Summaries

Synopsis

This series saw four children compete in a couple of games in each episode. The main game played in each of the first three rounds was based on the classic game of Concentration, played on a board of 20 trilons. Two children competed in each round.

Each episode began with the first two competing children entering the studio on different playground slides located toward the back of the set, coloured red and green. The children would then take their places behind the podium of the same colour as the slide they had entered in on. The show's host, David Waters, would then also enter the set on one of the slides.

The first round began with a "Ripper Rhyme" that was used to decide which child had the first pick of the board. The Ripper Rhyme consisted of two lines which formed a rhyming couplet, with the last word of the second line missing. The first child to press their button had the opportunity to provide the missing word, and the child who gave the correct answer won control of the board. An example of the kind of question asked is "The word that I am looking for should leap out from your mouth. Just complete this line for me: east, west, north and ...", with "south" being the correct answer.

The host then gave a clue to a picture puzzle, which took the form of a rebus, that would gradually be revealed as the round progressed. The child who had correctly answered then selected two numbers from 1 to 20, and the trilons that they had chosen were turned around to reveal pictures or an occasional drawing. If there was no connection or "match" between the selections, the pictures were turned back to their numbers and the other child then made the next pick. When the two selections matched, the two-note sting from the theme played and the trilons were then turned to reveal parts of the picture puzzle. The host would then repeat the clue he first gave after the Ripper Rhyme, and the child had a chance to guess what the picture puzzle was. If they couldn't come up with the puzzle's solution, the other child then made the next pick.

The drawings came with special clues attached to them. A drawing of an ear denoted a mystery sound that would be played when it was revealed, with its matching picture being the object that made the sound. A drawing of a treble clef denoted a music sound, which was played when it was revealed, with its matching picture being the instrument being played. A drawing of a record denoted a flashback that would result in a song being played when it was revealed, with its matching picture being the artist or group who sang the song. A drawing of a jester denoted a riddle, which contained the announcer asking the question part, with its matching picture being related to the riddle's answer. A drawing of a net, introduced in later episodes, denoted a "Catch-A-Clue", with the announcer providing a verbal clue when it was revealed and its matching picture having some connection to the clue.

After more pieces of the picture puzzle were revealed, if the child who found the last match wanted to have a go at solving the puzzle, they had to press their button before a double-buzzer sounded. When a child correctly solved the puzzle, the remaining pieces of the picture puzzle were revealed before the host explained the solution, and that child would return to play in Round 3. If neither child has solved the puzzle by the time two numbers remain on the board, they are automatically turned to complete the picture puzzle, and each child in turn is given a chance to solve it. If neither of them are still able to correctly solve the puzzle, then a tie-breaker is played in which clues to the picture puzzle are given, with the first child to press their button given a chance to solve it, and the correct solution would see them win the game and return to play in Round 3. After a break, the second round was played in the same way to the first but with two different children contestants and a different Ripper Rhyme, pictures and picture puzzle.

Following another break, the two children who had one the first two rounds returned to compete against each other in the third round. This round began with a series of clues provided by various children via video clips, which over time provided an expanded identity of a person, place or thing. The first child to press their button had the first opportunity to guess who, where or what the other children were describing, and the child who came up with the correct answer won control of the board.

In this round, the board was divided into two halves, with a larger "gap" appearing between numbers 6-10 and 11-15. The first number each child selected on their turn had to be between 1 and 10, revealing a picture in the top half of the board. The second number had to be between 11 and 20, and it would reveal one or more scrambled words. If the letters in the word(s) could be unscrambled to describe the corresponding picture, then the selection was a "match", with the pictures turning around to reveal pieces of a picture puzzle. The pictures associated with the scrambled words and the picture puzzle were all connected to the person, place or thing that was the answer to the question asked at the start of the round. The child who made the match could attempt to solve the picture puzzle if they pressed their button before the double-buzzer sounded. The first child to correctly solve the picture won a bank savings account with $50.

All four children who competed in the first two rounds returned to play the fourth and final round, Match a Mime. The round started with three of the children having their backs turned to the action while the host mimed a situation to the first child (the winner of Round 3). When the host had finished the mime, a bell would sound, and the first child then had to tap the second child on their shoulder, which was that child's cue to turn around and watch the first child try and repeat what the host had mimed to them. At the end of the first child's mime, the bell would sound again, and the second child would then repeat the mime to the third child after they had been tapped and turned around (during this mime, text would appear on the screen to reveal to the people watching at home what the situation depicted in the pantomimes was). When the bell sounded again, the third child tapped the fourth child before repeating the mime to them. The bell sounded a final time when the third child reached the end of the mime, after which each of the children from the fourth back to the first tried to guess what situation the host and other children had been miming before the host said what the situation was. At the end of the round, all four children would make their way to a table with several games and toys in front of where the puzzle board had been, and each child would select one game or toy to keep as a consolation prize.

Later episodes would have different games played in Rounds 3 and 4. The later game played by the winners of Rounds 1 and 2 was called Twist a Word. The round started with "Connections", where the host would give several words that had something in common, and the first child to press their button and correctly identify the connected word won control of the board. As an example, if the given words were "belt", "reel", "surf", "beach" and "rescuer", the correct answer would be "lifesaver".

The Twist a Word board again contained two parts, but this time the top part consisted of 15 numbered squares, and the bottom row had five pictures that are all linked to a common category. When a child had control of the board, they had to select three numbers from 1 to 15 with the aim of finding matching triples instead of the pairs in the earlier rounds. When all three pictures or drawings matched, the two-note sting would be played, and the child then selected one of the pictures. After they received some information about their selection, the picture would turn to reveal a letter, and the host would give a clue whose answer took the form of a five-letter word that was scrambled among the letters revealed (this time, the pictures and the word had no connection to the Connections answer). As before, if the child either didn't find a triple or couldn't guess the word, the other child made the next pick of three numbers, if the child that found a matching triple pressed their button before a double-buzzer sounded after the host had given the clue, they had a chance to guess the word, and the child who was first to correctly guess the word won a $50 savings account.

All four children again returned to play the final round, which was Touch and Tell. Before the round began, the first child (the winner of Round 3) was given the option of coming back in the next episode to try to add more money to their savings account. Each of the children would then put on a pair of goggles before the host gave each of them an object for them to feel with their hands and sniff with their noses. Each time the bell sounded, the child had to give the object back to the host so that they could pass it to the next child for them to touch, sniff and feel. The host would then present a second object to give to each of the children in turn to touch, sniff and feel. After the last child gave the second object back to the host and they put it away, the children were told to take off their goggles and were then given a few seconds to discuss with each other their thoughts about what the objects could be. After the bell sounded again, one of the children would be nominated as a spokesperson to reveal what the children thought the objects that they had just handled were. Any child who had won a bank account risked losing their money if the guess turned out to be incorrect (in which case it would instead be donated to a charity) but would keep their money if the guess was correct. As before, at the end of the round, each child selected a toy or game from a table in front of the puzzle board to keep as a consolation prize.