Go (TV series)

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Not to be confused with the ancient board game known in English as "Go".

Short-lived Game Show created by Bob Stewart, best known for being the creator of Password and the Pyramid franchise. The NBC game ran for a blistering sixteen weeks from October 3, 1983 to January 20, 1984.

Much like Pyramid, Go relied on celebrity-contestant tandems trying to describe words to each other. It relied on a more unusual description method: each team comprised one celebrity and four contestants. One player would serve as the guesser and, two at a time, the others would try to build a description for each word, one word at a time ("What" "website" "hangs" "lampshades?"). After the clue was finished, one player would hit a bell (ding!) and the guesser would respond with an answer ("TV Tropes!"). If s/he was right, the guesser moved on to the next pair in the team, and on down the line, playing to either 99 seconds or five words. Cash was accumulated for getting five words faster than the opposing team; this was awarded in a $250-$500-$750-$1,250 structure, with $1,500 winning the game.

The Bonus Round was basically the same game with the winning team involved and a goal of seven words. In this instance, one player is the receiver again, and the other four build the questions: all four for the first one, only three for the second, two for the third, and the remaining person gives the fourth question solo; the format was then reversed with two for the fifth, three for the sixth, and all four for the seventh. Normally offering $10,000, the round would be played twice (for a total of $20,000) if the team won the maingame through the first three rounds.

Originally using standard game show championship rules (i.e., winner stays), the format was slightly altered on October 31 (Week 5) to have both teams stay on the entire week. This format, previously used on Three For The Money (1975) and Mindreaders (1979-80), was referred to on Go as "Head-To-Head".

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Game Show Tropes in use:

• Bonus Round: Mentioned above.
• Celebrity Edition: Celebrities were the captains, but two all-celeb weeks were done — Week 6 (November 7-11) had the cast of Days of Our Lives competing against Another World, while Week 9 (November 28-December 2) had Another World taking on Search for Tomorrow.
• Golden Snitch: If the teams split the first two rounds, Round 3 becomes utterly meaningless.
• Personnel:
  • The Announcer: Johnny Gilbert, who also did The $25,000 Pyramid and has been announcing Jeopardy! since 1984. Jack Clark filled-in for two weeks.
  • Game Show Host: News anchor/weatherman Kevin O'Connell, in his only game show role which went to series.
  • Studio Audience

Tropes used in Go (TV series) include:

• Catch Phrase: Kevin's sign-off: "K.O. for G-O!"
• Epic Fail: At least twice, a team managed to get the timer to stop at 99 seconds. The first instance, from Week 2 (October 10-14), included six straight wrong answers; the second instance was during Week 6.
• One-Book Author: For Kevin O'Connell.
• Opening Narration: "Ladies and gentlemen, the name of the game is Go. And two teams are here to compete for a jackpot worth up to $20,000. This week our celebrity captains are [name] and [name]. And now here is your host, ready to go, Kevin O'Connell!"
• Spin-Off: The maingame format was previously the Bonus Round to an earlier Stewart show for NBC, Chain Reaction. Before that, it was the maingame in the 1977 Stewart pilot Get Rich Quick!
• Title Drop: Pretty much unavoidable, as each round would start with "Ready, go!" Also taken to literal extremes, as the set had "GO" written in about a zillion places.
• Trans-Atlantic Equivalent: The show returned on September 10, 1984 as Get Set Go on BBC 1. Hosted by Michael Barrymore, it folded on November 26 after a mere 12 episodes.