21-02-2024, 09:06 PM
(21-02-2024, 09:02 AM)Neil Jones Wrote: I don't think it was ever stated that the first series of Millionaire was live. It may have looked like it could have been live, but it wasn't.
IIRC they kept the playing area/hot seat in place all throughout the first series bar maybe Fastest Finger first, and then it kept appearing and disappearing in later runs on the wide shots.
Chris Tarrant mentioned it multiple times in the first and second episodes, both explicitly ("You're playing live for £32,000") and implicitly (one of the Phone A Friends was introduced by saying "I know you can't see your TV right now")
I remember watching with my family (I would have been 13) - it was genuine event television. My uncle was always confused how the Phone A Friends couldn't have seen the question a few minutes earlier ("surely they're watching their TV!") and done a bit if research before the call came.