Work Text:
(Top of the show. Camera pans around stage, focusing in on the contestants.)
ANNOUNCER: What’s your History IQ? Take a look at this headline: Collision in North Platte, Nebraska.
(Graphic on screen: a ripped, spinning mock newspaper front page. Top left, the logo of the History Channel, a “H” in a box. Mock newspaper name: The InQuirer. Other details resembling a newspaper front page. Bottom left corner of mock newspaper folded. Graphic under newspaper header: COLLISION IN NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA. Whoosh sound effect as paper is spinning. Bullet point possible answers revealed on screen as ANNOUNCER continues speaking.)
ANNOUNCER: Contestants, which one of these three quotations about this collision is false? “You’re what happened when two substances collide,” “By all accounts, you really should’ve died,” “You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out.” Richard?
RICHARD: “You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out.”
ANNOUNCER: You’re right, Richard, and you may be on your way to a quarter million dollars as we play History IQ.
(Opening title sequence: brightly colored triangles, some with cogs, flash over color-tinted black and white historical footage, leading up to the show’s title graphic. The InQuirer graphic runs again, same as before, but with a “$250,000 TOURNAMENT!” title this time, the “250,000” containing images of United States paper money in its numbers.)