Wordplay (game show)

Last updated
Wordplay
Wordplay Game Show.jpg
Logo
Genre Game show
Presented by Tom Kennedy
Narrated by Charlie O'Donnell
Theme music composerDavid Reilly & John Devereaux
(Pilot theme)
Level 22/Joel Jaffe [1]
(Series theme)
Opening themeHitting Home
(Pilot theme) [2]
Production
Production locations NBC Studios
Burbank, California
Running time22 minutes
Production companiesFiedler-Berlin Productions
Rick Ambrose Productions
Scotti Bros.-Syd Vinnedge Television
Original release
Network NBC
ReleaseDecember 29, 1986 (1986-12-29) –
September 4, 1987 (1987-09-04)

Wordplay is an American game show which ran on NBC from December 29, 1986 to September 4, 1987. It was hosted by Tom Kennedy, with Jamie Farr substituting for Kennedy for one week of shows, and announced by Charlie O'Donnell. The show was produced by Scotti Bros.-Syd Vinnedge Television in association with Fiedler/Berlin Productions and Rick Ambrose Television. [3] The show features three celebrities offering definitions of vocabulary words to contestants, who then determine which celebrity is giving the correct definition.

Contents

Main game

Two contestants, one usually a returning champion, competed through three rounds to win money by guessing the definitions of unusual words. The gameboard consisted of a 3-by-3 grid of words, with the middle column shifted one level above the others. The contestant in control chose a word, and three celebrity panelists each gave a possible definition with an accompanying humorous anecdote. Panelists were provided with definitions before the show. [4] If the contestant chose the correct definition, he/she won money; an incorrect choice gave the opponent a chance to steal the value with a correct guess.

Two words were played per round, with each contestant choosing one. The champion (or the contestant on the left, if there was no returning champion) played first in round one, the challenger in round two, and the trailing contestant (or, in case of a tie, the left contestant) in round three. Words were worth $25, $50, or $75 in round one; these values doubled in round two, and again in round three. Every word was horizontally and vertically connected to its immediate neighbors. Guessing a correct definition won not only the money for that word, but also the total of all values to which it was connected. For example, a $75 word connected to an already-defined $50 word would award $125 to the contestant who won it ($75 + $50). If a $150 word connected to either of these two values was guessed in a later round, it would award $275 ($150 + $75 + $50). If both contestants missed a word, a block was placed on the board in that location and all connections to it were broken.

One word per game was designated as the day's bonus word. Choosing this word and guessing its definition correctly awarded a bonus prize to the contestant, usually if not always a vacation, which was his/hers to keep regardless of the game's outcome.

The contestant with the higher total after three rounds became the champion, kept his/her accumulated money, and advanced to the Double Definitions bonus round. If the game ended in a tie, a seventh word was played, selected by the champion (or the contestant on the left). Each celebrity gave a brief definition with no accompanying story, and the champion had the option to either play the word or pass it to the challenger. A correct guess won the game, while an incorrect guess gave the victory to the opponent.

Double Definitions

The day's champion advanced to the Double Definitions bonus round for an accumulating cash jackpot. The round was originally titled "Speedword" for the first week, but was quickly changed once the producers realized that fellow NBC game show Scrabble had been using the term for more than two years at the time. The gameboard for this round was a grid of 24 numbered spaces, in four rows of six, with each space vertically and horizontally connected to its immediate neighbors. When the champion called a number, Kennedy read two definitions for a word (such as "Writing Implement/Animal Enclosure" for the word "pen"). Guessing the word awarded control of that space, while passing put up a block that the champion would have to go around. Multiple guesses were allowed with no penalty; the champion could move off a space only by giving a correct response or passing.

The champion had 45 seconds to complete a path connecting the left and right sides of the board. Doing so won the jackpot, which began at $5,000 and increased by $2,500 for every day it went unclaimed. Failing to complete the path won $100 per correct answer. The largest jackpot awarded on the show was $27,500, which occurred during the final week on the air. [5]

Contestants were allowed to stay for three consecutive days or until they were defeated, whichever came first.

Broadcast history

When Wordplay premiered on December 29, 1986, it was slotted in the 12:30 pm/11:30 am timeslot following Super Password . That slot had been occupied by the soap opera Search for Tomorrow for over four and a half years on NBC; the serial had aired continuously, first on CBS, since 1951 and was the longest running daytime program in history at the time of its cancellation. [6]

The series faced off against the first half-hour of the highly-rated The Young and the Restless on CBS and Loving on ABC, but did not perform well against both soap operas; the show was also prone to being preempted by some NBC affiliates continuing to air local newscasts or other syndicated programming in the 12:00 pm hour. NBC announced the cancellation of Wordplay in the summer of 1987 in order to make room for Win, Lose or Draw on the network's schedule; the final episode of the series aired on September 4, 1987. Three days after the final episode aired, Scrabble was moved to the 12:30 pm Eastern timeslot.

Pilot episode

The pilot episode, shot in October 1986 for NBC, featured Peter Tomarken as host. According to Tomarken, he was replaced as host because the producers wanted him to alter the style in which he hosted, which created a negative reaction from test audiences. [7]

Related Research Articles

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

Password is an American television game show. Two teams, each composed of a celebrity and contestant, attempt to convey mystery words to each other using only single-word clues, in order to win cash prizes. Various incarnations of the show have aired on television since the 1960s.

<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>Win, Lose or Draw</i> American television game show

Win, Lose or Draw is an American television game show that aired from 1987 to 1990 in syndication and on NBC. It was taped at CBS Television City, often in Studios 31, 33, and 43 at various times. It was co-produced by Burt & Bert Productions and Kline & Friends for Disney's Buena Vista Television. It has also had two versions on The Disney Channel: Teen Win, Lose or Draw from 1989 to 1992, and a revived version known as Disney's Win, Lose or Draw which aired in 2014. New York described Win, Lose or Draw as "a knockoff" of the board game Pictionary, however, Burt Reynolds and Ed McMahon referred to playing the game at Burt's home during the August 2, 1978 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, three years before Pictionary was created.

<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.

<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>The Cross-Wits</i> American television game show

The Cross-Wits is an American television game show. Two contestants, each paired with two celebrities, competed to fill in words in a crossword puzzle. It premiered on December 15, 1975, and lasted for five seasons until its cancellation on September 12, 1980. The show was hosted by Jack Clark, with Jerri Fiala as hostess. Announcing duties were handled by John Harlan, Jay Stewart, and Jerry Bishop. The show was produced by Ralph Edwards Productions and distributed by Metromedia Producers Corporation.

Double Talk is an American game show that aired on the ABC network from August 18 to December 19, 1986. The show was a Bob Stewart-produced word game which borrowed elements from Stewart's previous show Shoot for the Stars and his then-current editions of Pyramid.

<i>Jackpot</i> (game show) American game show

Jackpot is an American and Canadian television game show produced by Bob Stewart which saw contestants attempting to solve riddles in order to win cash and prizes.

<i>Go</i> (game show) 1983 American TV series or program

Go is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart and aired on NBC from October 3, 1983, to January 20, 1984. The show featured two teams, each composed of four contestants and a celebrity. The teams had to construct questions one word at a time to convey a word or phrase to their teammates. The concept of Go was based on "Instant Reaction", an endgame played on two different iterations of another game show created by Bob Stewart, Chain Reaction, in 1980 on NBC and from 2006–07 on GSN.

<i>Childs Play</i> (game show) 1982 American TV series or program

Child's Play is an American television game show in which adult contestants tried to guess words based on definitions given by children. The Mark Goodson-produced series debuted on CBS on September 20, 1982 and ended on September 16, 1983.

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

Blackout is an American game show that was broadcast on CBS as part of its daytime schedule from January 4, 1988 until April 1, 1988. The program was created and produced by Jay Wolpert. The game features two contestants, each paired with a celebrity. Contestants attempt to solve word puzzles consisting of a sentence or short paragraph with four blank spaces. Players guess each missing word based on hearing clues recorded by their partner, but with the playback being muted or "blacked out" at certain places by their opponent.

<i>Caesars Challenge</i> American television game show

Caesars Challenge is an American game show that aired on NBC from June 14, 1993, to January 14, 1994, and was recorded at the Circus Maximus Theatre of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ahmad Rashad hosted the series and, in keeping with the theme of the show's location, he was assisted by a man dressed as a Roman gladiator. Dan Doherty played the role for most of the show's run, with Chad Brown and Zach Ruby handling the earliest episodes before Doherty joined the show.

<i>All-Star Blitz</i> American television game show

All-Star Blitz is an American game show that aired on ABC from April 8 to December 20, 1985, with reruns airing on the USA Network from March 31 to December 26, 1986. Peter Marshall was the host and John Harlan was the announcer for the series, which was produced by Merrill Heatter Productions, in association with Peter Marshall Enterprises.

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.

Snap Judgment is an American daytime game show hosted by Ed McMahon and announced by Johnny Olson which ran on NBC from April 3, 1967, to March 28, 1969, at 10:00 AM Eastern. The program was created and produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.

<i>Password Plus</i> and <i>Super Password</i> American television game shows

Password Plus and Super Password are American TV game shows that aired separately between 1979 and 1989. Both shows were revivals of Password, which originally ran from 1961 to 1975 in various incarnations. With only subtle differences between them, both Password Plus and Super Password retained the format of play as their predecessor, with two teams of two people each—a celebrity and a contestant—attempting to guess a mystery word using only one-word clues. New features included a series of five passwords as clues to an overarching puzzle for the teams to solve, as well as a bonus round requiring the winning team to guess ten passwords under a time limit to win a cash jackpot.

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

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.

References

  1. ↑ "Music | J. Jaffe Music".
  2. ↑ David Reilly & John Devereaux, "Hitting Home", KPM Music Group, Achievers (track 3), KPM 1348, 1985.
  3. ↑ "Wordplay". 1987. Event occurs at Production slate occurs at 21:50. NBC.{{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help)
  4. ↑ Disclaimer present in the closing credits of every single Wordplay episode, beginning with the premiere on December 29, 1986; "Celebrities were furnished definitions in advance".
  5. ↑ Wordplay episode 178, aired September 2, 1987.
  6. ↑ TV Guide Guide to TV . Barnes and Noble. 2004. pp.  707. ISBN   0-7607-5634-1.
  7. ↑ David Baber (2015). Television Game Show Hosts: Biographies of 32 Stars. McFarland. p. 255.
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.