shows:sat-am_live [Zoniverse]

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====== Sat-AM Live ======

{{ :shows:satam.png?nolink&600 |}}

===== History =====

Sat-AM Live is a three-hour live show, broadcast from the {zplace:ebc} in {zplace:Edenbridge}. It ran continuously from 2085 to 2096, after which its popularity fell and the slot was given to shows aimed at an older age group. It was revived under the same name in 2105 for the new generation, and has been on the air ever since. It was responsible for inventing gunge, and has used a record amount of the stuff over its extremely long lifespan.

Games on early episodes involved shaving cream pies, a gag that had come from slapstick comedies in the past - mostly deployed to give a good natured humorous dressing-down to their target, be it a parent or teacher who had been invited on to the show or occasionally the loser of a studio game. A while later the show started coming up with gimmicks to make the messy elements even more spectacular, with one game involving a "Venus Pie-Trap" with two huge mechanical arms that swung inwards to sandwich a seated contestant between two full-body-size shaving cream pies.

From there, they experimented with using colouring in the foam, and eventually started using a whipped-up mixture of foam, water and food dye that they called "glop". Glop was more liquidy than foam and could be poured on to people from above to make a different sort of mess that left them covered in slimy stuff without using as much foam as the giant pie trap.

Glop was their signature substance for a couple of years, using it in several games as well as a "glop jail" that took centre stage in the set, showering anyone who had been sent there in foamy slime at the end of the show. However, glopped guests or contestants usually preferred to wear goggles because of the stuff's tendency to sting in the eyes due to the soap content, and getting it in someone's mouth wasn't a fun experience either. It also tended to un-foam itself fairly quickly if left alone, making it impractical to prepare large quantities. In a search for an alternative, the crew tried out various substances including whipped cream and cornstarch - the first left the studio smelling awful and the second was extremely difficult to clean.

The solution was a powdered industrial food thickener in place of the foam in the water-foam-dye recipe, with a chemically altered type of cornstarch - mixing this stuff in warm water quickly produced a thick, gloopy result that was heavier and more slippery than glop, and produced an even more spectacular splashing effect when dropped on to people. Despite its messy appearance it also kept glop's properties of being easy to clean off (for both studio equipment and people), breaking down quickly under water. It was nicknamed "gunge", and became a staple of the show from 2087 onwards.

===== Format =====

The formula of the show has remained about the same throughout its history - it's broadcast with a live studio audience, with a small team of presenters trading off presenting different segments. These can include interviews or games with celebrity guests, popular music acts, comedy, cartoons, game shows and so on.

The 2105 revival is hosted by young presenters {zchar:jayceandkass}. The studio is a bombastic amphitheater-like arrangement with three tiers of seating around the main stage, with a large video screen behind the action to show viewers the live feed during sections of the show outside the studio. One of the signature weekly elements of the show is Saturday IZ, a prerecorded section in which young contestants get to play individual games in the {zshow:iz} without the potentially adult content that sometimes happens in the main show.

===== Games =====

In addition to Saturday IZ and other slot-in game shows, Sat-AM Live holds games in its own studio.

==== Venus Pie-Trap ====

The Venus Pie-Trap was a device styled to look like the spiky jaws of a venus fly-trap plant lying horizontally on the floor, with each half piled high with white foam to form two giant pies. Between the two halves, a contestant would be seated on a chair raised slightly off the floor - either a volunteer from the studio audience or a parent who had been nominated. Various timed games were played, one of the most common being handing the contestant a bucket of ping pong balls and having them try to 'feed' a group of smaller open-mouthed plants by throwing them across the studio from a distance.

If time ran out, the results were spectacular - the two halves of the device would be forced to swing inwards and upwards by a large spring, clapping them around the contestant in a squeeze between two full-body-sized pies and spurting foam towards the ceiling as it was forced through the gaps in the 'teeth'. The halves would then retract, revealing the contestant utterly wrecked by thick white foam.

In later shows, a tank of glop or gunge was added above the contestant as well to add to the mess.
==== Glop Jail ====

This was the centrepiece of the Sat-AM Live set before gunge was invented in 2087. It was a large clear cylinder where various guests, contestants, volunteers and randomly chosen audience members would be sent during the course of the show, raised off the floor of the set on a platform to give them a VIP-style view of the interviews and games. Alongside whatever regular prize there was, the winner of the last studio game played on a day would get the honour of pouring the first bucket of glop down on to the group inside the jail, joined by a barrage of multicoloured foam-based slime thrown in by most of the show's crew.
==== Beware of the Bog ====

The set for this game has three horizontal tree trunk-like platforms jutting out of the wall with their ends suspended above a pool - the studio started out using water and a thin layer of foam, but adapted to using a deep pool of mud-coloured gunge later on. Two parents and their child would play against each other in this game, answering questions with correct answers making the other two contestants have to shuffle forward a space on their log. Once a player reached the end, their log was dropped, tipping them into the gunge. The winner was the last one left standing!
==== Gunge Burger ====

The first game invented for using the new substance "gunge" in 2087!

This was a messy game that was played in a corner of the studio that was made up to resemble the decor of an old-fashioned diner, with metallic trim and chequered patterns on the walls and floor. Three contestants picked from the studio audience were seated on a large open-faced prop "burger", where the meat patty was a turntable that could be spun around. Above the burger, three big upside-down bottles of "ketchup", "mustard" and "pickle" were suspended from the ceiling, containing red, yellow and green gunge.

The contestants were spun around slowly under the bottles, with the aim of trying to throw sponge "fries" into coloured baskets around the edge of the game area. Each throw on target would activate the gunge matching the basket's colour, so ideally they were meant to time their throws so that someone else was under the gunge tank when it opened. However, in practice nobody cared and tactics mostly eroded in favour of trying to fling as many sponges as possible, giving spectacularly gungy results.

The gunge burger was a huge inspiration behind {zshow:iz}'s own [[izgames:Gunge Gear]].

==== The Cooler ====

The Cooler was a gunge tank that was styled to look like a huge water cooler, with a contestant or two seated under a pair of spouts with a clear cylindrical tank of blue-green slime above them. They played a game that involved answering questions to make their way across a board of pipes, with the star prize being offered by completing a line across the board. However, they had to be careful not to push their luck too hard because as soon as they failed to answer a question correctly, the gunge was released.
==== Beat the Teacher ====

A group of school students would bring a teacher on for a head to head quiz on the subject the teacher taught, with the loser being sent to a dungeon cell in the wall of the set where a trough of gunge was tipped down on to them. The questions were sometimes lopsided, giving the students a couple of softballs and throwing one completely impossible question at the teacher per episode (a geography teacher might be asked "What is the height of Mount Caledon in light-years?") Despite this, a couple of teachers still won - on these occasions the nominating students would be packed into the cell and gunged instead. Even when the students won, a couple of the group tended to volunteer to go in and be gunged alongside their teacher.
===== Influences =====

The term "Sat-AM" comes from the fan nickname of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series.

===== Stories =====

{zshowstories:satam}
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