Blockbusters (Stylised as BLOCKBUSTERS), is a British game show originally shown on the ITV Network (Produced by ITV Franchise, Central), between 1983 to 1993. The show switched network a few times and it continued from 1993-2001, again in 2012 and 2019. The show was well known for its blue and yellow honeycomb design and its longest serving host, Bob Holness. As the honeycomb board was filled with letters, including the letter P, the show has its own comedic twist with the saying "Can I have a 'P' please Bob?", when asking for that letter, which sounds like someone asking to go to for a pee (urinate).
Format[]
Main Game[]
Like the 1980 U.S. version, a solo player competed against a pair of contestants. The game board consisted of 20 interlocking yellow hexagons, arranged in five columns of four. Each hexagon contained a letter of the alphabet (except X and Z, although letter Z appeared occasionally during the Gold Run). A contestant would choose one of the letters and would be asked a general-knowledge trivia question whose correct answer began with the chosen letter. (A typical question might be, "What 'P' is a musical instrument with 88 keys?" The answer would be a piano.) The phrasing that contestants would use to ask for a letter has entered the language and is frequently heard to this day. It is also the source of a pun – "Can I have a 'P' please, Bob?"; 'having a pee' being slang for urinating.
The game board is designed in such a way that a tied game was not a possible finishing result. Even if all 20 hexagons were filled (which did occur at least twice, once in the very first series, and once in the first Sky version) there would always be a winner.
The game began with a toss-up question to play for control of the board, starting with a letter that was chosen at random. The teams or players could buzz in during the middle of reading a question. If a player or team got the correct answer, they gained control of that hexagon and were given the chance to choose another one. If the contestant answered incorrectly, the opposing team or player was given a chance to answer it after the host re-read the question. If nobody answered it correctly, the host asked another question whose answer began with that same letter. Each correct answer won £5. In the case of the two-player team, each player won whatever money the team accumulated.
The solo player attempted to complete a vertical connection of white hexagons from the top of the board to the bottom; that required at least four correct answers. The pair attempted to connect a path from left to right with blue hexagons (purple during the Aspel era), requiring at least five spaces. The first side to connect their path won the game. The first player or team to win two games won the match. When either party was one correct answer away from completing their path, the hexagons forming their path would flash to indicate this. If both were one correct answer away, all lit hexagons on the board would flash, indicating that the situation was effectively "Blockbusters either way" (later referred to as a "mutual space" on the board), and the next player to give a correct answer would win the game unless the contestant chose a panel which would not give them the win, which was sometimes used as a safety tactic to avoid handing the initiative to the opponent in case they gave the wrong answer.
Gold Run[]
The winner of the match went on to play the Gold Run bonus round; if the pair won, only one player on the team could play, with the turns alternating at each Gold Run. The board consisted of a pattern of green hexagons similar to that of the main game, but the hexagons had 2 to 4 letters inside them; those letters were the initials of the correct answer. (For instance, if a contestant chose "BS" and the host said "Where people kiss in Ireland", the correct answer would be "Blarney Stone.") When the contestant guessed correctly, the hexagon turned gold. However, if the contestant passed, it turned black, blocking the player's path; it was then up to the contestant to work around it. The object was to horizontally connect the left and right sides of the board within 60 seconds (or before blocking off all possible horizontal connections).
If the players were successful they won a special prize. If the Gold Run was not won, each correct answer paid £10.
A famous short piece of music (three sharp notes on a synth-like horn in a slapstick style) was played if a contestant ran out of time on a Gold Run, often producing amused reactions in the studio; the same three notes played on an electric guitar act as the time's-up buzzer on the Challenge version.
Championship Format[]
Defending champions could keep going for up to five matches undefeated, in order to win a major prize. From the seventh ITV series, it was reduced to three, so that more contestants could take part over the course of a series. In the first Sky One series this was changed back up to five matches and reduced to three again on BBC Two. In the second Sky One series, it increased to five again. For the Challenge series, the maximum amount remained at five matches.
Prizes[]
In the first two series, all contestants who appeared on the show received a Concise Oxford Dictionary and a sweatshirt (both having the show's logo on them). By the third series, the computer game based on the show was added. Within a year, the sweatshirt was replaced with a cardigan (again, with the show's logo on it) in a choice of colours, and an embossed filofax (later an electronic organizer) accompanied the dictionary. In the first Sky One series, it was changed to a Blockbusters Encyclopedia and T-shirt. In the BBC Two series it was a fountain pen. In the second Sky One series it was a Blockbusters Dictionary and a CD ROM. In the Challenge series the players received an Elonex E-book reader.
Changes on Comedy Central[]
In this series, the format was modified so that each episode was a standalone contest between a complete panel of three contestants. The prize money was also increased from previous incarnations, to £20 per correct answer in the main game (£100 for celebrity editions) and £50 per correct answer in an unsuccessful Gold Run (£150 for celebrity editions). Spot prizes existed in this series, occurring once per episode when a certain hex was selected. If each side won one game each, the deciding game of past formats was replaced with a sudden death playoff entitled the Hexagon Standoff. The two teams competed to answer one question, and if correct, they'd go to the Gold Run; otherwise, the opposition went through. In the Gold Run, the contestant had a choice of two categories for their question board. All contestants took away a Blockbusters-branded hoodie and "reusable cup". This series used a white background during the Gold Run and passes turned the space dark blue.
Trivia[]
Starting in 1986, at the end of every Friday programme, everyone in the studio (including host Bob Holness) did a dance called the Hand Jive. This is because five programmes were recorded every day, and a future contestant got bored waiting his turn for several shows a day; so they did this dance before they went home. The way the dance went was as follows:
Knee-clap
Hand-clap
Hand-over-hand (×2)
Potato-hands (×2)
Elbow-point-twirl (×2)
(Repeat ×3)
Knee-clap
Hand-clap
Clap in the air.
The Hand Jive was dropped when the show moved to the BBC in 1997.
From 1987–1990, a spinoff show called Champion Blockbusters was produced, and ran for four series. It was played similar to the original version, except that the contestants were former champions who had all won Gold Runs and/or reached the five-match maximum.
Merchandise[]
Blockbusters spawned a number of items of merchandise. 12 quiz books were released from the show[1] which also led to a spin-off: "Blockbusters Gold Run Volumes 1-5" being produced.[2]
In 1986, Waddingtons created a board game version of the show, which was named Game of the Year in 1986 by The British Association of Toy Retailers.[3] This led to several successful spin offs; a "Gold Run" Card Game, a Junior Blockbusters board game (a children's edition) and a Super Blockbusters board game (essentially, a second edition standard game with its own set of "Gold Run" cards).[4] A computer game version of the show was also created for the Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum.
In 2006, a DVD Interactive Game version was released with Bob Holness reprising his position at the helm. The DVD is based on the same format as the TV show, with virtual set design and game graphics matching the original version of the programme.[5]
Music[]
Theme: "Quiz Wizard" by Ed Welch
NOTE: Although the theme was updated as the years went by, the BBC version was the only version that did not use it. Instead, it used a similar sounding theme (presumably it was the same theme, but with changes in the notes).
Making the Title Sequence[]
The special title sequence for Blockbusters took almost a year to get from its conception onto the television screen, and there were many people involved along the way.
The sequence began with the concept, which was intended to be a journey starting with a view of the Earth from space and ending in the Blockbusters studio.
The initial step was to break down the 42 seconds of title music into phrases and any points where synchronization with the visuals was specific. This was done by transferring the opening music onto magnetic track which enabled me to time the music to the frame. Next came the storyboard which was a shot by shot illustration of the content of the titles. I then drew up designs for the buildings in the cityscape, and this included a drawing of how the city would be arranged in anticipation of the camera moves.
Then Central's model makers constructed the buildings from foam board and perspex, and covered them with metallic foils. Light-boxes were wired inside some buildings where either transparencies or windows were seen. A strip of foil with pinholes was placed between the buildings with underlighting to give an appearance of traffic on the road. The cityscape was approximately twelve feet square, and the studio set about five feet square, while the corridor to the studio was only three feet in length but distortion of the perspective gave it a much longer look. The figureheads which surround the real studio were also moulded in miniature.
When complete the models were transported to the studio in London to be filmed. They were shot on a computer controlled motion control rig, which is a camera set-up designed for special effects work. The rig stood about ten feet high and weighed two tons, rolling back and forth on tracks, and despite this weight was accurate to thousandths of an inch. Each camera move was assessed on a video monitor linked to the camera.
The opening Earth shot was done using a white globe mounted against black velvet with a slide of the Earth detail projected onto it. Streaking and slit-scan effects were later added to this shot to create the background. The cityscape had to be filmed in a sealed studio filled with special smoke and lit from below, internally and from above. Everything was shot single frame and the movements all controlled by computer. Several tests were filmed to correct exposure and rates of move, then modifications such as the roll (giving the feeling of being in a helicopter as we turn into the main street) were added to the computer data. For the corridor model I had the ceiling made with removable slats so that as the camera travelled along, each one could be taken away to allow the movement without losing the enclosed feel of the corridor itself. The picture on the walls (to right and left) and the gameboard were all a Sequence of transparencies alternated, skip-framed and all were matted-in using false walls, backlighting and multi-passes.
The final model (the studio set) was the most difficult to shoot because to create the Illusion of the figureheads travelling back into their position on the set each one had to be filmed individually, blacking out the remainder of the set every time. They do not move at all, the camera tracks back, using a different move for each sculpture on separate passes. We had a shaped neon strip made for the back of the set and used fibre optics to light the heads.
This was the first stage of shooting the title sequence. Once the model shoot was seen to be correct it was assembled in sequence and the computer animators 'rotoscoped' the relevant frames of film to use as a guide for the plotting of the animation for the flying hexagons. Rotoscoping is the tracing off of frames from the model shoot, the buildings, corridor, studio, etc. These drawings let the computer know where things are on the film and so where the hexagons ought to be at any given frame. Once we had decided how many hexagons were needed on the flight paths of each, teh computer plotter drew each once onto sheets of acetate. These were then painted black and white film.
This brought me to the third stage of the process which involved the combining of all the elements onto one film. At this point we had film of the model shoot and the high contrast of the hexagons. For duplicating purposes on the opticals, special film stock was required - interpositive. Another negative was made by running the original negative with the high contrast creating a matte onto the new negative, enabling us to then 'burn in' the colour using back lit sheets of acetate (called 'cels') and coloured gelatine. Each of these corresponded to the position in each frame of the flying hexagons. All the cels and various film stocks used has to run in sync and again this was shot on another special camera rig using aerial-image and bi-packing.
Finally the music track was recorded on one inch video tape in sync with the telecined film. The transferring of the film onto tape was done on a steadigate system which copies the film one frame at a time to eliminate weave, and then digitally colour graded. The addition of the word Blockbusters was taken from a video rostrum from lettering, white on black, and coloured electronically, then keyed into the one inch master tape.
And that, briefly, is how the Blockbusters titles were made!!
Additional Pages[]
References[]
- ↑ http://discover.nls.uk/default.ashx?q=Blockbusters&search-box-submit=go&searchtype=1&cx=004988112283334510717%3Alqhse3e39qi&ie=UTF-8
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20100709095407/http://www.80sactual.com/2009/01/blockbusters.html
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20051229071806/http://www.toyretailersassociation.co.uk/toty/80.htm
- ↑ http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AzT5pruwnbg/RsNfiv8AotI/AAAAAAAAB2s/1EAUnhbJy1o/s1600-h/blockbusters4.jpg
- ↑ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000HN32D2