Hot Potato (game show)
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Hot Potato was a television game show broadcast on NBC in the United States from January 23, 1984, through June 29, 1984.
Bill Cullen was the show's host and Charlie O'Donnell was its announcer. The series was produced by Barry & Enright Productions.
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[edit] The Main Game
During the main game, two teams of three players, each with something in common (occupation, mothers-to-be, etc.) compete. The host gives a question, with seven or more possible answers. One member of the champion team starts by either giving an answer or forcing an opponent to answer. If a correct answer is given, control passes to the next member of that team in line. Otherwise, that player is eliminated from the round (and sent to the bench behind them), and the other team takes control.
[edit] Challenge
Upon a challenge, if a wrong answer is given, that player is benched and the challenging team retains control. Otherwise, the player that made the challenge is knocked out, and the other team takes control.
[edit] Winning the Round/Game
Teams can win one of two ways: either by giving the seventh correct answer in the question, or by knocking out all three of their opponents. To win by the former method, it was not necessary to have given a majority of the correct answers; the team providing the seventh correct answer won regardless of who gave the first six. Two out of three rounds won the game, $1,000 and advanced to the bonus round. Partway through the run, a "Seven Straight Jackpot" (which starts at $500 and grew by that amount every game if not won) was offered to any team that could get seven correct answers in a row.
[edit] The Bonus Game
During the end game, the winning team was now given a subject of comparison followed by the question (which weighs more, which group has more members), and shown two possible choices. The team debated for a while and then made their choice. If correct, they won $500 and continued. The team could stop at any time and take the money, and they could pass on one question if they wished. Missing one choice ended the round and lost all accumulated money therein; getting 5 correct answers won a jackpot that started at $5000 and went up $5000 each game until won (although new champions always started at $5000).
[edit] Celebrity Hot Potato
On April 23, 1984, the show became Celebrity Hot Potato; the third game show in five years to add Celebrity to its title. From that point until the show's cancellation, teams consisted of one contestant and two celebrity players. Each set of four celebrities appeared on the show for one week, and the team assignments of the celebrities were shuffled after each game in order to maintain variety (usually, one celebrity from each pair would remain on the champion's team, while the other switched places with one of the celebrities on the challenger's team). A few weeks were played where all three players on a team were celebrities (usually with some theme employed, such as comedians or stars of a particular TV series), with their winnings going to various charities.
[edit] 12pm: The Death Time Slot
The show suffered from being in the noon eastern time slot, as many NBC affiliates preempted Hot Potato in favor of local newscasts. (The next game show to air in that timeslot, Super Password, didn't have that problem, as it ran for 5 years even with preemptions for news (independent stations in those markets carried Super Password on their television schedules instead).)
[edit] Episode Status
The series is completely intact, and repeat episodes have aired on USA & GSN as well as CBN
[edit] Trivia
- Hot Potato was Bill Cullen's last network game show hosting position. It was also Jack Barry's final collaboration with Dan Enright, as Barry died a few months after the show's run.
- The show featured a unique orange-and-red logo which emitted smoke (accompanied by a sizzling sound) at the beginning and end of each episode. This effect always occurred just after Charlie would say the word "hot" in the show's title, after announcing the contestants and again during the ending credits.
- Although this show is often referred to as a variation on Family Feud (mainly due to the questions with multiple answers and the penalty for giving three wrong answers), it did have some notable differences. The main difference was that the questions were often general knowledge instead of surveys, and no system of ranking the answers was used. The ability of a contestant to pass to a player on the other team was also unique to this show.
- For such a short-run game show, this game show has had a long re-run life on cable. For three years straight on USA Network (1987-1990) episodes from the five month-long season were shown. The show would also have a run on Game Show Network (2000, and 2002), but has since ceased being shown on the network since it became GSN.
- Both Bill Cullen & Charlie O'Donnell would become the successful host-announcer team on The Joker's Wild, after Jack Barry died.
