Family Game Night

An American Game Show aired by The Hub, which is one of the many examples of quality programming on the network that doesn't involve ponies. In this show, two families compete in adaptations of Hasbro board games (which makes sense given who owns the channel) to try and earn a chance at cash and prizes.

Games we've seen include:

• Guess Who?: The toss-up game, and played much like the "Fame Game" questions from Sale of the Century. Todd gives clues as to the identity of a celebrity or fictional character, and the first team to buzz in with the correct answer wins the right to go first or second in the first game.
• Bounce 'n' Boogie Boggle: Played on a grid styled much like a Big Boggle board, the teams must spell words by jumping from square to square. As with its source, words must be at least three letters long and all letters must connect in some direction.
• Bop-It Boptagon Played in a octagon with giant props, additionally having to cycle through the stations when prompted, eliminating people who make a mis-step. Last person standing wins it for their family.
• Connect Four Basketball: ...With the "pieces" replaced by balls that are thrown into the chutes on top.
• Cranium: On-the-buzzer puzzles themed around stuff from the game.
• Guesstures Free Fall: Essentially charades, but with the clue givers suspended over a "pit" and "dropped" if the guessing family member passes. The format plays somewhat like Pyramid in that the object is to get as many as possible in two minutes.
• Operation Relay: Much like its source, the teams use tweezers to get as many pieces from Cavity Sam as possible within two minutes. Getting buzzed sends you to the back of the line, while getting a piece means you have to navigate a short obstacle course for the points.
• Scrabble Flash: It's the crossword game you've played all your life...but not quite like that. Teams make words (3-5 letters) using five huge electronic letter tiles, with points awarded based on the length of each word.
• Sorry! Sliders: Each team pushes its two giant-sized pawns into one of four rings for points (from outside to inside, Sorry!-1-3-5). Like shuffleboard, teams can hit their opponents' pawns to change the score.
• Twister Lights Out: ...With the dots on a video board on the floor. The dots begin to disappear as play goes on, and last member standing wins the round. Combination of Twister and Lights Out, the latter an electronic game by Hasbro subsidiary Tiger Electronics.
• Yahtzee Bowling: ...Because the "dice" are six-sided bowling pins. Each team has three chances to knock down the pins with a bowling ball and make the best layout (One Pair, Two Pairs, Three-of-a-Kind, Small Straight, Full House, Large Straight, Four-of-a-Kind and the titular Yahtzee).

After the games are played, the "Monopoly Crazy Cash Cards" (earned by winning games) are inserted into the Crazy Cash Machine to reveal their values and spit out a bunch of Monopoly money. While most are worth from $100 to $995 (in $5 increments), at least one is worth between $1,000 and $5,000.

But one card out of those 21 is the Top Cash Card, which if inserted will break the Ba—er, award from $7,500 to $25,000. Both teams keep all cash and prizes, but the team with more money gets a bonus vacation.

The Season 1 episode featuring Leah's and Sabrina's families is included on the DVD My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Adventures in Ponyville.

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The following Game Show tropes appear in Family Game Night:

• All or Nothing: Averted, since everyone keeps any cash and prizes won.
• Bonus Round: Sort of; whoever banks more money from Crazy Cash Cards wins the bonus prize, while both teams keep their winnings. Unusual, in that it decides the game.
• Golden Snitch: Due to how the bonus round is played, a team who loses all five games can still have the Top Cash Card from that 1/21 pick at the beginning of the game. As both families keep their cash and prizes, and "winning" only adds an additional prize like a vacation, this point may be moot.
• Home Game: Mostly subverted. The rounds are based off games you've played all your life, but never quite like this! ^[1] Scrabble Flash and Sorry! Sliders were released some time before the show's debut (although they're quite normal-sized).
• Personnel:
  • The Announcer: Burton Richardson.
  • Game Show Host: Todd Newton.
• Product Placement: It's essentially a 60-minute commercial for Hasbro board games.

Tropes used in Family Game Night include:

• Colour Coded Multiplayer: There are a red team and a yellow team.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Where else could you hear "Pull it!" and "Whack it!" over and over (during the Bop It round) on a family-oriented game show?
• Luck-Based Mission: Although winning more rounds gets you the advantage of having more Crazy Cash Cards at the end of the show, each has a different, unknown amount of money attached to it. Moreover, each team gets a card at the start of the game. A team can have fewer cards but still win if the values are high enough.
  • Yahtzee Bowling.
• Padding: For an hourlong show, some of the rounds are quite drawn out. While some are drawn out in a good way, others (like Cranium and the final reveal) just seem to slow everything to a crawl.
• Spiritual Successor: To the 1964–65 Merrill Heatter–Bob Quigley children's game Shenanigans, hosted by Stubby Kaye and just as heavily sponsored by Milton Bradley. The presence of Operation may or may not be an intentional Call Back, as it's the only game they share.

1. ↑ (And not quite like that, either.)