Fame & Fortune is an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 game show

Game show

A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...

 broadcast on RTÉ One

RTÉ One

RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...

 on Saturday nights from 1996 to 2006. Hosted by popular Irish television and radio personality Marty Whelan

Marty Whelan

Martin 'Marty' Whelan is a Jacob's Award-winning Irish radio and television personality currently working for Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Frequently seen and heard on RTÉ radio and television, he has presented a variety of shows...

 (who signed off every show with the catchphrase: "How do you play? You buy a ticket."), the show aired during the summer months of June, July, and August as a seasonal replacement for Winning Streak

Winning Streak

Winning Streak is a weekly Irish game show in which five contestants play a number of games to win cars, holidays, and cash prizes up to €500,000. Broadcast on Saturday nights between September and June on RTÉ One, the game show is among the channel's most popular programmes, often ranking among...

. It was preceded by Millionaire

Millionaire (TV series)

Millionaire is an Irish game show presented by Marty Whelan. The studio-based show aired on Friday nights as a summer "filler" between 19 May and 1 September 1995.-Format:Millionaire was produced in association with the National Lottery...

, also hosted by Whelan, and succeeded by The Trump Card

The Trump Card

The Trump Card was an Irish game show broadcast on RTÉ One during the summer months of 2007 as a seasonal replacement for Winning Streak. Launched as the successor to Fame and Fortune , The Trump Card had its prize money funded by the Irish National Lottery and its production costs paid by RTÉ...

in 2007, hosted by Laura Woods

Laura Woods

Laura Woods is an Irish television presenter and former radio continuity announcer. She began her television career by presenting iD , co-presenting The Cafe with Aidan Power and later presenting SMS. She then presented numerous game shows, including Winning Streak, Fame and Fortune, The Trump Card...

. Fame & Fortune had its production costs funded by RTÉ and its prize money funded by Ireland's National Lottery

National Lottery (Ireland)

The National Lottery is the state lottery of Ireland. It was founded when the Oireachtas passed the to support initiatives in the areas of sport and recreation, health and welfare, national heritage and the arts, and the Irish language. Since gaming operations began on 23 March 1987, over €3.6...

. Entry to the show was based on National Lottery scratchcards, and contestants could win cash, cars, holidays, and other prizes. Fame & Fortune had its final season in the summer of 2006. Its 2007 replacement, The Trump Card

The Trump Card

The Trump Card was an Irish game show broadcast on RTÉ One during the summer months of 2007 as a seasonal replacement for Winning Streak. Launched as the successor to Fame and Fortune , The Trump Card had its prize money funded by the Irish National Lottery and its production costs paid by RTÉ...

, was itself replaced a year later by The Big Money Game

The Big Money Game

The Big Money Game is an Irish game show, broadcast on RTÉ One on Saturday nights during the summer months of June, July and August as a seasonal replacement for Winning Streak. The successor to Fame and Fortune and The Trump Card , The Big Money Game was first broadcast on Saturday, 14 June 2008...

.

Famous Faces

As each contestant was interviewed, they picked one of five "scrolls", which denoted a famous character (real and fictitious) from history, who was their "guide" for their game on the touchscreen

Touchscreen

A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...

. They chose between Helen of Troy, Robin Hood

Robin Hood

Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....

, Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

, Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 and Fionn Mac Cumhail. They played three games from a number stored in the computer; these included:

Trapdoor

The "guide" stood on a trap door in front of five lights. The player pressed one of these lights, hoping not to choose the trap door and see their guide fall into the pit, but to instead reveal cash prizes, and accumulate as much money as possible. It was similar to the Goldmine game on Winning Streak.

Odd One Out

Two different cash amounts were hidden in four different panels. The player chose three of them, winning the amount that did not match.

On the Menu

There were five different "food items" on the board, three with cash inside, and two that were empty. The player had three choices, so they were guaranteed at least one cash prize from this game.

Higher or Lower

Host Marty Whelan revealed a "base" number on the screen, and the player moved across the board, guessing whether the next number was higher or lower than the base number, rather than higher or lower than each other.

Spin Spin Spin

After the commercial break, the player with the lowest amount of money from "Famous Faces" played this game. If there were two people with the same amount, then it went to the bubble to decide the identity of the wheel-spinning contestant. They spun a wheel with cash prizes ranging from €5,000 to €20,000. The player could repeatedly spin the wheel until they landed on an amount that was lower than the last one. As Whelan put it: "You stop when you drop". There were several segments on the wheel which have a car on it. If the player landed on a car, they won it instead and the game ended.

The Fortunate 5

The draw for the following week's players. The same as Winning Streak, with five names pulled from a drum.

Around the World

A globe was displayed on the screen, with 24 destinations around the world displayed on either side. A Winning Streak style bubble machine chose the player who chose a destination, which can move them either 1, 2 or 3 spaces along the board. There were seven spaces on each player's board with the aim being to be the first to reach the seventh space, the "dateline". As they completed their turn, they also received a prize of either cash or a holiday. One destination also contained a car, whilst six more contained a euro symbol (€) which added another €250,000 ball to the final game, the "Fortune Globe".

Fortune Globe

The extra black €250,000 balls won on "Around the World" were placed into the large bubble machine, along with a large number of other balls numbered €10,000, €12,000, €15,000, €20,000, €30,000, €40,000, €50,000, and €100,000. Eventually, after a certain length of time, one ball was selected from this machine, and the player had its amount added to their final total.

External links

• Irish National Lottery site