Love Me Love Me Not

PILOT SPIEL:

''Welcome to the game of love, the game that makes the world go round, Love Me Love Me Not in which these four beautiful young women: Sally, Elisa, Katina, and Teresa using all their feminine wiles are determined to avoid being captured by two eager rivals Peter and Bob who are just as determined to capture them all. Now, meet the star of "Love Me Love Me Not", your host, ROSS SHAFER!''

SERIES SPIEL:

''Welcome to the game of love, the game that makes the world go round, Love Me Love Me Not in which these three beautiful women/handsome men: (insert two women/men) and (insert third woman/man) using all their feminine wiles/masculine charms are determined to avoid being captured by two eager rivals (insert guy's/girl's 1st name) and (insert guy's/girl's 2nd name) who are just as determined to capture them all. Now meet the star of "Love Me Love Me Not", your host ROSS SHAFER!''

The Canadian dating game show that began in 1984 as M'ama Non M'ama.

Main Game
Two members of the opposite sex faced a panel of three members of the opposite sex (four in the pilot). The main contestants' job was to capture the entire panel while the panel did their best to avoid being captured. Genders change positions from show to show.

Round 1
The entire panel started with $100. The championship contestant picked a panelist who then read a true/false statement about love & romance. The champion's job was to guess whether the statement is true or false in order to capture that panelist. The challenger did the same with another panelist, and then the champion played the last panelist. While in the pilot since there were four panelists, both contestants played one more time. Incorrect answers gave the controlling panelist $100.

Round 2
For the remainder of the game, the contestants took turns picking panelists whom they haven't owned with each mistake giving each chosen panelist an additional $100. At any point in the game, the players could try to steal an opponent's panelist. This rule was automatically used if the entire panel was caught. Play continued until one player has captured all three panelists or if twelve questions (eleven in case of the champion) were asked. The first player to capture the entire panel or the player with the most captures won the game and $1,000, and the panelist with the most money also won the game.

Pilot Rules
In the pilot, even though there were four panelists, the contestants had to capture only three of them to win the game.

Tiebreaker
If the game ended in a tie, a tiebreaker question was asked to whichever side (sometimes both).

Main Contestants
The hostess asked a Card Sharks-type question to the main contestants if they had the same number of captures. The champion guessed what the actual number is, while the challenger guessed whether the champion's answer was higher or lower than the actual answer. To win, the challenger's higher or lower answer must be correct; but if the answer's the opposite or if the champion's answer was right on the nose, the champion won.

2-Panelist Mode
If two panelists were tied in money, they continued asking questions but to only the winning contestant until one of them fooled him/her first, at which point that panelist won an additional $100 and the game. If the max number of questions were already asked, then the tied panelists played the same Card Sharks-typed question as the main contestants did. The panelist closer to the left gave a numerical answer while the other guessed if the actual answer is higher or lower. The winner of the question won the game.

3-Panelist Mode
If all three contestants were tied, then the hostess read a numerical tiebreaker question to all three panelists. Each panelist wrote down his/her answer and the panelist with the closest guess was declared the winner and received an additional $100.

Losing panelists still received $100 and remained on the panel for a maximum of five games, or until they made it to the bonus round. The winners of the game went on to play the bonus game called "The Chase Around the Daisy".

The Chase Around the Daisy (Bonus Round)
The two winners stood on opposite petals of a giant daisy onstage; its petals were numbered 1-8. The winning contestant stood at petal #1, and the winning panelist stood at petal #6. The winning contestant had 40 seconds (originally 45, 50 before that) to catch the panelist by landing on the same petal as the panelist. S/he did that by answering true/false love & romance questions posed by host Shafer. Each correct answer moved the contestant one petal forward and earned $100, but each incorrect answer moved the panelist one petal forward.

The game stopped when time ran out (at which point the winning panelist won $100 from the winning contestant's $700 for each petal that separated them the long way around; this was later changed to both contestants winning nothing) or if the winning panelist captured the winning contestant (the other way around) via a string of wrong answers, thereby giving the panelist a trip to Hawaii (originally $1,400 in cash). If the winning contestant can successfully capture the winning panelist before either of these events happen, the winning contestant won a new car (originally the car and $700).

In the pilot, a loss meant the winning contestant won $100/correct answer; while a win meant that the winning panelist won $1,000/correct answer in addition to having the winning contestant win a car.

Win or lose, the panelist became the challenger in the next game. Players remained as contestants until they won the bonus round, or were eliminated.

Games usually straddled episodes, meaning time could run out in the middle of a game, and it would have to be completed on the next episode; however, the bonus round was played at the beginning of the show on only one episode.

International Versions
The original version of Love Me Love Me Not better known as M'ama non M'ama was hosted by Mark Predolin along with Sabrina Ciuffini (who was later replaced by Ramona Dell'Albate from 1984 until 1985) as co-host aired on Retequattro from 1983 until 1985.

A British version of the show hosted by Nino Firetto and Debbie Greenwood briefly aired on ITV in 1988.

Trivia
Pilot announcer Jackson Beck is best known for his voiceover work in Paramount cartoons including voicing for Buzzy the Crow & Popeye's longtime rival Bluto. He later did announcing work for the 80s version of G.I.Joe.

The pilot was taped at the CBS Studios in New York, New York, while the series was taped at CKVU-TV Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Links
Rules for Love Me Love Me Not

YouTube Videos
Intro for Love Me Love Me Not

The Chase Around the Daisy Bonus Game

The Pilot
Part 1

Part 2