It was written by Michael Armstrong (head writer seasons 2–3), Desmond Devlin, Emily Dodi, Michael Dugan (head writer season 1), Lee Frank, Bob Giordano, Phil Gurin, Keith Kaczorek (also credited as Kadillac Keith),[1] Chris Kreski (head writer seasons 4–5), Denis Leary, Andrew Price, Colin Quinn, Ned Rice, Richard G. Rosner, Adam Sandler, McPaul Smith and John Ten Eyck.
John Ten Eyck played several walk-on parts, joined in later seasons by Adam Sandler, Denis Leary, and Roger Kabler.
The contestants sat in leather La-Z-Boy recliners with seat belts,[5] complete with retro kidney-shaped tables and scoreboards, facing host Ober and his retro-styled Zenith television.
Behind Ober were framed portraits of his idols, game show hosts Eubanks, Bob Barker, Bill Cullen, Bert Convy, Monty Hall, and Tom Kennedy.
[5] Musician Steve Treccase set up his keyboard behind a cluttered bar, at which Quinn and the hostess usually sat for the duration of the show.
In the vast majority of episodes, the contestants held bowls above their heads to catch the snack as it was dumped onto them from above, such as popcorn or candy.
When the nature of the snack such as cheese and crackers made this method impractical, it would be lowered from above on trays or delivered by the hostess.
After a contestant was ejected, he/she would be tormented by stagehands administering various annoyances behind him/her while an unrealistic screaming sound effect played.
Most of the time this was accompanied by the camera shaking violently and a "static" effect to simulate the TV (and the contestant, as mentioned by Ober) going "Off the Air."
The contestant in the center sat in front of a large doorway covered with blue paper; upon elimination; he/she was pulled backwards, tearing through it, and a black curtain was lowered over the opening.
During the first season, after the TV went "Off the Air", gameplay continued as normal with the remaining two contestants until time expired.
The round lasted for 20 seconds, and each answer was worth 10 points; at its end, the TV went "Off the Air" and the third-place scorer was eliminated.
Once the contestants had written down their wagers, Ober read the question and they had 20 seconds to answer it while a bizarre distraction was performed.
In the event of a tie after the last round, Ober would pull a tiebreaker question from the giant Pez dispenser in the corner; a correct answer won the game, while a miss gave the win to the opponent.
The contestant was strapped to a "Craftmatic adjustable bed", facing a wall of nine TV sets (including two turned sideways and one placed upside down) that were each playing a different music video simultaneously.
Correctly identifying all nine artists within 30 seconds won the grand prize, usually a car or a trip ($5,000 in celebrity episodes).
Instead, the contestant was strapped to a spinning horizontal wheel surrounded by 10 numbered television monitors and was asked 10 questions (usually about TV).
As Colin Quinn and other cast members spun the wheel, the contestant had to identify the artists of nine videos that were shown in succession on both screens at once.
Like most MTV shows of the period, Remote Control taped episodes on-location during the network's annual Spring Break event.