| THE CROSS-WITS packagers: Ralph Edwards Productions ('75-'80), Crossedwits Productions/Outlet Communications ('86-'87) air dates: syndicated 12/15/75-9/12/80 by Metromedia and 9/8/86-9/87 (as Crosswits) by AFR hosts: Jack Clark ('75-'80), David Sparks ('86-'87) announcers: Jay Stewart, John Harlan, Jerry Bishop ('75-'80), Michelle Roth ('86-'87) HOW TO PLAY: '70s version: A crossword puzzle would be shown to two teams, each composed of a contestant and two celebrity players. The contestant selected a line of spaces to be filled in as well as which celebrity teammate was allowed to guess the word. Jack would read a clue leading to the identity of the word in question. If the celeb identified the word, the non-celeb contestant would earn $10 for each letter in that word. For instance, a 6-letter word guessed correctly would earn the non-celeb on that team $60. If not, the other team's non-celeb captain selected a line and nominated one of his or her celeb teammates to guess. All of the words in each puzzle served as clues which led to the identity of a person, place, thing, etc. Identifying a word correctly allowed the team's non-celeb captain to guess the solution to the master puzzle. Solving the puzzle earned that player $100. Both teams played as many puzzles as time permitted. the team with the highest score played the Crossfire Round. In the Crossfire Round, the winning contestant paired with one of his or her own teammates to help complete a 10-word crossword puzzle in 60 seconds to win the grand prize. As before, Jack would read clues for each word. "IT'S THE FIRST WORD IN TELEVISION GAME SHOWS! THE ALL-NEW CROSSWITS! '80s version: The only change made to the front game concerned the scoring structure. On the first puzzle, each word identified scored that team 5 points per letter, with the solution to the first master puzzle scoring 50 points for that team. On the second puzzle, each word scored 10 points per letter, with 100 points for solving. Each puzzle thereafter scored 200 points, with each word worth 20 points per letter. The highest-scoring team played the Crossfire Round. The Crossfire Round was played the same as on the original version. If the contestant and his or her celeb partner completed a 10-word crossword puzzle within 60 seconds, the contestant won a fabulous trip and a chance to win a car. Otherwise, (s)he still won a fabulous prize. If the puzzle was completed, the contestant would select one of three cars to play for. Each of the three seated celebs held the name of one of those three cars. The player chose the celebrity whom (s)he believed hid a card with the name of the player's choice of car. If the name of the selected car was depicted on the chosen celeb's card, the player drove off in a nice set o' wheels! OTHER TIDBITS: Jack Clark, who was known during the original run as the "keeper of the Cross-wits", was best recognized as the announcer on several game shows such as The $25,000 Pyramid and Wheel of Fortune. Jack died from bone cancer in 1988. Jerri Fiala served as hostess on the '70s edition, with game show announcer Bob Hilton's then-wife Kitty filling in on occasion. David Sparks had previously worked as a male model on the '80s edition of $ale of the Century. Back to my game show joint or my homepage. |