Trivial Pursuit (American game show) should not be confused with Trivial Pursuit: America Plays.
| Genre: | Game show |
| Director: | Rob Fiedler |
| Presenter: | Wink Martindale Levar Burton |
| Narrated: | Randy West |
| Country: | United States |
| Network: | The Family Channel |
| Num Episodes: | 130[1] |
| Related: | Trivial Pursuit |
Trivial Pursuit is an American game show that ran on The Family Channel from June 7, 1993, to December 30, 1994. Loosely based on the board game of the same name, it is hosted by Wink Martindale with Randy West announcing.
The show is played in two halves. The first half is an interactive game show, while the other half is a traditional game show.
Nine players (originally twelve) compete for three spots in the second half of the show.
In the first round, five questions with four multiple-choice answers are asked by the host. The players have 10 seconds to answer by pressing a number from 1–4 on a keypad in front of them. They score points based on how fast they answer the question correctly, with a maximum of 1,000 points available. After five questions, the six players with the highest scores play round two and the other players are eliminated.
In the second round, the scores are reset and the three highest-scoring players win a prize and a chance to play Trivial Pursuit in the next half-hour show.
As in the board game, the object for each player is to fill in all of the colored wedges on a large pie-shaped game board in front of them. Each wedge is a different color and represents a different category, with the categories requiring two correct answers to fill a wedge. Red replaces the brown (now purple) wedge from the board games.
In the first three rounds, each player receives two turns consisting of a category choice followed by a question posed by host Martindale. A correct answer lights up a wedge, but an incorrect answer gives the two opponents a chance to ring-in and steal the wedge with a correct answer.
In the first round, the six traditional Trivial Pursuit categories are used.
| Geography | |
| Entertainment | |
| History | |
| Art & Literature | |
| Science & Nature | |
| Sports & Leisure |
The second round uses either the categories from the Movie Edition or Television Edition.
| Movies | Television | |
|---|---|---|
| Settings | Classics | |
| Titles | Sitcoms | |
| Off Screen | Drama | |
| On Screen | Kids & Games | |
| Production | Stars | |
| Portrayals | Wild Card |
In the second half of Round 2 (later known as Round 3), a new set of categories are played. (In early episodes, the questions related to a certain year in history.) The category sets used are different each show and are borrowed from multiple versions of the board game.
| Personalities | People & Places | Personalities | People & Places | World of Places | Products & Progress | |
| Entertainment | Entertainment | Entertainment | Good Times | World of Music | Sports & Leisure | |
| In the News | History | Headlines | Science & Technology | World of People | History | |
| Around the World | Science & Nature | Music | Art & Culture | World of Fantasy | Personalities | |
| Sports & Leisure | Sports & Leisure | Sports & Leisure | Natural World | World of Science | Entertainment | |
| Wild Card | Wild Card | Wild Card | Games & Hobbies | World of Leisure | Wild Card |
Rounds 2 and 3 include three bonus questions hidden behind three of the categories—one in one half of the round and two in the other. When chosen, the player who answers an audio or video question correctly has an opportunity to answer a follow-up question which awards the player $100 and another half-wedge in the color of their choice with a correct answer.
The final round again uses the traditional basic categories as in Round 1, but the round is played in a different manner. The round starts with a toss-up question, and the first player to ring-in and answer correctly is given control of the game, keeping it as long as he/she keeps answering questions correctly.
If the player in control misses a question, the question is fielded as a toss-up for the other two players, and the one who answers correctly receives control and the half-wedge, if it has not already been filled in on their pie. If nobody answers correctly, another toss-up is played to determine control.
The final round continues in this manner until either a player completely fills in their pie, therefore becoming the day's champion, or time is called, whichever happens first (a warning tone chimes 4 times signaling one minute left in the final round if it occurs). If time is called, the player who has filled in the most wedges in their pie is declared the champion.
The winner of the game receives a $500 cash prize and advances to the Trivial Pursuit Challenge Round.
The day's champion plays the bonus for a trip and $1,000 in cash.
To accomplish this, the champion needs to correctly answer one question in each of the six basic categories within 45 seconds. Each category is played one question at a time in sequence, starting with Geography and ending in Sports & Leisure.
Answering a question in a category correctly causes its respective wedge to light up in the pie. Answering incorrectly or passing leaves the wedge blank until a question is answered correctly.
Each wedge lit up awards the contestant $100. A grand prize is awarded if the champion manages to fill the pie within the time limit.
If there is extra time at the end of the show, an audience member is called on stage and given the opportunity to answer five multiple-choice questions (much like the "Interactive" portion of the show) worth $20 apiece, for a maximum payoff of $100.
The show launched a series of "interactive" games called playbreaks, all produced by Martindale and his associates. Originally, ten "Trivial Pursuit" playbreaks were interspersed throughout FAM's game show block. Three of them were during Trivial Pursuit: The Interactive Game and one was during Trivial Pursuit: The Classic Game.
During playbreaks, a question is shown on screen with four choices, and the answer is revealed 10 seconds later. During its original run, home viewers were given an opportunity to call a special 1–900 number ($4.98 per call) and play a "TP: Interactive Game", using a slightly modified scoring system, and players answered by using their touch-tone telephone. The winner of each "playbreak" won a prize and competed on Friday in a playoff game against the other winners for a vacation. The ad would last about 100 seconds, as seen by an on-screen clock (even though the clock read ":99" as it faded in).
On New Year's Day 1994, all of the weekly playoff winners up to that point were given the opportunity to compete in a "Tournament of Champions"-style grand playoff for a 1994 Ford Explorer, which aired in between a Trivial Pursuit marathon FAM was running that day. The winner of the Ford Explorer was Alisa Standow.
Trivial Pursuit proved popular in its initial airing during the summer of 1993, as The Family Channel's ratings vastly increased during the 12:30–1:00 pm time slot. MTM Entertainment, an independent distribution company owned by the network's parent organization, International Family Entertainment, planned to syndicate a new version of the show to local stations for the 1994–1995 season. The plan was to produce 130 new episodes and air them along with the 130 episodes already taped for The Family Channel. However, efforts to interest local stations were largely unsuccessful, and the syndicated version never materialized.
Other interactive games aired on the network – a board-game adaptation of Boggle, the list-oriented Shuffle, and an adaptation of the newspaper game Jumble. Trivial Pursuit: The Interactive Game was cancelled on March 4, 1994,[2] to make way for Boggle and Shuffle, only to return on September 7[3] and be cancelled again on December 30,[4] along with the entire interactive game block. However, reruns of Trivial Pursuit: The Classic Game continued with no interactive playbreaks until July 21, 1995.
A home version of the game was released by Parker Brothers in 1993 as Trivial Pursuit Game Show. Some question material was taken directly from the show, and the box cover featured Martindale on the slightly different set of the show's 1993 pilot (which was intended for syndication; producer Jay Wolpert also produced at least one pilot in 1987 with Worldvision Enterprises that was not picked up; Martindale posted both pilots to his YouTube channel in 2014). This was the second home version that was based on a board game itself; the first was TV Scrabble by Selchow & Righter in 1987 and then Celebrity Name Game (based on the board game Identity Crisis) by PlayMonster (formerly Patch) in 2016.