''Now You See It'' was an Australian children's game show that aired on the
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...
from 1985–1993. It is based on the
US show of the same title and was originally hosted by Mike Meade from 1985 and 1990 and "co-hosted" by a robot named "Melvin", who was a
Tomy
is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on March 1st 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Tak ...
Omnibot toy, and pitted individual children against each other. The show's narrator, and original operator and voice of Melvin, from 1985 to 1988, was Brisbane-based New Zealand-born radio announcer and voice-over artist, Phil Darkins. Melvin's uncle Morton (another, much more primitive-looking Omnibot) had his own segment on the show entitled "Morton's Mouldy Movies", in which Morton would comically narrate stories in a grandfatherly voice accompanied by black-and-white footage from
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
short
Short may refer to:
Places
* Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon
* Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
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* Short (surname)
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s. The original grandfatherly voice of Morton was performed by Phil Darkins (1985-1988) and included quick-fire 'live conversations' between Mike Meade, the narrator (Darkins), Melvin (Darkins) and Morton (Darkins), which required quite some vocal dexterity.
From 1991, the show was hosted by
Sofie Formica
Sofie Formica (born 29 June 1971 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) is an Australian radio and television presenter best known for hosting Queensland-based lifestyle show ''The Great South East'' on the Seven Network from 1997 until 2016. ''Afte ...
, and ran as a week-long competition between two primary schools. The winning students in each episode would win individual prizes, and the overall winning school would win a larger prize, typically valued at around $2,000.
In 1998,
Becker Entertainment
Becker Entertainment is an Australian production company.
History
The company was founded in 1965 as R.A. Becker by Russell Becker, one of the pioneers of commercial television in Australia. Becker was Australia's first independent distributor ...
, along with
Fremantle Ltd. (then known as FremantleMedia), revived the show. Broadcast on the
Nine Network
The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...
, it was hosted by Scott MacRae
and produced by Tony Ryan, with Bill Davidson as Executive Producer. In 2000, the show was replaced with another game show, titled ''
Download
In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...
'', which was also hosted by MacRae.
Format
Free games
The host reads a clue, and the single-word answer is revealed one letter at a time, sometimes using one or more letters from the end of the previous answer. Letters are gradually revealed until someone buzzes in and gives the correct answer and score, or until only one letter is left in the word. This continues until that line is filled, and then a new line begins. The first player to guess five words correctly (seven in the 1998 revival) wins the round and a prize package, with the loser being eliminated.
Two line games are played, with the winners of each line game playing each other in the Big Board round.
Big Board
Words are hidden horizontally amongst other random letters in a large grid. The host reads a question, with the answer being one of the words hidden within the grid. The first player to buzz in guesses the horizontal line number in which the answer appears. If correct, he/she then gives the vertical position number where the answer begins, and then the word itself. The number of points a player receives for each correct answer is based on the sum of the word’s line number and position number, making the words hidden in the lower-right portion of the board the most valuable. In the 1998 revival, points are doubled for the final 60 seconds of the game. The player with the most points when time runs out is the champion and progresses to the solo round. In event of a tie, however, a sudden-death word is played to determine the champion.
Solo Round
The solo round player needs to find seven words hidden within a large grid inside 60 seconds, with the help of the clues read by the host. The player must circle these words with a digital pen.
At the completion of the round the contestant was awarded a prize for their school. The early series prizes were uninspired, such as a labelling machine for the school front office. Later series awarded the contestant a small prize too, such as a cassette stereo.
Products
A board game was released by
Crown and Andrews
Crown and Andrews is a game manufacturer in Australia and the UK. It makes board games, educational games, wooden puzzles, Rubiks puzzles and jigsaw puzzles.
TV shows board games
Crown and Andrews has made many board games licensing, licensed from ...
in 1993.
References
External links
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*
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* {{youTube , qUoF8l5gX2o , Now You See It - Australian Kids Gameshow - Episode: 135-85
Seven Network original programming
Nine Network original programming
Australian children's television series
Australian children's game shows
Australian television shows featuring puppetry
1985 Australian television series debuts
1993 Australian television series endings
1998 Australian television series debuts
2000 Australian television series endings
1980s Australian game shows
1990s Australian game shows
2000s Australian game shows
Television shows set in Brisbane