Get Your Own Back

Get Your Own Back
GenreChildren's game show
Created byBrian Marshall
Presented by
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series14
No. of episodes190
Production
Running time15 minutes (1991–93)
25 minutes (1994–2003)
Original release
NetworkBBC One (1991–2001)
CBBC Channel (2002–03)
Release26 September 1991 (1991-09-26) –
31 March 2003 (2003-03-31)

Get Your Own Back is a British children's television game show created by Brian Marshall. Each episode staged a contest between teams of children – attempting to score as many points as possible – and their respective adults – attempting to make tasks as difficult as possible for their child contestants – playing a variety of games. The winning child earns a right to get revenge on the adult by ejecting them into a tank of gunge; adult contestants in the show are somewhat embarrassing, for a variety of reasons, to their child counterparts. It ran from 26 September 1991 to 31 March 2003, and was hosted by Dave Benson Phillips. Peter Simon served the role of voice over in 1995.

Format

The show consisted of two teams (the first series had three), each comprising one child contestant and a parent/relative/older sibling/teacher/celebrity (aged 16 to around 70) who in the child's eyes had committed a crime of some sort, for which they sought revenge. The 'crimes' in question were usually trivial, such as singing badly or asking the child to tidy their room. Dave and the audience always showed bias against the adults by booing them as much as possible, and from series 7 till series 10 the adult would come on inside a cage.

Main Game

Throughout the show, the teams must compete in several games. The exact nature varied over time. It is best remembered that the adults would try to hinder their child to score while wearing inflatable or otherwise comical costumes. However in the first few series it was actually the adults playing for points with the children stopping them (usually by throwing custard pies / gunge at them). A list of games include:

Final Round: The Gunk Dunk

Throughout every series the final round was called the "Gunk Dunk", where the losing adult was always thrown into a pool of colourful, messy gunge. Series 5 introduced a 'forfeit' whereby the losing child had to place their favourite toy in an incinerator; although the toy was not actually destroyed, the concept was later dropped.

Series 1-4

The adult has to answer five questions correctly within 45 seconds beginning with a specific letter, but the catch it they are not allowed to give the answers that start with that letter. If they fail to get five within the time, they get gunged, but if they succeed, the child gets gunged and loses the prize however the rule states that all children must be accompanied by an adult, so the adult gets gunged anyway.

Series 5

The adult has to answer three questions correctly that contain two multiple choice answers, but there are three types of gunge above them if they get a question wrong, they are snot, yellow school custard and R.A.W. (Really Awful Waste). After answering the three question, the child pulls the gold lever, which drops the adult in gunge.

Series 6-11

The adult sits above a pool of gunge and has to answer three questions correctly, but if they get it wrong they get dragged up and away from the gunge so it's the case of you're going down and the child pulls the lever, or presses the button in later series, which will result in them getting dropped into the pool. In series 11, before the adult got gunged, the child got a chance to win a prize by guessing which lever prize hides behind if they get it right they win it but if not they get covered in gunge. Series 7 featured Craig Wilson, a Leeds United supporter from Newcastle and his father. He coined the catchphrase, "marvellous" when he described winning the episode to the delight of his friends and future colleagues.

Series 12-14

Both adults sit above a pool of gunge the children have to answer a load of questions correctly, for each question they get right they crank up their adult one level, with the child that scored the most points in the preceding games getting a one level head start for their adult. The first child to get their adult right up to the top that sets off the alarm wins and they get to pull the lever and throw their adult into the gunge.

Transmissions

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
126 September 199119 December 199113
224 September 199217 December 199213
330 September 199323 December 199313
430 September 199423 December 199413
527 September 199520 December 199513
611 September 199618 December 199615
710 September 199717 December 199715
87 January 19981 April 199813
916 September 199823 December 199815
109 April 199910 September 199913
23 August 2000
115 April 200028 June 200013
1229 June 200121 September 200113
1311 February 200225 March 200213
1411 March 200331 March 200315

References

  1. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  3. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  8. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK - CHRISTMAS SHOW". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  9. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  10. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  11. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  12. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK - CHRISTMAS SPECIAL". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  13. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  14. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  15. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  16. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  17. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  18. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  19. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  20. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  22. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  23. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  24. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  25. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  26. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  27. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  28. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  29. ↑ "GET YOUR OWN BACK". Getty Images. Retrieved 7 May 2015.