Boggle (game show)

*Boggle*
Boggle
Genre	Game show
Created by	Wink Martindale; Bill Hillier
Presented by	Wink Martindale
Narrated by	Randy West
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	The Family Channel
Original release	March 7 –; November 18, 1994

Last updated May 19, 2022

Boggle is an American game show that was broadcast on The Family Channel from March 7^[1] to November 18, 1994.^[2] It was based on the board game of the same name. Wink Martindale was the host, and Randy West was the announcer.

Gameplay

Round 1

Four contestants competed. Each one had a 3×4 telephone keypad built into their podium, which was used to find words in a Boggle board. A typical Boggle board is illustrated to the right.

G	P	T
H	U	S
L	O	C
D	E	K

The words were formed from adjacent letters, and the same letter could not be used more than once. Martindale reminded contestants to ignore the letters printed on their telephone keypad and only focus on the ones on the board. Using the example board, a contestant pressed 6, 8, 9, and # to spell S-O-C-K.

Martindale read a clue to a word, and contestants had 10 seconds to punch in the keys corresponding to the word. After three seconds, the first letter of the word was revealed. Contestants received points depending on how quickly they punched in the right answer, starting at 1,000 and counting down as time passed.

Five words were played; the first three were four letters long, and the last two were five letters long. After those five words, the contestant with the lowest score was eliminated.

Round 2

In Round 2, all the scores were reset to zero and the three remaining contestants played a new board. The lowest scoring contestant after five more words was eliminated.

Round 3

In Round 3, the scores were reset to zero again and one final board was played. The contestant with the higher score after five more words won a trip and a small prize. The second-place contestant won a smaller prize.

Interactive Component

After each round with the studio contestants concluded, home viewers could call a special 1–900 number and play a game of "Interactive Boggle". The cost to play was $4.98. The game was played similar to a round of the studio game, with home viewers answering by using their touch-tone telephone keypad. The home viewer with the highest score received a small prize and the right to enter a weekly playoff. The playoff was played exactly as before, and the ultimate winner received a trip.

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References

↑ The Intelligencer – March 7, 1994
↑ The Intelligencer – November 18, 1994

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[1] The Intelligencer – March 7, 1994

[2] The Intelligencer – November 18, 1994

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