Game Show Disclaimers

[WhammyPower]

I remember part of the song being changed for seemingly exactly this reason.

Yep, *that* was from the Czechoslovakia deal.

[Bertie Bott]

I remember part of the song being changed for seemingly exactly this reason.

Yep, *that* was from the Czechoslovakia deal.

The new lyric was “to Czech and Slovakia and back” changed from “to Czechoslovakia and back”

[whewfan]

On I'm Telling, they had a disclaimer that said that the siblings were allowed to ask for another question if they felt the topic was too embarrassing to be told on tv.

I can't remember if they had a disclaimer about it, but wasn't it known on Studs that every answer was provided by the writers, and not directly from the person that the question was asked to.

[Dbacksfan12]

On I'm Telling, they had a disclaimer that said that the siblings were allowed to ask for another question if they felt the topic was too embarrassing to be told on tv.

Was this in the credits?  I looked for it in about three different episodes and didn't see it mentioned once.

[whewfan]

I thought I saw it on at least ONE episode... but I know I read someplace that the kids were allowed to ask for another question if they didn't feel comfortable answering the question asked. They probably only put the disclaimer on the episode where it happened... it might've been one of the celebrity episodes.

[trustno1]

Early episodes of WitWiCS had a disclaimer to the effect of   "information was accurate as of tape date".

Many/most BBC quiz shows use "All information correct at time of recording":

I think they do that on some ITV shows as well.

[Allstar87]

I can't remember if they had a disclaimer about it, but wasn't it known on Studs that every answer was provided by the writers, and not directly from the person that the question was asked to.

I do have one episode where this was pretty much spelled out...when Mark asked the contestant to explain her answer further, she responded "I don't write this stuff!"

Here's the disclaimer.

[Jay Temple]

Regarding "correct at time of taping", I remember seeing it at least once on Jeopardy, and maybe twice. The one that I recall was something close to, "1 of 2 members of President Reagan's original Cabinet who are still in the same post." One of the two either was no longer in the Cabinet or had been moved to different post.

[JasonA1]

I was reminded of this one from Monopoly:

Contestants are advised that the first roll of the dice in the second round must advance the players to a property space. In this program, the first roll did not count and the program was edited to eliminate it.

-Jason

[johnnya2k3]

One other disclaimer from Joker's Wild/Tic Tac Dough I remember seeing: "Some audience and contestant shots were post-recorded."

Whenever gold was offered on TPIR in the '90s, Rod Roddy would say, "The value of the gold was determined at the close of business on the day of taping"; that disclaimer appeared on-screen one time on the Doug Davidson version following the end credits.

And Lynne Thigpen's disclaimer VO on Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego? was: "All contestants have been briefed regarding game rules prior to their appearance. All geographical information was accurate as of the date this program was recorded" (the VTR date was below the copyright notice)

/Supermarket Sweep should've used that "audience shots were post-recorded" disclaimer themselves

[gromit82]

Regarding "correct at time of taping", I remember seeing it at least once on Jeopardy, and maybe twice. The one that I recall was something close to, "1 of 2 members of President Reagan's original Cabinet who are still in the same post." One of the two either was no longer in the Cabinet or had been moved to different post.

I remember watching that episode (http://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=92). Ironically, the information in the clue was still correct at the time of broadcast, although many viewers (including myself at the time) didn't realize it. Caspar Weinberger had announced his resignation as Secretary of Defense on Nov. 5, 1987. When the episode was broadcast on Nov. 13, he was still technically holding that position because his resignation didn't take effect until his successor was confirmed, which had not yet occurred.

[whewfan]

One other disclaimer from Joker's Wild/Tic Tac Dough I remember seeing: "Some audience and contestant shots were post-recorded."

Whenever gold was offered on TPIR in the '90s, Rod Roddy would say, "The value of the gold was determined at the close of business on the day of taping"; that disclaimer appeared on-screen one time on the Doug Davidson version following the end credits.

And Lynne Thigpen's disclaimer VO on Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego? was: "All contestants have been briefed regarding game rules prior to their appearance. All geographical information was accurate as of the date this program was recorded" (the VTR date was below the copyright notice)

/Supermarket Sweep should've used that "audience shots were post-recorded" disclaimer themselves

TJW and TTD (Play the Percentages did this too... Bullseye didn't show their audience too often) probably had the post audience shot disclaimer just to be sure, and acknowledge that the audience shots are not live on tape. TPIR, at least during the Barker years, NEVER did post-production shots of the audience. The only time something may be done in post is if Bob mentions a previous contestant, they may get a shot of that contestant sitting in the audience later during a commercial break. Most game shows also acknowledged if shows were edited for broadcast.

[GameShowGuru]

Here's a (standard) disclaimer from "Make Me Laugh" (at 27:48 mark):

[calliaume]

This is how I got in trouble.  In Gil Fates' What's My Line? book, he wrote Celebrity Sweepstakes had the following disclaimer:

Some of the questions were based on general and specific knowledge and information furnished by the celebrities to the production company prior to the show.  Celebrities have been furnished with joke answers as well as with some of the questions and answers.

Which, to me, sounded a lot fishier than The Hollywood Squares' claim that "actual questions and answers may be given or discerned by the celebrities" - if you're giving people joke answers and possible bluff answers, they'll probably figure out what the questions are.

In any case, I put it on my (now deceased) web page.  And a couple years later, Jim MacKrell told me that information was wrong - the celebs weren't given the answers at all.  And on the last episode on YouTube, he's right - no disclaimer other than the standard selected in advance.

Side note:  yes, Carol Wayne really was smarter than we thought - Jim said when the cameras weren't running, "she always had her nose in a book."

[whewfan]

Related to that, Buddy Hackett was given bluff answers to questions, but never the question. Buddy would actually do research because he wanted to give the right answers. This got him into a little trouble, because during a series of tapings, he was giving a lot of right answers. There was a question about what country had the most doctors per capita, and he quipped "It's got to be the country with the most Jews... it's got to be Isreal."... he was right! After the show, Buddy was called from his square and questioned by producers, and in that same episode, his square is noticeably vacant during the end credits.

When Cliff Arquette came back after recovering from a stroke, he was missing answers to questions about history, which was unusual, because he was a history expert. To not make him look bad, they decided to give Cliff the right answers to some questions.