| BATTLESTARS A Merrill Heatter Production air dates: 10/26/81-4/23/82 & 4/4-7/1/83 (The New Battlestars) on NBC daytime host ("the man in command"): Alex Trebek announcers: Rod Roddy ('81-'82), Charlie Tuna ('83) HOW TO PLAY: Two players faced a gallery of six celebrities arranged in two rows of three celebs each. Each celebrity was seated in a triangular frame. The stars were arranged in this manner: |
| The numbers were darkened at the start of the game. Each player, in turn, would stop a randomizer which shuffled between the ten numbered spaces. Once a number was stopped on, it stayed lit for the rest of the game. If the number on which (s)he stopped the shuffling was attached to more than one uncaptured celeb, the contestant selected one of those stars. The star would be given a question with two possible answers. The contestant must correctly agree or disagree with the star's answer, a la Hollywood Squares. A correct (dis)agreement allowed that contestant to continue playing. An incorrect (dis)agreement passed control to the other player. Once all three corners of a triangle were lit, questions were asked to that star only until one player correctly (dis)agreed with an answer, thereby capturing that star. If one number lit all the corners of two or more triangles, one star was selected. Ergo, it was possible to capture 2+ stars on one turn. One player played red while the other player was represented on the board by blue. The first player to capture 3+ celebs won the game, played the bonus round, and faced another challenger. On the '81-'82 version, the champion was shown a series of 16 squares arranged in this manner: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Behind the squares was a famous face. Three pieces were revealed and the champ called on one of the stars for help. If the champ could identify the famous person, (s)he won $5,000 in cash. If not, another portion was revealed and another star was called on for help. A correct guess here won $3,000. Identifying the famous face with 5 pieces revealed won $2,000. If not, one more piece was revealed and the champ was allowed one last guess for $1,000. On The New Battlestars, the 10 corners were lit at the start of the game. This time, each contestant, in turn, called out a number. Each unchosen number remained lit until called. The bonus round on the New version was called the Battlestars Bonanza, in which each of the three stars captured by the champion would be asked a question and have three answers to choose from. If the champ disagreed with the star's answer, then the champ had to choose the correct answer from the remaining two. The champ won $500 for each correct (dis)agreement/answer, or $10,000+ in prizes, $5,000 of which was in cash, for three correct (dis)agreements/answers. If the champ won by capturing 4+ celebs in the front game, (s)he had to choose three of them to play with. OTHER TIDBITS: Battlestars became the first game show to be produced by Merrill Heatter without his longtime partner Bob Quigley. Charlie Tuna, a DJ in L.A., could also be heard on Scrabble, Time Machine, The $100,000 Pyramid, and Scattergories. Back to my game show joint or my homepage. |
 |