Merrill Heatter-Bob Quigley Game Show which ran briefly on ABC in 1976.
The show would be played with two married couples. The first couple would come out, and one member would sit in the Hot Seat...an isolation booth with a giant arch of lights above it. They'd be hooked up to a lie detector, and the game would begin. Host Jim Peck would ask the player outside the Hot Seat a relationship question with two choices for an answer, and they'd have to pick which one their partner was more likely to say. Once they did, Jim re-read the choices for the player in the Hot Seat, and they would always have to respond "No." The lie detector would show how much of a lie that statement was...the bigger the lie, the more lights would light up on the giant arch. The one with more lights was deemed the right answer. Three questions would be asked, worth $100, $200, and $400. Then the second couple would be brought out, and the process repeated. Whoever got the higher score would have the option of playing a Bonus Round for extra prizes.
Hot Seat debuted on July 12, 1976, on the same day and network as Family Feud. Hot Seat got a cold reception from viewers, and it ended on October 22 of that year. Its companion show did slightly better.
Not to be confused with the syndicated talk show with Wally George, or the pricing game involving a moving chair on The Price Is Right.
This show provides examples of:
- The Announcer: Kenny Williams, a longtime Heatter-Quigley favorite.
- Bonus Round: After both couples had their questions, the leading couple would decide to take an extra $500 and stop playing, or go for one final question. Whatever option they didn't select automatically went to their opponents. Getting the final question right won a prize package, missing it got nothing extra.
- Game Show Host: Jim Peck.
- Pilot: One was taped on January 17, 1976. The game was the same except for the bonus round; one half of the couple sat in the Hot Seat, looking at a turntable of three prizes their spouse could not see. One by one, the person in the Hot Seat would be asked if they want the prize shown. They would claim not to want that, and the detector would measure how much of a lie that was. After all three prizes were shown, the other half of the couple would pick a prize based off their spouse's reactions.
- This led to hilarity when the three prizes were a washer/dryer combo, a sports car, and a steam iron with ironing board...the last of which was modeled by a young blonde woman in a string bikini. The husband in the Hot Seat claimed not to want it, the lights blasted to the end of the scale, and the wife ended up picking that over the sports car!
- Recycled In Space: Basically The Newlywed Game WITH A GIANT LIE DETECTOR!
- Scenery Porn: The set was very tiny, but the Hot Seat itself looked marvelous.
- Sound Proof Booth: The Hot Seat, natch.
