Runaround (game show)

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Runaround was a children's television game show originally devised by Heatter-Quigley Productions in the USA. The program was hosted by Paul Winchell, airing Saturday mornings on NBC from September 1972 to September 1973.

Similar to Blockbusters, the UK version was much more successful than the American original. It was produced by Southern Television for ITV between 1975 and 1981. The original host was comedian Mike Reid, who later starred in EastEnders as Frank Butcher. In 1977 his place was taken by Leslie Crowther and Stan Boardman before Reid returned in 1978.

The basic format of the game invited children to answer a three-way multiple choice question by running towards their chosen answer, then standing on marked areas numbered 1, 2 or 3. Just before the correct answer is revealed, the host invites the children to "Runaround... now!" at which point they have a split second to jump onto a different area - the idea being to give your opponents the runaround in case they are merely following your movements.

On the American version of the show, host Winchell would say, before giving the correct answer, "When you hear the click, stick!" and then a moment later, "Last chance!", after which point he would press a finger-clicker (a toy device that made a clicking sound). Players still moving or not on one of the three answer areas were eliminated from the round (sent to a penalty area at the side of the stage). Winchell would then say, "Let's see who's right with the light!", whereupon the house lights would dim and the area for the correct answer would light up. Players getting the answer correct took a pink ball from a large bowl near the middle of the stage; players with the incorrect answer were eliminated from the round. Each player had his/her own transparent tube, into which the balls were dropped (this was a substitute scoring device for toteboards, which the show did not have). The player with the highest number of balls at the end of the show was the day's winner.

Metal Mickey made his screen debut on the British version of the show after being discovered by the show's in-vision researcher, Tim Edmunds. Few copies of the British version of the show survive due to a policy of wiping master-tapes of contemporary shows that were deemed to have little or no commercial value, in order to save costs.

In Germany, it was called 1, 2 oder 3 ("One, Two or Three"). Starting in 1977 this was the very first show that was licensed from the US on German TV.

[edit] External links

• Runaround at UKGameshows.com