Mindreaders is a game show that aired on NBC from August 13, 1979 to January 11, 1980 that was the last creation by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman before Todman's death in July 1979. The show was hosted by actor Dick Martin with Johnny Olsen announcing.
Format[]
Two teams made of three contestants of the same gender and a celebrity of the same gender play in a "Battle Of The Sexes" manner. Host Martin read a question to one team, after which they locked in their answers. The celebrity team captain's job was to predict how each player answered that question. A correct prediction kept control for the captain, who then tried to predict the answer of the next player. An incorrect guess allowed the opposing captain to predict the remaining controlling teammates' responses, regardless if they were right or wrong. Each correct answer was worth $50, with the money going to the other team for incorrect answers, and the first team to reach $300 advanced to the bonus game. Both teams kept their money.
The bonus game is split into two parts. In the first part, Martin asks three questions to a "jury" (made of ten members of the studio audience), who locked in their answers depending on the criteria of the question. Each contestant on the winning team played one question and after the jury gave their answers, the player operating the question tries to guess how many members of the jury said yes or no to that question. Guess the right number exactly wins the team $500, while being off by one or two on either wins them $200. If the team fails to win any money from the jury, the bonus game instantly ends. The second part of the bonus round is when the team guess if the celebrity on their team said yes or no to another question. Each player of the team chooses individually chose yes or no, after the celebrity reveals his/her answer. If the majority predication of the team was correct, the money that they won from the jury was multiplied by ten.[1]
Availability[]
Mindreaders was wiped by NBC due to network practices at the time (which they would discontinue doing in the mid eighties). Very little of the show is available. The opening from an episode from the premiere week with Patty Duke-Astin and Nipsey Russel was used for a birthday tape for the show's creator Mark Goodson (which would be uploaded by the Museum of Television Production Music in 2016). Another episode from that week surfaced on YouTube on March 17, 2019. In December 2011, a episode that aired December 13, 1979 surfaced on YouTube. In June 6, 2016, the opening to the December 31, 1979 with Brett Somers and Bill Daly, was uploaded to YouTube by Chuck D's All-New Classic TV Clubhouse. [2]The rest of the series remains lost.[3]
