I'm Telling!

Infobox Television
show_name = I'm Telling!


caption = Title logo
format = Game Show
audio_format = Stereo
runtime = 24 minutes
starring = Laurie Faso (host)
Dean Goss (announcer)
theme music = Shuki Levy
country = USA
language = English
network = NBC
first_aired = September 12, 1987
last_aired = August 27, 1988
num_episodes = 26
imdb_id = 0198149
tv_com_id = 23005

"I'm Telling!" is an American television game show, which ran from September 12, 1987 to August 27, 1988 on NBC Saturday mornings and was hosted by Laurie Faso with Dean Goss announcing. It was essentially a children's version of "The Newlywed Game" with contestants, instead, being young siblings. The show was produced by Saban Entertainment and DiC Entertainment.

__TOC__

Gameplay

Front game

Round 1

Three teams competed, each consisting of a brother and sister. The front game was played in two rounds. In Round 1, the brothers were, using special effects and a video edit, "teleported" to the "Isolation Zone" (or "Iso. Zone" for short) (i.e., taken off stage to a soundproof room). One of three pun-styled categories was chosen at random by hitting a plunger, and Faso read a question loosely based on the chosen category. This was done three times, with each sister choosing one category.

After each of the questions were played and the sister's answers recorded, the brothers were brought back and asked the same questions. If the brother's response matched with his sister's, the team won points (25 for the first question, 50 points for the second and 75 points for the third). If the responses disagreed, no points were awarded, and the siblings began arguing (with Faso taking sides, using one's words against the other, etc.).

Round 2

In Round 2, the sisters went offstage while the brothers answered their three questions, now worth 50, 75 and 150 points. The sisters then returned and tried to match their brothers.

The team in the lead after two rounds won a $1,000 savings bond and advanced to the "Pick-A-Prize Arcade" for a chance to win bonus prizes. If the leading team amassed a score that was mathematically impossible for both of their opponents to catch up to or beat with the remaining questions, the round and the game automatically ended. If only one team could still mathematically catch up to or beat the leading team's score, the game would continue as normal, until all the questions in the round were asked, or the point where this team could not mathematically catch up to or beat the leading team's score.

A tie-breaking question was used if two teams were tied for first place after the second round (e.g., "How many apples were in the basket?"). This only occurred twice (once on the first Sister's Day); there was never a three-way tie.

The best possible score would be 425 points, which was accomplished three times (two of those times on both Brother's Day episodes).

Pick-A-Prize Arcade

At the end of the game, the set was rotated 180 degrees to reveal the Pick-A-Prize Arcade. Before the round was played, the team was shown the 20 prizes (10 for the brother, 10 for the sister, but 20 for the brothers in Brothers Day episodes, and 20 for the sisters in Sisters Day episodes) available in the arcade. Both the boy and the girl on the team were asked before the show to list 6 prizes they thought their sibling would most like to have. The brother's prizes sat on yellow platforms while the sister's prizes sat on pink platforms.

After the home audience was shown what prizes the brother chose for his sister, the girl was turned loose in the arcade and hit a plunger next to each of the six prizes on the pink platforms she would like to have. If the sibling agreed, the plunger lit up, a siren sounded, and the prize was won. If the sibling didn't agree, a buzzer sounded and the player moved on to another prize. After she was finished, a bell rang, signifying she has hit her six plungers, the home audience was shown what prizes she chose for her brother, and he hit his six plungers.

If the boy and the girl amassed a total of 10 matches between them (out of 12 total guesses), the pair won all 20 prizes. If they got less than 10 matches, they only won the prizes that were matched. The structure of this round guaranteed that each player won at least two prizes, because two groups of six prizes chosen from ten must have at least two prizes in common.

pecial shows

While most shows featured brother-sister teams, special episodes were also aired in which teams consisted of all brothers or all sisters. Youthful stars of NBC's prime-time shows also played with their real-life siblings for charity on two episodes. Instead of the $1,000 savings bond, $500 in cash was awarded to charity on these two shows. There was also one episode where all the teams were brother and sister twins.

Episode status

All episodes of "I'm Telling!" exist. Reruns were seen on The Family Channel during the 1989-1990 season. It was put back on the schedule on May 30, 1994 in the 4:00 PM timeslot, where it remained until September 29, 1995 when it was moved to 3:30. It was removed from the schedule for good on September 27, 1996, and the show has not been seen in reruns since.