History Main / PhoneInGameShows

* In the song "Mercedes Benz" by Music/JanisJoplin, one of the things she wants God to buy for her is a color TV, so she could see the afforementioned ''Dialing for Dollars'' whenever they called her.

-->...oh I'm so sorry, the answer we were looking for was "[[UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer Vest Port]]", a popular retailer of sweatervests!
* In the song "Mercedes Benz" by Creator/JanisJoplin, one of the things she wants God to buy for her is a color TV, so she could see the afforementioned ''Dialing for Dollars'' whenever they called her.

-->...oh I'm so sorry, the answer we were looking for was "[[UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer Vest Port]]", a popular retailer of sweatervests!

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines (often based on popular ''real'' game shows such as ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'', ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', or otherwise endorsed by a GameShowHost of the era), but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''Boggle'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good. The U.S. also had an early example of the concept in ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialing_for_Dollars Dialing for Dollars]]'' (where it was the producers who called the contestors' homes, and not the other way - thus it could be more accurately called a phone-''out'' game show), a franchise which was at its most popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, way before 1-900 numbers were popular, and can still be seen in few markets.[[note]]Fun fact: Creator/OprahWinfrey presented the Baltimore edition of this show for some time in The70s.[[/note]]

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines (often based on popular ''real'' game shows such as ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'', ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', or otherwise endorsed by a GameShowHost of the era), but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''Boggle'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good. The U.S. also had an early example of the concept in ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialing_for_Dollars Dialing for Dollars]]'' (where it was the producers who called the contestors' homes, and not the other way), a franchise which was at its most popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, way before 1-900 numbers were popular, and can still be seen in few markets.[[note]]Fun fact: Creator/OprahWinfrey presented the Baltimore edition of this show for some time in The70s.[[/note]]

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines (often based on popular ''real'' game shows such as ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'', ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', or otherwise endorsed by a GameShowHost of the era), but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''Boggle'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good. The U.S. also had an early example of the concept in ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialing_for_Dollars Dialing for Dollars]]'', a franchise which was at its most popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, way before 1-900 numbers were popular, and can still be seen in few markets.

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines (often based on popular ''real'' game shows such as ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'', ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune''), but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''Boggle'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good. The U.S. also had an early example of the concept in ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialing_for_Dollars Dialing for Dollars]]'', a franchise which was at its most popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, way before 1-900 numbers were popular, and can still be seen in few markets.

-->'''Presenter''' (''to subject on phone'') No, sir, we don't morally censure, we just want the money.

* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': "All you have to do is ''Spot the Loony!''

* OneEpisodeWonder: ''The Debbie King Show'', aired by ITV Play, was a cross between a phone-in quiz and a news programme. Hosted by [=QuizMania's=] Debbie King, they still decided to go on with the show, even though ITV had announced earlier that day that the Play channel would be "suspended" (read: shut down permanently) as part of investigations into their use of premium-rate lines. [[SarcasmMode Whoops.]]

** In another episode, Falconhoof gets a [[LovelyAssistant Lovely Jester]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKD5pKzzXvU who the caller wants dead]].

** In one [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfKhDiUNOG0 episode]], Falconhoof doesn't allow a player to get the winged sandals he needed to cross the chasm]] and get the treasure, because he didn't allow him to finish explaining the options.

#Take few calls, or don't take any at all! Hope they don't actually have the winning answers, especially if you made the question [[MoonLogicPuzzle ridiculously hard]] or [[EasierThanEasy ridiculously easy]].

*** Now, let's try a skill-testing question UpToEleven: "9+7-3x0+5-2+4-7+(4+6)x2=?"[[note]]"1238": the proper answer would be 36, which means someone royally screwed up their math there.[[/note]]

*** The [[http://mikebattista.com/2009/12/05/play-tv-canada-has-no-legs/ Cats on a Bus]] puzzle has the hallmarks of a MoonLogicPuzzle: "4 girls are travelling on a bus. Each of them have 3 baskets, in each basket there are 4 cats. Each cat has 3 little kittens. How many legs are in the bus?" [[note]]"222": The kittens were not on the bus, and the count included the driver's legs, and the legs of the seats as well[[/note]]
*** Here's ''another'' one: "4 girls are travelling on a bus. In each hand they hold 4 baskets, in each basket there are 4 cats. Each cat has 3 little kittens. One cat gets away. How many legs are on the bus?" [[note]]"1359": you begin to wonder what type of fuzzy math led to that[[/note]]
*** Now, let's try a skill-testing question UpToEleven: "9+7-3x0+5-2+4-7+(4+6)x2=?"[[note]]"1238"[[/note]]

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines (often based on popular ''real'' game shows such as ''Series/LetsMakeADeal]], ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune''), but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''TabletopGame/{{Boggle}}'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good. The U.S. also had an early example of the concept in ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialing_for_Dollars Dialing for Dollars]]'', a franchise which was at its most popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, way before 1-900 numbers were popular, and can still be seen in few markets.

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines, such as [[https://youtu.be/zoEepeYd0Wk ADDITUP]], ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''TabletopGame/{{Boggle}}'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good. The U.S. also had an early example of the concept in ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialing_for_Dollars Dialing for Dollars]]'', a franchise which was at its most popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, way before 1-900 numbers were popular, and can still be seen in few markets.

At the first signs of the scandal, the damage had already been done: ITV shut down its all-games digital channel ITV Play and suspended all use of premium-rate lines across its programming, Channel Five got fined £300,000 for having such a show coming up with a fake winner's name on a daytime phone-in game, Channel Four sold off its stake in Quiz Call (which folded at the start of 2007, but came back for a time on Five), and quiz channels became an endangered species in the UK altogether (what remaining quiz shows were left have typically been replaced by casino games, such as ITV's [=Jackpot24/7=]).

In the United States, the concept was mainly a middling to complete failure, with only Creator/GameShowNetwork's ''[=PlayMania=]'' actually getting any attention. Attempts by TBS, Fox's television stations and the Tribune stations lasted a few weeks to months. Not helping was the ubiquity of {{Infomercial}}s and Byron Allen shows as time filler in dead periods, which are cheaper and only require the [[EasierThanEasy painstaking]] [[SarcasmMode task]] of queuing them to air after ''Series/TheLateLateShow'' before you leave for the day, rather than needing to have the staff necessary to put on a live program at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. At the same time, there is a Budapest-based production company, Telemedia [=InteracTV=], which has made their living producing these shows ''en masse'' for various broadcasters, including Canada and Ireland most infamously.

#Pose a question to the audience.

** During the British phone-in scandals, one complaint surfaced involving a show which named "rawlplugs" (a piece of hardware used to anchor a screw into a drywall or plaster wall) and "a balaclava" as items a woman would keep in her handbag. Seriously?

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines, such as [[https://youtu.be/zoEepeYd0Wk ADDITUP]], ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''TabletopGame/{{Boggle}}'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good. The U.S. also had an early example of the concept in ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialing_for_Dollars Dialing for Dollars]]'', a franchise which was at its most popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, way before 1-900 numbers were popular, and can still be seen in few markets.)

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines, such as [[https://youtu.be/zoEepeYd0Wk ADDITUP]], ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''TabletopGame/{{Boggle}}'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good. (Closer to this concept was ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialing_for_Dollars Dialing for Dollars]]'', a franchise which was at its most popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, way before 1-900 numbers were popular, and can still be seen in few markets.)

A phone-in game show is a form of live GameShow where viewers can call in to a special number and hopefully get a chance to come on air to potentially win something by providing an answer to a question or logic puzzle. It is a logical extension of the concept of a HomeParticipationSweepstakes, except in this case, the ''whole'' show is one. They were quite popular in Europe as a fixture of late-night television on commercial television channels, and even on dedicated ''quiz channels'' that dedicated their lineup to ''just'' this genre. If done right, they can at least be [[RuleOfFun fun to watch]], and give viewers a temptation to participate.

A large stigma of pay-per-call numbers in the US going back to the kid-targeted 1-900 lines of the late 80's and early 90's didn't help either. There were phone-in interactive ''games'' on 1-900 lines, such as [[https://youtu.be/zoEepeYd0Wk ADDITUP]], ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', but these were all played with a touch-tone phone and viewers interacting with a computer system, and not an actual TV show. In 1993, what was then [[Creator/{{Freeform}} The Family Channel]] built a quartet of game shows around this idea --''TabletopGame/TrivialPursuit'', ''TabletopGame/{{Boggle}}'', ''Shuffle'' and ''Jumble'' -- which were all hosted and produced by [[Series/TicTacDough Wink]] [[Series/{{Debt}} Martindale]], and had "playbreak" segments during commercial breaks, wherein viewers could call in and play along with the questions on-screen. Even then, they did not interact with a live host, and excepting ''Trivial Pursuit'', none of them were very good.

* ''Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor'' had a similar sketch called "Cash Cow". In one episode, the answers to the category "Things you might do" included "Borrow an angle grinder", "See the film ''{{Coneheads}}''", and "Oology".

-->''Come on! You only have 60 seconds left to call in for a shot at $100! All you have to do is unscramble this famous proper noun! "TVTORPES"! Keep ringing those phones! We don't have all night! Call! Call now! [[note]]Calls cost $100 a minute, 18+ only, many will enter, very few will have a remote chance of actually getting on-air and even fewer will win.[[/note]]''