History Series / Debt

* GameShowHost: Wink Martindale, best known for ''Series/TicTacDough''. Commonly known as one of the cheesier hosts in the business, he turned it UpToEleven for this show.

!!GameShowTropes in use:

* Personnel:
** TheAnnouncer: Julie Claire.
** GameShowHost: Wink Martindale, best known for ''Series/TicTacDough''. Commonly known as one of the cheesier hosts in the business, he turned it UpToEleven for this show.

!!This show provides examples of:
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Brought in by the "''Debt'' Security Guard" when tempting a contestant with Bet Your Debt, but only if s/he won Get Outta Debt.
* CanisLatinicus: For whatever reason, Wink occasionally referred to the contestants as "contesti" during the show's opening.
* CatchPhrase: "Let's get this party started!"
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:[[invoked]] Having only five clues in each category of Round 2 made it so the vast majority of the time, the opening bid was four questions. This would then force the other player to bid a perfect five or tell the first player to complete their bid.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The first-season game board looked kind of like a horizontal ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' board.
** In early episodes, the show's logo very strongly resembled that of Visa credit cards.
* NonStandardGameOver: Gambling Debt could end as early as the ''third'' category if one contestant got too far behind of the other, making it mathematically impossible to catch up.
* OpeningNarration: As described at the top of the page.
* TheStoic: The "''Debt'' Security Guard", a bald and bearded man (nicknamed "Mr. Clean") whose only role was to present the BriefcaseFullOfMoney when Wink explained Bet Your Debt. During one famous instance where a Bet Your Debt winner ripped off his toupee, the guard put it on and danced a bit.
* WritersCannotDoMath: If you add a negative number (the value of the clues) to a negative number (the player's score), the sum would be even lower, thus the contestant would end up going ''deeper'' into debt. Presumably they simply opted to overlook this, otherwise the game wouldn't work.
* YouWannaGetSued:
** The original logo looked almost exactly like the Visa card logo and, after threats of a lawsuit, was changed to a more generic red title surrounded by a light-green border.
** The first round was changed after threats of a lawsuit from Columbia [=TriStar=] Television, successor in interest to Merv Griffin Enterprises, claiming too much resemblance to ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''.
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American GameShow hosted by genre veteran Wink Martindale which ran on Creator/{{Lifetime}} from 1996-98, and could be argued as the UrExample of the show that revived the whole genre after an early-1990s swoon. It got good ratings but was canceled after two seasons when it was learned that some [[PeripheryDemographic half of those ratings came from viewers who were men]].

* CatchPhrase:"Let's get this party started!"

Three contestants began the game, each with fairly sizable amounts of debt (ranging from $6,000 to $10,000). The object of the game was to eliminate your debt by answering pop culture questions, each worth "negative dollars" (i.e., -$100) that would subtract from your debt.

** Considering that the second round was a near-direct clone of Bid-a-Note from ''Series/{{Name That Tune}}'', it's a wonder there were no threats of a suit from Ralph Edwards (the producer of the 1970s Name That Tune).

* BonusSpace: Round 1's Debt-O-Nator.
** In the first season, this was "the hardest question on the board" and was valued at $500.
** In the second season, the Debt-O-Nator was issued to an entire category and was worth double the dollars.

* WritersCannotDoMath: If you add a negative number (the value of the clues) to a negative number (the player's score), the sum would be even lower, thus the contestant would end up going ''deeper'' into debt.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/debt_set.PNG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The set and logo from the first season.]]

-->OpeningNarration, as read by '''Wink Martindale'''.

American GameShow hosted by genre veteran Wink Martindale which ran on Lifetime from 1996-98, and could be argued as the UrExample of the show that revived the whole genre after an early-1990s swoon. It aired on Creator/{{Lifetime}}, a cable/satellite network that caters to women. It got good ratings but was canceled after two seasons when it was learned that some [[PeripheryDemographic half of those ratings came from viewers who were men]].

** The first round was changed after threats of a lawsuit from Merv Griffin, claiming too much resemblance to ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''.

** The original logo looked almost exactly like the Visa card logo and, after threats of a lawsuit, was changed to a more generic maroon title surrounded by a light-blue border.