Hello, and welcome to Part 2 of my PatententedHowToWinGameShowsBehindTheScenesReminiscence of the often-overlooked 2002 quiz show Shafted. And this week I’m looking back at the pre-production phase of the show.
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At this point, the show had been commissioned, the host had been cast, the production team had been hired, contestants were being sought, the show’s set’s were being designed and built… and this is when it fell to me – and my colleagues Graeme Rickerby and Chris Ho – to start generating the bulk of the show’s content (namely, quiz questions, and host scripts.)
And so the three of us were ensconced in an office in one of the Channel Nine bungalows, where we began writing. And as we generated questions for hours on end, the show’s bible* – and its truly MASSIVE, multifaceted, multiple-user FileMaker Pro quiz question database – slowly began to take shape.
For a few weeks, we toiled away happily enough; creating questions, and feeling pretty excited about the brand new show we were all about to be part of. And when the UK version of the show premiered around this time, I think the general feeling was that that would add to our momentum, and really help our version, once the brand proved to be strong… But then, just a couple of weeks before our show’s premiere, the news came through that the UK version of Shafted had been axed, after only four of its 20 episodes had aired.
For a taste of the UK show, and to see how… well, depressing…. its climax could be, have a look at these final moments from an episode where the prize pool up for grabs was a whopping £217,000.
SPOILER ALERT: As happened so heartbreakingly frequently on our version, both finalists ultimately decided to shaft each other, which meant that they both went home with absolutely nothing.
But never fear! The sensitive and compassionate UK host Robert Kilroy-Silk is on hand to comfort and console them… which he does by incredulously asking “How could you do that? You’ve blown it! How could you do it?”
‘Shafted’ (UK)’s host Robert Kilroy-Silk. Empathy personified.
A couple of mumbled excuses follow, accompanied by close ups of the contestants’ disappointed, self-loathing faces, before Robert cheerily signs off, looking down the barrel of the camera and saying “They should have shared, then they could have walked away with £108,500 each! Now they’re leaving empty-handed. And they’ve only got themselves to blame. G’Night everybody!”
Mm, now that’s true feel-bad television. How can that actually be classified as entertainment? What audience is that for?
After our Executive Producer told us about the axing of the UK version – following it up with a little would-be pep talk – we all exchanged worried glances. This latest development certainly hadn’t inspired confidence. Would our version of the show soon be following suit? Was it doomed before it even began? Of course, none of us knew back then, but I certainly couldn’t say I felt 100% confident we were about to put something good, wholesome and fun out into the world…
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And that’s where I’ll leave it for this week. Next week I’ll be digging deeper into some other aspects of the show, but in the meantime, I’d really value your feedback…
Whenever I write one of these PatentedHowToWinGameShowsBehindTheScenesReminiscences, it tends to be a slightly random grab-bag of whatever recollections I have from working on the show in question. What I’d like to know is… is that okay by you? Of course, I’m only putting down stuff that I hope you’ll find interesting. But… do you? And is it presented in an agreeable format? Are there any other ways you’d like to see these structured? Would you like them to have more flowing narratives, or are you happy with the sort of ‘point form’ way that I present most of them? Or would you maybe prefer the memories to be even more simply presented; in a list, as I did for my memories of You May Be Right?
Any ideas or opinions you have would be greatly appreciated. As always, you can reach me at Stephen@HowToWinGameShows.com, or you can get in touch with me via Twitter or Facebook if you’d prefer.
Thanks so much in advance for your input, and I’ll see you back here next week!
* A show’s “bible” is part rule book, part blueprint and part user manual. It’s generated by the producer and / or executive producer, and can be used as a template for anyone producing a future iteration of the show (should its format be successful enough to sell to other territories).
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Really enjoying these insights into the industry! The format of Shafted fascinated me when it debuted, but I agree that the Prisoner’s Dilemma-style climax often led to nothing but despair and disappointment (with the obvious exception of the show’s financier).
I quite liked the extra twist that later British show The Bank Job added to the format – if both of the final two players chose Shaft, not only did they leave with nothing, but the money at stake was split evenly between the contestants who were already eliminated. You would still get the emotional distress of the two shafters-turned-shaftees regretting their decisions, but now you also see the elation of the others coming from nowhere to end up the true winners!
Thanks for your kind words, Michael – much appreciated. Thanks, too, for letting me know about ‘The Bank Job’ – I’d never even heard of it. Yes! What an elegant, satisfying solution to that problem with the format. Such a simple change/addition, and yet it would have made the whole show SO much more satisfying for the audience. If only ‘Shafted’ had thought of that… the show might have survived into its third, fourth or even fifth month!