Free 4 All was a short-lived Stone-Stanley

Stone Stanley Entertainment

Stone Stanley Entertainment was an American television production company founded by TV producers David G. Stanley and Scott A. Stone, who both began their careers working at Lorimar-Telepictures in the 1980s....

 game show hosted by Mark Walberg

Mark L. Walberg

Mark Lewis Walberg is an American actor, television personality and game show host. His television credits include Antiques Roadshow , as well as the game shows Russian Roulette on GSN and The Moment of Truth on Fox....

 that aired on USA Network

USA Network

USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...

 from June 27 to November 4, 1994. For its first month, it was paired with another Stone-Stanley game show Quicksilver

Quicksilver (game show)

Quicksilver was a game show hosted by Ron Maestri that aired on USA Network from June 27, 1994 to October 13, 1995. For its first month, it was paired with another Stone-Stanley game show Free 4 All which aired immediately after Quicksilver on the network's afternoon game show block...

which aired immediately before Free 4 All on the network's afternoon game show block. However, Free 4 All proved less successful and was cancelled after only four months and only Quicksilver remained until the network ended its game show block for good in October 1995.

Gameplay

Free 4 All was a basic question-and-answer game consisted between two teams of three players. The reason to why it was called Free 4 All was that all of the six players could buzz-in if they thought they knew the correct answer.

Round 1

The first round followed a slight variation of the "toss-up / bonus" format common in scholastic quiz bowl team competition: If a player answered a toss-up question correctly, that player's team received the opportunity to answer a bonus question; however, unlike in most quiz bowl tournaments,

1. the team could choose the subject-matter category of the bonus question from among four alternatives, with game administrators then removing the team's choice from the list of alternatives and adding a different category in its place;
2. the player who correctly answered the toss-up (rather than the captain as in usual practice) was charged with answering the bonus question; and
3. that player could not confer with his or her teammates about the bonus question.

A player's incorrectly answering the bonus question gave the other team a chance to answer it ("bounce back").

Each correct answer in Round One was worth 25 points; toss-up/bonus cycles continued until time expired for Round One.

Round 2

The trailing team or the team that won the coin-toss if round one ended in a tie was given their choice of four categories to begin the round. All questions in round two were worth 50 points, and were always toss-up questions. New categories replaced selected ones, and the choice went to the team with the last right answer.

Round 3

Round 3 was the speed round. Host Walberg read a series of questions from a specific category. ("Bodies of Water" might be actual bodies of water, or people or places with water names.) A right answer scored 75 points for the team that answered correctly, and the team with the most points at the end of the round (90 seconds in length) won the game. If there was a tie, the next question in the packet broke the tie in favor of the team that answered correctly.

Bonus Round

The bonus round gave the winning team the chance to win a trip. The team lined up in whatever order they wished, and was presented 10 categories. The team had 60 seconds for the player at the front of the line to choose a category and answer a question. Each right answer won $100 for the team. Regardless of the answer, that category was taken out of play. After time ran out or all the categories were chosen, the bonus prize was revealed from behind one of the categories. If the team answered that question correctly, or if they answered all 10 questions correctly before time expired, they all won the vacation. Whether or not they won the grand prize, they divided any money won by the team.