Small Talk
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- For other uses, see Small Talk (disambiguation).
Small Talk was a Reg Grundy game show that premiered on The Family Channel from 1996-1997. It was hosted by comedian Wil Shriner.
This game combined elements of Hollywood Squares & Child's Play.
Contents |
[edit] The Main Game
Three contestants faced a game board seven children on seven monitors (one kid per monitor). Before the show, the children were asked a series of question (mostly about themselves), and it's up to the contestants to guess how they answered to score.
[edit] Rounds 1 & 2
In the first two rounds, a question with two choices was given and the contestants secretly predict how the majority of the kids answered that question. Each contestant in turn gets to choose a child, then host Shriner read a just-for-fun question in which the chosen child was asked beforehand afterwhich the child's answer was played back to the contestant (the child's answer may or may not act as a clue to kid's answer to the main question). Then the contestant in control got predict what the kid said afterwhich the kid's answer to the main question was played back. Now if the contestant is correct he/she earned points then play goes the next contestant in line. Each player gets two turns meaning that six of the seven kids were played. At the end of the round after the sixth kid was played, host Shriner announced the answer the majority of the kids said afterwhich the contestants prediction would then be revealed. If any of them are correct, they earns bonus points (which is double value of the single kid portion of the round).
Here's the scoring format:
| Rounds | 1st Half | Majority Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | 10 | 20 |
| Round 2 | 20 | 40 |
[edit] Speed Round
What makes the speed round different from the other rounds are these:
- The contestants predict immdietly after selecting a child
- There's no majority bonus
- The questions are usually either general knowledge or it allows the children to do a physical activity
Each correct answer is worth 60 points and the player with the most points wins the game, $500 and goes on the bonus round for $1,000. If the game ends in a two-way tie, one last kid is played with the winner of the question advancing to the bonus round. If the game ends in a three-way tie, everybody goes to the bonus round.
[edit] Bonus Round
In the bonus round, the winning contestant now gets to predict how some of the children answer a question. This time instead of choosing a child verbally, lights around the children flash around the board and the winning contestant stops it by hitting the red button in front of him/her (ala Press Your Luck). When it lands on child, a general knowledge question a read, then he/she gets to predict whether that child will or won't know the answer. If the winning player gets three predictions right before getting two wrong (three in earlier shows), he/she wins $1,000 for a total $1,500.
Note: In earlier show all seven were asked one more question, and on each kid, the winning contestant predicts how each one answered that question.
[edit] Three Player Mode
This round was played the majority parts of the first two rounds. Lights around the children flash around the game board, and each contestant in turn stops the board by hitting his/her buzzer. When it lands on a child, the contestant secretly predict how the kid answered, and then the answer that kid gave was played back. The contestant's predictions were then revealed and a correct answer keeps them in the game but a wrong answer eliminates them from the round. The last player left standing wins the entire $1,500 prize.
[edit] Notes
The show premiered in a Family Channel game block in 1996. The other shows were The New Shop 'Til You Drop, Shopping Spree, Wait 'Til You Have Kids, and The New Family Challenge. To celebrate the premieres of those shows, a Family Channel special hosted by Cristina Ferrare and Chuck Woolery (both of whom hosted Home & Family on the same network at the time) was aired. It also featured all the hosts of those shows: (Pat Finn for The New Shop 'Til you Drop, Ron Pearson for Shopping Spree, Wil Shriner for Small Talk, Tom Parks for Wait 'Til You Have Kids, and Michael Burger for The New Family Challenge.
