| "THIS IS THE BATTLEFIELD FOR OUR GAME OF SPEED AND STRATEGY! THESE ARE THE LETTERS THAT LEAD TO VICTORY OOOOOON..."" BLOCKBUSTERS |
| packagers: Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Productions ('80-'82), Mark Goodson Productions ('87) air dates: 10/27/80-4/23/82 & 1/5-5/1/87 on NBC daytime hosts: Bill Cullen ('80-'82), Bill Rafferty ('87) announcers: Bob Hilton ('80-'82), Johnny Olson (subbed on '80 version), Rich Jeffries ('87, also subbed on the '80 version) HOW TO PLAY: The first version of the show pitted a solo player against a family pair. The players faced a board with 20 hexagonal spaces arranged 5x4 (five columns of four spaces each). A space was selected at random and Bill (Cullen or Rafferty) popped a question to the players. The correct answer was one word or name starting with the selected letter. The player who buzzed in with the right answer earned that space on the board and selected the next letter. If no one came up with the right answer, another question was asked with that same letter. On the original run, A solo player competed aginst a family pair. The solo player's objective was to connect a series of red spaces from top to bottom with as few as 4 spaces. The family pair's goal was to connect a white path from left to right with as few as 5 spaces. That way, two heads can be as good as one! (lol) Well, anyway, the first side to connect their appropriate path won the game and $500. The first side to win two games ($1,000) won the match and a chance at $5,000. In the Gold Run, known as Gold Rush during the first 18 weeks, the solo player, or one member of the family pair, had one minute to connect a gold path from left to right. Each space had one or more letters to indicate the words in that answer. A right answer turned that space gold. A wrong answer or a pass blocked that space off and the player had to try to work their way around it. If the left/right path was completed in 60 seconds or less, the player(s) won $5,000. If not, the player(s) scooped up $100 for each gold space. During the first 4 weeks, winning one game gave the winner(s) a shot at $2,500 playing Gold Rush. Winning two games won the championship and a shot at the Super Gold Rush for $5,000. During that first month, champs retired after playing 8 Super Gold Rushes. After that, it was raised to 10 Gold Rushes/Runs and then 20 on 8/31/81. "GET READY FOR OUR GAME OF SKILL AND STRATEGY!...BLOCKBUSTERS!" On Raff's version, two solo players competed. In the first game of the match, the challenger, or winner of a coin toss, was given the advantage of attempting to connect the shorter top-bottom path, while the champ attempted to connect left-right. The champ would be given the top-bottom advantage in the second game. The third game, if needed, was played with 16 spaces arranged 4x4, thereby giving neither player the advantage. Each game paid $100 to its winner, and the first player to win two games played Gold Run, which was played for $5k for the first two months. During the rest of the run, if a champ lost the Gold Run but won another match, another $5k was added to the jackpot. When the Gold Run was won, or when a new champ was crowned, the jackpot reset at $5k. During the entire run, each gold block still paid $100. Only one player named Jeanne is known to have retired undefeated after playing 10 Gold Runs. OTHER TIDBITS: After the limit was raised to 20 matches on the Cullen run, 10-match winners were invited back. This allowed John Hatten to win the maximum $120,000 ($500 x 2 games = $1,000, $1k + $5k from Gold Run = $6k, $6k x 20 matches = $120k) despite his house burning down during his reign. Still, he didn't lose a single Gold Run! The family pair of Liz and Pat McCarthy did the same. In the last match of the Cullen version, a single game was played for $5k. Bill Rafferty was a regular on a reality show called Real People and also hosted Every Second Counts in '84 and the '86-'87 syndicated run of Card Sharks. The last champion to play Gold Run on the '87 run didn't win the big money but was given another $1,000. Back to my game show joint or my homepage. |