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The transition to "Password All-Stars"

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narzo:
I may be testing some memories too much, but I'm wondering if anyone recalls how they led up to the launch of "All-Stars" in the days and weeks beforehand.  I can't imagine how Allen could say "we're replacing the regular people, like you at home, with more celebrities" but that's what happened.  Did they just open the first "Password All-Stars" with "SURPRISE! you didn't see this coming!!" and not make any hint this was going to happen in the weeks leading up?

BillCullen1:
In his book on Allen Ludden, Adam Nedeff explains that ABC forced G-T to try the all-star format for Password because the celeb weeks done before had gotten good ratings. But like "Baffle All Stars" the year before, the novelty wore thin fast. I'm not sure how far in advance the format change was announced on the air.

Adam Nedeff:
The episode guide for my book (put together by the incomparable Brendan McLaughlin) gives a bit of a hint to how the change was handled. The last "normal" week of Password appears to be September 2-6, 1974, Joyce Bulifant and Joseph Campenella. After that, they did theme weeks for more than two months. Celebrities and Their Wives Week, then a four-star week, then Allen vs. Betty with celebrity partners, then Celebrities and Their Wives again, and then a week just listed as Joyce Bulifant and Loretta Swit (which I strongly suspect had some added wrinkle to it because it's odd that it's buried in the middle of everything else), then Carol Burnett vs. Vicki Lawrence Week with guest partners. And then two weeks themed "Winners from Past Years," which seems like a formal goodbye to the old format, and then a rerun of a previous special week.

So basically, the show's approach was that they weaned viewers off the old format for two months and then just did a total relaunch.

Ian Wallis:
Allen did promote it for at least two to three weeks beforehand, and seemed very excited about the new set and everything that they were going to have.  Originally the All-Stars format was supposed to begin Nov 11, 1974, but was delayed for one week.  At the end oi the Nov 8, 1974 broadcast he stated to tune in Monday for the new format.  I tuned in that Monday only to be disappointed that nothing had changed.  Allen mentioned at the beginning that there was a one-week delay and it would begin the following week (Nov 18, 1974), instead.

calliaume:

--- Quote from: Ian Wallis on May 17, 2019, 07:00:28 PM ---Allen did promote it for at least two to three weeks beforehand, and seemed very excited about the new set and everything that they were going to have. 

--- End quote ---
My memory of 45-year-old episodes isn't super clear, but this squares with what I recall.  But that make sense, whether ABC foisted the All-Stars format or not.  If the choice was either making changes or getting cancelled, it would be a pretty easy choice.  I just took a look at Maxine Fabe's TV Game Shows book, which contains a graph showing the 12 noon ratings between 1974 and 1977, and for most of the second half of the year, Password was well behind Jackpot! in third place.

(I can imagine someone at Goodson-Todman saying to themselves, "All right, we'll have nothing but celebrities - and we're gonna make it so goddamned complicated no one will understand it!") 

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