawson used to take the mick out of what was on offer. Bullseye (1981-95) Consolation Prize: Take your pick – a bendy Bully toy, an engraved tankard or your BFH (bus fare home). I always thought that the coins Jim gave to the runners up were from his own pocket and felt sorry for everyone involved.

Bully’s Prize Board would spin round for the pair who had thrown the best darts and offered up delights such as a Mickey Mouse telephone, a nest of tables, some binoculars, some books, a deep fat fryer or a remote controlled car for the kiddies. But Bully’s Special Prize was always a doozy – a ‘fashion spree’ where dad might pick out something elegant like a trench coat. Or a fitted kitchen, or a speedboat. But if the pair playing were just friends did they get a kitchen each? No one knew. But you only had the time it took the board to revolve to decided whether or not to gamble… Take yer time. Blockbusters (1983-93) Consolation Prize: An embossed dictionary or sweatshirt. The slightly more high brow of gameshows for wordy students who loved to snigger over asking for a ‘p’ please, Bob. They had a chance to win something for their school or college – usually some science or sporting equipment – as well as some cash for themselves. Contestants could stay to accumulate prizes and money – with each correct answer bagging them a whole fiver. Whoop!

After making a succesful Gold Run this lucky chap won a recording session at Abbey Road followed by dinner at Sticky Fingers. Random: Family Fortunes (1980-02) Consolation Prize: A framed print of the family with their host. The winning family got theirs in colour and the losers in black and white. No, did that actually happen? Our survey said this show was very, very funny indeed. Family members would try to guess the answers to a survey question which must have provided the best misconstrued answers ever… for example ‘name something that’s green?’ ‘my cardigan’. Anyway plenty of cash was on offer in the Big Money round, as well as on the spot prizes such as a hoover, a Magimix or a lawnmower. Countdown (1982-onwards) Consolation Prize: A tiny boardgame and then a Countdown goody bag. Contestants weren’t on this for the main prize – the complete Oxford English Dictionary, all 20 leather bound volumes of it. No, they were on it to show off their fabulous word and number skills to the teatime audience and to try and make rude words from Carol’s letters.

The Generation Game (1971-82) Consolation Prize: A replica of the famous door. After having to learn a new skill such as Cossack dancing or throwing a pot, winners would then have to sit in front of a moving conveyor belt of prizes – you could only take home what you could remember. So they’d try to forget the fondue set and salad bowl in favour of the little black and white TV or fan heater but usually end up with the cuddly toy that appeared every week. Didn’t they do well? Sale Of The Century (1971 – 1983) Consolation Prize: The money you had left over ‘to do whatever you like with’. And now from Norwich… it’s the Quiz Of The Week! Anglia TV’s greatest achievement was this rather demure quiz in which the quite elderly contestants could spend their winnings on prizes. Admittedly the star prize was sometimes a car or a holiday but early rounds offered up delights such as a car tyres, electric blankets, chart LPs and fur coats that got Nicholas Parsons rather over excited.

But even the genial host was a little underwhelmed by this rubber dinghy: 'A cuddly toy!' Why are prizes on British TV so rubbish? | Television & radio | The Guardian Mark Lawson on television 'A cuddly toy!' Why are prizes on British TV so rubbish? Would you get battered and bruised for the chance to win a … smoothie-maker? From the Generation Game’s fondue set to the Crackerjack pencil and the BBC’s new game-show Can’t Touch This, it’s clearly the taking part that counts Winner takes all … Nicholas Parsons on Sale of the Century. Photograph: ITV/REX/Shutterstock Friday 25 March 2016 11.42 EDT Last modified on Friday 25 March 2016 11.44 EDT Share on Messenger Close How much physical risk and possible national humiliation would you endure to win a set of luxury pans? Anyone whose threshold of pain and embarrassment is very high – or their cupboard of cooking implements extremely bare – may want to take part in Can’t Touch This, a new BBC Saturday night game-show that begins tomorrow. Contestants are fired from a catapult on to an obstacle course of dips, peaks and pools.

Slithering and sliding, they must try to touch hanging buttons that release prizes including, apart from those top-end saucepans, a smoothie-maker, a sat-nav and a 3D printer. Pinterest Anything for a saucepan … Can’t Touch This. Photograph: Screen Grab/BBC Participants also have to suffer a sardonic voiceover from Sue Perkins, so these enticements seem low. But British TV has always had a problem with prizes. In the US, the 1950s quiz series The $64,000 Question became scandalous when it emerged that some contestants were being given answers in advance, leading to a government investigation of TV, as dramatised in the Robert Redford movie Quiz Show. But when ITV produced a British spin-off, the row was over the amount of cash. The rules of the then commercial TV regulator, the ITA (Independent Television Authority), against giving too much away meant the UK version had to be re-named The 64,000 Question and the prize consisted of 64,000 sixpences, which amounted to £1,600.

That was a sizeable sum at the time (the average UK house-price was around £3,000), but not life-transforming in the way the top American pay-out would be. Because the ITV regulators developed a rash at the sight of cash, shows were drawn to giving away items whose worth could be disguised. On Sale of the Century (ITV, 1971-76), another imported American format pauperised for British audiences, volunteers competed for tiny amounts of notional money (starting with £1) that allowed them eventually to compete for a car they would get for a knockdown price. Pinterest Pauperised for the UK ... Nicholas Parsons with hostesses Carole Ashby and Karen Loughlin – and a lucky washing machine winner – on Sale of the Century. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock/ITV A car is the biggest prize in Can’t Touch This too. The motor has endured as the ultimate take-home trophy because it remains one of the few consumer dreams that have survived all changes in taste and technology.

More cynically, manufacturers realised early that, for the cost of donating one four-door or even a three-wheeler, they could achieve an on-screen prominence for their product, whoopingly admired by the studio audience, that would have been far more expensive if they bought a slot in the ad breaks. Due to BBC rules, though, it’s noticeable that the dream set of wheels that literally hangs over the contestants on Can’t Touch This has an unspecified marque. Funded by the public, the BBC has always had to be careful about redirecting too much money to a single licence-payer. Internal guidelines (and external scrutiny by the tabloid press) began a fashion for joke or token prizes, like the “Blankety Blank cheque-book and pen” or the “Crackerjack pencil”. On Blankety Blank, the “star prize” of “a flight on Concorde” would turn out to be a quick spin over the Bristol Channel, not a weekend in New York. Pinterest Thanks a bunch … Blankety Blank pen and cheque book.

Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock It’s a measure of how strictly financial protocols were imposed that the prize most people remember from The Generation Game, which culminated in players winning all the items they could memorise on a conveyor belt, is the joke consolation of the “cuddly toy”. Other prizes that whizzed past – the “dinner service” and “fondue set” – would hardly make contestants think Christmas had come early. After the progressive loosening, by Conservative governments in the 1980s and 90s, of rules governing commercial TV, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (ITV, 1998-2014) celebrated the new largesse. Many other quiz shows would feature a literal “money shot”, with a quartet of brawny security guards stood at the corners of a stack of banknotes or gold bars that represented the bounty. This moment of fiscal porn is a signature of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (ITV, since 2002), and another of the double-act’s franchises, Red or Black? (ITV, 2011-12), which offered a seven-figure jackpot.

But, while huge prizes can now be won on British television, at least on ITV, the formats are designed to make sure as few people as possible take home the top amount. This doesn’t reduce the flow of contestants, though, because ever since The $64,000 Question, the real prize for most people is the chance to appear on TV. As Can’t Touch This proves, they will even by catapulted, dunked and thumped for very little in return. Why the game show is the TV format with staying power - Telegraph TV and Radio reviews Why the game show is the TV format with staying power As new ITV series Come on Down! charts the history of the game show, Jasper Rees explores how the classic genre has remained a cornerstone of British TV. Come on Down! The Game Show Story, takes a playful look at the evolution of the game show through the ages. Photo: ITV/Rex By Jasper Rees 12:00PM BST 08 Aug 2014 If only Gogglebox had been there to record it.

On Saturday evenings in the 1970s the nation would sit in front of the television and, in unison, recite random contents from a department store catalogue. Teasmade! Case of wine! Curling tongs! Cut glass decanter! Set of crockery! Lazy Susan! Cuddly toy! It was the task of a winning contestant on The Generation Game to commit such items to memory as they whizzed past on a conveyor belt. All those they could then list to Bruce Forsyth would be theirs. Back at home, viewers of all ages joined in. Guess you had to be there. The show was British TV’s defining game show. It arrived just as colour televisions were spreading across the land, and didn’t it do well? It planted the seed of an idea which has since grown into a mighty oak: Joe Public, who went on to star in flame-proof shows such as Big Brother and The X Factor, costs less. As explained in Come On Down! – ITV’s playful new history of the game show – The Generation Game came along because variety shows were becoming too expensive for risk-averse executives. Game shows needed only a charismatic host and willing participants who played not for money but for prizes.

The Generation Game was a boiled-down version of a much flabbier show on Dutch TV (the Netherlands would later give the world Big Brother and Deal or No Deal). But it was to American TV that UK producers looked for portable formats. University Challenge, modelled on CBS’s College Bowl, had already proved that clever kids on the box could be box office. Soon glitzier and less brainiac shows were following it across the Atlantic. Match Game became Blankety Blank, Family Feud changed to Family Fortunes and Hollywood Squares to Celebrity Squares. Related Articles Anthony Horowitz: 'I've always wanted to create a TV quiz show' 09 Mar 2014 This being an age of innocence, the domestic prizes on offer were straight out of Abigail’s Party, give or take the odd Ford Cortina. And contestants were not yet the self-commodifying marionettes they would become the Big Brother house. Some contestants did become briefly famous: none more so than Fred Housego, the London cabbie who won Mastermind in 1980.

But the game show mainly made household names out of circuit comedians such as Jim Bowen (Bullseye) and Les Dennis (Family Fortunes), light comic actors like Nicholas Parsons (Sale of the Century) and blazered Butlins Redcoats like Ted Rodgers (3-2-1). (In the era before Sue Perkins, blow-dried women with shiny teeth stood to the side in a frock.) These men presided over a bewildering variety of often surreal contests, and hooked audiences with bizarre catchphrases that live on in the cultural landscape like tinnitus. (Leslie Crowther on The Price Is Right was the source of “Come on down!”) But with the question asked, the clock ticking and the prize awaiting the successful contestant, the basic formula for a successful show never varied: suspense plus consumerism equals cheap entertainment. It became less cheap when the prize restrictions were lifted in the mid-1990s. Until then, the UK equivalent of The $64,000 Question could offer little more than a thousand pounds, or a dismal consolation prize (anyone for a Blankety Blank chequebook and pen?). Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

was the instant product of that rule change, while Deal or No Deal gave us the prospect of contestants winning anything between half a million pounds and 1p. The big money on offer in one or two shows might have killed off the game show, in a pincer movement with proliferating talent contests and reality TV. For a while in the 1990s, when television caught the ironising bug, the game show survived by learning the language of self-mockery in the shape of Pets Win Prizes and Shooting Stars. But TV schedules must be filled and, for all the spread of aspirational daytime shows about interiors, antiques, gardens and cookery, the game show remains as inevitable as death and taxes. According to Come On Down!, there are 30 game shows on British TV in any given week. Indeed such is the ability of the game show to divide and spawn that shows such as Eggheads now offer a permanent home to previous winners of other quizzes.

And just to prove how indestructible they are, while Ant and Dec crashed and burned in their new show Red or Black (the most expensive game show in TV history, which got an average of three million viewers), many formats from the dawn of televisual time have been revived: from Catchphrase to Mastermind. They may have whizzier graphics to compete with the high-tech optics of The Cube, and celebrities have replaced ordinary punters in shows such as All Star Mr and Mrs. But without the ideas generated in Sixties and Seventies, British light entertainment would be a half-empty cupboard. It’s even said that The Generation Game may rise again with Miranda Hart at the helm. All we need now is the return of The Golden Shot. Up a bit. Left a bit. Right a bit. Down a bit. Down a bit. Down a bit. Fire! Consolation Prize - TV Tropes Consolation Prize You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share Ow... right in the pride... "With trophies like that for the losers, who wants to be a winner?" — Pac-Man , "The Old Pac-Man and the Sea" Welcome, welcome, and thank you for playing TV Tropes !

[Applause!] Unfortunately, I'm afraid you're not our big winner here today, and so we have to say goodbye! [Awwwwwwwww!] But you're not leaving empty-handed ! No, you're going home with our fabulous Consolation Prize ! Fast Eddie , tell our lucky losing contestants what they've won! That's right, our Consolation Prize is a nice little gift basket loaded with various and sundry household goods and items, maybe some store credit , and we'll even throw in the Home Game version of our own Game Show ! Wow, look at that shiny box! Courtesy of Trope Co. ® ! [Applause!] Thanx, Eddie! And before our grand champion starts feeling left out, let me remind everyone that the Consolation Prize is, by necessity, of inferior value compared to our show's real prizes. Now, off with you runners up, and let us bask in the glow of our real winner! [Cheers And Applause!] What, there's no year's supply of Rice-A-Roni, The San Francisco Treat Ding! Ding!? That's THE memetic Consolation Prize , you know...

Examples: open/close all folders Arcade Games The Stacker Arcade Game lets you pick a "Consolation Prize!" when you're close to the top. However, you only have one opportunity to take said prize - losing while going for the Major Prizes gets you nothing. That said, since the minor prizes are things like pencils and small plastic toys and the major prizes are usually video game consoles or iPods, not too many people choose the consolation prize. The Mega Stacker at Dave & Buster's is a bit more fair with its consolation prize- 200 tickets for reaching the Minor Prize level on a game where the Major Prize is 1000 tickets. Some crane games also dispense candy when you play them, so if you didn't get the toy you were after, you at least got some candy. Fanfics In the Jackie Chan Adventures fic Queen of All Oni , even though Jade's Batman Gambit to steal the masks from Section 13 fails, SOLELY due to the Spanner in the Works known as Agent Wisker, she still manages to escape with information on the locations of the other set of artifacts she was looking for!

Live Action TV Game Shows : Probably the originator of this trope, as spelled out in the introduction: Many game shows have Bonus Rounds that, if the contestant unsuccessfully completes its objective (to win the grand prize), will award the contestant a consolation prize for components he/she did meet successfully. Notable examples include Fast Money in Family Feud ($5 for each point scored below the target of 200) and Pyramid ($50 to $300 for each category correctly guessed, depending on its placement on the Winner's Circle board, with Dick Clark famously adding the total aloud). Many game shows that had Home Game adaptations also got a copy of the board game, as part of their stash of consolation gifts. Additionally, many hosts will also remind contestants of what else they had already won if they fail to win the bonus round (or, if it's The Price Is Right , a pricing game). Drew Carey doing this in the latter case has annoyed a few longtime TPiR fans note (particularly those who wanted a Bob Barker-clone or were frustrated with the show in general since Roger Dobkowitz's ouster in 2008), although Barker has done this on occasion and both Dennis James and Tom Kennedy frequently did this.

The Crystal Maze once ran a special edition of the show where the contestants were kids. They did really well but fell down at the last hurdle - the famous crystal dome, missing out on the grand prize - a trip to Disneyland. Or so they thought. In what also counts as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming for the show, the host suddenly revealed that they were going to Disneyland anyway. More conventionally, every competitor, regardless of how well they did, got a replica of one of the crystals. Queen for a Day : The producers deliberately kept the consolation prize stash small for losing contestants, according to one history of the genre. The explanation: The show wanted to prevent fortune-seeking contestants who lied about their "dire" circumstances just to get onto the show. This was, because in addition to things that a contestant truly needed (such as medical care or therapeutic equipment to help a chronically ill child, or her out-of-work husband a decent-paying job), there were other gifts, such as fur coats, vacations and so forth as part of the stash. Even though the consolation gifts were comparably less expensive, such as a toaster oven or a camera kit, no legitimate contestant ever left empty handed.

Said consolation prizes were also left unmentioned on the program for the same reasons, leading to the popular belief that the losers were left with nothing, adding to the show's infamy. Normally, even the unluckiest contestants on Deal or No Deal walk away with at least a small amount of cash, even if it's a single penny. But when a hapless contestant on the Australian version managed to win literally nothing, they handed him a Giant Novelty Check for the amount of "Nothing" . The Price Is Right : During the Drew Carey era, after a contestant lost an over/under pricing game on the first item (a roll of aluminum foil), he spontaneously gave the contestant the roll as a souvenir. Drew has been keeping up the trend, if a bit randomly. If a contestant loses on a game based on grocery items, Drew will give the contestant the item that made them lose as a souvenir, whether it is walnuts, potato chips, or even whipped cream. Early in the show's history, a losing contestant in Grocery Game — provided they used all five grocery items but failed to reach $6.75 — was given a $100 cash consolation.

Just prior to the second Showcase Showdown (or the Showcases during the 30-minute era), "Contestants not appearing on stage" (or CANOS, as it was fondly abbreviated by fans) were usually given a combination of grocery items plus small prizes, usually up to $500 in value. Since Season 41, CANOS receive $500, which is not stated on-air. On the Taiwanese version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? , the first question is worth NT$1000 as well as a NT$500 guarantee (about US$17), so that players who flunk out in the first half of the game still get a minimal consolation prize, unlike the US version. But on the occasions that a contestant answered the very first question incorrectly, they were awarded a big novelty check for "ZERO YUAN". In the Trebek version of Jeopardy! , third place contestants won a small prize like artwork or something similar while second place frequently won trips. All departing contestants would receive your standard bundle of grocery items along with the home game where applicable.

The show then changed the consolation prizes to be $1000 and $2000 to the contestants that finished in 3rd and 2nd respectively. If the contestants misses buckets 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 on Bozo's Grand Prize Game , they keep the prize (If they miss bucket 1, they just keep on going until the ping-pong ball lands in bucket 1). Any Wheel of Fortune contestant who finished with $0 originally received parting gifts. This was changed to $500 cash in Season 20, and again to $1,000 in Season 23. On the PBS Kids game show: Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? , The gumshoe would get a consolation prize if they did not complete a round. If the gumshoe came in third place in round 1, They would get a traveling bag, It contains a atlas book, an official Carmen Sandiego wristwatch, a Carmen Sandiego T-Shirt, and subscription to the National Geographic World Magazine. If the gumshoe did not complete round 2 (Jailtime Challenge), They would get a world band radio.

If the winning gumshoe did not complete the map round in 45 seconds (Or 60 seconds if they are using the Asia map), They would get a portable CD player and some selection of CDs from around the world. Ready Steady Cook gives the losers a wooden spoon. While this might seem like an appropriate cooking-themed booby prize, it's a cultural in-joke that pre-dates the show by a long way (see Real Life below). Concentration : An unusual case for the 1970s Jack Narz version ï¿½ in that consolation-level prizes, such as Bic writing pens, flashlight batteries and boxed Betty Crocker potato dishes were front-game prizes. Yes, you still could get Rice-o-Roni as a consolation prize if you didn't win anything, but there was the possibility that it was a front-game item as well. Additionally, if you solved just one of the Double Play bonus round rebuses, you still came away with $100. During the original NBC version, a winning contestant that had nothing in his prize rack when he solved the rebus won $100. Also, when is the last time a car was offered as a consolation prize?

Well, when you didn't win the game ... but during the course of play, you uncovered both Wild Cards. The car was yours from then on, and no one could take it away from you, even with a loss or an opponent's "Take" card note and yes, more than once an opponent specified she wanted the car when she got her take ï¿½ but was denied or upon finding a "Forfeit" card note which was still in use then, meaning you had to forfeit a prize to your opponent and it was the only prize available. This "Double Wild means a car" rule was in play during the final three years or so of the original NBC version. Blankety Blank had "The Blankety Blank chequebook and pen!", spoonerised in the Les Dawson era as "chequepen and book!" In the 1985 pilot version of Finders Keepers , if the runner failed to complete the final search before time ran out, he or she would receive whatever amount was won in prizes as a consolation. Averted with the original format of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and many shows that attempted to follow in its footsteps.

However, the American shuffle format plays this straight, awarding $1,000 to anybody who answers any of the first ten questions wrong. Celebrity editions of such shows also award a guaranteed minimum for the contestants' charities, such as £1,000 in The Chase and £5,000 in The Million Pound Drop . The Bozo Show: The long-running children's TV show (hosted by the eponymous clown) had a segment called the "Grand Prize Game," a progressive skill game where the youthful contestants had to throw a pingpong ball into a series of six buckets, each one placed further from the contestant than the last. The value of the contestant's prize package increased as the contestant's success continued, with a grand prize (in addition to everything else already won) awarded for getting all six.

Very rarely did anyone fail to make the first bucket (in some instances, it was literally at the kids feet, and all they had to do was let go and drop the ball,) but if they were so unlucky, they were given a consolation prize "just for playing" — usually, a towel with Bozo's face on it, or a balsam-wood airplane, each worth about $1 or $2. Of course, if you were the unlucky child who pouted after getting just the consolation gift — such as was claimed in the "Cram it, clown!" urban legend — you might forfeit even that prize ... thus leaving with nothing. A game show in a Mad TV sketch offered as a consolation prize a "lifetime supply of Rice-A-Roni... the board game"; one box. Another skit offered Rice-A-Roni to contestant who wanted liver, but gets the Rice-A-Roni but can liver in it. A Late Night with Jimmy Fallon sketch featured the game show Wheel of Carpet Samples. The winner got to keep his carpet sample, and the losers were left with a $300 gift certificate.

Wheel of Game Shows (which is rigged so that everyone loses) has a Led Zeppelin t-shirt with an L that fell off (making them read "Ed Zeppelin"), along with a Jimmy Fallon album . The 1969 game Letters To Laugh-In scored viewer-submitted jokes read by the panelists. The highest-scoring joke each week won a trip to Hawaii, whereas lowest-scoring joke won a trip to "beautiful downtown Burbank". And since this was Fall 1969 as opposed to (for example) May 1975, there wasn't nearly as much to do there. Music Parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic in the song "I Lost on Jeopardy! ", in which legendary announcer Don Pardo lists off all the stuff Al didn't win: Don Pardo: You don't get to come back tomorrow! You don't even get a lousy copy of our Home Game ! You're a complete loser!!! Newspaper Comics One Garfield comic strip spoofs this with a TV show announcer revealing that the lovely prizes for the runner-ups are tickets to "LOSER-ville!" Garfield thinks that there's finally one game show that's got that part right.

Pinball Doctor Who has The Master's Bonus, which is obtained by draining the ball in a specific place. Star Trek: The Next Generation has the Thank You Mr. Data bonus, only accessible once per game as a sort of Easter Egg if you start a mission, completely fail to make any progress whatsoever in it (so you only get the token 5 million bonus for starting it), drain the ball, and interrupt Mr. Data's not-at-all snarky comment on your failure with the flippers. Radio Groucho Marx's radio quiz show You Bet Your Life had a clever twist on the idea: if the contestants wound up losing all their money (or ended their appearance with less than $25 in winnings), Groucho would ask them a consolation question worth $25. The consolation question was one which it was almost impossible to get incorrect (though some contestants did miss it): "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?", "When did the War of 1812 start?", and "What color is an orange?" were among them. In one episode, Groucho asked the contestants if they really wanted to bet all their winnings on a question. One of the contestants replied, "Why not?

I know who's buried in Grant's Tomb." A contestant once gave the proper answer of "no one" to the Grant's Tomb question. Groucho was surprised that he got it "wrong" until the contestant pointed out that Grant's Tomb is an above ground mausoleum. An alternate game show used similar questions...but with a twist. Mentioning a specific Grant, or asking where Panama hats are made. In Ulysses S. Grant's tomb, there's both Ulysses S. Grant AND his wife, Julia! (Panama hats are NOT made in Panama, but in Ecuador.) Theatre Fulton: Matter of fact, we're getting up some consolation prizes. Got the list, Jenkins? Jenkins: Here you are, sir. Fulton: Of course the first prize, as you all know, is Mr. Wintergreen himself. The second prize is a season pass to Coney Island. And the third prize is an autographed photograph of Clara Bow, or ten cents in gold. Video Games Should the fates conspire in your favor and you encounter an Ultra-Rare monster in Kingdom of Loathing , but then you mess up and get beaten by it, you get a Consolation Ribbon instead.

Sometimes, this is a weird inversion. Unlike the prize you get for killing an Ultra-Rare, the consolation ribbon is untradeable; players who are wealthy enough to buy Ultra-Rare items often intentionally lose to the monster so they can get the ribbon. In the Shadow Hearts series, if you fail on the Lottery, you get Tissues. In the first game, you need Tissues at one point to get one of Yuri's most powerful Fusions - which is why Margarete's prize for completing the Monster Arena is Tissues (in case you never lost the Lottery). For those who feel that this seems a little random, it might be noted that tissues are in fact a common consolation prize in Japanese lotteries. Modern Warfare 2 introduces Deathstreaks. When a player loses several lives without killing any enemies, they get one of four bonuses (that they select prior to the match).

They are "Copycat", which allows you to copy the gear of the soldier that killed you, "Painkiller", which grants you a 10-second health boost upon respawning, "Martyrdom", which has you priming a grenade as you die, and " Final Stand ", which lets you, upon receiving what should be lethal damage, crawl around on the ground with your primary weapon ready to fire. If you survive long enough in final stand, you get back up. Ask a Gaia Online member about Potatoverseer. There's a Team Fortress 2 achievement for the Sniper by this name. It requires the achiever to be on the receiving end of a Back Stab from a Spy, their natural and greatest enemy. Fifty times. Inverted in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass . When you send a lottery ticket to the mailbox, and you supposedly don't win, you get a ship part as a consolation prize. When you do win, they forget to put the prize alongside the letter, so you receive nothing at all. Doing poorly in a mini-game in Final Fantasy VII 's Gold Saucer gets you a tissue.

The Stone Award is what you receive when you completely blow a level in Bayonetta . Yes, this game is cruel enough that they invented a level below Bronze just in case you completely botch things. Which is quite likely on your first (few) playthrough(s). The figure also happens to be game's biggest Butt Monkey Enzo. Inverted in Billy Vs SNAKEMAN with the game "First Loser". Everyone who plays throws in X amount of ryo. The top twenty or so highest bidders get... one kunai! (Kunai are 100 ryo each in the game's shop, and used to perform the weakest jutsu.) The first player outside of the top ranks gets an extremely valuable item. Thus, you want to be the first loser . Tomodachi Life : Lose to one of the Islanders in an Islander Game and they'll "reward" you with either a Box of Tissues or a Toilet paper. Both are Vendor Trash that sell for exactly $1.

The Gold Saucer in Final Fantasy XIV gives players a small amount of MGP (currency for prizes in the Gold Saucer) should they not win the mini-cactpot or jumbo cactpot (a scratch off and lottery respectively), though the consolation prize is usually less than the amount of points the player paid for to play the games. The player is given some MGP back if they lose the lottery since getting nothing back in return would be borderline gambling and many places have strict laws when it comes to online gambling. Should a level go utterly FUBAR in The Wonderful 101 , you won't even get a Bronze at the end of it. Instead you'll get a tiny plastic consolation prize. The newspaper at the end of a section in the level will even demand to know "WHERE ARE OUR REAL HEROES?!". And given how unforgiving the game is, you may well end up seeing it at least once in a playthrough. Incidentally, this game is from the same developers as the above-mentioned Bayonetta. Go figure. In Miitomo , the Miitomo Drop game has a few spaces on the bottom that award candy, if you were unfortunate enough to not land near a clothing item.

In a number of the Yu-Gi-Oh! video games, losing a set number of times (normally 10 times) unlocks the Secret Character Mokuba, Kaiba's Bratty Half-Pint little brother. As should be obvious, he is the easiest duelist to beat by a good margin, so the game is basically insulting you by giving you the 'privilege' of playing with one of the main character's younger siblings until you get better. Webcomics In Champions Of Faraus , When Daryl loses the first round of the champions tournament,he gets a tiny dagger as a consolation prize.Since the city it is being held in is attacked by Sarengal's cultists a minute or so later, and Daryl didn't have any other weapons to use, it actually became a lifesaver for him, and he continues to use it to fight. Web Original Neopets ' Tiki Tack Tombola has the Booby Prize, which are usually even more pointless than the regular prizes.

Western Animation In the season one finale of Jackie Chan Adventures , after Shendu's destruction resulted in the Dark Hand losing the treasure Shendu had promised them in return for retrieving his talismans but refused to give them, Finn noticed the said talismans in the sand that used to be Shendu's palace, and asks Valmont if he'd be happy with a consolation prize (and keep in mind, the talismans give their wielders magical powers). On 2 Stupid Dogs , the dogs are contestants on a The Price Is Right-type show, where the consolation prize is a box of dog biscuits. Naturally, the dogs want the biscuits, and try to lose on purpose, but they just keep on winning . In the Batman: The Animated Series episode, "If You're So Smart, Why Are You Rich?," The Riddler failed to kill the corporate executive who cheated him out of a job thanks to Batman, but at least he escaped and has the satisfaction that the exec now is plagued with a terrified paranoia for the Riddler to strike at him again.

Real Life Many contests, especially youth-related (and especially more where young children are involved) give ribbons, certificates, etc., to everyone who participated, meaning that even a contestant who fared poorly — but at least did his best — went away with something. In Britain and the Commonwealth the traditional consolation prize is a wooden spoon. The Other Wiki has a whole article on this ; it started at Cambridge University as a prize for the lowest-scoring Maths student to still earn a degree, but was eventually discontinued. The Six Nations rugby tournament awards a (theoretical) "wooden spoon" to the overall losing side, and many smaller quizzes, competitions and tournaments will give away a real one (sometimes with some kind of decoration, as a kind of anti-trophy, but sometimes just an everyday kitchen utensil). In pro sports like football or hockey, missing out on the post-season playoffs hurts bad for any team and its fanbase. However, the team and their fans can occasionally enjoy some schadenfreude and get some of their pride back if they still play well enough to ruin the playoff hopes of whichever other team is their major rival .

The Olympic Games gives certificates known as "victory diplomas" to the fourth through eight participants, and the Pierre de Coubertin medal might be this to those who show sportsmanship while losing higher prizes. Many people think bronze medals for the third place is this, specially in elimination tournaments where the two semifinal losers play for bronze. It's commonly averted as the bronze winner is usually happy to actually win anything (while the silver medalist might content with his prize but would have preferred to win gold ). A notable consolation prize for losing a war was the island of Elba. After his first abdication, Napoleon was exiled there, but not as a prisoner. Elba was made into an independent country with Napoleon as its ruler: he was still an Emperor, but with a tiny empire. Of course, he decided it wasn't enough (though he made some good reforms while he was there) and he tried to win again. After his second abdication, St Helena was very much not a consolation prize. Notable aversions Wheel of Fortune used to offer consolation prizes to any contestants who finished with a score of $0.

Starting in the early 2000s, they now get the "house minimum": first $500, then $1,000. Similarly, Jeopardy! has always paid full winnings only to the first place winner ever since Trebek joined in 1984. The second- and third-place contestants originally got parting gifts, but now, second and third respectively get flat amounts of $2,000 and $1,000. On the current version of Let's Make a Deal , when a contestant gets Zonked , Wayne Brady will often (but not always) give them a bit of money (usually around $100) so they don't walk away empty-handed. On Sale Of The Century , losing contestants still kept everything credited to them in the main game, including their score in dollars.

(Of course, the latter usually wouldn't be much, as it was a rare occurrence for the winner to have a score greater than 100, much less the losers.) It was possible, and in fact not even terribly unusual, for a contestant to lose yet get a bigger single-episode haul than the winner, by virtue of prizes that don't count towards the score - although of course, the endgame prizes offered to the winner were much more valuable, and only the winner can come back and get one step closer to the lot. The Hollywood Squares (and many other Merrill Heatter -Bob Quigley produced shows) had consolation prize packages that often totaled $1,500 ï¿½ and these were nice gifts! (For instance, on one Heatter-Quigley show, the loser walked away with a photo session at Olan Mills studios, a microwave oven (and a couple other kitchen appliances), a water softener, a $300 Iowa Pork Producers gift certificate, and some Sarah Coventry jewelry. Other contestants have received things such as two-night stays at a local resort, encyclopedias, gift certificates to clothing stores, car care packages and much more.

Keep in mind this is what the loser receives!) Family Game Night will give the families who played and lost $100 for playing, and they still get a shot at the Community Chest. If they happen to pick the winning combination, they have a shot at the car.

:: Indexes :: Blankety Blank - UKGameshows Blankety Blank Broadcast BBC1, 18 January 1979 to 12 March 1990 (208 episodes in 12 series + 10 specials) Fremantle for BBC One, 26 December 1997 to 19 September 1998 (13 episodes in 1 series + 1 special) as Lily Savage's Blankety Blank Grundy for BBC One, 26 June to 28 December 1999 (12 episodes in 1 series + 1 special) Grundy for ITV, 7 January to 17 June 2001 (20 episodes in 1 series) Thames for ITV1, 4 May to 10 August 2002 (12 episodes in 1 series + 8 unaired) ITV Productions and TalkbackThames for ITV1, 21 April 2007 ( Gameshow Marathon one-off) bbc.co.uk webcast, 5 to 6 March 2011 ( 24 Hour Panel People ) Thames for ITV, 24 December 201

6 Synopsis "Blankety Blank was very _______" Several words you could fit in that blank, but it was up to the contestants to try and match their answers to the celebrities playing alongside them.

Yes! This was Blankety Blank! Cheap and tackiness for the masses. And it all started with *that* theme tune, the one that went "Blankety Blank, Blankety Blank (Boom Boom), Blankety Blank, Blankety Blank (Boom Boom)" for about five years which we suppose was dead handy if you suffered from amnesia and forgot which programme you were currently watching. The tackiness continued with the set which was cheap and the prizes which were cheaper. We're talking low budget here. Except in the more recent Lily Savage revived version they were actually not bad, when there was a holiday for a grand prize and things that actually worked. The celebrity panel The host introduced us to the celebrities and then we met the players (to the theme tune). The player who won the toss got to pick from one of two questions. The host read the statement out and then the six celebrities wrote down the answer that they think would fit the blanks. There was usually a tenuous clue within the statement for the celebs and players to pick up on. The contestant desk Once all the celebs had written something, the player gave their answer. The host then went into the celebs and read out what they put.

If the answers matched, the player scored a point (and the celeb got a little mark indicating that they'd matched with that player) and if they didn't match they didn't. The other player then got a go. The question was: "The answer to eternal life is ______" If after this first round a player had matched with all six celebs they won the game. If not, the player with the lowest score went first in Round 2, but they only played with the people whom they didn't match with in round 1. If there wasn't a winner after Round 2 they did sudden death. The players wrote down an answer to the statement and then the celebs each gave answers in turn. The first one to match won. The loser didn't go away empty handed because they won... a Blankety Blank Chequebook and Pen! It took us ages to realise this was a pun ("blank cheque", y'see) but then we were very young at the time. Lily Savage with the BBCBAP The winner went through to the Supermatch Game (with the appropriate "Supermatch Game" theme tune, which was nearly as inane as the "Blankety Blank" one).

The legend was revealed revealing a two word phrase with one word blanked out. Wogan used to ask some unseen bloke (originally Eugene, later Eamonn - they just had to be Irish names, didn't they?) to reveal the legend, while Dawson would usually say, "Please reveal the leg-end, Alf." Before the show, the whole audience were polled as to what word should fill in the blank of the Supermatch phrase, and the three most popular answers were hidden away on the board. The winning player was allowed to ask three of the celebs as to what they thought the most popular filler was and afterwards the player was allowed to take one of their words or come up with one of their own. The words on the board were worth 50, 100 and 150 Blanks depending on popularity and more blanks meant better prizes (although I've already told you that didn't mean much...). Reverend David Smith, one of the famous UK game show veterans, appeared on the show.

The game was then played again with two new contestants, and whoever had the most Blanks in the Supermatch Game went forward to the head to head (and if the two winners got the same it would go to sudden death). Here, they could win a better prize (doubling their blanks or a holiday). The player chose one of the celebrities who would write down their answer to a "word BLANK" phrase. The player would then give their answer, if they matched, they won and if not they didn't. And that's it really, apart from the hosts. First, there was Irishman DJ Terry Wogan where part of the fun was him trying (and failing) to keep the celebrities in check. Then there was the late Les Dawson who had no respect for the format - and that's what made it funny. Les Dawson , host of the second incarnation. Blankety Blank left the screens in 1990, 3 years before Dawson's death, during which time he hosted an even more cheap and tacky show, Fast Friends .

This was almost certainly an attempt at a new version of Blankety Blank, even giving away address books instead of cheque books and pens as consolation prizes, but Fast Friends flopped after only one series, since it had none of Blankety Blank's entertainment value - which was actually considerable, for all its unashamed tackiness! However, Blankety Blank was revived in 1998 with Lily Savage as the host. Acerbic Lily had little respect for the format and had no trouble at all with keeping people in check. That was the funny thing. Everyone thought she/he would be really bad at it but in fact she/he/it managed to pull quite an audience, and in fact the show was later renamed "Lily Savage's Blankety Blank" as a result, which was actually a rather dubious honour, but then she was a rather dubious character. Lily Savage (a.k.a. drag artist Paul O'Grady), host of the revival. The problem with Lily Savage's humour is that a lot is fairly adult and as a result, about half the show (the funny half) had to be edited from recording to suit the audience.

The program defected from the BBC to ITV in 2001, when it lasted a year. Judging by the first episode we wondered whether this was a wise thing to do... Lily goes off on one with the celebrities. Key moments Two 1987 specials featuring the cast of 'Allo 'Allo! and Hi-De-Hi making up the entire celebrity panel. Another one in the same year featured 3 weathermen (Michael Fish, John Kettley and Ian McCaskill) and the Beverley Sisters. In a particularly memorable 1987 edition, the BBC had booked 2 sets of identical twins as contestants. Apparently, Les Dawson had not been told about this, so, after he had finished with 2 of the contestants, he had to do a double take, because there they were again and of course both sets of twins were identically dressed! It was very rare for Dawson to be caught on the hop like that.

(The two male twins ended up playing each other in a head-to-head.) In the same year, Mastermind did something similar with the 'Hancock's Half-Hour' edition, in which the married couple Paul and Christine Hancock played against each other, right up to a sudden-death play-off - and they also appeared together on Masterteam . In a 1990 edition, there was a wheelchair-bound contestant, who won her first game and Dawson took charge of wheeling her on and off set. It's currently part of the National Curriculum for media students to study the classic microphone-bending antics of Kenny Everett during the Wogan years. Not really. But it should be. Incidentally, his microphone was nothing more than a prop with which to gesticulate - if you look carefully, he was working off a standard mic in his lapel. Everett's other antics on the show included dancing around with one of the prizes - a mug tree - and breaking most of the mugs, surprise, surprise!

He also once produced a Spanish packet of peanuts called 'Bum' and, when Wogan would ask the celebrities to hold up 'Ready' cards when they had written their answers, Everett would hold up a massive, placard-sized one! Catchphrases (Wogan and Dawson): "Lights on when you're ready, please..." "This is Supermatch. We held a poll with the studio audience to ascertain what they thought was a correct phrase or saying. Rising in popularity, we have 50 blanks, 100 blanks and 150 blanks - and these are the prizes you could be winning on Blankety Blank". (Dawson usually added in some little jibe about the quality (or lack of it!) of the prizes!) "For 50 blanks, we have...!" and ditto for 100 and 150 blanks.

"Will you please join me for the Supermatch?" (Wogan, if the contestant chose Card B instead of A at the beginning): "B it shall be!" (Les Dawson era): "Reveal the legend!" or, "Please reveal the leg-end, Alf!" "Remember - the clue is in the question!" (To panellists) "What have you got for meeeee?" (To the contestants, in the event of a tiebreaker): "...And the first one to hold the card aloft will be deemed the winner!" "But you're not going away empty-handed - no, by Jiminy, you're not! You're taking away with you" (pause for dramatic effect) - "a Blankety Blank cheque book and pen!" (followed by a stamp of his foot). (He sometimes changed it to, "A Blankety Blank cheque pen and book!") "And for the benefit of our viewer, Arthur, in Cheltenham - good night, God bless!" Inventor Based on the US Goodson -Todman show The Match Game (latterly known as simply Match Game).

Theme music Original music was by Ronnie Hazlehurst, and performed by Jason McDermid, Alison Jiear and David Bryant. So now you know. Trivia All good things come to those who wait. So do long-lost episodes of Blankety Blank. 8 episodes of Lily Savage's 2002 series of the show were never shown on ITV. They emerged on the Challenge channel in 2005, then again in February 2011 and again in September 2016. Merchandise A board game was available. Web links

Question: In which game show would you get a cheque book and pen as a consolation prize?
Answer: BLANKETY BLANK