Games - Family Fortunes

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	Games - Family Fortunes

Family Fortunes was a very long-running British game show, which began on ITV on January 6, 1980 and ran until 2002. In March 2006, due to popular demand, a new series entered production for the first time in 4 years. It was originally produced by ATV, then by Central Television and finally by Carlton Television (who took over and rebranded Central). It was based on the American game show Family Feud; the producers reportedly claimed that they considered the word "feud" too confrontational.

Hosts

It was hosted by the popular Bob Monkhouse (1980-1983) and then from 1983-1985 by Max Bygraves, who received some criticism for his hosting of the show. After being rested for two years it returned with Les Dennis in 1987, and had a consistently successful run for the next 15 years. Dennis left in 2002 after it was moved out of peaktime and became a daily daytime show, hosted by Andy Collins, but it only had a short run in this format before being axed. The revived version for 2006 stars Vernon Kay.

Rules

Two family teams, each with five members, would guess what "100 people surveyed" had said in response to a question (e.g. "name something associated with the country Wales" or "name another TV show, other than Family Fortunes, with the word Family in the title"). For each question, a different member of each family would come forward to give the first answer, and the family of the contestant who pressed the buzzer quickest would have the right to guess first, and the Family who's member gave the highest answer would have the options to "play" try and find and all the answers or "pass" giving the other family the opportunity to find the answers (they would usually play). If a family managed to come up with all the answers given by the "100 people surveyed" (most commonly six in the early part of the show, reduced in number after the commercial break), they would win the pounds equivalent of the total number of people who had given the answers. Every time someone did not give an answer that was on the board, the family would receive a "strike", accompanied by a large "X" on the board with the infamous "uh-uhh" sound. If they came up with three strikes, the other family would have the chance to come up with one answer that might be among the missing answers. If this answer was among those given by the "100 people surveyed", the other family would "steal" the money; if not, the family who had given the three incorrect answers would win the money anyway.

There would be three games like this before the commercial break, then a "Double Money" round after the break where the gameplay would be the same, but the money won would be double the precise equivalent of how many people had given the answers, and there would be fewer possible answers. Whichever family was first to win £300 would go on to play "Big Money" for the jackpot; this involved two contestants (out of the five in the family team) giving answers to five questions that fitted with those given by the "100 people surveyed", with the questions asked within a narrow time limit. The first contestant would give his/her answers to the five questions within 15 seconds; then the second contestant (who had been out of earshot of the first) would give his or her answers within 20 seconds (the extra time was available for the contestant to give another answer if he/she duplicated an answer given by the previous contestant). If they got 200 points from the ten answers (i.e. at least 200 people had agreed with all ten answers combined) they would win the top cash prize. From 1994 onwards a bonus star prize was available if all five top answers were found, but this could only be won if the contestants reached 200 points and won the top cash prize. If all five top answers were found without the contestants reaching 200 points the star prize would not be won.

Prizes

The top cash prize in "Big Money" in the first series (1980) was £1000. From the second series (1981), the prize would start at £1000 then rise weekly if it was not won, to £1500, £2000 and then to a limit of £2500 (which it could stay at for more than one week if it continued to not be won). Once won it would always revert to £1000. Later in the 1980s, it would start at £1000, and if not won rise to £2000 and a maximum of £3000. Eventually (by the early 1990s) it had stabilised at £3000, and then after the abolition of the Independent Broadcasting Authority's prize limits, it rose to £5000 from 1996. It should be remembered, though, that the money had to be shared out between five people; by the end of its run even the top cash prize seemed relatively small compared to those available on other game shows such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. The bonus star prize was always a car from 1995-1997, and then from 1998 contestants had the choice of a car or a holiday. Somewhat oddly, they usually chose the car (which could only be won by individual members of the family - presumably the ones who played Big Money) rather than the holiday (which the whole family could go on together). From 2002, if the contestants scrored over 200 points they would win £1000 & if they found 5 top answers as well, then it was increased to £3000.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Family Fortunes ]

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