Chain Reaction (game show)

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Chain Reaction is an American game show, where one word leads to another. There have been three incarnations of the series: Bill Cullen hosted the original series on NBC from January 14, 1980 - June 20, 1980; Blake Emmons, and later Geoff Edwards both hosted the second version on the USA cable network from September 29, 1986- December 27, 1991; Dylan Lane hosts a new version currently airing on GSN. The series was created by Bob Stewart. The GSN version is from the producers of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

On August 1, 2006, a new version of Chain Reaction debuted on GSN hosted by Dylan Lane. It currently is airing at 9:00p.m. ET on Tuesdays through Saturdays, and reruns at 2:30p.m. on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Contents

[edit] Overview

At the crux of the game was a word chain. In the chain, each of eight words (seven starting in 1986) was connected to both the word above it and the word below it in some way. By making inferences based on the revealed words and the revealed letters in incomplete words, contestants tried to fill in the word chains to score points (dollars on GSN). The team or player that reached the point/money goal first would win the game and play the bonus round, which was completely different depending on the series.

[edit] NBC

The first version of Chain Reaction aired for 23 weeks, from January 14 to June 20, 1980 and was hosted by Bill Cullen. It was one of three shows (along with High Rollers and Hollywood Squares) that was canceled to make room for David Letterman's short-lived daytime talk show. The announcer for the entire NBC version is current Jeopardy! announcer Johnny Gilbert, and was the first true Bob Stewart-produced game show to originate from California (another Bob Stewart product, The Love Experts, also hosted by Bill Cullen, was also produced in Los Angeles, but was more or less a Love Connection-esque series instead of a quiz/game show). The theme song (which carried over to the USA version) was composed by Bob Cobert and was once used as background music for the NBC series Supertrain. Repeats of this version aired for several years on cable, first on the CBN Cable Network (now ABC Family Channel) from 1982 to 1984, then later on the USA Cable Network from 1985 to the debut of the new version that originated from Canada, and GSN during dark period from 1997-98.

[edit] Main game

Two teams of three competed in each game. A team consisted of one contestant and two celebrity guests. The teams were shown the beginning and ending words of an eight word chain. Each word somehow related to the word above it and below it. A sample chain could be:

CHAIN
GANG
FOUR
SQUARE
DANCE
PARTY
TIME
FLIES

The team with the challenger goes first to begin the game (in the event of two new players, a coin toss determined who went first). The challengers were the blue team, and the champions were the gold team (sometimes it's the other way around).

As the game continued, the words would be revealed. A player's turn consisted of calling for a letter in the next word above or below one of the words, and then guessing the word (note that the last letter of each word is not revealed). A correct response won one point for each letter in the word (two if the word had a '+' mark next to it) and that team kept control of the board. If the player in control was incorrect, or gave no guess, control went back to the other team. The game continued until either one team scored 50 points, or the chain was finished. If that happened, another chain was put up and the game continued until one team reached the goal of 50 points (any letters exceeding 50 points are not included to the player's score). That team's contestant won the game, $250, and the right to play for $10,000 in the bonus round. The losing player got $5 a point for playing.

Normally it would take two chains of words to complete a game, but three chains have been played a few times.

[edit] Instant Reaction

In the bonus round, the team had 90 seconds (originally 60) to get the contestant to guess a series of words or phrases. The catch was that the two celebrities had to construct a question for the clue word, and they could only contribute one word at a time. After the celebrities finished the question, they prompted the contestant to guess by hitting a plunger (which sounded like a high-pitched bell). A correct answer moved closer to the grand prize $10,000, an incorrect answer or a pass cancelled that word and they had to move on. At any time a celebrity used more than one word, formed an unacceptable question or used part of the answer, a cuckoo sound would be signaled, cancelling that answer and moving on to the next one.

[edit] Prize levels

The prize levels changed 3 times during the show's short run.

Starter: $ 1
2 right: $ 10
4 right: $ 100
6 right: $ 1,000
8 right: $10,000

Progress was tallied by lighting up half a zero for each correct answer. If the team could not get all the right answers in time, the contestant won however much money they had accumulated.

The above prize table was used for one week, after most contestants were unable to get past the $10 or $100 levels. To overcompensate, the producers changed the prizes:

1 right: $ 1
2 right: $ 10
3 right: $ 100
4 right: $ 1,000
5 right: $ 2,000
6 right: $ 3,000
7 right: $ 4,000
8 right: $ 5,000
9 right: $10,000

This payoff schedule caused many contestants to win several thousand dollars without winning the grand prize, and so they changed one more time:

For the third payoff version, each right answer in 90 seconds was worth $100, with ten right winning $10,000. Thus:
1 right: $ 100
2 right: $ 200
3 right: $ 300
4 right: $ 400
5 right: $ 500
6 right: $ 600
7 right: $ 700
8 right: $ 800
9 right: $ 900
10 right: $10,000

After that, a change was made so that the game was played for points only, instead of $5 a letter. The loser would win parting gifts instead. The game's champion won $100, and that $100 was posted on the scoreboard. From then on to the end of the show's run, only nine answers were needed to win the $10,000.

In any case, the team then went back to play another game, with a new contestant. Contestants stayed on until they lost in the main game, or won seven times, meaning a player can win up to $70,000 if he/she won the bonus game on all seven tries.

The NBC version went through all these changes in 13 weeks. While Bill Cullen took two weeks off to host Password Plus for Allen Ludden, Geoff Edwards was brought in to replace him, and would eventually host the 1986 version.

An episode of Chain Reaction normally consists of two regular games and two Instant Reaction games, but straddling has been used from time to time, despite attempts avoiding it.

The "forming questions one word at a time" concept of the Instant Reaction round was once used in a failed Bob Stewart game show pilot called Get Rich Quick with future Good Day L.A. host Steve Edwards as the host. The format later became the basis of another Bob Stewart-produced game show, Go, which aired on NBC in 1983.

The 1979 pilot featured a possible bonus win of $100,000.00, with the decimal point moving one space to the right for each word correctly guessed (starting at $0.01).

[edit] Celebrity players

Among the many celebrity players who appeared frequently on Chain Reaction included Nipsey Russell, Joyce Bulifant, Jay Johnson, Anita Gillette, Robert Mandan and Vicki Lawrence. Russell appeared the most, guesting in six weeks of episodes, followed by Robert Mandan, Jay Johnson and Anita Gillette, all appearing in five weeks. Joyce Bulifant is the only celebrity to appear on the first and last episode of the series; she appeared in four weeks of episodes, along with Brian Patrick-Clarke, Vicki Lawrence and Richard Paul.

Allen Ludden was a celebrity guest for one week; the only appearance on a Bob Stewart-produced game show for Ludden, either as a host or celebrity player.

[edit] USA

The USA network had "Chain Reaction" become their third original game show (Love Me, Love Me Not and a revival of Jackpot! were aired earlier) due to the popularity of reruns of the original Chain Reaction. Blake Emmons, a former contestant on The Joker's Wild in 1985, hosted the show for a few weeks before being replaced by Geoff Edwards. Rod Charlebois was the co-host/announcer, who presented the "home game" for the viewing audience. Rod was a local radio and TV personality at CFCF Radio and Television in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where Chain Reaction was taped (it was a production of USA Network and CFCF's wholly owned Champlain Productions division). He was given an on-air role because all Canadian television programs must employ a percentage of Canadians both on and off air in order to qualify as both Canadian content, and to receive government funding (where applicable, Chain Reaction did not apply).

Edwards had no ties to Canada (unlike U.S.-born Jim Perry, who had relatives in Canada) and was not Canadian, thus Charlebois was given the co-hosting duties. Edwards does hold the distinction of have hosted one game show in Canada and two in the United States (Jackpot and The Big Spin, the latter airing only in California) simultaneously between 1989 and 1990, the third game show host in television history to accomplish this (Perry and Alex Trebek were the others).

This version used a recorded audience track (a commonplace for many game shows during the 1970s and 1980s) instead of a live studio audience. According to Edwards, most of the production staff spoke French for the most part, but a few did speak English.

[edit] Main Game

The chains now had seven words. The teams were now two civilian players each, and each was given one responsibility. One teammate was the letter giver, and decided whether to give a letter to his/her partner or to other team's word guesser. As before, a correct response was worth points and control of the board. In Round One, each word guessed is worth 10 points, but the final word guessed in that chain is worth 20 (changed to 15 in season two). In Round Two, these values escalate to 20 points each & 40 points for the final word. In the event that a fourth chain was needed to decide the game, the point values were 40 points per word and 80 for the final word.

The first team to score 200 points won the game. That team played the bonus game, and returned on the next show.

During the run, two methods of earning bonus money were used. In the first season, the middle word of the second chain was also a bonus word (designated by a dollar sign) worth $250 for the team that guessed it. For seasons two to four, the players played a Missing Link. The team in the lead would be shown the first and last words of a three-word chain. If they could guess the word in between with no letters revealed, the team received $500. Every wrong guess added a letter while taking away $100 from the potential payoff.

For seasons three and four, only solo players participated, and it took 300 points to win.

[edit] Bonus Chain

The winning team/player could collect a cash jackpot by completing one last word chain. The team/player was shown the first word in a chain, and the initial letter of the other words. One at a time, the player(s) would guess at the next word in the chain. For each wrong guess, the next letter would be filled in, and a letter deducted from their account. If the team could finish the chain before running out of letters the team won the cash jackpot. If not, they (or he/she) won $100 per word, including the one at the top. The jackpot began at $3000 ($2000 with the solo players); and $1000 was added each day it was not claimed. The highest pot was $14,000. While Emmons was host, the account was nine letters, when Geoff Edwards took over, it was lowered to seven.

The bonus chain was removed in season five, because the end of season four had an elimination tournament of champions, where the 16 top winners of seasons three and four returned in an NCAA-Basketball like tourney (one loss and the player was eliminated). 16 players reduced to 8, down to 4, and then down to 2. The final winner of the final game won $20K. Games were all played to 500 points.

[edit] The $40,000 Chain Reaction

On New Year's Eve 1990, the show was revamped with a tournament format, featuring one hundred twenty-eight players competing for $40,000. The game was just like before, but there was no bonus chain, and two new players competed each show. The values for each chain remained the same, but if a fifth chain was needed, the point values were 50 points per word and 100 for the final word.

Eight players played for the first four shows. After four days, those four winners played two each for the next two days. Those two winners played on the 7th day and the winner of that game won $7500.

The player who led after the second chain got to play a Missing Link for $300. The Missing Link changed then too: First letter of middle word given. Word worth $300, each additional letter reduced the bonus by $100.

After 16 $7500 tournaments were played, those 16 players played in a single-elimination tournament. The semi-finals was double-elimination, and the two players remaining played one game for $40,000.

[edit] Home game

Each day, before closing the show, Rod would present the answer to yesterday's home game, and the current game. The home game consisted of a Missing Link. Sometimes Rod would reveal the first letter of the missing link, sometimes he wouldn't.

All cash values for the USA Network version are in Canadian dollars.

[edit] GSN

A new version of the show debuted on August 1, 2006, on GSN. This version is hosted by former Fuse TV VJ Dylan Lane, and produced by Michael Davies' production company Embassy Row. It is being taped in New York City. GSN has ordered the popular game show for a second season.

[edit] Opening

The opening theme then plays and essentially explains the rules of the game, while on screen the viewer can see it explained visually:

"It starts with "word", there's a "G" underneath. Guess the word "game" and you're right; the word "game" starts a chain. Get your letter, take a guess, connect the chain, win some cash. It's guys against girls right now on Chain Reaction."

[edit] Main game

There are four chains in the main game of seven words. Gameplay is similar to the NBC version, except that the words in the chain are now always two-word phrases or compound words, and if a contestant calls for a letter that completes the word, it is revealed; though the fact that it is the final letter is not announced, and sometimes isn't necessarily evident. If the final letter is revealed and the word is not correctly guessed, neither team gets the money.

Example of chain:
STUNT
DOUBLE
DOWN
TIME
LINE
UP
HILL

In round one each correct word is worth $100, round two words are worth $200, and words in round three are worth $300. Whichever team is behind going into a round starts the next round (in the event of a tie, the team who didn't start the last chain starts the next chain). In the fourth round, teams can wager between $100 and $500 of their bank before being given their letter. If correct, they win their bet, and keep control, if not, they lose the money and control. A team automatically loses if they go broke, and the game ends prematurely.

[edit] Speed chain

After each of the first three rounds, whichever team correctly identified the final word to complete the chain gets the opportunity at a speed chain. They have to complete a four word with the first letter of the middle two words given. An example could be:

HALF
B_______ (BAKED)
A_______ (ALASKA)
PIPELINE

The team has seven seconds to conference and come up with the two words. If correct, they win the same value as a single correct word in the previous round ($100-$300).

[edit] Tiebreaker

After four rounds, only the team with most money moves onto the bonus round. However, if the fourth round ends in a tie, the teams will be given alternating Speed Chains in a Sudden Death format. If one team does not solve their Speed Chain, the other team need only solve their next Speed Chain to win the game.

[edit] Bonus round

The team with the most money after the fourth round plays the bonus round. The bonus round gives the winning team a chance to double or triple the money earned in the main game. The rules are similar to the original "Instant Reaction", except the third team member (the one giving the answers) is blindfolded. The first two members must give clues by building questions, alternating one word at a time. If either cluegiver gives more than one word in a row, build a clue that isn't loosely in the form of a question, or say part of the answer, a cuckoo sounds and they must move on to the next word. The blindfolded player cannot answer until one of the three team members hits a small bell which all three have their hands over. Once the bell is hit, no more clues may be given on that word. Any team member can also say "pass" as often as they want to throw out the current word.

The team is given 90 seconds to go through as many as 20 words. If they can get five correct, they double their money; if they can get seven correct, they triple it. In the first thirty episodes, however, the requirements were seven to double and ten to triple; this format proved to be excessively difficult (several teams managed to double under the old rules, but nobody managed to triple, although two or three teams came very close).

The most money a team can theoretically win in a game is $17,700.

[edit] Recording locations

The 1980 NBC version was taped at NBC Studios in Burbank, CA. The 1986-91 USA version was taped at CFCF Television's studios in Montreal, Quebec (Canada). The GSN version is taped at Sony Music Studios in New York City.

[edit] References

    [edit] External links

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