Whoopi Goldberg’s home production. I guess her first tv production. The game involves people sitting in these giant squares or mini cubicles ( the way you look at it). These people are celebrities of some sort, either tv actors, or movie stars, stand up comedians, people with squeaky voices.
The compere has these set of questions that he asks, and then the small people sitting in giant squares give them hints ( similar to bluff) which could be right or wrong, the contestant then answers a yes or no to the hints provided. Based on whether the answer is correct or not, the contestant gets a square ( not literally ofcourse, but like in tic-tac-toe). ANd the contestant who scores the first line , gets a prize ( cash or kind) based on his luck.
then there is this concept of the magic square. One of the giant squares is a magic square unknown to the contestant. And if he or she gets it right, there is a bumper prize.
Ignore the lengthiness of the explanation, its plain and simple tic-tac-toe with people as the squares, and instead of plain moves, they gotta answer the questions to move a square.
Phew!! THAT was easy.
what is not so easy, is the aim of the game.
If it is a Whoopi Goldberg production it had to live up to expectations and be funny. And hence those celebrities are forever under the pressure to deliver one liners which are funny. And sometiimes they are , and sometimes they are so topical, that an average tv audience fails to find it funny.So its an averagely funny show on this count.
Or was it supposed to be a game show. With serious questions, or funny questions. And there are both type of questions. Plus there are typical, 2+2 is 4 or 5.
Or was it supposed to be a card bluff game. With each celebrity trying funny lines to introduce bluff. If that’s how easy bluff is, everyone has the right to be a millionaire.
Add to it a compere, who keeps taking digs 90 times at Whoopi, and 10 times at other celebrities put together.And keeps looking/talking to Whoopi to set a direction/find out if he’s doing ok? I guess we all know who the boss is. And Whoopi has the standard stand up routine type of responses.
And hey, if I am not mistaken I think, whoopi is always the centre of the square.
All in all, I guess too many cooks spoil the broth - as in
a) too many funny people, too many funny and too many not so funny lines.
b) too many concepts together - game show, tic tac toe, bluff.
c) too many squares to go through....
and usually two lines of completion and the time runs out....
usu before home improvement, so if you are killing time before watching home improvement, continue so but DONT plan your day around it.