Blockbusters (American game show)

Last updated
Blockbusters
Blockbusters logo.png
Created by Steve Ryan
Directed by Ira Skutch (1980–82)
Marc Breslow (1987) [1]
Presented by Bill Cullen
Bill Rafferty [1]
Announcer Bob Hilton
Rich Jeffries [1]
Theme music composer Bob Cobert (1980–82)
Music Design Group (1987) [1]
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes372 (1980–82)
85 (1987)
Production
Executive producersIra Skutch (1980–82)
Robert Sherman (1987) [1]
ProducersRobert Sherman (1980–1982)
Diane H. Janaver (1987)
Production locations NBC Studios
Burbank, California
Running time22 minutes
Production companies Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions (1980–1982)
Mark Goodson Television Productions (1987)
Original release
Network NBC
ReleaseOctober 27, 1980 (1980-10-27) 
April 23, 1982 (1982-04-23)
ReleaseJanuary 5 (1987-01-05) 
May 1, 1987 (1987-05-01)
Related
Blockbusters (United Kingdom)

Blockbusters is an American game show, created by Steve Ryan for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, which had two separate runs in the 1980s. On this program, contestants answered general-knowledge questions to complete a path across or down a game board composed of hexagons. The first series of the show debuted on NBC on October 27, 1980, and aired until April 23, 1982. In the first series, a team of two family members competed against a solo contestant. Blockbusters was revived on NBC from January 5 to May 1, 1987, but featured only two solo contestants competing. Bill Cullen hosted the 1980–82 version, with Bob Hilton as announcer; Bill Rafferty hosted the 1987 version with Rich Jeffries as announcer. The show is the basis of the British game show of the same name, which aired in various incarnations between 1983 and 2019.

Contents

Gameplay

1980–82

Blockbusters and Las Vegas Gambit , which premiered on the same day, were added to the NBC schedule to replace The David Letterman Show . Letterman's show, for which NBC had cancelled three game shows in June 1980 to free up airtime, did not draw good ratings. It only managed a total of 18 weeks of episodes (and was cut in length from 90 minutes to 60 minutes midway into its run) before NBC decided to return to a more traditional morning lineup.

Three contestants played in each game, with a solo contestant playing against a team of two related contestants that was referred to as the "family pair". The solo contestant played behind a red desk while the family pair played from a white one. [1]

The game was played on a board that consisted of four interlocking rows of five hexagons each. Within each hexagon was a different letter of the alphabet, which represented the first letter of the correct answer to a question. For example, if the letter P was chosen, a sample question might be: "What 'P' is a herbivorous North American mammal whose body is covered with thousands of bristles called quills?", in which case the correct answer would be "Porcupine". Contestants attempted to complete a connection of hexagons to win each round: in red from top to bottom for the solo player, and in white from left to right for the family pair. The solo player had the advantage of being able to win with as few as four hexagons, while the family pair required at least five. Due to the game board's design, there was no way to end a game in a tie. In addition, the two members of the family pair were not allowed to discuss questions at any time. All questions had one-word answers.

Each game started with a letter chosen at random. The first contestant to buzz in was given a chance to answer; if a contestant did so before the host finished the question, he stopped reading and the contestant had to answer immediately. A correct answer awarded the hexagon to that team and allowed them to choose the next letter, while a miss gave the opposing team a chance to hear the entire question and respond. If the solo contestant missed, only one member of the family pair could attempt to answer. If both teams missed the same question, a new one was asked using the same letter.

Originally, winning the first round earned the team no money but allowed the winning team to play the bonus round for $2,500. A second win allowed a return trip to the bonus round for an additional $5,000. Later, each round earned the winning team $500, and teams advanced to the bonus round only after winning two rounds. If the family pair advanced to the bonus round, the captain decided which member would participate.

From the premiere until the change in the front game format, champions retired from the show after winning eight matches. This limit was raised to 10 matches after the change, and later to 20. Following the second increase, several previously undefeated 10-time champions were invited to compete again on the show.

Gold Rush/Gold Run

The same board layout was used, with the left and right sides now colored gold, and the object was to complete a path across the board within 60 seconds. Each hexagon now contained up to five letters, standing for the initial letters in the solution to a clue (e.g. for "RTRNR" and a clue of "He pulled Santa's sleigh," the solution would be "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"). A correct response turned the hexagon gold, while a miss or pass turned the hexagon black, forcing the contestant to work around that space to complete the path.

The bonus round was originally known as the "Gold Rush" and was played after each game in the match. A contestant/family team's first attempt was worth $2,500 if successful, and an additional $5,000 for the second attempt (dubbed the "Super Gold Rush"). Contestants earned $100 per correct answer if they failed to make a connection. When the format changed to a best-two-out-of-three match with $500 awarded per game, Gold Rush was played only after the match and was always worth $5,000.

In the show's 19th week on the air, the round's name was changed to "Gold Run".

1987 changes

When NBC revived Blockbusters in 1987, the solo-vs.-family pair contest was changed to two individual contestants playing. [1] The champion represented white while the challenger represented red. Also, this version used a computer-generated board.

Again, the game was best two-out-of-three, with the advantage alternating between contestants in the first two games. If a tiebreaker game was needed, the board was reduced to a 4×4 field, with neither contestant having an advantage. Each win was worth $100. Contestants stayed until they won ten matches or were defeated.

The Gold Run was played exactly as before, with the contestant having to complete a left-to-right path within 60 seconds. The prize was originally a flat $5,000, but partway through the run it became a jackpot that began at $5,000 and increased by that amount every time it was not won. The jackpot reset to $5,000 whenever it was collected or a new champion was crowned. Throughout the run, the contestant received $100 per correct answer if he/she did not win.

The 1987 theme music was a stock music piece called "Run, Don't Walk" from the KPM music library, composed by British composer Richard Myhill but credited to the Music Design Group.

Home game

The Milton Bradley Company published a single home game edition in 1982. The front game play was the same as the show (with six possible board configurations to play with, although the arrangement of the hexagons was upside-down from what was used on the show). The Gold Run was also played with one of these boards, using only single-letter definitions rather than the multi-letter combinations frequently used on the television show.

Episode status

Both versions of the series are intact, and have aired on Game Show Network at various times. Reruns were first aired on CBN (now Freeform) from October 8, 1984, to August 30, 1985, and was the first Goodson-Todman game show (along with Card Sharks ) to be rerun on cable TV, pre-dating the launch of GSN 10 years later. GSN resumed airing the Cullen version on December 2, 2013, but it has since been dropped. The Bill Cullen version began airing on the second day of Buzzr programming on June 2, 2015.

An episode was featured in the 1998 movie Great Expectations . [1]

Reception

Cullen received an Emmy Award nomination for Best Game Show Host, his first ever, for hosting the show. [1]

International versions

CountryLocal nameHost(s)ChannelAired
Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia Blockbusters Michael Pope Seven Network 1991–1994
Flag of France.svg  France Parcours d'enfer Pierre Bellemare TF1 1987
Flag of Germany.svg  Germany Supergrips (originally called Grips ) Frank Laufenberg (1988–1990)
Ingo Dubinski (1991–1995)
Bavarian TV 1988–1995
Flag of Indonesia.svg  Indonesia Aksara Bermakna Kepra
Anton Gemilar
TVRI
Antv
1989–1996
1997–1999
Flag of Israel.svg  Israel (פיצוחים (שעשועון
(Pitzuhim)
Shosh Atari
Avri Gilad
Ito Aviram
Anat Dolev
Mennachem Perry
Nahum Ido
Israeli Educational Television 1985–1995
مسارات (Masarat)1996
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Doppio Slalom Corrado Tedeschi (1985–1990)
Paolo Bonolis (1990)
Canale 5 1985–1990
Flag of Jordan.svg  Jordan Lo3bet El-Hourouf لعبة الحروف'Zaid Al-AliAmman TV2019–present
Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands Blokletters [2] [3] Fred Oster AVRO 1983–1986
Flag of Paraguay.svg  Paraguay BlockbusterClari Arias Telefuturo 1997–1999
Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia حروف
Huruf
Ibrahim al-Qasim
Majid Cub
Ghanem Al Saleh
Ghalib Full
Salman Al-Otaibi (2017)
Saudi 1 1987–1994
1997–1998
2017 [4]
Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 2 mot 1 Stellan Sundahl SVT1 1998–1999
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland Blockbusters Sven Epiney SF2 1997–1999
Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey Haydi BastirMim Kemal Öke Show TV 1992–1993
Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg  United Arab Emirates حروف
Huruf
Ibrahim Allan
Fawzi Al-Khamis
Abu Dhabi TV
Dubai TV
1988
1990–1994
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom Blockbusters Bob Holness ITV 1983–1993
Sky One 1994–1995
Michael Aspel BBC Two 1997
Liza Tarbuck Sky One 2000–2001
Simon Mayo Challenge 2012
Dara Ó Briain Comedy Central [5] 2019

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Hollywood Squares</i> American television game show

Hollywood Squares is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show piloted on NBC in 1965 and the regular series debuted in 1966 on the same network. The board for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth of their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.

<i>Blockbusters</i> (British game show) British television game show

Blockbusters is a British television quiz show based upon an American quiz show of the same name. A solo player and a team of two answer trivia questions, clued up with an initial letter of the answer, to complete a path across or down a game board of hexagons.

<i>Supermarket Sweep</i> American television game show

Supermarket Sweep is an American television game show. Teams of contestants answer trivia questions before competing in a timed race to gather grocery items from the aisles of a supermarket. The original show was broadcast on ABC from December 20, 1965 to July 14, 1967. Later seasons aired on Lifetime from February 5, 1990 to June 16, 1995, and later on PAX from April 3, 2000 to May 23, 2003, with reruns airing until March 26, 2004. Another version of the show aired from October 18, 2020 to January 30, 2022, also on ABC.

<i>Eye Guess</i> American television game show

Eye Guess is an American game show created by Bob Stewart and hosted by Bill Cullen that aired on NBC from January 3, 1966, to September 26, 1969. The game combined a general knowledge quiz with a Concentration-style memory element, in which the answers were shown to the players and their recall of their positions was tested.

<i>Scrabble</i> (game show) US television series

Scrabble is an American television game show based upon the board game Scrabble. Contestants competed in a series of rounds to fill in words within a crossword puzzle for cash. Muriel Green of Exposure Unlimited developed the idea for a television game show based upon the board game concept. During 1983, Green convinced Selchow and Righter, who at that time owned the Scrabble board game, to license Exposure Unlimited to produce the game show. Exposure Unlimited co-produced the show with Hasbro Studios, Reg Grundy Productions, and licensed the show to NBC. Scrabble aired on NBC from July 2, 1984, to March 23, 1990, and again from January 18 to June 11, 1993. Chuck Woolery hosted the program. Jay Stewart was the announcer for the first year. Charlie Tuna replaced him in mid-1985 and remained through the original run and the entirety of the 1993 revival.

<i>Sale of the Century</i> American game show

Sale of the Century is an American television game show that originally debuted on September 29, 1969, on NBC daytime. It was one of three NBC game shows to premiere on that date, the other two being the short-lived game shows Letters to Laugh-In and Name Droppers. The series aired until July 13, 1973, and a weekly syndicated series began that fall and ran for one season.

<i>Lingo</i> (American game show) American television game show

Lingo is an American television game show with multiple international adaptations. Contestants compete to decode five-letter words given the first letter, similarly to Jotto. In most versions of the show, successfully guessing a word also allows contestants to draw numbers to fill in a Bingo card.

<i>Hot Potato</i> (game show) 1984 American TV series or program

Hot Potato is a television game show that was broadcast on NBC in the United States from January 23 to June 29, 1984. From April 23 until its conclusion, the show was known as Celebrity Hot Potato.

The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times between 1972 and 2019. Contestants answer trivia questions based on categories determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine. The show's title refers to the game's slot-machine mechanism also having jokers, which may be used to represent any category.

<i>Now You See It</i> (American game show) 1974 American TV series or program

Now You See It is an American television game show created by Frank Wayne for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. The object of Now You See It is to answer general knowledge trivia questions by finding the answers hidden in a grid, similar to a word search puzzle.

<i>Chain Reaction</i> (game show) American television game show

Chain Reaction is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart, in which players compete to form chains composed of two-word phrases.

<i>High Rollers</i> American game show

High Rollers is an American television game show created by Merrill Heatter. Two contestants compete to answer trivia questions and gain control of an oversized set of dice, which they then roll to eliminate the numbers 1 through 9 from a game board in order to win cash and prizes. It is an adaptation of the standard dice game shut the box.

<i>Game Ka Na Ba?</i> Philippine television game show

Game Ka Na Ba?, formerly Million-Million Na! Game Ka Na Ba?, Next Level Na! Game Ka Na Ba?, and Pilipinas Game Ka Na Ba is a Philippine television game show broadcast by ABS-CBN and Jeepney TV. Originally hosted by Kris Aquino, it aired on ABS-CBN's Primetime Bida line up from October 8, 2001 to February 27, 2004, and was replaced by Star Circle Quest. The show moved to the Bigtime Trio line up from November 15, 2004 to October 23, 2009, and was replaced by Showtime. The show was revived to Jeepney TV from October 12, 2020 to November 19, 2021 and on Kumu from February 19 to June 18, 2022. Robi Domingo serve as the final hosts.

<i>Tic-Tac-Dough</i> American television game show

Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the paper-and-pencil game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer trivia questions to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on a tic-tac-toe board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–86 run initially on CBS and then in syndication, and a syndicated run in 1990. The show was produced by Barry & Enright Productions. However, the rights to the format are controlled by NBCUniversal.

<i>Battlestars</i> (game show) American television series

Battlestars is an American game show that aired on NBC during the 1980s. The program's concept was developed and produced by Merrill Heatter, featuring a six-celebrity panel. The object of the game is to "capture" the celebrities by lighting up numbers positioned around triangle shapes, inside of which sat each panelist. Similar to Hollywood Squares, which Heatter also co-created and produced, the celebrities are asked questions by the host, and the contestants judge the truth of their answers in order to light up the numbers.

Three on a Match is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart that ran on NBC from August 2, 1971 to June 28, 1974 on its daytime schedule. The host was Bill Cullen and Don Pardo served as announcer on most episodes, with Bob Clayton and NBC staffers Wayne Howell and Roger Tuttle substituting at times.

Connections is a British game show, devised and produced by John Huntley, that aired on ITV from 26 April 1985 to 6 July 1990. The daytime version is hosted by Sue Robbie from 1985 to 1988 and Simon Potter from 1989 to 1990, while the primetime version is hosted by Richard Madeley.

PDQ and Baffle are American television game shows created by Heatter-Quigley Productions. Both shows' objective was for contestant/celebrity teams to guess a given word or phrase in the shortest amount of time with the fewest letters given as possible.

Blockbusters was an Australian children's game show, broadcast on the Seven Network, where players from two schools competed over the course of a week, in a rolling format, where games could be started in the middle of an episode, and stopped and continued on the next episode. The school team earning the most points won a major prize for their school, such as an encyclopedia. The show was hosted by Michael Pope. It ran in Australia from 1991 to 1994.

The Wheel is a British television game show hosted by Michael McIntyre, broadcast on Saturday evenings on BBC One.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Schwartz, David; Ryan, Steve; Wostbrock, Fred (1999). The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows (3 ed.). Facts on File, Inc. p. 23. ISBN   0-8160-3846-5.
  2. "Blokletters – TV en Radio DataBase".
  3. "Blokletters @ Beeld en Geluidwiki".
  4. السعودية (2017-05-27). "مسابقة حروف الحلقة 1". Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2018-09-25 via YouTube.
  5. White, Peter (2018-12-03). "Comedy Central UK Reboots Classic NBC Gameshow 'Blockbusters' With 'Mock The Week' Host Dara O'Briain". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-12-03.