| Genre: | Comedy panel game |
| Presenter: | Lennie Bennett |
| Voices: | Robin Houston (1983-4) |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 5 |
| Num Episodes: | 79 (inc. 1 special) |
| Theme Music Composer: | Laurie Holloway |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Company: | LWT |
| Channel: | ITV |
Punchlines was a comedy panel game show that aired on ITV from 3 January 1981 to 22 December 1984, hosted by Lennie Bennett.[1] The show was based on a failed 1979 American game show pilot of the same name hosted by Bill Cullen, which, in turn, was an attempted reboot of another American game show, Eye Guess (1966–69).
Each week, teams comprising a celebrity guest and a non-celebrity had to match punchlines given by eight other guests who were seated in Celebrity Squares-style boxes to the questions asked by the host. The first team to reach 150 points won the chance to win a major prize, while the losing contestant left with a Lennie Bennett doll in the first two series. From series three onwards, losers left with a case of champagne and some glasses.
At the beginning of each show, they would all look into the camera one at a time and introduce themselves. From the third series onwards, the Punchliners consisted of a mixture of the original Punchliners and better-known celebrities. The original Punchliners included Rose-Marie, Fogwell Flax, Bryan Joan Elliott, Aiden J. Harvey, Judy Gridley, Patti Gold and, making his first regular TV game-show appearance, Matthew Kelly.
In the final round, the winning contestant had to match seven of the eight punchlines correctly to win the star prize, but if they failed to do so they went away with the prize that corresponded to how many correct punchlines they had matched.
A pilot for an Australian adaptation of the show, hosted by Jeremy Kewley, was made for the Seven Network in 1986.
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 January 1981 | 28 March 1981 | 13 | |
| 2 | 5 September 1981 | 19 December 1981 | 16 | |
| 3 | 24 December 1982 | 9 April 1983 | 16 | |
| 4 | 10 September 1983 | 31 December 1983 | 17 | |
| 5 | 1 September 1984 | 22 December 1984 | 17 |