The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Jimmy Owen on July 04, 2004, 02:29:32 PM
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If not, I'll just mention that it was 29 years ago today that the last Show Down dice were thrown. Aloha, Jim and Heather.
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It was 16 years ago today that Combs Family Feud premiered on CBS replacing The $25,000 Pyramid.
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Many of us missed on this opportunity two days ago, so...
"It's the Game You've Played all your life, but never quite like this!"
On July 2, 1984, Scrabble made its premiere on the NBC daytime game show circuit, joing perennials $ale of the Century and Wheel of Fortune (Super Password would be the final fixture of the 80s daytime lineup a few months later). Hosted by Wheel alum Chuck Woolery, the show took a different spin on the board game. Two contestants competed in a best-of-three matchup, using tiles to solve puzzles with tongue-in-cheek clues (For example, the clue "You can't do less than this" would be a reference to the word "nothing.") The winner would play the previous match's winner in the Scrabble Sprint. Whoever wins the sprints wins $1,500 (plus whatever money was in the pot during the first year of the show's run). Five wins in a row are an additional $20,000; ten wins add $20,000 on top of that (and retirement as undefeated champion).
In 1985, the rules were amended with a less-than-stellar spelling format (thus the "Mosquito Incident"). Thankfully, that was dropped two weeks later.
In 1986, the rules of the game were amended once again. Scrabble was now a self-contained show, with the Sprint slightly altered. The first match's winner (the game the champion played in the event that there was one) would set the time, and it would be up to the second match's winner to beat it. The winner would win $1,500 and go to the Bonus Sprint...two words successfully guessed in 10 seconds resulted in a jackpot of $5,000 (plus $1,000 for each day not hit).
Scrabble would eventually meet its end in 1990, but it would be revived in 1993. It was true to heart to the original (somewhat), but the daytime fizzle (plus the fact it was against TPiR) proved to be too much for the Reg Grundy classic, and the show met its final demise on June 11, 1993.
The Inquisitive One
(I'm pretty sure all of you knew about this, but I thought I would just write it out for you. Happy Independence Day!)
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[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' date=\'Jul 4 2004, 04:01 PM\'] It was true to heart to the original (somewhat), but the daytime fizzle (plus the fact it was against TPiR) proved to be too much for the Reg Grundy classic, and the show met its final demise on June 11, 1993.
[/quote]
It wasn't against TPiR everywhere it aired; WGAL-8 in Lancaster aired it at 3pm; WBRE-28 from Scranton aired it at 10am.
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I must have missed something "here and there"...what the heck was the "mosquite incident" about?
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[quote name=\'passwordplus\' date=\'Jul 4 2004, 04:20 PM\'] I must have missed something "here and there"...what the heck was the "mosquite incident" about? [/quote]
The word was "Mosquito", and in very comic fashion, both players had problems spelling the word, starting it with M-A, M-E, M-I, M-U, etc......
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The winner would play the previous match's winner in the Scrabble Sprint. Whoever wins the sprints wins $1,500 (plus whatever money was in the pot during the first year of the show's run).
Actually, whatever was in the pot was tripled and awarded to the Sprint winner during that week or so under that payoff system.
In 1985, the rules were amended with a less-than-stellar spelling format (thus the "Mosquito Incident"). Thankfully, that was dropped two weeks later.
Actually, that horrid format remained in place for several months before being dropped in late summer 1985 in favor of "Classic Scrabble".
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[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' date=\'Jul 4 2004, 03:01 PM\'] Whoever wins the sprints wins $1,500 (plus whatever money was in the pot during the first year of the show's run). Five wins in a row are an additional $20,000; ten wins add $20,000 on top of that (and retirement as undefeated champion).
[/quote]
By January 1985, they changed it so that five SPrint wins augmented the total winnings to $20K, and five more Sprint wins augmented the total winnings to $40K.
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[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' date=\'Jul 4 2004, 04:01 PM\'] In 1986, the rules of the game were amended once again. Scrabble was now a self-contained show, with the Sprint slightly altered. The first match's winner (the game the champion played in the event that there was one) would set the time, and it would be up to the second match's winner to beat it. The winner would win $1,500 and go to the Bonus Sprint...two words successfully guessed in 10 seconds resulted in a jackpot of $5,000 (plus $1,000 for each day not hit). [/quote]
Minus the Bonus Sprint, this self-contained format was introduced in late September 1986 in a 13-week event called "The All-American Scrabble Tournament". There were four new players each day Monday through Thursday, with the four winners advancing to Friday's playoff. (Note: Because of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, there were only three finalists on Thanksgiving week. Therefore, the player who lost the first crossword that Friday* returned to play the second.) The weekly winner won $5,000 and advanced to the finals on Christmas week. The 16-player field was completed with four wild card entries--the non-winners who had the fastest Sprint times. The $100,000 tournament winner was Mark Bartos, who later went on Win Ben Stein's Money.
* Yes, Scrabble did air the day after Thanksgiving. Back in those days, the three networks turned over that day's morning programming to special showing of Saturday morning cartoons. One can only stand so much Chipmunks, Smurfs, and Gummi Bears.
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Thanks for the help guys! I knew I had some gaps and errors, but I did not know I had that many. Thanks for your help again.
Also, I understand now why some ten game winners ended at a flat $40,000 while some ten game winners had retired (beforehand, of course) over $50,000.
Finally, Scrabble was against TPiR in my area, so I went too broadly. As the adage goes, "Different strokes for different folks."
The Inquisitive One
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[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Jul 4 2004, 03:42 PM\'] [quote name=\'passwordplus\' date=\'Jul 4 2004, 04:20 PM\'] I must have missed something "here and there"...what the heck was the "mosquite incident" about? [/quote]
The word was "Mosquito", and in very comic fashion, both players had problems spelling the word, starting it with M-A, M-E, M-I, M-U, etc...... [/quote]
I believe Kris Lane has a clip of this, if you want to view it.
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I've seen that "Mosquito" incident while watching a bloopers show back then. It's a good thing Scrabble dropped that awful format when they did. Actually, I didn't watch those few months they did that. I guess I got lucky there because I'm not really a good speller.
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And Brad Francini's got a clip of Sang on his website.
Sang was the player who ALWAYS took 67 seconds to finish the Sprint Round!
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[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 03:28 AM\'] I believe Kris Lane has a clip of this, if you want to view it. [/quote]
Thanks, but I've got it on my "Robair Tape" that I acquired at GSC4 in 1996, with many more unforgettable moments....:)
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Mark Bartos was also a winner on Monopoly and a 2x champ who won
$16,602 on Jeopardy, May 17-18, 1994.
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[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jul 4 2004, 04:09 PM\'] Actually, whatever was in the pot was tripled and awarded to the Sprint winner during that week or so under that payoff system.
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As I recall, "the pot" was based on the words used in the head-to-head round; each letter was worth $25, with blue squares worth $50 and red $100 (or is that backward?). The amount was based on the entire word, not just the letters that were revealed.
-- Don
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[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' date=\'Jul 4 2004, 03:01 PM\'] In 1986, the rules of the game were amended once again. Scrabble was now a self-contained show, with the Sprint slightly altered. The first match's winner (the game the champion played in the event that there was one) would set the time, and it would be up to the second match's winner to beat it. The winner would win $1,500 and go to the Bonus Sprint...two words successfully guessed in 10 seconds resulted in a jackpot of $5,000 (plus $1,000 for each day not hit). [/quote]
Personally, I thought the Bonus Sprint format was the better format, with the daily "mini-tournament" as it were. Yes, I know there are Scrabble CD-ROM games out there, but it would still be nice to see the game show format return as a CD-ROM game, nothing against BigJon's game (which I play quite a bit).
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[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 03:30 PM\']
As I recall, "the pot" was based on the words used in the head-to-head round; each letter was worth $25, with blue squares worth $50 and red $100 (or is that backward?). The amount was based on the entire word, not just the letters that were revealed.
-- Don [/quote]
Only the revealed letters added money to the pot in that first week format. THe spelling format is the format where the unrevealed letters(upon giving the missing letters in the word correctly) added to the bank.
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So, when did the Bonus Square amounts become 10-fold?
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[quote name=\'gameshowguy2000\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 06:53 PM\'] So, when did the Bonus Square amounts become 10-fold? [/quote]
Starting with week two, the pot format was eliminated and winning the maingame was worth $500. In October 1984, the Blue $500/Pink $1000 Chuckbucks rule debuted(though the Chuckbucks play money didn't debut on the show until a few years later)
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[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 06:59 PM\'] [quote name=\'gameshowguy2000\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 06:53 PM\'] So, when did the Bonus Square amounts become 10-fold? [/quote]
Starting with week two, the pot format was eliminated and winning the maingame was worth $500. In October 1984, the Blue $500/Pink $1000 Chuckbucks rule debuted(though the Chuckbucks play money didn't debut on the show until a few years later) [/quote]
How much were the squares worth before October 1984 ?
Out of curiosity:
How long did the first champ, Jack Archer remain as champ ? (I know he has won at least 5 sprint rounds)
-Joe R.
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[quote name=\'JRaygor\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 07:51 PM\']
How much were the squares worth before October 1984 ?
Out of curiosity:
How long did the first champ, Jack Archer remain as champ ? (I know he has won at least 5 sprint rounds)
-Joe R. [/quote]
IIRC he won 6 or 7 Sprints.
Pink and Blue squares were worth zip before 10/84.