Trivia / Family Fortunes

• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Early episodes were destroyed per ITV's practices at the time. This stopped in Series 4, the last with Monkhouse as host, though a few transmissions before it survived the wiping. Monkhouse preserved 80 of his episodes on videotape. The premiere and some episodes from Series 3 have been uploaded to YouTube, but nothing from Series 2 has turned up.
  • Episodes 11-23 of Series 21 (Les' final series) did not air on ITV as they moved on to the Andy Collins series a few days after Episode 10 aired. These episodes did not see the light of day until Challenge acquired them around 2003.
  • The short-lived Andy Collins daytime series last reran during the 2004 Christmas season as a daytime filler on ITV1. It has not seen any reruns on Challenge, either. Due to this, almost every episode of this series is deemed to be lost, and so far, only about three episodes have resurfaced.
• Long-Runners: The show ran from 1980-2002, although it had a one-year hiatus in 1986.
• Market-Based Title: Monkhouse thought Family Feud was too aggressive, hence the change to Family Fortunes.
• No Budget: The show began this transition in 2000 once the “Egg” graphics were replaced. It didn’t get really low until Andy Collins took over as host in 2002 - Carlton transitioned the show from its usual weekly weekend slot to a daily teatime slot, which meant the grand prize was reduced, the set was recycled from the 2000-2001 series instead of keeping the 2001-2002 era set, there was no proper audience; instead using canned noises, and questions in all rounds were recycled from Les' era to the point even whole Big Money games were recycled.
• Title Sequence:
  • The Monkhouse and Bygraves eras went with a simple sequence featuring the families and the show's logo on Mr. Babbage.
  • 1987 (Les' first series) and 1988-1990 went with similar openings as well, except with different logos.
  • 1990 saw the first proper opening for the show. A very simple premise featuring stick figures and pound coins creating the Double Money and Big Money logos, and eventually the Family Fortunes logo before transitioning to the set to introduce the families. Originally, this used the same theme as the 1987 and 1988-1990 intros, but it was changed in 1993 to the version of the theme everyone is familiar with.
  • 1995 saw a new opening featuring a family of Eggs moving around a white blocky world formed up by the FF symbol. The Eggs create the Double Money text, and then a large egg rotates to reveal the Big Money logo printed on the back of him. The eggs then form the Family Fortunes lettering and appear on the top. Originally, the logo was blue and pink, but in 1998, the colours were changed to purple and pink.
  • 2000 saw a cheaper looking intro featuring floating pound symbols, the Double Money and Big Money logos, and the show's different catchphrases.
  • 2002 saw an even cheaper intro featuring floating pound coins moving around the Double Money and Big Money logos, then they turn into a set of people silhouettes which introduce the families before the footage closes and the Family Fortunes logo zooms down. This was used for Les' final series and Andy Collins' series.
• Un-Canceled:
  • The show ended in 1985 and was brought back in 1987.
  • Arguably, the reincarnation as All-Star Family Fortunes after a few years' hiatus may also count.
  • The COVID-19 Pandemic was one of the factors that prompted the 2020 revival.