Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit

Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit
Genre Comedy Panel game
Created by Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon
Written by Dominic English
Directed by Steve Smith
Presented by Dara Ó Briain
Starring Team Captains
Steve McNeil
Sam Pamphilon
Gaming Expert
Ellie Gibson
Theme music composer Liam Tate
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 6
Production
Executive producer(s) Donald Taffner Jr.
Iain Coyle
Simon Lupton
Michaela Hennessy-Vass
Producer(s) Rohan Acharya
Editor(s) Jason Boxall
Fergus March
Running time 60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company(s) DLT Entertainment
Release
Original network Dave
Picture format 16:9 (1080i HDTV)
Original release 5 September 2016 (2016-09-05) – present
External links
Official website

Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit is a British comedy panel game show originally created by English comedians Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013, and then transferred to television on Dave beginning on 5 September 2016. The TV series stars comedian Dara Ó Briain as host, with McNeil and Pamphilon as team captains, and video game journalist Ellie Gibson as the resident expert. The show involves McNeil and Pamphilon and their team mates playing a series of five video games against each other.

Origins

The series began as a show at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe entitled McNeil & Pamphilon Go 8-Bit!, in which teams led by the duo played video games against each other, with the loser having to take a forfeit.[1] Examples of forfeits include McNeil being punched and Pamphilon eating a whole jar of jalapeño peppers.[2][3] The show was also performed at the Fringe the following year.[4] The duo then worked with TV producer Rohan Acharya to develop the format, with a television pilot being developed in 2014. Gibson became involved with the show after seeing a live performance in a London pub, and auditioned for the role of the gaming expert.[5]

In an interview with The Guardian McNeil said that they created the show for the Fringe because they could not think of anything else to put on, saying: "We'd had the idea of doing a late night show on Friday and Saturday nights, just for fun, where we'd get comedians drunk and then encourage them to abuse each other while they played retro games – purely for shenanigans. Somewhat tediously, it was more successful than anything else we'd done up to that point. So we kept doing it."[5]

TV format

The shows consists of video game lover McNeil and "gaming muggle" Pamphilon taking each other on in a series of games along with a guest team mate. Ó Briain acts as the main host while Gibson provides information about each game.

There are five rounds played:

The points on offer are decided by audience vote. The audience vote for who they think will win each game, and the highest percentage is the number of points on offer - e.g., if McNeil's team won 60% of the vote and Pamphilon's team 40%, then 60 points are on offer to the winner. In the final round, the points are doubled. The games begin with the studio set rotating clockwise so the players face the TV screen, with Ó Briain counting down: "3, 2, 1, let's go 8 bit!"

Episodes

The coloured backgrounds denote the result of each of the shows:

     – indicates Steve's team won
     – indicates Sam's team won
     – indicates the game ended in a draw
Episode First broadcast Steve's guest Sam's guest Scores Classic Game Played Steve's Guest's Choice Sam's Guest's Choice Modern Game Final Round (Twisted Game)
1x01 5 September 2016 Susan Calman David James 257–126 Tetris Chuckie Egg Tekken series Star Wars: Battlefront "Bust-A-Moob", incorporating Makey Makey and Arcade Bubble games.
1x02 12 September 2016 Marcus Brigstocke Gina Yashere 266–154 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Portal 2 Snake LittleBigPlanet 3 "Boom! Shake the Rooms", incorporating Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
1x03 19 September 2016 Bob Mortimer Holly Walsh 307–127 Galaxian Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Flick Kick Football Legends Rocket League "Lairy Bikers", a take on Storm Rider.
1x04 26 September 2016 Rachel Riley Russell Howard 246-133 Street Fighter II:Turbo Temple Run Sensible Soccer Nidhogg "The Go 8 Bit Olympics", incorporating Track and Field.
1x05 3 October 2016 Dave Gorman Josie Long 253-125 Pac-Man Toybox Turbos Frogger Gang Beasts "King Pong", incorporating Pong
1x06 10 October 2016 Jason Manford Ed Byrne 235-198 Asteroids FIFA series Big Buck Hunter Pro Trials Fusion "Puzzle Wobble", incorporating Kororinpa

Scores

Steve Sam
Series wins (1 drawn)
0 0
Show wins (0 drawn)
3 3

References

  1. "McNeil & Pamphilon Go 8-Bit!". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  2. Smith, Andy (12 August 2013). "McNeil & Pamphilon Go 8-Bit!". Broadway Baby. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  3. Mulvihill, S. "FRINGE REVIEW – McNeil and Pamphilon Go 8-Bit". Edinburgh Spotlight. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  4. "McNeil and Pamphilon Go 8-Bit!". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  5. 1 2 Stuart, Keith (6 September 2016). "Dara Ó Briain's Go 8 Bit: how comedy brought video games back to TV". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2016.

External links

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