Canadian Game Shows Wiki
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Host
Wayne Cox
Announcer
Terry Reid
House Players
Sue Burge
Melody Davies
Gary Jones
Billy Mitchell
Denis Simpson
Broadcast
ActingCrazy1991

ActingCrazy1994
Global: 9/30/1991 - 12/23/1994
Packager
CKVU U. TV Vancouver/Blair Murdoch Productions

OPENING SPIEL: "It's time for action on Acting Crazy! (With special guests, (insert celebrity names)!) And here's the host of our show, Wayne Cox!"

Acting Crazy was a charades game show produced by CKVU U. TV 13 Vancouver. The gameplay is basically a cross between the U.S. game shows Body Language and Win, Lose or Draw, both of which aired in the 1980s.

Rules[]

Each episode of Acting Crazy featured two teams of four, each having one contestant, one celebrity and two "house players" (recurring players hired by the show), playing several rounds. In each round, one member of each team was brought out onto the centre stage and given a charade to act out to his or her team. Those charades are movie titles, song titles, TV shows, famous people, phrases, places, quotes, and often, wildflowers, etc. That person had one minute to successfully communicate to his/her team whatever (s)he was given. The clock counted up from 0 seconds to 1 minute.

The time it took to complete each charade was added to a score for each team, and at the end of the show, the team which had acted out all of its charades in the fastest aggregated time won a prize for its contestant, and the champion would return the next day to defend against a new player. Should the reigning champion win 5 straight games, he/she would receive a chance to select prizes from the "Acting Crazy Galleria" (also referred to by Wayne as "Blair's Prize Emporium" during the 1994 tapings).

Midway through each episode, the contestants switched teams, taking their times with them, and the last round included a side prize which went to the team who had completed its charade the fastest in that round only. In the first few episodes, the time limit in the final round would be 30 or 45 seconds.

The five house players (of which four would appear on any given show) were Sue Burge, Melody Davies, Gary Jones, Billy Mitchell and Denis Simpson. (Burge and Davis, who are sisters, later competed as one of thirteen teams in the 2001 Travel TV series, The Great Race). Burge, Davies and Simpson also appeared as contestants on Talk About in 1988/89 which was also hosted by Cox.

Celebrities and contestants on the show stayed at the Century Plaza Hotel in Vancouver in 1991, and the Westin Bayshore Hotel in 1994.

Celebrities who appeared during the 1991 tapings[]

  • Nina Blackwood
  • Eric Boardman (previously host of The New Liar's Club)
  • Jack Carter
  • Jackson Davies
  • Micky Dolenz
  • Leslie Easterbrook
  • Morgan Fox
  • Meredith MacRae
  • Rip Taylor
  • Jimmie Walker
  • Jo Anne Worley

Celebrities who appeared during the 1994 tapings[]

  • Jim J. Bullock
  • Billy Davis, Jr.
  • Jenilee Harrison
  • Anna Maria Horsford
  • Stu Jeffries (later host of the 1996 Blair Murdoch game show, Love Handles, also shot at CKVU-TV. Now an on-air personality at Boom 97.3 in Toronto)
  • Larry Linville
  • Meredith MacRae
  • Marilyn McCoo
  • Peter Noone
  • Sally Struthers
  • Marcia Wallace
  • Patrick Wayne

All celebrities appeared for ten shows, except MacRae (twenty shows, ten for each appearance) and McCoo, Davis, Jr. and Jeffries (who were in a three-celebrity rotation with one another, each appearing for twenty shows, overall).

Inventor[]

Blair Murdoch

Music[]

Hal Beckett

Studio[]

U.TV, Vancouver, British Columbia

YouTube Videos[]

Full Episode: Part 1, Part 2
Clips of Melody in Action: 1, 2, 3, 4

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