History Series / ChainReaction

The series was revived as ''The New Chain Reaction'' on Creator/USANetwork and Creator/{{Global}} in Canada (where this incarnation taped, in UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}} to be specific) from 1986-91 with teams of two contestants each. At first, this version was hosted by Blake Emmons, a Canadian television personality and CountryMusic singer. Blake Emmons was a contestant on ''Series/TheJokersWild'' during Bill Cullen's tenure, and lasted only a few months as host of ''Chain Reaction'' before being replaced by Geoff Edwards (who had previously hosted a number of Stewart series and pilots; his most recent hosting gig up to that point was ''Series/{{Starcade}}'', plus the unsold 1985 Stewart pilot ''$50,000 A Minute''). Because of [=CanCon=] laws, ''Chain Reaction'' had to feature a Canadian personality on camera, and as a result announcer Rod Charlebois appeared on-camera in every show for the rest of the run. This version simply offered another chain as its bonus round. 1988 saw the two-member teams dropped for solo players, and the final season became a tournament for a top prize of $40,000, resulting in a rename to ''The $40,000 Chain Reaction''.

** The "Speed Chains" in both Lane runs on GSN (and the Vincent pilots). Available to the side that solved the last remaining word in the first three chains, it carried the value of one word in that round. It's a four-word chain; the first and last words are given, and the first letter of each of the remaining two words. The team has 7 seconds to confer before they must answer, and they earn the money if they solve ''both'' words (no partial credit for just one). Averted in the Catherwood run; these were only used if SuddenDeath was needed.

* SuddenDeath: If a tiebreak was needed in any GSN version, the teams played Speed Chains in an alternating format; the first team to solve theirs ''while having the other team not solve theirs'' won the game. This was the only situation in which the Speed Chain cropped up in the Catherwood run.

-->'''-- Lyrics of the 2006 version's theme tune'''

In 2006, Creator/{{GSN}} (formerly the Game Show Network) revived the format with Dylan Lane as host. The rules stayed mostly the same, except the teams were always three men vs. three women. The format also included a small four-word "speed chain" after each solved chain, as well as a betting format in Round 4. In Round 4, contestants bet certain amounts on whether or not they would get the chain word right; unfortunately, this often led to contestants whittling away their lead on stupid guesses. This version also saw the return of Instant Reaction, but with slight rule changes. Additionally, all chains were now composed of two-word phrases or compound words instead of words with an abstract relation to each other. For instance, a completed chain might have CHAIN REACTION TIME TABLE TENNIS BALL GAME SHOW, forming the phrases of "chain reaction", "reaction time", "time table", "table tennis", etc.

* GirlsVsBoysPlot: Each episode of the 2006 GSN version saw a team of three guys going against a team of three girls (except for one week in which the teams consisted of three teachers against three students from the same school).

* GirlsVsBoysPlot: Each episode of the 2006 GSN version saw a team of guys going against a team of girls (except for one week in which the teams consisted of three teachers against three students from the same school).

** '''USA/GSN 2006:''' Red and blue players/teams.

* GirlsVsBoysPlot: Each episode of the 2006 GSN version saw a team of guys going against a team of girls (except for one week in which the teams consisted of three teachers against three students from the same school.)

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

->''The word game starts the chain''

->''It's guys against girls right now,''

->''On [[TitleDrop Chain Reaction]]''

->''On [[TitleDrop Chain Reaction]]

GameShow franchise created in 1980 by Creator/BobStewart (of ''Series/{{Password}}'' and ''Series/{{Pyramid}}'' fame) for Creator/{{NBC}} and hosted by Creator/BillCullen. In this game, two teams — [[SignatureStyle in true Stewartian fashion]], each composed of two celebrities and a civilian — competed to form a chain of eight words. Each chain consisted of words that had some relation to the next word in the chain. For example, a completed chain would be TWIST ANKLE BRACELET CHAIN GANG WAR STRATEGY CHESS - an ANKLE is something that often gets TWISTed, an "ANKLE BRACELET" is a piece of jewelry, BRACELETs have a CHAIN, etc. Given the first and last word of each chain, the teams would attempt to guess the missing words, which were revealed one letter at a time. The winners then proceeded to a BonusRound dubbed ''Instant Reaction'', which was more of a cousin to the ''Pyramid'' format of using a long clue to describe a word, except the celebrities from the winning team constructed the clues one word at a time. This BonusRound was later adapted into its own game, a short-lived format called ''Series/{{Go}}''.

GameShow franchise created in 1980 by Creator/BobStewart (of ''Series/{{Password}}'' and ''Series/{{Pyramid}}'' fame) for Creator/{{NBC}} and hosted by Creator/BillCullen. In this game, two teams — [[SignatureStyle in true Stewartian fashion]], each composed of two celebrities and a civilian — competed to form a chain of eight words. Each chain would consist of two-word phrases with a common word. For instance, a completed chain might have CHAIN REACTION TIME TABLE TENNIS BALL GAME SHOW, forming the phrases of "chain reaction", "reaction time", "time table", "table tennis", etc. Given the first and last word of each chain, the teams would attempt to guess the missing words, which were revealed one letter at a time. The winners then proceeded to a BonusRound dubbed ''Instant Reaction'', which was more of a cousin to the ''Pyramid'' format of using a long clue to describe a word, except the celebrities from the winning team constructed the clues one word at a time. This BonusRound was later adapted into its own game, a short-lived format called ''Series/{{Go}}''.

In 2006, Creator/{{GSN}} (formerly the Game Show Network) revived the format with Dylan Lane as host. The rules stayed mostly the same, except the teams were always three men vs. three women. The format also included a small four-word "speed chain" after each solved chain, as well as a betting format in Round 4. In Round 4, contestants bet certain amounts on whether or not they would get the chain word right; unfortunately, this often led to contestants whittling away their lead on stupid guesses. This version also saw the return of Instant Reaction, but with slight rule changes.

GSN revived the format again in 2015 with another new host, Mike Catherwood (best known as the host of ''Radio/{{Loveline}}''); this version seemed to hearken back more to the USA era, with a similar logo and format (the Speed Chains were dropped, and the contestant teams were reverted back to two players; the betting element in Round 4 was still present, however); because of the lack of a third contestant, Instant Reaction was dropped again, this time for a new endgame called the ''Superchain'' (see below). In 2021, the show was revived a second time, again with Lane as the host, and Mike Richards as showrunner.

[[quoteright:160:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chainreaction.jpg]]

** The 2021 GSN run gives the winning team 60 seconds to solve three chains of 4, 5, and 6 words (2, 3, and 4 words to solve) in the same way as the main game for $10,000. Unlike some of the other more recent GSN fare (we're looking at ''you,'' ''Series/{{Idiotest}}'', ''Series/{{Emogenius}}'', ''Series/AmericaSays'', among others), this isn't an upgrade, it's an ''extra'' $10,000.

GSN revived the format again in 2015 with another new host, Mike Catherwood (best known as the host of ''Radio/{{Loveline}}''); this version seemed to hearken back more to the USA era, with a similar logo and format (the Speed Chains were dropped, and the contestant teams were reverted back to two players; the betting element in Round 4 was still present, however); because of the lack of a third contestant, Instant Reaction was dropped again, this time for a new endgame called the ''Superchain'' (see below). In 2020, the show was revived a second time, again with Lane as the host, and Mike Richards as showrunner.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In a GSN episode, the first part of a word near the bottom was "Cock". The first letter of the second word was "S". Then the second letter was "U". Everyone was laughing about it and trying to avoid saying what it looked like. (The word was "Su[[spoiler:re]]".) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8kGlY33Sx0 See for yourself]].

GSN revived the format again in 2015 with another new host, Mike Catherwood (best known as the host of ''Radio/{{Loveline}}''); this version seemed to hark back more to the USA era, with a similar logo and format (the Speed Chains were dropped, and the contestant teams were reverted back to two players; the betting element in Round 4 was still present, however); because of the lack of a third contestant, Instant Reaction was dropped again, this time for a new endgame called the ''Superchain'' (see below). In 2020, the show will return on GSN, again with Lane as the host, and Mike Richards as showrunner.

!!GameShowTropes in use:

* HomeGame: The Lane version had an interactive counterpart on GSN's website.
* Personnel:
** TheAnnouncer: Johnny Gilbert during the NBC run, Rod Charlebois during the USA run.
** GameShowHost: Creator/BillCullen, Blake Emmons, [[Series/{{Jackpot}} Geoff]] [[Series/{{Starcade}} Edwards]], Tim Vincent (for the 2006 pilots only), Dylan Lane and Mike Catherwood.
** StudioAudience
* ProgressiveJackpot: For the USA-era endgame, it would be worth a base of $3,000 plus $1,000 for each day it wasn't won; the base was dropped to $2,000 when the show switched from two-member teams to solo players. The highest the jackpot got was $16,000.
* RetiredGameShowElement: For the first season of the USA/Global run, any team that stayed for five days retired undefeated and earned a $5000 cash bonus.
----
!!This show provides examples of:
* AscendedExtra: Rod Charlebois, who would play a quick round with Geoff Edwards at the end of each show. His ascension was mostly due to [=CanCon=] laws.
** Also, before getting to host the USA run, Geoff Edwards had been a GuestHost while Bill Cullen was over on ''[[Series/{{Password}} Password Plus]]'' subbing for an ill Allen Ludden.

GSN revived the format again in 2015 with another new host, Mike Catherwood (best known as the host of ''Radio/{{Loveline}}''); this version seemed to hark back more to the USA era, with a similar logo and format (the Speed Chains were dropped, and the contestant teams were reverted back to two players; the betting element in Round 4 was still present, however); because of the lack of a third contestant, Instant Reaction was dropped again, this time for a new endgame called the ''Superchain'' (see below).

A later adaptation, taped in Montreal, aired on Creator/USANetwork and Creator/{{Global}} in Canada from 1986-91 with teams of two contestants each. At first, this version was hosted by Blake Emmons, a Canadian television personality and CountryMusic singer. Blake Emmons was a contestant on ''Series/TheJokersWild'' during Bill Cullen's tenure, and lasted only a few months as host of ''Chain Reaction'' before being replaced by Geoff Edwards (who had previously hosted a number of Stewart series and pilots; his most recent hosting gig up to that point was ''Series/{{Starcade}}'', plus the unsold 1985 Stewart pilot ''$50,000 A Minute''). Because of [=CanCon=] laws, ''Chain Reaction'' had to feature a Canadian personality on camera, and as a result announcer Rod Charlebois appeared on-camera in every show for the rest of the run. This version simply offered another chain as its bonus round. 1988 saw the two-member teams dropped for solo players, and the final season became a tournament for a top prize of $40,000, hence the rename to ''The $40,000 Chain Reaction''.