Fame & Fortune

Fun & Fortune was once the official state lottery game show of Missouri. The show ran in the 1990s and has not been seen since, though there is still a statewide lottery in Missouri. To be eligible for the show, contestants had to purchase a special lottery ticket.

Format
The show consisted of computerized game board with 30 boxes on it, numbered 1-30. Three contestants were called to come on down (ala The Price is Right) before being interviewed by host Tamblyn. There were two types of games.

The first three rounds were called "Top This!", and the fourth was the "$50,000 Challenge." All games were played for cash, and the podiums contained displays of the cash amount and a little box on top showing how many "strikes" were remaining.

Top This!
Each player began with a cash amount depending on the lottery ticket they purchased. Beginning with the first player, each player, in turn, called out a numbered box, hoping that it would contain a concealed number bigger than the previous one. The base number was established to begin with. If the player guessed correctly, he/she would win money based on the numbers revealed, and the last number revealed became the base for the next guess.

The player could then elect to guess again or pass to the next player in hopes of the next player guessing a number equal to or lower than the base number. If that happened, the player lost his/her turn and the strike indicator counted down from 3 to 2. When the indicator displayed 0, the player was out of the round. For the purposes of the game, 0 was higher than 9 depending on the situation. All three players got to keep any cash they earned.

After the game finished, either by two players earning three strikes or by concealing the last box to be a higher number (which also meant a win), three new players were called on down, and another "Top This!" was played.

The $50,000 Challenge
The three "Top This!" winners returned to play for $50,000. They each were given 3 strikes and $5 to start with. Behind the 30 numbered boxes were X's and O's. Again beginning with the first player, each player, in turn, called out a numbered box. The catch this time was that the player was looking for O's. Each time a player found an O, a zero was added to their score, thus creating a sequence of $5, $50, $500, $5,000, and finally $50,000. They could elect to guess again or pass to the next player after finding an O.

If the player found an X, they lost their turn and were issued a strike with the indicator again counting 3, 2, 1, 0 - with 0 eliminating the player from the game. Since the X's and O's were distributed according to the odds on each guess, it was possible for all three players to strike out.

The winner was the first player to reach $50,000 (or whoever was the player in first place when all three struck out). Whoever won this game also won a bonus prize.

The show was taped in St. Louis.

Stations

 * Joplin - KOAM (Channel 7/CBS)
 * Kansas City - KMBC (Channel 9/ABC)
 * St. Louis - KTVI (Channel 2/Fox)

Inventor
Sande Stewart