Time Machine

The game show focusing on pop culture in time, events & history.

Broadcast
NBC - January 7, 1985 – April 26, 1985

Packager
Reg Grundy Productions

Host
John Davidson

Announcers
Charlie Tuna Rich Jefferys (sub)

Inventor
Bill Barr

Music
Ray & Marc Ellis

Premise
Contestants played a series of mini games about recent historical events in order to win cash & prizes. One lucky contestant by the end of the show would have a chance to play for bigger prizes.

Main Game
The show went through two formats in its four month run.

Format #1
Three contestants competed each show. This format is basically Price is Right but all about history. The third game of that day's show was always played by the returning champion. Prizes & cash won from mini games were put into a Prize Bank which can be claimed in a playoff later in the show.

Mini Games (Format #1)
There were at least six mini-games used during the first format. They were:


 * Tube Game - A game all about television shows past & present. To start, a year was given to the player. The contestant was shown pictures of two shows, and host Davidson provided the names. The contestant had to pick which one was airing in the given year. This process was done three times - the first with ABC shows, the second with NBC shows, and the third with CBS shows. A right answer won the corresponding network, but a wrong answer lost it. Behind one of the networks was a prize package; if the contestant had captured that network, it was added to their Prize Bank.


 * 3 In A Row - It's basically a tic-tac-toe game, but it was played with a certain decade; because in each square of a tic-tac-toe board is a different year, all from the same decade. Originally, before the game started, the contestant placed three "Poison Cards" in a row on the board. The contestant was then shown nine events to choose from. The contestant picked an event, and the year it which it happened lit up. If he/she lit three years across or up-and down, a prize was added to his/her Prize Bank, but for lighting three years in a row diagonally, a bigger prize was added to the bank. But if the three squares in a row with the Poison Cards lit up, the contestant lost. Later, the Poison Cards were eliminated, and the events were written on cards drawn from a podium two at a time. The contestant picked an event from the two choices, and (again) the year it happened in lit up. Each time an event was chosen, They another event replaced it, and continued until they got three in a row. This time the contestant lost if he/she lit three in a row diagonally. Lighting three in a row across or up-and-down still added a prize to the Prize Bank.


 * As Time Goes By - To begin, the contestant was given one free spin. Then three photos of a celebrity were shown. The contestant had to guess what year each photo was taken. If their guess was within five years of each exact answer, they won another spin. After all three photos were played, the player then took his/her spins to the game clock, which was a spinner made up to look like a clock. The area around the 12 o'clock area was painted red. The pointer moved automatically, and the contestant watched it for a few seconds. They then turned away with his/her back to the clock and hit a plunger to stop the pointer. If the player landed at the red area, he/she won a prize was added to his/her prize bank. If not, they tried again until they ran out of spins which cost him/her the game.


 * Before or After - To start, the contestant was given $200 and a base year. The contestant's job was to guess whether an event happened before or after the base year. A correct guess doubled the money, nothing happened for an incorrect guess. Either way, the year of that event became the new base year. The process was repeated two times. Then on the final event, the contestant was given a choice to either could stop and put the money into his/her Prize Bank, or go play that final event. A correct guess doubled the money and put it in the Prize Bank, a wrong guess lost the money.


 * Sweet Sixteen - This was played similar to the Price is Right pricing game Lucky $even. To start, the contestant was given sixteen $100 bills (for a total of $1,600). He/she was shown up to four old products. On each product, the player had to guess what year it was introduced. For each year his/her guess is off, he/she lost a $100 bill. The first three products were given specific ranges to aid the contestant (sometime in the '50s, sometime in the last 10 years), but the fourth & final one had no range. At the end of the game, if the player had any money leftover (as low as $100 left), he/she added a prize into his/her Prize Bank plus whatever money leftover.


 * Main Event - A base year was given along with five categories. The contestant picks the category he/she was the least comfortable with, and they instantly win that category. Then they pick the remaining categories one-by-one. Each category had one question with two possible answers; guessing right won the category, guessing wrong lost it. After all five categories were played, the contestant could see the clues hidden behind the categories they won. Each clue pertained to the "Main Event", which occurred in that base year. The clues were revealed one at a time. Guessing the Main Event puts $5,000 in the Prize Bank minus $1,000 for each subsequent clue revealed.

Time Capsule
In the Time Capsule round, the three contestants who played their games competed. They were given five events from a certain year (with final event being a song; a clip of it was played for the contestants). Each contestant locked in a year which they thought was the correct year all the events took place before giving what year they locked in. Host Davidson then gave the correct year and the player with the closest year won the game, kept all the cash & prizes in their prize bank, and became Time Machine champion. In early shows, hitting the year right on the nose also won $1,000.

Format #2
In this format, two contestants battled it out in three for the right to face the show's returning champion. A win in each mini-game earned points with the first two worth one point, and the third worth two. This time, cash & prizes were no longer added to a prize bank, all cash & prizes won by the contestants were theirs to keep win or lose.

Mini Games (Format #2)
Four of the mini-games from the first format were carried over into this format but with altered rules. Others retired and giving life to new games. There were two lineups of games that alternated turns from show to show.

Lineup #1

 * Game 1: As Time Goes By - As before, three photos of a celebrity were shown. Only this time the contestants played a Q & A game similar to the Card Sharks "Hi-Lo Toss-Up Questions", one player guessed the year when the photo was taken, and the other player guessed whether the actual year is higher or lower than the first player's guess. If the second player's answer was right he/she won the question, but if the second player's answer was wrong the first player won the question. The winner of each question won a spin at what is now the "Money Clock" which now had four spaces. The four spaces read zero, $100, $300, and $1,000, with the $1,000 space much smaller than the rest. As before, the contestant watched the pointer for a few seconds, then turned away from it before stopping the clock by hitting a plunger. Whatever money space was landed on, that was the amount of dollars the player with that spin won. The player with the most money won the game, but both players kept whatever they earned on the Money Clock.


 * Game 2: Tube Game - Host Davidson asked a series of question about three TV shows from a given year. All questions were toss-ups and the first player to buzz-in with a correct answer scored a point. On the first three questions, John described each show; the first was an ABC show, the second was an NBC show, and finally the third was a CBS show. After that, Davidson asked questions pertaining to the three described shows. First player to answer five questions correctly won the game and a prize.


 * Game 3: Jukebox Game - Four jukeboxes were shown, each branded with a different year from a certain decade. On each jukebox, a song is played, and two possible artists are given. The first player to buzz-in with the right artist won the right to match the song with the year it was released. If they got a match, they got a point. If they missed, their opponent got one chance to pick the right one and steal the point. The jukebox with the right answer was eliminated from play regardless. If all the jukeboxes were eliminated, then the contestants just had to identify the song's artist to get the point, without having to match the song to a year. First to three points won the game and a prize.

Lineup #2

 * Game 1: On The Button - An event was given, and one player guessed what year the event happened in. Getting it exactly right won a point for that player, but getting it wrong, allowed host Davidson to say whether the event happened before or after that year, and then the other contestant had a chance to guess. This continued until one player got three points, doing so won the game and a prize.


 * Game 2: 3 In A Row - Just like before, each square of a tic-tac-toe board had a different year from the same decade. One player was given two events and then picked an event from the two choices; the year it happened in then lit up. A new event takes the selected one's place, and the other contestant picked one. This continued until three spaces in a row were lit up. The person who lit up the last square that caused the three-in-a-row won the game and a prize.


 * Game 3: Main Event - A base year was given. Davidson would ask a toss-up question about an event that happened in that year after which contestants tried to buzz-in with a correct answer. Buzzing in with the right answer won a chance to solve the "Main Event". Each correct answer also puts $200 in a pot and revealed a clue pertaining to the "Main Event". The first contestant to solve the Main Event, won the game and any money in the pot.

The player with the most points at the end of the three games won the right to face the returning champion.

Challenge Round
This was played the same as Time Capsule except of course that only two contestants competed. As before, the closest guess won the game.

Bonus Round
The bonus round focused on the year talked about in the Time Capsule/Challenge Round. There were two versions of the bonus game. In the early weeks, contestants played for a growing jackpot prizes totaling at least $20,000 including a new car. Later they played for a new car only.

Version #1
In this version, host Davidson asked one final question with four possible events. The championship contestant's job was to choose the event which happened in the given year to win the $20,000 jackpot prize package. This bonus does not play unless the contestant hit the year on the nose in the Time Capsule.

Version #2
In this version to start, host Davidson gave a starting year, then gave events to the winning contestant one at a time. The champion's job was to guess whether each event occurred before or after the given year. Each correct answer moved on to the next event, but an incorrect answer ended the game. If the champion can get a certain number of questions right, he/she won the jackpot prize package plus a cash jackpot which started $1,000 and grew by that amount for each day the bonus not won. When the 2nd main game format came around, the jackpots were replaced with a brand new car. On a champion's first go, he/she needed four correct answers to win. The second day required three, third day two, and fourth day only one. Winning five days in a row automatically won the grand prize.