''Just Men!'' is an American game show that aired on
NBC Daytime from January 3 to April 1, 1983. The show starred
Betty White, who won an
Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...
award for her work on the show, with Steve Day announcing. It pitted two female contestants who were asked to predict answers to a series of yes/no questions posed previously to a panel of seven male celebrities.
The show was created and produced by
Rick Rosner
Richard Rosner (born c. 1941) is an American television producer best known for creating the television show ''CHiPs''.Staff report (September 15, 1977). CHiPs Debuts on NBC. He's also famous for being related to the one and only, Mark Rosner, ...
, who was producing ''
CHiPs'' at the time for NBC, and was a joint production of Rosner Television, Century Towers Productions, and
Orion Television. This was one of two collaborations among the three entities. Rosner was later responsible for reviving another NBC game show, ''
Hollywood Squares'', which he co-produced with Century Towers with Orion distributing.
The general format of the game, in which the contestant determines whether a celebrity answers "yes" or "no" to a question, is similar to
Heatter-Quigley's ''The Celebrity Game'', which aired on
CBS from 1964 to 1965.
[''The Encyclopedia of TV Game Show'', by David Schwartz, Steve Ryan and Fred Wostbrock (Checkmark Books, 1999, pp.37-38)]
Gameplay
Two female contestants, one usually a returning champion, competed for a chance to win a car displayed on the stage. At the beginning of each episode, the host used the car's actual ignition key to start it, then dropped that key and six others into a clear plastic box fitted with internal chutes to mix them. One key was given to each panelist; throughout the main game, a panelist stopped taking any active role once a contestant had claimed his key. The champion played first in every round.
Round 1
The contestants were presented with a question to which at least two panelists had answered "yes." Each contestant questioned the panel for one minute, using a provided list of topic-related questions, then attempted to select one panelist she believed had said "yes." A correct guess awarded that panelist's key. If both contestants guessed correctly, the round ended at that point. Otherwise, they took turns asking one question at a time to any one panelist of their choice and predicting who said "yes"; the round ended once a total of two keys had been claimed.
Round 2
The contestants were presented with a question to which at least two of the remaining five panelists had answered "no." They questioned the panel as in Round 1 and attempted to guess who had answered "no." As in Round 1, a correct guess awarded the panelist's key; however, a miss gave the key to the opponent. Each contestant had one turn.
Round 3 (Catch-Up Round)
A third question was presented, with no announcement as to how many of the remaining three panelists had answered either way. The contestants took turns questioning one panelist at a time and predicting his response. A correct guess awarded that panelist's key and allowed the contestant to steal one key from her opponent, while a miss gave the key and the steal to the opponent.
This round ended after all seven keys had been claimed, at which point the contestant holding more keys won the game. The loser received one consolation prize for each key she held, but was guaranteed a minimum of one prize.
Bonus round
The champion selected one of the keys she held for every main-game victory to that point, and could select one more key if she had claimed all seven. She sat in the driver's seat of the car, with the panelist(s) originally associated with the chosen key(s) gathered around or sitting in it, and tried one at a time in the ignition. If the car started, she won it and retired undefeated; if not, the host identified the correct key and opened the trunk with it, revealing a prop that hinted at a prize the champion would receive (e.g. a
sombrero for a trip to
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
).
Any champion who won seven consecutive games automatically won the car and retired undefeated.
Broadcast history
''Just Men!'' premiered on NBC January 3, 1983, along with two other game shows: ''
Hit Man'' and a revival of ''
Sale of the Century''. The program aired at 12:00noon Eastern/11:00a.m. Central, though some stations such as
WRC-TV
WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A television service, Class A Telemundo outlet W ...
in
Washington, D.C. aired the program on next-day
tape delay.
Like many game shows in this time slot, ''Just Men!'' suffered from low affiliate clearances, as many larger markets aired newscasts at noon by 1983. The show lasted just thirteen weeks, ending its run on April 1, 1983. It was replaced in its time slot by ''
The New Battlestars'', which also ended after thirteen weeks.
''Just Men!'' aired opposite ''
Family Feud'' on ABC nationwide, and ''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in the fictional Genoa City (named after the real-life Genoa City, Wiscon ...
'' on CBS outside the
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...
.
Despite the show's short run, Betty White made television history. She became the second woman to be nominated for the
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host by herself (
Susan Stafford was nominated in 1978) and the first to win the award in 1983, when she was voted ahead of
Dick Clark
Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American television and radio personality and television producer who hosted ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the Pyramid (game show), ...
and
Richard Dawson. White was nominated for a second straight year in 1984, but finished behind
Bob Barker and Dawson.
Critical response
Tom Shales of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' called the show "the litmus test for people who think the TV show that can make them physically ill hasn't been invented."
He criticized the nature of questions asked during the show and wrote, "White, a talented light comedian, is terribly demeaned by this role, which has her hobbling about from man to man as they utter answers or remarks that are supposedly uproarious."
Explanatory notes
References
External links
Betty White: My First 46 Years in Television, Smithsonian Associates
* {{IMDb title, 0198162
1983 American television series debuts
1983 American television series endings
1980s American game shows
American panel games
NBC original programming
Television series by MGM Television
American English-language television shows