The Reel to Reel Picture Show
| The Reel-to-Reel Picture Show | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Peter Marshall |
| Narrated by | Bill Armstrong |
| Country of origin |
 United States |
| No. of episodes | 25 |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 26 Minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | PAX |
| Original release | August 31, 1998 – October 2, 1998 |
The Reel-to-Reel Picture Show (also known as Reel-to-Reel)[1] is a game show that aired on PAX from August 31 to October 2, 1998. Peter Marshall was the host and Bill Armstrong announced. It was the network's first game show, debuting the day the network launched.
The show was based on a Canadian board game, and the show was developed as a marketing tool to help sell it. Before the bonus round, Marshall showed the game to the home audience and gave a toll-free number to order it from.
Main Game
Two teams, consisting of one civilian and one celebrity, competed. The civilian on the first team pushed a button, which randomly selected one of six categories and a point value (either 100, 250, or 500 depending on difficulty). Marshall would ask them a question in that category; getting it right won the points, while getting it wrong meant nothing happened. The second team repeated the process.
Some of the questions were special "Take Two" questions. If the team got the first question right, they were then asked a second question related to the first for double the point value. If they were wrong, they lost the value of the first question.
The round ended with each team getting three questions worth 300 points apiece, with the third question being a true/false question about the opposing team's celebrity. After this, the team in the lead got a small prize.
Round 2 was called the "Director's Chair". Six categories were given, and the trailing team selected one. They were then asked six questions in that category (increasing in worth from 100 to 200, 400, 800, 1,000, and 2,000 points). The process was repeated with the second team. The team in the lead after this won the game, received a bonus prize, and advanced to the bonus round.
Bonus Round
The winning team was asked six questions. Each answer was a clue to a famous person, movie character, or title. After the six questions were asked, they had ten seconds to solve the puzzle. A correct solve won a trip.
Cancellation
PAX ordered 200 episodes (40 weeks) of Reel-to-Reel, which would have taken the series through June 4, 1999. Despite the order, the production company – TIL – was having financial problems while tapings proceeded and ceased production after five weeks (25 episodes) had been filmed. Host Peter Marshall claims he has never been paid for his work on the show. Numerous winning contestants reportedly never received their prizes.