Pick Your Brain

Host
Marc Summers
Assistant
Meredith Summers
Announcer/Voice of 2-XL
Greg Berg
Broadcast
Syndication (Weekly): 9/18/1993 – 5/21/1994 (reruns aired until 9/1994)
Packager
Marc Summers Productions
Distributor
The Summit Media Group

OPENING SPIEL: "Toys "R" Us is proud to present Pick Your Brain. (highlights of the past winners) What does it take to win $5,000? Don't ask me, ask today's contestants. (insert three contestants). Greetings, I'm 2-XL, your resident know-it-all and (insert robot name); and I want to Pick Your Brain! And now, here's the host of the game where it's not insane to Pick Your Brain, Marc Summers!"

REST OF SPIEL: "Welcome to Pick Your Brain, where each week, we give away great prizes, and one player also walks away with a $5,000 savings bond, for the use of his/her college education."

Pick Your Brain was a Saturday Morning syndicated kid's game show created, executive produced and hosted by Marc Summers, his first series produced by his own production company as well as his first series after the end of Double Dare. It featured a robot named 2-XL, the talking robot with a mind of its own (voiced by Greg Berg). The show was based on the success of the Tiger toy of the same name.

Gameplay[]

Three child contestants competed in a quiz game for a $5,000 savings bond.

Round 1[]

In this round, 2-XL would generate two characters for the contestants to choose from and meet. Each contestant secretly voted for one of these characters with the majority rule in place. The character that was chosen more had a short film play starring that character. The film contained information for the players to listen out.

Characters[]

The characters changed from show to show and they all were performed by Summers. Examples included:

Ned Koppel – A Ted Koppel-like news reporter who hosted a parody news show called Brainline (a spoof of Nightline).
Factman/woman – A Superman-like hero.
The Germ – A stand-up comedian-typed organism.

When the film was finished, Summers would ask seven toss-up questions about the film to the players. The first player to buzz-in (their buzzers were brains) would have a chance to answer. A correct answer scored 25 points, but an incorrect answer (or no one buzzing in) resulted in 2-XL giving the correct answer himself (thus, only one person could buzz-in and answer each question, like on Sale of the Century and in the Chase round from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?).

Note: When the round was over, 2-XL gave a home-viewer question, and 2-XL gave the answer when returning from the first commercial break (this was called a "Pick Your Brain-teaser").

Round 2[]

In this round, the players were joined & assisted by their relatives, babysitters, teachers etc. Each team (starting with the team in the lead) came up to 2-XL, and were given a choice of three games to play (which were all shuffled by a randomizer) by pressing one of three buttons numbered 1, 2 and 3 (there were actually four, but the fourth one wasn't used until later).

The Games[]

The three games were:

Phys-Quiz – The team would play a 60 second physical stunt.
2 by 2 – The main player was given a subject, and received a choice of two subcategories for his/her partner to answer from.
XL's Extra – The main player selected a subject to answer a multiple-answer question from. The players on the team in control alternated turns to give the correct answers. The game stopped when either player gave an incorrect answer, repeated one, ran out of time, or if they gave five correct answers, thereby winning a bonus prize (usually shown by the chosen character of the day).

One fifth of success in each game was worth 50 points, which meant that completing the entire game was worth a maximum of 250 points.

Round 3[]

This was played the same as Split Second’s Countdown Round, in which the contestants competed to light up five brains on their podium for the win.

To start, two of the players were given a head-start by being given free brains (1st place – 2 brains, 2nd place – 1 brain, 3rd place - 0 brains), if any two or all three players were tied, then everybody received free brains according to what position they were in.

Summers then asked a series of questions to the players, each correct answer lit up another brain, but unlike Round 1, an incorrect answer gave the other player(s) a chance to answer the question. The first player to light up all five brains won the game and the $5,000 savings bond furnished by Toys "R" Us.

Bonus Round[]

The winning player (once again assisted by his/her partner) was given a chance to win one of two prizes (one was usually a trip, while the other was either a smaller prize or $1,000). The prizes were shuffled around in a randomizer by 2-XL, and stopped when the team pressed one of four buttons numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each prize appeared twice, and the team was given up to three choices (this meant that once a button was pressed, it couldn't be pressed again). The first prize matched was the prize won.