| Host | |
| Bob Goen | |
| Announcer | |
| Bob Hilton | |
| Taped | |
 | |
| Packager | |
| Jay Wolpert Productions Metromedia Video Productions Inc. | |
This is an article about the unsold 1984 pilot. For the four-part MAX special, see Fast Friends (2).
"(after some chatter) Our two contestants (insert names here) want to make you friends from this special section of our studio audience because whoever gets the most friends has the best chance to win $10,000 today on Fast Friends! And here's the host of Fast Friends, Bob Goen!"
This version of Fast Friends was an unsold game show pilot which combines making friends with trivia.
Gameplay[]
Main Game[]
The game was played with two contestants (i.e. champion orange & challenger blue) and an audience of 32 people, selected before the show.
Round 1[]
In the first round, each contestant had a chance to form a team of up to five players (the captain & four audience members).
Starting with the champion, on a player's turn, (s)he was given a special packet (from a choice of two A or B) containing four questions and a 30 second time limit. On each question (s)he looked at, the player in control must decide how many of the 30 seconds, (s)he wished to spend. Then the controlling played would go to the audience member of his/her choice. (s)He would hold a microphone for everyone to hear the audience member. Then Goen would pose the question to the selected member and then (s) would answer. Answering the question incorrectly cause the player to go to another audience member from a different row. The controlling player would go on for as many members as it takes or until the wagered time was up. The first audience member to answer the question correctly won $200 and became that player's teammate. If time ran out before that happened, it was a wasted question and it was thrown out. Play continued until all the questions were played or all 30 seconds were used. The last question automatically used the remaining time.
Round 2[]
The second round was an elimination contest to decide which contestant would play for $10,000.
To start, Bob would ask a toss-up multiple choice question. The first team captain to buzz-in with the correct answer choice won the question, otherwise the opposing team won it. The winner of the toss-up would decide either have his/her team go first or force their opponents to go first. Now, Goen would pose more multiple choice questions to the team in control starting with the player in the lastmost position and working the way to the team captain. Each question has three possible answers with the first two being random items and the third always being neither. Choosing the correct answer stayed in the game, but choosing an incorrect answer gets that played knocked out of the game. There was one exception, should the team captain miss the question, the furthest player was knocked out unless of course, (s)he was the only one left, making him/her vulnerable.
The first team to be knocked out lost the game, but the losing audience members kept their $200 and the team captain received a consolation prize. The audience members on the winning team received an additional $300 each for a total of $500 each while the winning team captain won a prize of his/her own plus a chance to play Foto Finish for $10,000.
Bonus Round: Foto Finish[]
To start the bonus round, the champion was shown a picture of a famous film; then (s)he was shown eight more pictures, all of famous people. Only one of them fit a certain criteria, the remaining seven did not. The object of the game was to spot the seven wrong pictures, leaving only the right picture on the board. Each incorrect picture won $100 to the champion; choosing the correct picture ended the game; but choosing all seven won a total of $10,000.
Gallery[]
British Version[]
Although the pilot did not sell in America, seven years later, it did spawn a short-lived series in the UK hosted by Les Dawson (no relation to Richard Dawson). It aired on BBC1 from 30 March (March 30) until 28 June (June 28) 1991, lasting a total of 14 episodes. Additionally, instead of 32 audience members, their were 30 members used in this version and this was Les Dawson's last and final game show that he hosted until his untimely death two years later in 1993.
Inventor[]
Jay Wolpert
Studio[]
CBS Television City
Trivia[]
At the time, this was one of the two game shows that NBC was considering to replace reruns of the formerly popular sitcom The Facts of Life in January 1985 with the other being Time Machine (hosted by John Davidson), but lost out to the latter.
Music[]
Main - "Far From Over" by Frank Stallone
(NOTE: The song above here was originally used as the instrumental closing theme for another Jay Wolpert produced game show pilot called Fortune Hunters hosted by Bob Hanley in 1983 and before that, the sequel to the 1977 dance drama film Saturday Night Fever called Staying Alive.)
Commercial - "You Gotta Have Friends" by Bette Midler
Links[]
Game Show Pilot Light
Article about the British version (courtesy of ukgameshows.com)