40 Fun Facts About Remote Control (Game Show)

Which future movie star played Stud Boy on MTV's Remote Control while he was still an NYU student?

Adam Sandler also appeared as the Trivia Delinquent, and a writer recalled the studio audience going nuts the moment he walked on stage.

MTV's Remote Control was taped on a Manhattan set dressed to look like which part of the host's childhood home?

A basement, complete with washer, dryer and water heater, fit the premise that a TV-obsessed kid had built his own studio under his parents' house.

The giant Pez dispenser on the set of MTV's Remote Control was modelled on which Newlywed Game host?

Bob Eubanks gave permission for his likeness after Wink Martindale turned the producers down, and tiebreaker questions were pulled from the dispenser.

Remote Control co-creator Joe Davola had a menacing character, nicknamed Crazy, named after him on which NBC sitcom?

Seinfeld borrowed the real producer's name for "Crazy" Joe Davola; the real one went on to develop In Living Color as a Fox executive.

One Remote Control channel made contestants decide whether a celebrity was dead, alive or of which nationality?

Canadian was the twist added by a head writer who came from Canada himself; naming Bonanza's Lorne Greene as both dead and Canadian scored double.

Which Los Angeles rock band appeared as contestants during the fifth and final MTV season of Remote Control?

Red Hot Chili Peppers took the contestants' chairs shortly before Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) became their first major commercial success.

Who beat LL Cool J and Julie Brown when three celebrities played MTV's Remote Control for charity in season two?

Weird Al Yankovic won the charity game, and in another episode he walked onto the set as a channel himself and tormented the two losing players.

Remote Control's studio audience often serenaded an ejected contestant with which number-one hit of 1961?

Hit the Road Jack, a Ray Charles chart-topper, was one of the goodbye songs the audience sang while the loser was dragged away chair and all.

Which Remote Control penalty channel gave points to contestants who endured a noogie or a wet willy?

Wheel of Torture let a contestant accept a points penalty instead, or win points by sitting through a charley horse delivered by the announcer.

Which gravel-voiced comedian was the announcer and sidekick on MTV's Remote Control before joining Saturday Night Live?

Colin Quinn read the sponsors' prize copy with such open contempt in the first week that advertising executives nearly had him fired.

Which stand-up comedian, a Star Search contestant in 1984, became the host of MTV's Remote Control in 1987?

Ken Ober went on to host Smush and ESPN's Perfect Match, and later produced his old sidekick's panel show Tough Crowd.

Which comedian from the Boston stand-up scene played Keith Richards and Andy Warhol in sketches on Remote Control?

Denis Leary knew the show's creators from Emerson College, where he had founded a comedy workshop, and his high-speed MTV rants soon followed.

Which Remote Control hostess, also an MTV VJ at the time, later starred in Sliders and Anaconda?

Kari Wuhrer lasted longest of the show's hostesses, through seasons two and three, and a producer called her the one who managed to break out.

Winners of MTV's Remote Control were strapped to which brand of adjustable bed for the grand prize round?

Craftmatic was suggested by an MTV News writer who covered late-night TV, where the bed's cheap commercials were a familiar sight.

Facing a wall of nine TV sets, a Remote Control champion had 30 seconds to identify what?

Music video artists had to be named from nine clips playing at once; each right answer switched a set off, and a clean sweep won a car or a trip.

Which media company distributed the syndicated Remote Control that ran alongside the MTV original in 1989–90?

Viacom had bought MTV Networks a few years earlier, so selling a second version to local stations kept the hit inside the same company.

On Remote Control's Spring Break episodes, losing contestants ended up in what instead of going through a wall?

A swimming pool sat beside the contestants' beach chairs, and each channel was a college-age extra in a numbered T-shirt who peeled it off to reveal the category.

The host of Remote Control missed its last episodes to film which NBC sitcom based on a Steve Martin movie?

Parenthood gave him the part Rick Moranis played in the film, but NBC cancelled the sitcom after 12 episodes, while his sidekick closed out the quiz.

Actors dressed as which trio were all ejected after round one of Remote Control's 1988 Christmas episode?

The Three Wise Men played so badly that the host had all of them yanked at once, reset the scores to zero and brought on three new contestants.

Which former Partridge Family child star auditioned to host MTV's Remote Control and later played it as a contestant?

Danny Bonaduce impressed the co-creator, who thought his fame would win press coverage, but the job went to a little-known stand-up instead.

Which Brady Bunch actor's turn on Remote Control led to a best-selling memoir co-written with the show's head writer?

Barry Williams met head writer Chris Kreski at a 1989 Brady Day taping, and their book Growing Up Brady went on to sell more than 300,000 copies.

What name did Remote Control give the end-of-round moment when popcorn or candy was dumped on contestants from above?

Snack Break treats had to be soft enough not to hurt, so cereal, marshmallows and gummy worms rained down on the contestants' upturned bowls.

On MTV's Remote Control, which phrase described the TV, and the last-place contestant, at the moment of elimination?

Off the Air was announced by a siren and flashing studio lights, seconds before the last-place player was hauled away backwards.

Which 30-second lightning round decided the winner of Remote Control from the second season through the fourth?

Think Real Fast paid 10 points an answer, and players usually had to supply a missing word in a title or correct a wrong one.

In Remote Control's Beat the Baloney, what did a contestant solve before a costumed character circled the studio?

A math problem was the task; the baloney version began as a writer's job-interview pitch for a tribute to lunch meat, with a cast member in costume.

In Remote Control's first season, the leader could win a prize by guessing which of three what held it?

Refrigerators hid one small prize and two revolting food items, a setup much like the Big Deal doors on Let's Make a Deal.

Because one chair flipped over backwards at elimination, every contestant on MTV's Remote Control had to wear what?

Seat belts went on all three players, the art director said, so that everyone was treated equally whichever chair they were given.

In Remote Control's first season, an ejected contestant's chair sometimes slid back through the wall holding what?

A skeleton in the returning chair implied the player had been killed backstage, in a season when the camera also shook and the picture turned to static.

To save money, Remote Control borrowed its digital scoring displays from which Nickelodeon game show?

Double Dare was sister channel Nickelodeon's hit, and its set designer also created the MTV show's cluttered, home-made look for very little money.

Which Oakland rapper turned up as a guest announcer on Remote Control's final episodes at the peak of his fame?

MC Hammer took the announcer's microphone for one of the last episodes, taped on location in the year U Can't Touch This hit.

Which Factory Records co-founder, the man behind Manchester's Haçienda club, hosted Britain's version of Remote Control?

Tony Wilson, billed as Anthony H. Wilson, fronted the Channel 4 version in 1991 and 1992, with Caroline Aherne's Mrs Merton among its guest characters.

Puerto Rico's short-lived Control Remoto, modelled on Remote Control, was hosted by a former member of which boy band?

Menudo alumnus Xavier Serbiá fronted the copy on WAPA-TV for only three months in 1989, until MTV's threat of a copyright lawsuit ended it.

Urka!, a 1991 show hosted by Paolo Bonolis, was the version of Remote Control made for which country?

Italy's version lasted less than six months on the channel Italia 1, while other versions of the format appeared in Britain, Brazil and Australia.

Which toy company released a board game based on MTV's Remote Control in 1989, two years into the show's run?

Pressman, a firm founded in Brooklyn in 1922, put out the home game in the same year that a computer game of the show was licensed.

Remote Control's final MTV episodes were taped on location in which Florida city known for its Spring Break crowds?

Daytona Beach drew what one MTV executive put at 40,000 to 50,000 students whenever the channel rolled into town for Spring Break.

Which Los Angeles Dodgers star pulled out at the last minute, leaving a Remote Control cast member to play him badly?

Steve Sax was impersonated by regular John Ten Eyck, who gave deliberately foolish answers against Phil McConkey of the Giants and Sidney Green of the Knicks.

Which comedian, nicknamed the Poet Laureate of Television, recited his verse as a guest on MTV's Remote Control?

Nipsey Russell earned the nickname with the short comic poems he recited during his many television appearances, a habit he brought to the MTV set.

The announcer of MTV's Remote Control took over which Saturday Night Live segment from Norm Macdonald in 1998?

Weekend Update was his from January 1998 until he left the cast in 2000, a decade after he had heckled quiz contestants from behind a cluttered bar.

Which American brand made the retro-styled television that faced the contestants on MTV's Remote Control?

Zenith made the retro-styled set, which stood near framed portraits of the host's idols, among them Bob Barker, Monty Hall and Bill Cullen.

Which New Jersey rock band had an entire channel on MTV's Remote Control named as its own Network?

Bon Jovi had topped the album chart for eight weeks with Slippery When Wet before the quiz began, and the band got a channel of questions all to itself.