The Better Sex

Revision as of 22:40, 29 December 2010

Host

Not known

Broadcast

STV (not networked), February to May? 1978

(also shown later that year on Thames)

Synopsis

Let's be honest, despite our nearly-award-winning skill at ferreting out game show facts, there are times when we have to rely on our readers to fill in the gaps. And so it is with this oddity, originally shown on STV on Friday nights at 6.30, when other regions were seeing Crossroads, and later picked up by Thames, who showed it at lunchtimes. But beyond the scheduling, the show was a mystery to us... until our wonderful readers stepped in with more information. Honestly, we bloomin' love you lot.

Firstly, here's David Smith, who brought the show to our attention in the first place:

I can't remember much about it other than that it was hosted by a man and a woman, and the man was someone like Jack McLaughlin, Allan Stewart or some DJ type. The format was probably about seeing whether men or women know more about general knowledge or possibly each other - I have a hazy memory of there being lights with up and down arrows a bit like the ones that were later used on Play Your Cards Right.

I can find little on the net about it other than that it seems to have been an American format.

Well, assuming that it is indeed the same format as the US show of the same name, then Art Begotti has the lowdown:

'Teams of six men and six women competed. One person from one team was asked a general knowledge question and given the answer on a card. They could either respond truthfully or try to produce a bluff. One at a time, members of the other team would say whether they agree or disagree with the given answer, until a consensus of two people was reached. If those two people guessed correctly, the question-answerer and another member of their team was eliminated; if they guessed incorrectly, they knocked themselves out of the game. Lather rinse and repeat until one team completely knocked the other out (a theoretical maximum of five questions, I guess). Last team standing won $1000 and went to play the bonus round.

In the bonus round, all six players on the winning team played against thirty audience members. One at a time, each player would receive a question and an answer, which they again could use or provide their own bluff. The members of the audience voted using electronic paddles with arrows that pointed up for yes and down for no. After each question, any incorrect audience members sat down. If the team could knock out all thirty audience members, they would win $5000; if not, the surviving audience members would split $500.

Video

An excerpt from the US version

Feedback

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 == Synopsis ==
-A bit of a mystery format, but partly recalled by reader David Smith:
+Let's be honest, despite our nearly-award-winning skill at ferreting out game show facts, there are times when we have to rely on our readers to fill in the gaps. And so it is with this oddity, originally shown on STV on Friday nights at 6.30, when other regions were seeing ''Crossroads'', and later picked up by Thames, who showed it at lunchtimes. But beyond the scheduling, the show was a mystery to us... until our wonderful readers stepped in with more information. Honestly, we bloomin' ''love'' you lot.
-:''I can't remember much about it other than that it was hosted by a man and a woman, and the man was someone like Jack McLaughlin, [[Allan Stewart]] or some DJ type. The format was probably about seeing whether men or women know more about general knowledge or possibly each other - I have a hazy memory of there being lights with up and down arrows a bit like the ones that were later used on [[Play Your Cards Right]].''
+Firstly, here's David Smith, who brought the show to our attention in the first place:
-:''I can find little on the net about it other than that it seems to have been an American format.''
-We can add that it was shown on Friday nights at 6.30, when other regions were seeing ''Crossroads'', and it was later picked up by Thames, who showed it at lunchtimes. But beyond that, we've drawn a blank. Over to you, then...
+:I can't remember much about it other than that it was hosted by a man and a woman, and the man was someone like Jack McLaughlin, [[Allan Stewart]] or some DJ type. The format was probably about seeing whether men or women know more about general knowledge or possibly each other - I have a hazy memory of there being lights with up and down arrows a bit like the ones that were later used on [[Play Your Cards Right]].
+:I can find little on the net about it other than that it seems to have been an American format.
-{{help}}
+Well, assuming that it is indeed the same format as the US show of the same name, then Art Begotti has the lowdown:
+:'Teams of six men and six women competed. One person from one team was asked a general knowledge question and given the answer on a card. They could either respond truthfully or try to produce a bluff. One at a time, members of the other team would say whether they agree or disagree with the given answer, until a consensus of two people was reached. If those two people guessed correctly, the question-answerer and another member of their team was eliminated; if they guessed incorrectly, they knocked themselves out of the game. Lather rinse and repeat until one team completely knocked the other out (a theoretical maximum of five questions, I guess). Last team standing won $1000 and went to play the bonus round.
+:In the bonus round, all six players on the winning team played against thirty audience members. One at a time, each player would receive a question and an answer, which they again could use or provide their own bluff. The members of the audience voted using electronic paddles with arrows that pointed up for yes and down for no. After each question, any incorrect audience members sat down. If the team could knock out all thirty audience members, they would win $5000; if not, the surviving audience members would split $500.
+== Video ==
+<div class="video"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aOf1j56q8es?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aOf1j56q8es?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br/>''An excerpt from the US version''</div>
-[[Category:Information Needed|Better Sex, The]]
 [[Category:General Knowledge Quiz|Better Sex, The]]
 [[Category:Regional|Better Sex, The]]
 [[Category:Scotland|Better Sex, The]]
 [[Category:STV Productions|Better Sex, The]]