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|---|---|
 Give-n-Take title logo. | |
| Created by | Carruthers Co. Productions |
| Directed by | Bill Carruthers |
| Presented by | Jim Lange |
| Narrated by | Johnny Jacobs |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 60 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 Minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 8 – November 28, 1975 |
Give-n-Take was an American television game show similar in format to the 1960s game Say When!! which aired on CBS from September 8 to November 28, 1975.
Jim Lange hosted the series, with Johnny Jacobs announcing. The series, replacing Spin-Off (which itself was not a hit), ended after 60 episodes.
Main game
Four female contestants competed (males never competed for unexplained reasons), including a returning champion. Each contestant was seated in one portion of an eight-spaced board, shaped like a daisy.
Each contestant's bank was staked with a prize and the dollar value revealed to all contestants.
A prize was described (but not its value) and host Lange asked a question. The contestant who buzzed in and gave the correct answer took control of the four neutral spaces on the board, in addition to their own, giving them a total of five spaces. The other three contestants controlled the spaces in which they sat.
The contestant who answered the question correctly stopped a large spinning arrow in the middle of the board. The contestant on whose space the arrow stopped won control of the prize. That contestant must then choose one of the following:
- Keep the prize, in addition to whatever prizes she had already banked.
- Keep the prize and pass any other prize(s) she had banked to an opponent.
- Pass the prize, keeping all other prizes banked.
- Pass the prize and any other prize(s) banked.
After a prize was assigned, a bell or buzzer was heard indicating whether or not that contestant's bank value was below $5,000. The actual value of the bank was never revealed, only whether or not they were below the $5,000 target. Play then repeated in the same manner, with a new prize described.
A contestant could freeze at any point if she thought she was close to the $5,000 limit, preventing her from receiving any other prizes passed to her from her opponents.
If a contestant's bank value was over $5,000, that player was "frozen" and unable to accept any other prizes passed to them by their opponents. The player was then required to answer questions in the manner described above to pass some of their prizes and reduce the value of their bank.
The player whose bank was closest to $5,000 without going over won all the prizes in their bank and advanced to the bonus round. The other players left with parting gifts.
Bonus round
The champion selected one of the eight spaces on the board and stopped the arrow from spinning. If the arrow landed on the space selected, the contestant won $5,000 cash and all prizes described that day in addition to what they had already won; this generally totaled around $15,000.
Champions stayed on the show for a maximum of five days or until they reached CBS' $25,000 winnings limit.
Broadcast history
Give-n-Take debuted September 8, 1975 at 10:00 AM Eastern (9:00 Central), replacing the Nicholson-Muir Production Spin-Off (coincidentally also hosted by Lange). Up against Celebrity Sweepstakes on NBC (ABC did not program at 10:00 and returned the 10:30 slot to its affiliates six years earlier), the show suffered moreso due to its premiering on the same day that The Price is Right did an experimental series of hour-long broadcasts to celebrate its third anniversary.
When Price went back to its regular half-hour format on September 15, CBS ordered production of Give-n-Take to continue to fill the 10:00 AM slot until Price was ready to expand to a permanent hour-long format
On November 3, Price expanded to a full hour and Give-n-Take was given an ultimatum, being relocated to 4:00 PM (3:00 Central), typically known as the "death slot". Although it now faced the ailing soap Somerset on NBC and the short-lived revival of You Don't Say! on ABC, Give-n-Take now faced a new problem in the form of pre-emption.
At 10:00 AM, Give-n-Take was rarely pre-empted by affiliates as the 10:00-11:00 hour had proved spectacular in the ratings; however, at 4:00 PM, the series now commonly found itself ignored by affiliates in favor of cartoons, sitcom repeats, talk shows, movies, and even syndicated games. Not even its lead-in, the popular celebrity game Tattletales, could carry over its audience to Give-n-Take on the stations that did carry it in November.
Facing an uphill battle, unable to beat its weakened network competition, unable to hold the audience from its popular lead-in, beaten soundly by independent programming, and all but ignored by its own network, Give-n-Take ended three weeks later on November 28.
Episode status
The series is believed to be destroyed as per network practices; this is not certain as the series it replaced, Spin-Off, was found intact in 2000. Episode #15 (aired September 26, 1975) exists among private collectors.
See also
- Say When!! (a 1960s game show similar to Give-n-Take)
External links
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