Winning Streak (American game show)

*Winning Streak*
Winning Streak
Genre	Game show
Created by	Bob Stewart
Directed by	Mike Gargiulo
Presented by	Bill Cullen
Narrated by	Don Pardo
Country of origin	United States
Production
Producer	Bruce Burmester
Production location	NBC Studios, Rockefeller Center
Running time	30 Minutes
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	July 1, 1974 –; January 3, 1975

Last updated February 05, 2024

Winning Streak is an American television game show hosted by Bill Cullen and announced by Don Pardo. It aired weekdays on NBC from July 1, 1974 to January 3, 1975 and was produced at the NBC Studios in New York's Rockefeller Plaza.^[1]

Gameplay

Under the original format, each match consisted of two complete games whose winners faced each other to determine the overall championship.

Part One

Two contestants, a challenger and the current champion, raced to spell a word that fit into a given category. The contestants were shown a grid that displayed 16 letters and the category for that game.

The challenger chose a letter to start the game, and the host asked a toss-up question whose answer began with that letter. The first contestant to buzz-in got a chance to answer; a correct response awarded control of the letter, while a miss gave it to the opponent. The contestant with control of the letter could either place it in one of seven slots on a display in front of them or discard it. Regardless of their decision, that contestant chose the next letter. The game continued in this fashion until one contestant won by spelling a word that fit the given category. All 16 letters remained available throughout the game and could be claimed or passed multiple times.

Money Board

The winner faced the Money Board, which consisted of 18 squares numbered 1–18 and laid out around the edges of the display grid. The six squares on the top row hid money amounts from $100–$200 while the other 12, down both sides and on the bottom, hid letters.

The contestant selected one of the six money squares, whose amount was revealed, and then selected a letter square. They had five seconds to give an acceptable word containing that letter, and won the revealed amount for doing so. After every turn, the contestant could either end the round and keep all their winnings, or try to double the total by selecting another letter square and giving a word that contained all letters revealed to that point in any order. The round continued until the contestant either chose to stop, failed to give an acceptable word (which forfeited all the money), or had doubled the initial value 11 times by successfully forming a word with all 12 letters on the board. The same word could not be used twice in a round.

A sample Money Board round might proceed as follows:

Contestant reveals a $150 square
Contestant reveals G; says GO and wins $150
Contestant continues; reveals M; says MUG (using G, M) and wins $300
Contestant continues; reveals U; says GUM (using G, M, U) and wins $600
Contestant continues; reveals N; says JUMPING (using G, M, U, N) and wins $1,200
Contestant stops and keeps the $1,200

The maximum potential winnings total from a single playing of the Money Board was $409,600, obtainable by uncovering a $200 square and doubling it 11 times.

Part Two

A second game and Money Board round were played with two new contestants and under the same rules as Part One, while the winner of the first game watched from a podium at the side of the stage. The contestant sitting in the challenger's position chose the first letter.

If one winner lost while playing the Money Board, the other was automatically declared the champion for that match and kept their winnings. If they had both won money, they faced each other in the Final Showdown. If both winners had lost, they faced each other in Part One of a new match.

Final Showdown

The Money Board was used for this round, with the six money squares blacked out and letters hidden behind the other 12. The top winner decided who would play first, and the contestants alternated turns revealing a letter and forming a word containing all letters revealed to that point. As soon as one contestant failed to give an acceptable word, the opponent won the championship and all the money accumulated by both of them in their respective games.

The maximum potential winnings total for a single match was $819,200, obtainable if both winners had reached the $409,600 total as described above.

Changes

Near the end of the run, this round was retitled the "Sudden-Death Showdown" and played under slightly different rules. The six money squares were added back onto the Money Board, and the high scorer chose one of them while their opponent selected the first letter. Every acceptable word formed during this round added the chosen amount to a pot; when one contestant failed to give such a word, the opponent won the pot and the championship.

Broadcast history

Winning Streak replaced Stewart and Cullen's Three on a Match , swapping time slots with Jeopardy! . NBC placed Winning Streak at 10:30 AM (9:30 Central) against CBS' strong Gambit . However, Winning Streak made no impact against its competition and ended after six months along with Jeopardy!. Wheel of Fortune replaced Winning Streak on NBC's schedule on January 6, 1975, which would become one of the longest-running game shows in American television history.

Episode status

The entire series is believed to have been wiped, as per network practices of that era.

In the 1990s, Game Show Network aired a single episode of Winning Streak on two occasions: as a standalone broadcast, and in mid-1998 as a subject of original series Faux Pause .^[2] The latter appearance notably included a freeze-frame shot of the production slate, which lists the air date of August 9, 1974 – a day where Streak was preempted due to NBC's coverage of the departure from office of President Richard Nixon and the inauguration of Gerald Ford as his successor, explaining why this particular episode is the only surviving full episode.

The first three and a half minutes of the December 26, 1974 episode also exist. The video used to be available on YouTube, but is currently blocked for copyright reasons.

Theme music

The show's theme song was "Saturday About Town" by Barry Stoller, from the 1971 De Wolfe Music library album Atomic Butterfly by Meatball (De Wolfe).

External links

Winning Streak at IMDb

Related Research Articles

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

Scrabble is an American television game show based upon the Scrabble board game. 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 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 the summer of 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. In it, contestants compete to decode five-letter words given the first letter, similarly to Jotto, with each correctly guessed word earning number draws to attempt filling in a Bingo card.

Concentration is an American television game show based on the children's memory game of the same name. It was created by Jack Barry and Dan Enright. The show featured contestants matching prizes represented by spaces on a game board, which would then reveal portions of a rebus puzzle underneath for the contestants to solve.

The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times between 1972 and 2019. In the show, contestants answer 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.

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.

Street Smarts is an American game show that featured two in-studio contestants trying to predict the outcome of interviews of people who were found on the street. The show, which was hosted by Frank Nicotero, aired in syndication from 2000 to 2005. Nicotero would be on locale with the on the street contestants, virtually any and everywhere in the United States. The in studio gameplay however, was at G4 and TMZ, headquarters, Victory Studios, in Glendale, California.

Bumper Stumpers is a Canadian game show in which two teams of two players competed to decipher letter puzzles presented as fictional vanity licence plates.

Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the paper-and-pencil game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the 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.

Pass the Buck is a game show that aired on CBS television's daytime lineup from April 3 to June 30, 1978. The series was hosted by Bill Cullen and was created by Bob Stewart. Bob Clayton was the announcer.

Wheel of Fortune is a British television game show based on the American show of the same name created by Merv Griffin. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that contestants spin throughout the course of the game to determine their cash and/or prizes.

The (£1,000) Pyramid Game is a United Kingdom game show based on the American format of the same name that was originally shown on ITV from 1981 to 1984 then 1989 to 1990 hosted by Steve Jones, then revived by Challenge in 2007 hosted by Donny Osmond.

<i>Cash Explosion</i> American TV series or program

Cash Explosion, known as Cash Explosion: Double Play from 1989 until 2012, is the official Ohio Lottery TV game show, which is broadcast on television stations throughout Ohio. The show originated in Cleveland and is now taped by Mills James Productions in Columbus, Ohio.

<i>Break the Bank</i> (1976 game show) American TV series or program

Break the Bank is an American game show created by Jack Barry and Dan Enright and produced by their production company, Barry & Enright Productions. It was the first game show packaged by Barry and Enright as a tandem since their fall from grace following the 1950s quiz show scandals.

Bingo America is an American game show broadcast by Game Show Network. The series follows two contestants as they try to compete to win up to $100,000. Additionally, the series lets at-home viewers print bingo cards online that allow them to play along with the show to win small amounts of money for themselves.

Lingo is a British game show based on the American programme of the same name, the original iteration of the programme was made by Thames Television and Action Time for ITV, running for a single series with host Martin Daniels from 12 May to 14 July 1988. A revived version has also aired from 1 January 2021 hosted by Adil Ray.

Sqrambled Scuares is a game show airing on HTC Digital Cable in South Carolina. It had been hosted by local personality Buzz Berry since its inception, and produced by Berry's production company BZB Productions. The show taped from Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach on Thursdays at 7:00 PM.

100,000 Fortune Hunt is an American lottery-based game show originating in the state of Illinois. It debuted on September 16, 1989, and aired on Saturday evenings from 1989 to 1994 on WGN-TV in Chicago ; it was also broadcast on WGN's national satellite feed. Jeff Coopwood hosted the first season, with the rest of the run being hosted by Mike Jackson. Linda Kollmeyer served as the hostess during the entire run with Bill Barber as the announcer.

Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez, usually shortened as Un, dos, tres..., and named Un, dos, tres... a leer esta vez in its last season, was a Spanish prime-time television game show, created by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, which was broadcast on La Primera Cadena of Televisión Española for ten seasons from 1972 to 2004.

References

↑ Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 468. ISBN 978-0823083152 . Retrieved 22 March 2020.
↑ Winning Streak on Faux Pause

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Daytime-1] Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 468. ISBN 978-0823083152 . Retrieved 22 March 2020.

[2] Winning Streak on Faux Pause

[1]

[2]