Harvard-Radcliffe TV to Air New Gameshow

What do Harvard students do on Saturday nights? What is the ugliest building on campus?

These and other questions will be asked on a new Family Feud-like game show recently created by Harvard-Radcliffe TV (HRTV).

The new game show, called Survey Says, will debut in early February with a family-style competition between Pforzheimer House and Currier House, according to writer and co-producer Mandel N. Ilagan '99.

Ilagan said HRTV developed the show because it would be a good entertainment event that could bring the houses together in a fun, social event.

Members of HRTV first came up with the idea for the show last spring, executive producer Peter D. Pinch '94 said. But HRTV did not finalize the idea until this fall when members put together a production team.

Pinch, who is now at the Graduate School of Education, said Family Feud was the "show that best fit the criteria."

"We wanted to be Harvard-centered in some way, and we also wanted to be a good time," Pinch said. "We didn't want it to compete with things like quiz bowl--didn't want it to be too serious, like academically-oriented."

Instead, the show will ask questions about the lighter side of life at Harvard, and the shows' staff have conducted surveys for the past two months.

"The questions will be survey questions like Family Feud," Ilagan said. "Most will be geared toward Harvard life.

But aside from the content of the show, producers said much needed to be done before the show can begin.

"The two biggest ones are locating a sponsor in order to offer prizes and [finding] a host for the program which, in a game show format, is extremely critical," Pinch said.

"We hope to choose the host/announcer by the end of reading period," Ilagan said. The show held auditions on Friday and is tentatively scheduled to hold another audition on January 10.

He also said HRTV is negotiating with the Coop, Harvard Student Agencies and other local shops and restaurants to donate prizes.

The first show, which will be taped live in the Currier Fishbowl, will be free and open to the public, according to Pinch.

Ilagan said the members of the teams had yet to be chosen, but the house committee chairs would select the contestants. Tapes of the first show will be distributed to house common rooms for viewing.

"The game show will be a live event, and then the tapes will be shown in houses and hopefully they will be entertaining enough to draw an audience," Pinch said. He added that HRTV is considering showing the tapes on Cambridge Community TV.