| Talk About | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Mark Maxwell-Smith |
| Directed by | Michael Watt |
| Presented by | Wayne Cox |
| Narrated by | Dean Hill |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | CBC Studios Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 22-26 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Comedia Productions |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBC |
| Picture format | SDTV |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original run | September 18, 1989 – March 16, 1990 |
Talk About is a game show produced in Canada for CBC, which bears some similarities to the board game Outburst. Originally produced for CBC for the 1988-89 season, it was later picked up for American television syndication, airing from September 18, 1989 to March 16, 1990, with repeats later airing on the USA Network from June 28 to December 31, 1993 and on GameTV starting January 3, 2011. Taped at stage 40 of CBC's Vancouver studios, the show was hosted by Wayne Cox, with local radio personality Dean Hill as announcer.
Contents |
Two teams of two people, one team usually returning champions, played. For each round, the team that was not playing was placed in isolation so they could not hear anything. The champion team always played first.
The team in control was given the choice of two topics to "talk about", with the team's captain making the choice and deciding who would talk first. Both players received twenty seconds to talk, trying to come up with key words from a preselected list of ten. Each word the team got was worth one point. Forms of a word are acceptable as well. If the talking team said all 10 words between them, they won $500 and all ten points available. Otherwise, the opposing team was shown the keywords that the first team did not say and was given an opportunity to guess the topic to try and steal the points. Answering correctly gave the team the points, otherwise they went to the first team. Play continued until one team reached 15 points, at which point that team won the game, $100, and a chance for up to $2,000 in the bonus round. The losing team receives parting gifts. All contestants receive the Talkabout home game, champions included. For special celebrity weeks, play continued until time was called and whoever was ahead won the game and prizes for charity.
If a team managed to win five consecutive games they won the "Grand Game" jackpot, which was a prize package that had a starting value of $1,000 and a new prize is added each week until a team claimed it. 5 Five time champions retired as well.
The winning team played the bonus round for a bonus prize and up to $2,000 in cash.
A choice of prizes was given to the winning team to begin the round, followed by another choice of "talk about" topics. The team captain decided what prize to play for, what topic to discuss, and whether or not they would play or go into an isolation booth. Once that was decided, the talking player was again given 20 seconds to come up with as many of the ten keywords for the selected topic. Getting them all before time ran out won both the prize and $2,000 cash.
If the first player wasn't able to get all ten words, $100 was given for each word that was said. That player was then shown the keywords that were not said and was given the choice whether to stop and take the money or bring their partner out to try and come up with one of the remaining words for double the money and the prize. If the first player decided to risk the money, their partner was given one second for each word that the first player gave to try to come up with one of the remaining words. Doing so doubled the money and won the prize, but failure to do so lost everything. On occasion, if they were let off the hook, they would come out anyway to see what might have happened.
A UK version of the show hosted by Andrew O'Connor ran for three years on ITV from 1990-1993. The only difference was in the bonus round, where each word was worth £20, and at the end, the player had two options: "doubling" (up to £400), by having their partner say any unsaid word in 10 seconds, or "double-doubling" (4 times the pounds, up to £800) by having them say a specific word within a time limit of 1 second per word already said.
A Swedish version called Prata på! ran briefly on TV4 in the mid-1990s. In the bonus round, each word was worth kr500, and the "doubling" option required the partner to say any one of the unsaid words within a time limit of one second per word already said.
An Irish version of the show was broadcast by RTÉ in the early 1990s on Saturday nights, it was presented by Ian Dempsey.[1] The show was brought back to RTÉ in the mid-1990s and was this time presented by Alan Hughes.[2]
A home version of the game was produced by Pressman Toy Corporation in 1989. All contestants got a copy and Wayne would originally plug it after every match. Later, Dean Hill would plug it after coming back from the first commercial break.
A computer game of the show was produced by GameTek, but is fairly rare.