Go (game show)

Go is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart and aired on NBC from October 3, 1983 to January 20, 1984. The show featured two teams, each composed of four contestants and a celebrity. The teams had 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.

Los Angeles and Buffalo meteorologist Kevin O'Connell was the show's host, and Johnny Gilbert was the announcer with Jack Clark substituting for him during November 1983.

Go aired at 12:00 Noon Eastern on NBC, long a problem timeslot for the three major broadcast networks at the time as their local affiliates would often preempt network programming to air newscasts or other programming and the shows the networks would place there would often suffer in the ratings. Go proved to be one of those programs, as NBC ended the series after only sixteen weeks of episodes had aired.

Main game

Two teams, consisting of one celebrity captain and four civilian contestants, competed.

The team that plays first selects a packet of words and phrases, with a choice of two. Four of the team's members are the clue givers, while the fifth player guessing the words and serving this role during the entire game. The four clue givers sat in a line in such a manner that they formed three clue giving pairs. Each pair was given a subject to describe and constructed a question one word at a time to serve as a clue. Once the pair felt that the guesser had enough information they rang a bell prompting him/her to guess. If the guesser did so, he/she moved down the line to the next pair. If he/she did not or if an illegal clue was given or pass used, he/she had to stay there. Once the guesser reached the end of the line, he/she reversed direction and came back to the start.

The object for the first team was to get five correct answers and set a time for the opponents to beat with their answers. Their clock counted up until either they did so or the two-digit readout reached a maximum of 99 seconds. Once they were done, the other team tried to do the same thing but with the clock running backward instead of forward. If they got all five answers before the clock ran out or, in the case of the other team taking too much time, came up with more answers, they won the round. If they did not, the round went to the first team.

The game was played in four rounds with each team alternating control, and each round was scored. It took 1,500 points to win the game, with the rounds being worth 250, 500, 750, and 1,250 in that order. With the way the scoring was structured it was possible to win the game in three rounds.

The team to reach 1,500 points first win the game. Their score will turn into cash and advanced to the Jackpot Round for a chance at either $10,000 or maybe $20,000 on a Double Jackpot Round if a team scores 1,500 with three rounds in a row.

Jackpot Round

The Jackpot Round was played the same way as the front game, but with a twist.

The designated guesser had to identify seven subjects in sixty seconds and once again, his/her teammates constructed the questions. This time, the constructing was different. For the first subject, all four clue givers were in play. For each of the next three, one less clue giver was in play, with only one constructing the fourth question. Once the fourth subject was correctly guessed, the other three clue givers came back one at a time to finish the round.

If all seven subjects were correctly guessed within 60 seconds, the host will give the team $10,000. If not, $200 was awarded for each one identified.

If the team wins the game with three rounds in a row, they earned the right to play the Double Jackpot Round for a potential $20,000.

Champions

Originally one of the two teams consisted of one new team and a returning champion. The champions could return until they were defeated or won five times, and the losing team received parting gifts. After five weeks, the format changed and both teams stayed for the entire week.

The maximum amount of cash any team could win was $107,500, provided they won the front game in three rounds for all five of their appearances and won the bonus round twice on those episodes. Only one team from the first format won the maximum five games and no team got close to the maximum winnings amount.

From November 7 to 18, 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.

Episode status

The series has been rebroadcast on CBN Cable Network and GSN at various times.

International versions

A short-lived British version titled Get Set Go hosted by Michael Barrymore aired on BBC1 from September 10 to November 26, 1984.

External links

• Go at the Internet Movie Database