RUNNING MAN CLASSICS Episodes 71-80
The classic episodes’ cast was Jaesuk, Seokjin, Jongkook, Haha, Jihyo, Gary, Kwangsoo--7 members.
Episode 71
Guests: Oh Yunsoo (actress), Cho Hyeryun (Comedianne)
Location: Korean Trade Insurance Corporation Headquarters
Games: Regional Food Shopping, Trade Regional Foods, Traded Item Exchange, Betting games, Name Tag Ripping
Highlights or notes:
Queen Race - Most of the games were connected in a chain leading up to the name tag ripping game.
The regional food shopping featured the men on each team carrying the women while they searched for foods famous in randomly chosen regions of Korea.
They had to find a foreigner from a specific, again randomly chosen, country to trade the regional foods they purchased during the first game.
The traded items are weighed and the teams get 1 coin per 10 grams of weight they brought.
The teams met up at a betting spot which was open only until a certain time. After betting, they could spin a wheel to get a game. If successful, they would double their bet. If not, they lost the money. They could stop betting at any time. –I remembered THIS part clearly even years later.
The name tag ripping is for 10 minutes only. Each name tag taken is worth 10 coins.
My rating: 8
Penalty: None. The winner got a prize.
Episode 72
Guests: Jung Yonghwa (singer from CNBlue), Lee Minjung (actress)
Location: Hong Kong
Games: Escalator Quiz, Bar Mission, Chinese Theme Song Quiz, Golden Ball Catch
Highlights or notes:
“Legend of the Nine Dragons” Race. It lasted exactly 24 hours.
Jackie Chan introduced the game locations.
One person on the escalator had to answer quiz questions from his teammates climbing the stairs next to the escalator….while one piggybacked the other.
One member had to race to the bar, roll dice to determine ingredients and mix a drink before his teammates arrived. The teammates then had to drink and guess the ingredients.
The members had to listen to a theme song from a Chinese drama, write out the lyrics to the best of their ability, and then sing it back….there was a huge crowd. –This mission was carried out in 3 locations to better introduce Hong Kong.
The members had to find the ‘secret agent’ that had a golden ball. 300 volunteers were walking around in the area. Each had a ball, but only one was golden.
My rating: 3 - I don’t know why this episode didn’t really do it for me, but it didn’t.
Penalty: None-Continued to next episode.
Episode 73- Continued from Episode 72
Guests: Jung Yongwha (singer from CNBlue), Lee Minjung (actress)
Location: Hong Kong
Games: Individual Mini-missions, Medallion Race
Highlights or notes:
The members split up for missions in various places around HongKong such as taking a picture of a clue in a panda enclosure, riding a roller coaster, and getting their fortune read.
The rest of the episode has all the members gathered in Ngong Ping, a Buddhist Village with the largest sitting Buddha in the world as they try to figure out what to do with the half-medallions they got during the first day.
My rating: 6 - I remembered this episode and even at the time I remember it feeling somehow flat to me.
Penalty: None. Golden orb prize for the winner.
Episode 74
Guests: None
Location: Mostly the SBS building
Games: Christmas Party Team Race,
Highlights or notes:
I had COMPLETELY forgotten about the first part of this episode. The members have to arrive at the ‘Christmas Party’ with a partner (one of the other members). One person will be left out as there are 7 members.
The members receive their “Super Powers” in Christmas presents.
Super powers race to find the best running man! This is one of the best of the best.
The super powers are:
Time Controller - Reverses Time by 1 hour, 1 time only
Sixth Sense - Gets info on everyone’s wearabouts
Duplicator - Gets 4 replicas of himself
Mind Controller - Knows everyone else’s powers + Gets 1 reflection (the first person to take her name tag is out)
Death Note - After finding the card, he can write any person’s name on it to make them out
Pheonix - 3 lives (name tags), each has to be taken by a different member
Space Controller - Can move every member to a position of his choosing, 1 time only
My rating: 10
Penalty: None
Episode 75
Guests: Sulli (singer of f(x). RIP), Sohee (singer of WonderGirls), Hyolyn (singer formerly of Sistar),
Location: Airport to Theme Park to a restaurant to the SBS building
Games: Footrace, Airplane Tour Quiz, Lunch Compliment Battle, Symbol Hunt, Equation Race
Highlights or notes:
Math Race…how hard can it be to make 1? Very apparently.
Airplane tour was two guys carrying a woman wearing a plane floaty through an exhibit of miniature famous buildings. They had to answer a quiz question about the buildings on the far end of the exhibit.
At lunch, the members had to give as many compliments to the other team eating in the same room as possible. Those compliments were placed on sticky notes and stuck on the person they referred to. During a short musical clip, everyone on the team had to shake off their sticky notes entirely in order to leave the restaurant.
They got 2 numbers between 1 and 9.
They had to go all around the SBS building to find the function symbols they would need to complete an equation that equaled 1. As soon as they have eight symbols, they can go outside. Before then, the other teams can steal symbols.
The final race was to make their equation. The final equation had to use all their numbers, but not all their symbols.
My rating: 9
Penalty: None
Episode 76
Guests: Kim Sungsoo (actor), Lee Chunhee (actor), Ji Jinhee (actor), Joo Sangwook (actor)
Location:
Games: Several locations in Yeosu - Yeosu Fish Market, Odongdo (Odong Island),
Highlights or notes:
The four guests were the ‘killers’ out to get the Running Man members. The first two games, their goal was to stay out of sight, but to capture one member each time to join them as a spy. Then at the final location, they had to remove all the name tags of the members.
The market game for the members was to find a seller with a specific name and buy a specific item from them.
The island mission for the members was to find the staff selling Camellia Flower Tea.
At the final location, the members could get the killers out by finding the 4 ‘correct’ computers and inputting a password. Each correct one gave them a clue to the password for escaping and made one of the killers out.
My rating: 4
Penalty: None - Beefset prize for the winners
Episode 77
Guests: Kim Sungsoo (actor), Lee Chunhee (actor), Ji Jinhee (actor), Joo Sangwook (actor), IU (singer, actress)
Location: Yeosu, various restaurant locations
Games: Food Bingo Games (open oysters on a grill in 2 minutes, set the table correctly, food quiz, flip 2 clam shells at once, match answers), Name Tag Ripping Bingo
Highlights or notes:
IU wakes everyone up by singing first thing in the morning. Personally, I was incredibly impressed with her early morning vocal stability…I would have croaked like a frog all over the place.
IU was the Yeosu ambassador at the time.
Flavor Bingo Race. Each bingo space was a different restaurant and game. After getting bingo, the team was told the final location.
For the Name Tag Ripping Bingo, members all had numbers assigned based on how quickly they woke up in the morning. Each team had a Bingo board.
My rating: 5. Honestly, this is a fun episode. The games aren’t bad and the theme worked. The guests were good too. For some reason, it’s an extremely forgettable episode for me personally though…
Penalty: None. The winning team got a helicopter tour around the islands.
Episode 78
Guests: Lee Beomsoo (actor), Hong Soohyun (actress)
Location: Gimpo, L shopping mall
Games: Outpost match, Exploration match, World domination match
Highlights or notes:
2012 New Year’s Episode.
World Unification Race- theme based on the drama the guests were promoting.
One member of the losing team in each the outpost and exploration match were discarded. In the world domination match, they acted as a separate team that had crucial information and could only win by not allowing either of the other teams to win.
The outpost match was a modified capture the flag. Each team had to dig through a pile of straw to find their flag and then raise it.
The exploration match was played in several 1 v 1 rounds. Members decided ‘roles’ in their ‘kingdom’ such as strategist, general, and king and came together to battle in those roles. Games included a quiz, drinking water while lifting a barbell, raising heart rates, and ttakji.
The World domination match had the members searching for the 9 parts of a seal. They then had to find the podium and assemble the seal there in order to win. It took the place of name tag ripping this week. The discarded members had a piece of the seal, the location of the podium and a key to get into the final location.
My rating: 6. The Exploration match was very good, but the rest didn’t appeal to me.
Penalty: None. The winners won a beef set.
Episode 79
Guests: Kim Jedong (comedian), Yoon Dohyun (singer). Several others, but not as members playing the game, including Hao and Ciao (comedy skit characters).
Location: Busan, specifically at a docked cruise ship.
Games: Treasure Hunt
Highlights or notes:
I think of this as the Sherlock Spy Episode. It’s a classic.
There was a spy…who i won’t spoil here…who began eliminating the other players. If they succeeded without getting caught and before the other members found the treasure, he would get to keep it.
My rating: 10 - I’m rating this highly not necessarily because it’s one of the best episodes, but I enjoyed the minor guest visitors. Also, the spy was a surprise for me at the time, enough so that I remembered it years later. Also, I’m a HUGE Sherlock Holmes fan and putting them all in Sherlockian outfits didn’t hurt. I consider this a must watch.
Penalty: None - The winners were rewarded with cool name tags.
Episode 80
Guests: Go Ara (actress), Im Soohyang (actress), Hyomin (singer of T-ara)
Location: various locations in Ulsan
Games: Making Couples, Retro Quiz, Temperature Dance Challenge, Name Tag Ripping
Highlights or notes:
Running Man’s Charlie’s Angels. The guests and a member (“Charlie”) are spies who have to survive to the end and keep the members from getting hints. I won’t give away the member for those who haven’t seen it yet.
The cover story is “Retro Group Dating Race”.
To make couples, each female member (and two staff members) put an item on a tray. The male members chose and item and was coupled with its owner.
The Retro Quiz had questions about things that happened in the past. The questions were hidden around a traditional village and the members had to find them barefoot. There was snow on the ground!
The members had to raise their temperature 1 degree Celsius by dancing.
My rating: 8
Penalty: None- Prize ring and local foods for the winner.
