TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Played by an All-American TV Family!

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

TRIVIAL PURSUIT host, Christopher Knight, former “Brady Bunch” child star who played Peter Brady will be joined by four of his TV show siblings, during “Brady Week” on “Trivial Pursuit”. “Brady” contestants are: Jan (Eve Plumb), Greg (Barry Williams), Bobby (Mike Lookinland), and Cindy (Susan Olsen). But, no appearances by Marcia (Maureen McCormick).

“Brady” contestants from left to right: Eve Plumb (Jan), Mike Lookinland (Bobby), and Susan Olsen (Cindy).

“Brady Week” is a five day event that will have five of the six children (Knight included) from the 1970’s series, “The Brady Bunch” playing “Trivial Pursuit”. The first four days features one Brady child per game as “America’s Team Captain” at their own designated podium and representing “The Brady Bunch” trivia by asking questions to regular contestants (non-Brady’s that is) pertaining to a special “Brady” category on “Trivial Pursuit” for the whole week.

On the fifth and final day of “Brady Week”, all five of the Brady children will be playing the game together. Three at the contestant podiums side-by-side against each other, one at “America’s Captain” podium, along with Knight hosting.

All winnings earned by the final round “Brady” winner were donated to charity.

They all took turns as Team Captains during the week. But Barry Williams (Greg Brady) was the Team Captain for the final game where they all played. Williams brought with him on stage, the original “Tiki Idol” from the Brady’ Hawaii episode. He said it was to distract his TV siblings and wish them bad luck.

Eve Plumb (Jan Brady) proved to be especially competitive, blurting out “F*@$!” upon frustration of not being able to buzz through on a question she knew due to Mike Lookinland (Bobby Brady) buzzing-in at the same time.

Some categories included: Poetry, Actors, Botany, World War II, and Celebrities.

Host, Knight, seemed a bit more relaxed since the first show taping I attended, and even comfortable at mixing it up with a little bit of Improv during the game.

For those of you who haven’t been following the television version of this game, here’s how it’s played:

During the first round, three players compete by answering trivia by “America” or random people asking their question via video. First player to get three wedges first, automatically moves-on to the next round. Something folks at home may not know, this contestant awaits in the audience, not off-stage.

In the second round, “the hot pursuit round”, the two remaining players compete to get three wedges the quickest. Whomever answers a question to a category correctly, gets to automatically answer the next question. If that question is answered wrong, the next question is an “all answer” question meaning, anyone of the two contestants can answer.

In the third and final round, the remaining player left has to answer whatever questions are thrown at him/her after the categories are systematically shuffled. This contestant must beat “America’s” total in order to win the game. For each wrong answer, the money goes to “America”. If “America” wins, the money is split between the people who participated in asking the questions during that particular game.
Categories in the final round are worth: $500, $1000, $2000, $3000, $4000, and $5000

TRIVIAL PURSUIT:Stump a Contestant!

First of all, I have to admit, I have never played the popular board game, “Trivial Pursuit”. I only have other game shows to compare it to.

The show is hosted by a Christopher Knight, a.k.a., Peter Brady from “The Brady Bunch”. During the early tapings of this show, he was flat with not a lot of charisma for a host. He limited himself to what he was told by the producers. I hope this changed as he got more comfortable with hosting during later tapings.

Above photo: Host, Christopher Knight waiting in between takes on his new game show.

Three contestants challenge each other in several rounds of trivia questions asked by people across the country who were videotaped by production asking their questions via a big screen in the studio. Questions are placed within topic categories. For example, sports, television, etc.

Players must collect six color-coded game pieces, or “wedges” by answering their questions correctly. The two players with the most wedges by the end of round one, go against each other in the second round. The player with the least, is sent home at the end of the first round.

Contestants in action on stage.

“America’s Team Captain” (a live in-studio guest)who is seen via a screen and is there to represent and make comments, along with pre-recorded questions given by other everyday folks, trying to stump the players with their trivia.

The two contestants go against each other in the second round, called “the hot pursuit round”. Whomever answers the most questions correctly, therefore, gaining the most wedges, wins this round and goes-on to the final round, where he, or she answers questions randomly shuffled within six different categories and goes head-to-head with “America’s Team Captain”. With each question answered incorrectly, the money in banked by “America” (really, the people that participated with their questions). If by the end of this round there is more money earned by “America”, than by “the studio” (or, contestant), “America” gets to split the winnings. Typically that may be somewhere between $200 to even $1000.

One attempt to stump a contestant was the question, “Who owns the Kwik-E-Mart on The Simpsons?” The contestant answered with “Apu”. Later, after the show taping, an audience member yelled-out that the answer was incorrect. Any “Simpsons” fans out there know the answer? Maybe you’d do better on “Trivia Pursuit”.

The show is set to air staring September 22nd. Here in Los Angeles, “My13″.

AUDIENCE COMMENTS from the show’s run-through, here: http://hollywoodjunket.com/TrivialPursuit_audiencewrap.html