GAME PLAY
Three contestants competed. In the first part of the game (usually, but not limited to two questions) correct answers to questions were worth $1,000. Sometimes questions were open-ended, presented with clues first, or given with four choices. The first to buzz-in with the right answer got the money, wrong answers opened it up to the other players.




After the opening round, �Dis or Dat� was played. Seven clues were presented that pertained to either of two categories or both. One guess was allowed per clue, right answers were worth $1,000.




In the second segment, questions were worth $2,000. At the end of this segment, the $2,000,000 question was played. At the beginning of the question, the value was $2,000,000. With every passing moment the amount dropped rapidly. Buzzing in after all the question�s choices were given gave you a shot at whatever the amount was at the time. As you may expect, there was much delaying before all the choices were ever read, so nobody ever won more than a few hundred dollars.


In the third segment, questions were worth $3,000. At the conclusion of this segment, an elimination question was played worth $5,000. Troy read a math problem (ignoring the order of operations) based on pop culture and other trivia. The players had 30 seconds to figure out and write down the correct answer (with added distractions). Correct answers were worth $5,000. The lowest scoring player after this question was eliminated.


The two remaining players tackled the �Jack Attack.� A category was introduced and seven questions were played. One clue was shown and several possible matches flew by on the screen. Buzzing in when the right match appeared meant $5,000 for the player � wrong guesses docked the player five grand. After all seven had been guessed, or played for a second time due to wrong answers, the final totals were revealed and the highest scorer got their score money. The second place player got a consolation prize.


NOTES
The TV game was based on the popular CD-Rom game �You Don�t Know Jack.� There were about a dozen PC games, two books, a tabletop game and two PlayStation releases. It was tried for the WB a few years before its debut with Paul Reubens as host, but didn�t go through. The version that did make it to TV was pretty much doomed from the start as ABC just blew through the six episodes they ordered and never spoke of it again.

The show�s announcer Tom Gottlieb is a writer for the show as well as the host of several of the CD-ROM games, as well as the now-offline online version. He also did voiceovers for TNT, several commercials and others.

Paul Reubens was famous as Pee Wee on the critically acclaimed CBS children�s show.

Some celebrities appeared over the short run, including Regis Philbin on the first episode, seen here.






The show�s ABC pilot was the final show aired.

MY THOUGHTS
Wildly clever and pretty funny, it fell flat due to a lack of substance. There was little game there compared to the computer games fans came to know, and for the average viewer it was just too much to take. Paul Reubens pulls off the fake game show host thing pretty well and it looked nice, but...

JAY SAYS...
Cast - 1.5
Game - 0.5
Bells and Whistles - 1.5
Prize - 1.5
Tilt - 0.5

[ 05.5 ]

People still quote one of the show�s most famous opening gimme questions � �who was the first contestant to buzz-in?� The prize money for the winner was almost way too high and the prizes for the runners up nearly non existent, hence the half-off. Most of the pieces were there for them to work with � they just didn�t assemble the game.

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