Only Connect

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University Challenge was on ITV in the '80s.

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I'd argue its relatively unique in its genre. You have the common "general knowledge" quiz shows that every man and his dog knows about and can probably guess the answer to any of the questions (The Chase is a good example of this), then you have the elite level of quizzing (University Challenge) and then you have the in between ground like Only Connect (and to a certain extent Pointless). Some of OC is relatively obscure, but a lot of is relatively straight forward (and you can be really jammy and get a connection/fourth sequence/wall row/missing vowel answer by accident) and realistically you don't get 16 series out of a format if its unpopular (and after all it was promoted to BBC Two from BBC Four). Yes its tried to copy University Challenge's tournament format or get close to it and you still get people who think they're on University Challenge and want to nominate Fred...

I always consider it a productive episode if I get one of the questions right on OC. On occasion I'll get two. But most episodes I'll do well to get anything at all.

I'm always pleased if I get the connection round question and connecting wall right, I struggle with the sequences and missing vowels round.

Oops.

Google is your friend. "University Challenge aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC revived the programme on 21 September 1994 with Jeremy Paxman". It was based on the US show College Bowl, which was dropped in the late 1960s on TV, but continued as like a student thing. It will be back on TV in the US soon.

To be honest if you look at the broadcast history of it on ITV it's surprising it lasted as long as it did as it was aired in any old slot in any old region after a while, wasn't even networked until the final series, and even then received the high profile slot of, um, 11am apparently.

I remember it as a Sunday lunchtime show - 1pm on Tyne Tees between the networked Weekend World (and similar political shows) and the part-networked Farming Outlook. Anyone know where Granada usually scheduled it - being their own show did they place it in a more prominent slot?

So, in fact Paxo has now presented it for longer [1] than Bamber G did ?

I still mentally think of it as BG's ITV show, that has recently relocated to BBC 2 with Paxo !

[1] Not sure who has presented more eps though ?

Well BG as I said in the original post did 913 episodes and Paxo, well there's a table on Wiki that suggests the last 10 series or so have all had 37 episodes, so there's 370 there, another 10 series of 31 episodes, so that's 680 in total, and another four series of 27 each, so that's 108, so that's already 786, plus if this current run is another 37, that'll be 823. Another three series and episode count wise he'll overtake BG.



Odourless paint thinner does what it says on the tin. otherwise it wouldn't be odourless

I apologise for hurting people's heads here, but...

According to Sean Blanchflower, Bamber hosted 970 or 971 editions (including specials before and during 1987, and depending whether or not you count the 1992 Granadaland one-off), while Paxo had hosted 1,035 editions as of the end of the 2019-20 series (856 regular editions, 88 Christmas editions, 61 Professionals, 18 Reunited, and 12 other specials).

https://www.blanchflower.org/uc/results.html

Ow.

Why did we open that can of worms?

More Only Connect "fun"!

During this week's episode, the graphics during the round 1 Horned Viper question (starting at 10'20", and with a set of clues that should be of interest to TV Forum members!) stop animating, and the clock appears to stop counting down once the team reveals the 2-point clue. Odd!

That's just a graphics error. Nothing more than that. Similar instances have occurred on The Chase when the clock in the final round seems to gain/lose a second or two on occasion, which causes the Daily Fail to implode with delight.

But on a positive note, I got quite a few right this week on Only Connect. The mentioned one, the Family Fortunes one in the second round and at least two of the missing vowels. I don't feel any cleverer though