Remote Control (game show)

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For other uses of the term, see remote control (disambiguation).

Remote Control is a TV game show that ran on MTV for five seasons from 1987 until 1990. It was MTV's first original non-musical program. New episodes were made for first-run syndication in 1989. Three contestants answered trivia questions on television and pop culture, many of which were presented in skit format.

Cast

Remote Control was hosted by Ken Ober and featured Colin Quinn as the gravel-voiced announcer/sidekick. John Ten Eyck played several walk-on parts, joined in later seasons by Adam Sandler, Denis Leary, and Roger Kabler. Steve Treccase provided music; Marisol Massey (Season One), Kari Wuhrer (Seasons Two and Three), Alicia Coppola (Season Four) and Susan Ashley (Season Five) were the hostesses.

Premise

The show's premise was that Ober desperately wanted to be a game show host and set up his basement (at 72 Whooping Cough Lane) as a television studio. The opening theme song sketched the scenario out: "Kenny wasn't like the other kids (Remote Control) / TV mattered, nothing else did (Remote Control) / Girls said yes, but he said no (Remote Control) / Now he's got his own game show (Remote Control!)" Shows were sometimes interrupted by the disembodied voice of "Ken's mother," and the studio was indeed set up to resemble a basement, complete with a washer and dryer, cheesy bric-a-brac, and a giant PEZ dispenser that resembled Bob Eubanks.

The basement was a mainstay of the show throughout its run; however its cheesy decor was "rearranged" slightly every season. The contestants sat in leather recliners with seat belts (their purpose explained below), complete with retro kidney-shaped tables and scoreboards, facing host Ober and his retro-styled Zenith television. Behind Ober were autographed pictures of his idols, game show hosts such as Bob Barker, Monty Hall, and Tom Kennedy. Musician Steve Treccase set up his keyboard behind a cluttered bar, at which Quinn and the hostess usually sat for the duration of the show. More clutter could be found around and behind the audience, very frequently including props used in previous seasons. Finally, the contestants' chairs were placed in front of breakaway walls, through which they were pulled if they were eliminated.

Main game

Three contestants sitting in lounge chairs would select one of nine channels, each of which represented some topic having to do with pop culture. Sample channels used on the show were "The Bon Jovi Network", "Brady Physics", and "Dead or Canadian". Contestants answered a series of questions from those subjects to get points. There were three questions in each channel/subject.

Some of the other straight question categories included "Leave Out the Beaver," "Private Dicks," "Bad TV," "Celebrity Cellblock," "Babes and Assassins," "PhD-TV," "No Witness News," "Celebrity Flesh," and "Inside Tina Yothers." In season five, "Inside Tina Yothers" was changed to "Inside Joe Piscopo." Season five also saw the debut of "Brady Metaphysics," a philosophy-driven spinoff of the "Brady Physics" channel.

Scoring

Points were scored as follows:

Round 1st Question 2nd Question 3rd Question
1 5 10 15
2 10 20 30

Categories/Channels

Several categories were performance-driven, such as these:

  • Fairy Pixie - Sheldon, the beleaguered Fairy Pixie, would read forlorn nursery rhymes about television shows.
  • Celebrity Square - a cutrate version of the long-running Hollywood Squares game show. MTV could only afford one square instead of nine, but otherwise the rules were unchanged: contestants still had to get the X across, down, or diagonally.
  • Beat the Bishop - this challenge forced contestants to complete a math problem within the time it took a man dressed as a Vatican bishop to race one lap around the studio. (Though depicted literally, the title of this channel was also a euphemism for masturbation. Later one-time variations of this channel included the similarly euphemistic "Beat the Bologna," as well as the straightforward religious spinoffs "Beat the Buddha" and "Race the Rabbi.")
  • The Laughing Guy - a segment in which Ten Eyck played "Ken's cousin Flip", who dressed in nerdy attire and laughed the theme songs to various TV series, which the contestants had to then guess.
  • The Anti-Flip - This channel worked the exact opposite as The Laughing Guy. Ten Eyck now played "Ken's evil cousin Skip", who was the exact opposite of Flip, dressed in drag and was a complete dullard; he would give the name of a TV show, and the contestant then had to laugh the theme song.
  • Andy's Diary - in which a gurgling Denis Leary portrayed the Pop artist Andy Warhol.
  • Stud Boy - a character who claimed to have had affairs with any number of famous women, and played by Adam Sandler. Contestants had to guess the woman that Stud Boy was describing.
  • Trivia Delinquent - Stickpin Quinn, the Trivia Delinquent, another recurring Sandler character who was supposed to be Colin Quinn's cousin.
  • Colin's Brother - played by Leary, which degenerated into an excuse for the two to pummel each other on-air.
  • Survey Says - a Family Feud typed question with five correct answers to it was asked to the players.
  • Casey's Big Poll - after Kari Wuhrer left the show, the premise of "Survey Says" was changed to make it a survey hosted by Ten Eyck imitating radio personality Casey Kasem, accompanied by a burly man in drag as "my lovely wife Jeannie". Otherwise, the rules remained the same.
  • Match 'Em Up Real Good - a Match Game-type fill-in-the-blank statement is read, and if the contestant's answer matched that of Colin, Steve, or the hostess, they scored 10 points.
  • Sing Along with Colin - in which sidekick Quinn would rasp the lyrics to a song and the contestant had to complete it. Sing Along was easily the most popular channel used on the show.
  • Dead or Alive - Simply put, contestants were given the name of a celebrity and had to guess whether he or she was dead or alive. Variations of this game have included "Dead or Canadian" and "Dead, Alive or Indian Food".
  • Mr. Baggy Pants - this character asked juvenille riddles that are common in joke books such as "Why did the guy throw his clock out the window?" The contestant had to provide the punchline, in this case "because he wanted to see time fly."
  • Rolling Stoned - in which Leary would portray a strung out, drugged out Keith Richards.

Penalization channels

There were a handful of "negative" channels in which contestants would be penalized:

  • Home Shopping Zone - where the unlucky contestant to choose that channel would see a video of a smarmily cheerful TV salesman (played by Craig Vandenburgh), "selling" some ridiculous product for a deduction of 10 points (20 points in the first season).
  • Ranger Bob - a thick-headed park ranger (played by John Ten Eyck) would offer a "camping safety tip" for 10 points.
  • Wheel of Torture (fourth and fifth seasons only) - The contestant could choose to lose 10 points, or submit to "Colin's torturous whims" and gain 10 points. If the contestant took the torture, the hostess would spin the Wheel of Torture (with sections including "Noogie", "Wet willie", and "Purple Nurple") and Quinn would administer the torture to the contestant. Some of the tortures were changed during the final season. Notably, the purple nurple was not administered to female contestants.
  • Off the Air (pilot only) - In the pilot episodes, if a contestant selected it, he/she was immediately eliminated from further play. When the show went into production in December of 1987, the rule was dropped in favor of the rules explained below.

Off the Air

After round two, the TV went "Off the Air" (accompanied by a siren effect and the studio lights flashing on and off), and the contestant in last place at that moment was also thrown "Off the Air" and eliminated from the game. Eliminated contestants were removed immediately, chair and all (hence the seatbelts). The ejections were accomplished in a variety of ways, ranging from being pulled back through a trick wall or wallpaper to being lifted up and out of the room. Beginning in the Spring Break episodes before the second season, the audience would also sing a "goodbye song", typically "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," "Hit the Road Jack," or "Get Off My Show" (to the tune of "Get Off My Cloud"), while said player was being ejected. After a contestant was ejected, he/she would be tormented by stagehands playing various annoyances behind him/her while an unrealistic screaming sound effect played.

Lightning round

In seasons 2-4, the two remaining contestants competed in a 30 second speed round entitled "Think Real Fast". Typically, this was a fill-in-the-blank or spot-the-errant-word format. For example, Ober would read movie titles that had one word replaced with a snack food, and contestants had to come up with the correction. The high scorer moved on to the bonus round, while the runner-up was eliminated in a manner similar to the third place contestant.

In the fifth season, all three players played a different version of the lightning round called "This, That or the Other Thing," but it was not the last round in the game. All questions now had one of three answers that Ober would list before the round started. These were usually people or characters who shared a common name, for example: "Andy Taylor, Andy Warhol, or Andy Rooney." Contestants had 20 seconds to ring in and answer as many questions as possible; after this round, the TV immediately went "Off the Air" and the third place contestant was eliminated.

Final question (Season 5 only)

In the final season, the two remaining players bet any or all of their current score on one final question. Host Ober read a question, usually a math problem, and the players had 20 seconds to write down their answers while a strange act was performed. When time expired, the players' answers and wagers were checked; a correct answer awarded the wagered points to the contestant, while a wrong answer deducted said points.

The remaining player after all rounds won the game and advanced to the Grand Prize Round.

Grand prize round

MTV Version (first 4 seasons): The contestant was strapped to a Craftmatic Adjustable bed, in front of a large wall of TV sets playing music videos. The contestant had to identify the artist in each video, with a prize being awarded for every correct answer. Correctly identifying all nine artists within 30 seconds won the grand prize (which was usually a car or a trip to a beach resort).

Syndicated Version ("Wheel of Jeopardy"): The contestant was strapped to a carnival wheel surrounded by ten television monitors, and was asked ten further questions (usually about TV). For each question successfully answered, the contestant won a prize, and the corresponding screen would display "Grand Prize." After 10 questions, the wheel was stopped, and if the player's head landed on a screen that had "Grand Prize" displayed, he won the day's top prize. If the contestant correctly answered all ten questions, he or she would automatically win the grand prize without the wheel having to stop, as 100% of the monitors read "Grand Prize".

MTV Version (season 5): The "name the artist" round was modified to more resemble the syndicated bonus round. The player was strapped to a metal wheel placed at a 45 degree angle, with a single TV above and below it. The 9 videos were shown in succession, and the player had to guess all nine artists in 40 seconds to win the grand prize. (The metal wheel also replaced the carnival wheel in the syndicated version; because it was lighter than the carnival wheel, it also spun quite a bit faster, making it even harder for the contestant to concentrate.)

Celebrities

Celebrities from that time appeared on the show such as:

  • Nipsey Russell - the "Poet Laureate of Television", who occasionally presented some of his poems;
  • Bob Eubanks - sat by host Ober for the entire main game, and "coached" him on how to host a game show;
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic - came into the basement as a category/channel. In addition, he also "tortured" that episode's two losing contestants as they were eliminated. (This was the only time that the backstage portion of the set behind the contestant area was shown.)
  • LL Cool J - made a brief appearance in one skit, where Ober stormed off stage to discover the rapper and his brother goofing around.
  • Jerry Mathers - appeared during the second half of a season three episode.

Celebrities that played the game:

Side notes

  • In rare case of a tie for second place at the time the TV went Off the Air, no player was eliminated and all three contestants advanced to the next round. However, after the Lightning Round, both losing contestants would be eliminated simultaneously, which was often referred to as a "double yank". At least one "double yank" occurred even though there was no tie; in the episode with LL Cool J, Julie Brown and "Weird Al" Yankovic as contestants, all three celebrities played the lightning round, followed by a full "Off the Air" with LL and Brown being simultaneously pulled, and Yankovic (who was originally trailing) winning the game.
  • In the event of a tie after the second round, a final question was retrieved from a gigantic Bob Eubanks PEZ dispenser and asked to the players, with a correct answer winning the game. The giant candy dispenser was also used in the first syndicated season to determine who would have first control of the TV.
  • On one episode, a "Triple Yank" occurred when none of the three contestants could guess any band in which Eric Clapton was a member, even after Ober gave them hints. With the approval of "Ken's mother", all three players were pulled "off the air", and three new contestants played Round 2 (with drawn-on nametags.)

Foreign versions and attempts

Video game

External links

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