| A Reg Grundy Production produced in association with Exposure Unlimited air dates: 7/4/84-3/23/90 and 1/18-6/10/93 on NBC daytime host: Chuck Woolery announcers: Jay Stewart ('84-'86), Charlie Tuna ('86-'93) HOW TO PLAY: On this show based on the crossword board game, a man would compete against a woman. For each word, Chuck announced the length of the word and the clue. For the first word, one of the letters would be placed on the center square on the Scrabble board. The first player would select two of the several numbered tiles displayed between the players. The player would then drop each tile into the slot in front of him/her, thereby displaying two letters. The player selected a letter (s)he felt appeared in the word. If it belonged in the word, (s)he could make a guess or select the other letter or, if there were no letters to choose from, take two more tiles. The first player to identify the word scored a point. If wrong, it was the other player's turn. lf, at any time, the selected letter did not belong in the word, it was called a "stopper" and control passed to the other player. If three "stoppers" came up, the other player was offered a free guess, otherwise both players played Speedword. The remaining letters popped up, one at a time, with one of the squares remaining blank. The first player to buzz in and guess correctly moved one step closer to winning the game. If nobody was able to guess the right word, another word was played. Each new word built on a letter in the previous word. If time was running short, Speedword was played until one player scored 3 words. The first player to score three words moved on to the Scrabble Sprint. Early in the series, each letter placed in a pink square added $100 in the pot, the blue squares each added $50, the other squares each added $25. First player to score three words won the pot. From '85-'90, placing a letter in a pink or blue square and correctly identifying the word right then and there won that player a cash bonus, $500 for blue or $1,000 for pink. $500 went to the first player to score 3. On the drab and cheap '93 run, the bonus squares only added to the Bonus Sprint jackpot. During the first 2 seasons, the winner of the Crossword Round played Scrabble Sprint against the defending champion. One player was shown the length of the word and was read a clue. The clock started and two letters were shown. The player picked one of those letters which then appeared in its right place. One of the spaces remained blank. When (s)he felt (s)he knew the word, (s)he hit the plunger which stopped the clock. If (s)he was right, (s)he then moved on to the next word. However, a wrong guess called for a 10-second penalty. If no guess was offered within five seconds after the second-to-last letter appeared in the word, the player must play a make-up word. After the first player finished, the second player, secluded offstage, came on and tried to beat the first player's time. The player who identified the same words in the shortest time won $1,500 (originally 3x the pot won in the Crossword round). During the first season, winning a 5th and 10th Sprint round each won that player $20,000. Champions retired after winning 10 Sprints. In the second season, 5 Sprint wins upped the champ's grand total to $20,000, with champs winning 10 Sprints retiring with a grand total of $40,000. Starting in '86, two Crossword rounds and two Sprints would be played on each show. The champion always competed in the first game of each show. The winner of the first game played the first Sprint to try to set a time for the winner of the second game to beat. The winner of the second game came on and tried to beat the first Sprint player's time. Whomever emerged triumphant won $1,000 and played the Bonus Sprint. In the Bonus Sprint, nailing two words in 10 seconds won the champ the Bonus Sprint jackpot, which started at $5,000 and increased by $1,000 a day until won. A wrong guess on either word ended the game. On the '93 run, the jackpot started at $1,000 and increased for each "bonus square" win in the front game. Each champion could play a maximum of 5 Bonus Sprints. OTHER TIDBITS: Chuck Woolery's first hosting gig was on Wheel of Fortune from 1975-81. He also hosted Love Connection, Greed, the '90s version of The Dating Game, and is now the host of Lingo on GSN, the network for games. Jay Stewart also announced on $ale of the Century, The Joker's Wild, Tic Tac Dough, Bullseye, Let's Make a Deal, and many others before shooting himself to death in '89. This was the most successful game show adaptation of a popular board game, while many other such game shows like Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly were flops. The board game was first manufactured in 1938 and known as Criss-Crosswords. The name was changed to Scrabble 10 years later. For a short time around '86, each player making a guess at the word was required to fill in the blank spaces one at a time. This idea was quickly axed after two players ran into trouble with the word mosquitos. On one episode, while recapping the players' scores, Chuck inadvertently said "recrap"! Here's another funny exchange on a Christmas episode: Chuck: Did you get what you wanted for Christmas? Aaron: No, considering I'm Jewish. Chuck: Well, what did you get for Hannukah? Aaron: It's not that time of the year yet. Back to my game show joint or my homepage. |
| "IT'S THE CROSSWORD GAME YOU'VE PLAYED ALL YOUR LIFE, BUT NEVER QUITE LIKE THIS!" |
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