A coworker once sent me a picture of a Plinko chip someone had given him, asking me whether I thought it was authentic. I replied that I couldn't be certain, but I did know that the actual Plinko chips used on the show are kept in a locked container, and there are only ten of them. In the end, we concluded that while his chip looked real, it was possible it came from the live show.

This eBay listing is light on details, but the lack of wear and tear visible in the pictures leads me to believe these weren't used on the show. I know the props folks made some lookalike chips for photo shoots, which would be easier to "lose track of"... I wonder whether that's what those are.

Meanwhile, when I checked out that listing, the algorithm suggested a listing for an animation cel from the opening to 1979's Beat the Clock, which seems more likely to be authentic.

A close source has said that Just Play Products board game based on Pop Culture Jeopardy! will not be released until Fall 2026!

While the timeline probably doesn't line up, I wonder if this is a strategic move to align with the release of Season 2 on Netflix.

If anyone has $1200 laying around, someone is selling Plinko Chips from the show.

https://ebay.us/m/iZXwfN

This all brings up an interesting possibility about Allen's final months. He had left Password Plus in October of 1980, and even though he almost certainly wasn't up to hosting the entire telethon in March of 81, contemporary newspaper stories identify him as one of the galaxy of starts that would make an appearance over the course of the show.  If that happened (and there are logical reasons to believe that it may not have), then the 1981 Stop Arthritis Telethon would almost certainly have been his final TV appearance.

The final episode ended mid-way through a game with $575 in the jackpot and two players left.  I expected Bill to say that they were splitting the money evenly between the final two contestants but he never did.  It seemed that they made the bonus round quite hard on the last few episodes.  All four players on the last shows won at least four-digit sums even though they couldn't win the bonus.  They had already been on for several shows.

Watching the finale bonus rounds I found myself saying "WHAT??" to the monitor in regards to the bonus round difficulty each round - but then maybe it was done on purpose to keep the same crew on so they could make some decent money and not have to worry about a group getting a "one and done" game at the very end with no money won.