Raise The Roof - Ep12 (1995)

Hosted by Bob Holness
Peter v Joan v Gen v Hayley v John v Susan
A Yorkshire Television/Action Time Co-Production - 1995

[@christophercotton9048]

If you liked Dreamhouse back in the 1980s with Bob Eubanks, you'll love Raise the Roof. We really need a game show like this on American TV given the circumstances our nation is in.

[@markc8956]

LOVED the theme to Raise the Roof!

[@juliejoannebevan6617]

Sadly, even blockbustin' Bob couldn't make this reboot of 'Double Your Money' the smash hit it deserved to be.

[@SanFran51]

For a gameshow that has a house as a prize they do make the game itself painfully dull.

[@martinteece8983]

Barely rember the show but the second round is a grate idea, simple bid amount but it quickest to button. What we can't bring this to a new gameshow I don't know.

[@omegaman6494]

Not exactly the big Saturday night success ITV expected, this only lasted one series

[@stevenoneill7166]

The main reason it wasn't a success was because it were scheduled against Casualty on BBC ONE

[@mistofoles]

The producers changed the final questions after the guy at the end waltzed through them to claim the major prize.

[@jamesmitchell8922]

Don't comment if you don't like it

[@andrewmcnamara3959]

Blast from the past watching my old history teacher get the Marie Celeste question wrong

[@Classictv90s]

Gen Broadbent appeared on another game/quiz shows during the 90s. I can remember seeing him as a contestant on Catchphrase when Roy Walker was the host of that show.

[@aprilmeadhome3132]

Yes and Wipeout with Paul Daniels.

[@guypalmer7961]

Looks like Gen Broadbent's another TV gameshow legend.

[@cchance1973]

Was on Millionaire too and won 64000

[@mrb3097]

I was told that this series was butchered into a 30-minute format when in fact was originally slated in for 45-minutes which is noticeable at times when moving from one game scene to another and the editing is poor. The handheld computer used to fail so back-up question cards were inserted into where the screen was meant to be - on occasions you could see them if you looked very carefully if the camera angle was just behind Bob. Sadly, the negative (and controversial?) tie-in with the Daily Express also didn't do the series any favours. If ITV had accepted the original format length but minus the house it could have been on for several more years. Bob Holness was an excellent host who had the held the show well. Such a shame he was let down by poor post-production decisions. It was seen by many as a consolation for Blockbusters being axed by the network centre. I had heard that the show's creator, Andrew O'Connor, may have personally suggested Bob as the host but that is only what I've heard from (reliable-ish) sources. There were rumours going around at the time he was being lined up as the new host of University Challenge when Paxo took over, not sure how true that was because of the tenuous link to schools and colleges. I used get the opportunity to pop to Pebble Mill when he was recording Call My Bluff, he used to take time chatting to people in the audience. A really nice chap.

[@SigmaRho2922]

The show was cancelled after 17 episodes were filmed due to increasing production costs despite the reduction of the show’s length to half-hour with commercials during development.

[@nealpatel4255]

Have you met Bob Hollness before?

[@stevenoneill7166]

I didn't know about the show being trimmed from 45 to 30 minutes, but I do know it was shoved into the latter end of the Saturday night prime-time schedule because of LWT's shows taking up the 3 hours beforehand. The ITN news could've been on at 9 pm instead of 8.45, but there was still the issue of Raise The Roof being scheduled against Casualty which, by this time, was a well-established ratings winner for BBC ONE

[@mistofoles]

Hmm...Bob said what animals are known as Leonite ....Technically the guy who said "Cats" was correct, because obviously Lions are in the cat family,

[@tomsnapper9733]

The Show That In My Opinion Inspired Millionaire, Gen would go on to win £125000 on millionare

[@jessepascualventura588]

Courtesy of ITV Yorkshire Television and Action Time Co-Production

[@scottishwildcat]

Winner of Lee & Herring's "Most Mediocre Thing of 1995", if I recall.

[@millertime97jm]

It's a shame, because it had an interesting idea.

[@mistofoles]

I don't remember this !!

[@mistofoles]

Annoying ( To non-competitors ) that you could win big prizes for schoolboy questions

[@danielamofah3091]

Actually, it is episode 17 of 17.

[@liewstbboitt6212]

This particular episode is episode 12

[@ahmeddhagahofficial9034]

25th March 1996

[@zacheryalderton2653]

NEED THE RULES

[@jessepascualventura588]

Saturday 13th January 1996

[@davidfearis7335]

I bet we could use Raise The Roof again to get some people on The Property Ladder

[@mistofoles]

Wait a minute....In the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill, Jack's head was never mentioned in so many words,,,The actual verse is "Then Dame Dob did wrap Jack's knob in vinegar and brown paper" Obviously I can see why they didn't say that, but technically, the question was misleading.

[@zacheryalderton9747]

What are the rules

[@CC-bn3nm]

23:58

[@jasejj]

Once you take away the novelty of the huge star prize, this really is a very weak (and not terribly well made either) show.

[@97channel]

It had two things going for it, Bob Holness and the prize. Beyond that, you're looking at one of the most generic and pedestrian game shows in history. It isn't the worst show I've ever seen, in fact I did somewhat enjoy it. But the format wasn't nearly strong enough to deliver what ITV wanted it to achieve. And, as you rightly say, the production quality wasn't great. If this were a daytime quiz with a cheerfully cheap prize, it would have been reasonably watchable. But it was never going to be a prime time hit. Even the sponsor pulled the plug early, hence some noticeable edits to cut out all references to the home game which had been cancelled ahead of time.

[@Classictv90s]

The sponsor being the Daily Express newspaper.

[@97channel]

There was no payoff for the show when a contestant won a house. Bob dangled a bunch of keys, the family came on stage for a hug, then it ended. I don't think it translated in the viewers' mind to having changed someone's life. It really would have benefited with following up on a win the following week with a film of them arriving at their new property for the first time. In fact, the whole format needed to be based entirely around the emotion of giving someone a house. For what they got from the reactions, they may have well been giving away a fridge rather than wasting a hundred grand. The took a mediocre stock format and applied it to entirely the wrong show.

[@97channel]

The success of Millionaire was that it based the entire thing around the escalating emotion of winning increasingly large amounts of money. Each game started off nice and jolly, then got more dramatic as it progressed. Raise The Roof is a jollity from start to finish. It's so completely mismatched to what is at stake. It's a pleasant enough little game, but unfortunately that's all it is.

[@jasejj]

I suppose the reason for the show being the way it is was the need to be the first with something to air that took advantage of the relaxing of the rules. Bob did his best (and was probably one of maybe only two or three presenters who were suited to the format as it was) and as always was the consummate professional but there was no real vision on the part of the producers beyond "big prize = big ratings". The US found this one out the hard way as well -- their first $1m game show was the original version of "All Clued Up", which was a much better format than "Raise the Roof", and had a similarly solid, professional host in Jim Lange, but again there was too much of a disconnect between the prize and the cheap production values, and it too failed quite miserably.

[@MrDavey2010]

Nobody has explained the rules of the game and from what I can see nobody has a clue. This must be the most boring piece of TV I’ve ever seen.

[@SanFran51]

You were exactly right. This show did terribly. It really was that dull and lame.

[@clarkejoseph49]

And someone managed to work out a flaw in the rules as well.