Choose Up Sides (2)

A children's game show in which the audience was divided into two groups, the "Space Cadets", and the "Bronco Busters".( "Space Rangers" and the "Cowboys" on the CBS version).

Broadcast
NBC - January 7 – March 31, 1956

Packager
Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Productions

Hosts
Bob Kennedy (CBS)

Gene Rayburn (NBC)

Announcer
Don Pardo as Mr. Mischief

Gameplay (CBS Version)
In the CBS Version, a child from each team competed in stunts, and then gained points on a ring-toss board with each peg marked with a number of points. The child who won the stunt would throw two rings for their team and the child who lost would throw one. The show had three "magic numbers" each show, which if the team's point total match would win them 10 extra points, and a special prize for the child who tossed the ring. The process repeated with different children from each team until the show ran out of time.

All children on both teams received a "sportsmanship prize", such as a camera, and the members of the winning team, along with several home viewers chosen from a pool of write-ins, won a grand prize, such as a watch.

Gameplay (NBC Version)
In The NBC Version, the children competed against each other doing stunts. The stunts were the type one might have seen on Beat the Clock (another Goodson-Todman Production). The winning team for each stunt scored 100 points. The losing team was allowed to do something else to earn 25 or 50 points. Their consolation stunt was dictated to them by a character called "Mr. Mischief", a crude figure that had been drawn on a wall that had ears and eyelids that moved. The time limit for the stunt would be set by a balloon in his mouth which would inflate until it burst.

If time allowed, there was the possibility that there would be a team stunt at the end of the show to allow a team to catch up on points.

The four children on the winning team won such prizes as watches or bicycles for their effort.

Inventors
Mark Goodson & Bill Todman

Link
Choose Up Sides @ Game Show Utopia