I was given 2 days to build a news-room compatible version of the game show ‘Family Feud’ to promote the 2014 iteration on Network 10.
It had been 7 years since the last episode of ‘Bert’s Family Feud’ had gone to air on the Nine Network, and memories of how the game was played were not abundant.
So, when the producers first approached us to play a game on Monday morning’s show, they hadn’t thought about how dynamic the graphics needed to be.
Luckily, I’m a big fan of game shows and knew how the game was played and understood at that time, it was an important title for the network, as it was to go into the prime 6pm timeslot.
So, I was given the weekend to build a version of the game that would work in the station’s studio control rooms (using mos-active rundown controls, designed for live and news shows), different to the control rooms of the studio that the actual show was filmed in.
I built a transition logic scene that would allow for producers to add the game board + 8 answers into the rundown, which were triggered in turn by the operator in the control room.
The first time the graphics were run, I didn’t have a chance to brief the operators in time, so I ran them myself from the auxiliary control room… I confess, I’m a better designer and developer than I am operator, so the timing to air was less than perfect. The executive producer, Rob McKnight, was still chuffed at the time saying, “That’s how live TV should work! It should go wrong sometimes!”.
I was pretty ecstatic with the result and response – especially as these graphics ended up being used several times, whenever Grand Denyer dropped in for a visit – I just gave up the control seat for those more experienced.