The
competitors on this series were two teams of three players with
something
in common (expectant moms, telephone operators, etc). Players
tried
to avoid elimination by coming up with items in a list, or by
challenging
an opponent to do so. Lists were a mix of factual (most populous
countries) or survey-based (favorite comedians). On April 23rd,
the
series switched to a celebrity format, with each team consisting of two
celebs and a single contestant. The change didn't help, and the
show was cancelled two months later.Bill's last network
series, and yet
another of his shows hurt by a noon Eastern time slot. After
having
worked for Goodson-Todman and Bob Stewart for most of his career, this
was his first series for Barry-Enright Productions. Following
this
program, he hosted the Barry-Enright syndicated show The
Joker's Wild.
It
was often necessary for a new game show to get promotional photographs
out to the media before a set had been built. This explains the
very
odd promotional photos seen here of Bill surrounded by spuds.
A pilot virtually identical
to the
subsequent series, featuring Franciscan priests and teachers, was shot
on December 1, 1983. The only difference in the pilot was a
slightly
different scoring system in the bonus round.
In 1985, Bill received an
Emmy nomination
for hosting Hot Potato. His earlier Emmy nominations came
for his work on Three on a Match and Blockbusters.
VIDEO
All episodes are assumed to
exist.
The series has appeared on GSN: The Network for Games.
 |
The Hot Potato page at Adam Nedeff's Bill Cullen's World
The Hot Potato page on Wikipedia
Xanfan's mostly abandoned but still interesting Hot Potato page at SuperShow 8000
Information about the slightly different pilot episode at Mike Burger's Game Show Pilot Light