Go (game show)
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Go was an American television game show created by Bob Stewart, and aired on NBC from July 4, 1983, to January 20, 1984. The show featured two teams, each composed of four contestants and a celebrity; the teams would then attempt to construct questions one word at a time to convey a word or phrase to their teammates. The concept of Go was based on a bonus round used on Chain Reaction, another game show created by Stewart.
Kevin O'Connell was the host, and Johnny Gilbert was the announcer (Jack Clark subbed for Gilbert for two weeks).
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[edit] The Main Game
Two teams, each consisting of four civilian contestants and a celebrity captain, competed. The main game was played in either three or (depending on the score) four rounds. The team that plays first (as selected by the celebrity captain of one of the teams) selects a packet of words and phrases. Four of the team's members are the clue givers, while the fifth is the guesser. Two at a time, the team members construct a question appropriate to the clue, with the two members alternatingly adding a word to the question. After constructing the question, they rang a bell to prompt an answer from the guesser. If the guesser guessed correctly, he or she moved to the next pair of teammates to repeat the process; the guesser did not move if the contestant failed to guess or gave a wrong answer, or if an illegal clue was given. Illegal clues included saying the word (or part of it), giving more than one word at a time, or forming an improper sentence.
The team played against the clock, playing until either providing a fifth correct answer: one from the first two cluegivers, then one from the second and third, then one from the third and fourth, then back to the second and third, and finally back to the first and second. Play with that team also ended if the clock reached 99 seconds (the highest the two-digit clock display could go) before the fifth correct answer.
The opposing team then played, trying to provide five correct answers in a shorter time period; if the first team had fewer than five correct answers within their 99 seconds, the second team played until guessing more answers than the opponent.
A team won the round by guessing their five words in the shorter time period or, as sometimes could be the case, if they guessed more words within 99 seconds. For each round, the winning team accumulated points as follows:
| Round | Points |
|---|---|
| 1 | 250 |
| 2 | 500 |
| 3 | 750 |
| 4 | 1,250 |
The first team to reach 1,500 points won the game, and $1 per point plus the opportunity to play the bonus round. If a team won via a "clean sweep"—winning the first three rounds, and thus winning the game without having to play the fourth round—the team earned the right to play the bonus round twice, doubling the potential winnings.
[edit] (Double) Jackpot Round
In the bonus round, the receiver of the winning team tried to guess seven words in 60 seconds or less. For the first word, all four cluegivers would take turns adding a word to the question, and any of the four could ring the bell to finish the question. When the guesser guessed the first word correctly, the fourth cluegiver would run off stage, and the remaining three cluegivers would build the question for the second word. When that word was guessed correctly, the third cluegiver ran off stage, and the first two cluegivers built the question for the third word. When that word was guessed correctly, the second cluegiver ran off, and the first cluegiver (the celebrity captain) would build the fourth question alone. (In other words, all he/she had to do is ask the question and ring the bell.) When the fourth word was guessed correctly, the second cluegiver ran back onstage, and the first two cluegivers built the fifth question; then the first three would build the sixth question, and all four would build the seventh. Each correct answer was worth $200; seven correct answers won $10,000. As mentioned, if a team won the front game in the first three straight rounds, they play the bonus twice, for a possible $20,000.
[edit] Notes
Originally, teams would stay on the show until they won five games or were defeated (only one team lasted the maximum five days). Beginning with the fifth week, this was changed to a "head-to-head" format; both teams stayed on for all five shows of the week, and thus had a chance to win as much as $107,500.
For two weeks in November 1983, Go had an all-star Battle of the Daytime Soaps; the first week pitted the cast of Days of Our Lives against the cast of Another World, while the second saw Another World returning to take on the cast of Search for Tomorrow, with all winnings going to charity. It was during these two weeks that Jack Clark filled in as announcer for Johnny Gilbert.
[edit] Episode status
All episodes of the series exist, and the series has been rebroadcast on CBN Cable Network (now ABC Family) and GSN at various times.
