It’s nice to have a video to break the text up occasionally:
But my question to you is: can anyone remember how the tournament structure worked? I think there were 32 weeks of heats leading to eight semi-finals, then somehow a final but that doesn’t sound quite right. Anyone?
I can probably tell you but will need to dig the episodes out. One thing is for certain, the latest years had different formats of tournaments.
I’m sure Wikipedia will have the definitive answer to that…
You’re sure wrong, unfortunately.
I’m pretty sure the structure of the 23-week first series in 1987/8 was as follows:
– Each of the first 20 weeks consisted of heats on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then the weekly final on Thursday.
– The 20 weekly winners progressed to the two-week semi-final stage, both weeks starting with 10 contestants.
– Both weeks would produce four daily winners, each of whom would go straight through to the Grand Final Week.
– This would be played out as per the first 20 weeks (but starting with eight contestants rather than seven), with the winners on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday progressing to the final day’s First Round Proper.
Hope I’ve explained this well enough.
Des has nailed it: ten weeks of heats in the first half, containing contestants from fourteen countries (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, (Republic of) Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland). Then the semi-finals just before Christmas and in March, and Daphne won the final on or about Maunday Thursday.
Further series reduced to nine weeks in each half, and finished up with just six weeks of heats, with the weekly winners and highest-scoring runner up (top score in the weekly finals) progressing to the semi-final stage. At least one series (autumn ’92?) ran for five days a week, with the four daily winners going to the Friday final, eight in the semi-finals, and ten people appearing in the final.
More shameless self-promotion: the Week’s take from May 2005.
Interview w/ Pointless host Alexander Armstrong, who gives some info on a couple of changes for series 3…
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s47/sarah-jane-adventures/interviews/a266217/alexander-armstrong-pointless.html
Mmm, sounds interesting – like before you can select an answer in round two you need to know something about it.
sounds good to me. i didnt like the second series as that second round was far too simple. should hopefully mix that up. but as ever, it’ll have to be pitched well.
I remember the first series of Going for Gold: Roundabout round (first four to give a correct answer advanced), beat the buzzer (first three to six points), the ‘Quartre en suite’ phase (two best performers advanced), finally that head to head with the first to nine points winning the show.
It was only 17 weeks (sorry Des Elmes, not 23) and 98 contestants from seven nations plus GBR (which was split into ENG/CYM/SCO/NIR).
It was seven weeks of ‘heats’ with seven starters in each, winners of the first three programmes went straight to beat the buzzer on programme four, joined by the winner of a ‘race to two points’ roundabout round. One weekly winner made the semi-final week. Then came that semi-final week (with the first seven weekly winners), [no roundabout on programme four, as they had four players and it went straight to beat the buzzer] that produced four finallists.
Then came another set of seven weeks of heats, a second semi-final week producing another four finallists. Finally, break out that Tuxedo, Mr Kelly, it is finals week. Just like the opening heats, but with eight starters in programme one and five players on the roundabout on the final programme. And didn’t Daphne Edwards (future Egghead) win that first series? I’m sure she did and won a trip to the Olympic Games in Seoul 1988 as her prize.
The format did change during its run (four days of heats, then the four winners came together in programme five in one series, and that gave us ten finallists, I might recall)
And my age? Let’s just say it was on while I was at school and my parents always taped episodes for me. I think I watched every episode of its nine series run – shame I did not make notes on players or scores, that would have been golddust now.
It was only 17 weeks (sorry Des Elmes, not 23) and 98 contestants from seven nations plus GBR (which was split into ENG/CYM/SCO/NIR).
Are you sure you might not be thinking of a later series there Simon?
The first series WAS 23 weeks long, with 92 episodes and 140 contestants. Henry Kelly said so himself when signing the series off, and added “Didn’t all the competing nations do well?”
And, as Iain has pointed out, there were more than just seven nations besides the UK’s constituents.
Thanks very much, chaps!
So, I’m sure this has been asked before, but apart a brief flirtation with the Super Channel – apart from the regular post-lunchtime Neighbours berth on the BBC, who else on the mainland Europe broadcast it?
I think Super Channel was the only station on which those living on the continent could watch GFG.
A significant number of the continental contestants wouldn’t have had it, though – seeing as its persistent problems meant that it remained expensive – and so they would have had to ring up the producers and ask for tapes of their appearances.
Henry Kelly used to start talking before he’d even come on stage…
What was THAT all about?
I am certain the first series used the format I described above (I can even recall Henry Kelly describing the format on programme one of that first series with a picture of two vertical lines of seven (it was definitely seven) national flags on the edge of the screen, plus two lines of four grey boxes in between them – representing the finallists). Later series did expand to a five programme week (four daily winners met in beat the buzzer in programme five), and ten players in the final week, but my mind is screaming, ‘It was eight or nine weeks for a semi-final, not ten!’ My mind might be playing tricks on me (it was 1987-88, after all) but, with the number of nations expanding during its run (I think Wikipedia lists nations playing each series) and the consequential increase in contestants, led to the change in structure, but again, where’s my notes when I needed them most?
[Disclaimer: I am actually a game show fan, and since the previous day, my mind has been infested with the format of game shows, especially from Wales. Looking at the UKGS.com database, I know of at least three shows (including one from 2010) that should be on the database… but are not. Also where a show was listed but there was no detail of the format, I can remember how the game was played, even years after it stopped broadcasting. Really worrying stuff: I even have the theme tune and a ‘video’ to one of the missing shows, ‘Pentagon’, on my ear- and eye-worm right now. I’m sorry]
Regarding missing info on UKGS.com, ooooh… do share. We’re always open to contributions, and there’s a contact form on every page.
One final note on GFG: the 1991-92 series was four days per week. The reasoning was that the final show of that series is on Youtube (in three parts of 10, 8 and 7.5 minutes each and I was watching it online on Sunday night). Eight people waving in the title sequence, then Henry (in tuxedo) stating that the winners of the three earlier programmes would go into ‘the first round proper’, then along came the other five finalists on the roundabout, about to do a ‘race to two points’ game… but then I ran out of internet usage time (a narrowband connection, plus I needed to make downloads on my other passion: public transport schedules)
And for ‘Welsh game show fill-ins’, I will use the comment pages when I have gathered up my notes, but the missing in 2010 show was ‘Concro’r Cwm’ (an episode of which is broadcasting on S4C today (Tuesday 1/9)) and I have a write-up almost ready for that page on UKGS (if there isn’t a page already, the categories are ‘Regional-Wales’ and ‘Action/Adventure’). But one I can share (mainly because I don’t need notes to remember it) was that ‘Blingo’r Bwci’ should have a credited format inventor: Jessie May. I watched this series when it was broadcast and I noticed Jessie’s name in the credits. I noted the word next to it, then attacked that word with a Welsh-English dictionary I had… and the translation was ‘creator’.