The Better Sex

Game Show created by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions in which two teams (six men vs. six women) played general-knowledge and survey questions, with one team attempting to bluff the other into a right answer. Whichever team knocked out the other won $1,000 and a shot at $5,000 in the Bonus Round.

The show aired on ABC from July 18, 1977 to January 13, 1978 and was unusual in that it had two hosts — Country Music singer Bill Anderson (who later hosted TNN's long-running game Fandango), and former talk show host Sarah Purcell.

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Game Show Tropes in use:

• Bonus Round: An unusual variant involving 30 opposite-sex members from the studio audience. Each team member was asked a question, which was then asked of the members as well. Any member could agree or disagree with the answer given, and they sat down if wrong. Play continued for six questions or until the entire audience was eliminated.
• Personnel:
  • The Announcer: Goodson-Todman stalwart Gene Wood.
  • Game Show Host: As mentioned above, two of them.
  • Studio Audience: Used in the bonus round.

Tropes used in The Better Sex include:

• Opening Narration: "It's men versus women in a battle of the sexes!" (portion of theme song gibberish plays amid vignettes of Anderson and Purcell "arguing") "Women or men, which is the better sex?"
• Pilot: Pretty much the same, except each team had seven people.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Invoked in the TV Guide listings. Normally, the magazine removes the word "The" if it's in the beginning of a title...but they realized that people might be turned off by seeing "Better Sex" in the listings, so "The" was kept in.
• Surreal Theme Tune: "Hormonal Imbalance", by John Franklin Grimsley...which is male and females singing in scat.
• Trans-Atlantic Equivalent: Despite the show's brevity, twice.
  • An Australian version aired on the Nine Network in Summer 1977 or 1978.
  • A British version aired on STV in 1978, then moved to Thames.