Game Show Corner

[Flowgli]

Hey, people! Flo here, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

After having covered Straight To The Heart last week and having mentioned a game show that I covered in the previous year called Night Games, I’ve decided to cover another relationship game show that involves three men and three women playing for love with the opposite sex this week. This game show is called The Perfect Match.

The Perfect Match aired in syndication from September 18, 1967 to September 13, 1968. It was hosted by sportscaster and host of a game show that I already covered in the previous year called 3 For The Money Dick Enberg, announced by John Hilliard, produced by Bill Derman Productions, distributed by Screen Gems Television, and taped at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, California.

The game is played by six contestants, three of which are men, and three of which are women. Before the show, the contestants each have been matched with someone of the opposite sex by an IBM System/360 computer. In the show, the contestants play a series of rounds that will help each of them determine who they think they’re matched with.

The game is started off with the women introducing themselves, and then the men introducing themselves. After that, the show goes into its first commercial break, and round one is played after the show returns from that commercial break.

In round one, all three contestants of the same sex are asked a question that involves being in a romantic situation. Each contestant of the sex being asked that question gives their own answer, while the contestants of the opposite sex take notes. An additional question related to the question in play can then be asked, and after the contestants of the interrogated sex have given their own answers to that question, each contestant of the opposite sex asks a question to one contestant of the interrogated sex regarding the answers given by them. The women are interrogated first, and the men are interrogated after that.

In round two, all six contestants are asked a series of yes-or-no questions, and they all answer each one at the same time, with each contestant having to stand up to answer “yes” or remain seated to answer “no”. After these questions, each contestant can ask a question to a contestant of the opposite sex regarding their answer to any of the questions asked in that round.

In round three, all six contestants are asked the same personal question, and each contestant is asked a question regarding their answer to that question by a contestant of the opposite sex.

In round four, all six contestants are given a word, and each contestant has to draw on their sketch pad the first thing that comes to their mind when they hear that word. They are given enough time to do their drawings when the show goes into its second commercial break. After that commercial break, the contestants reveal their drawings and explain their story behind it regarding the given word. Each contestant then gets to ask a question to a contestant of the opposite sex regarding their drawing and their explanation behind it.

After four rounds, the contestants each have to write down which contestant of the opposite sex they think is their “perfect match” according to the computer. The contestants then reveal their choices of which one of the opposite sex they think is their “perfect match”. Then, Dick opens three envelopes on the board next to him, with each envelope printed with one of the words in the show’s title and containing names of two of the contestants—one of the male contestants and one of the female contestants—that have been matched by the computer. Each contestant who chooses the one that they are matched by the computer wins $50. If two contestants matched by the computer choose each other, those contestants originally win a bonus prize each and later $200.

And that’s The Perfect Match. This show is far from being perfect, and it’s far from being a match. It’s just an uninteresting game show, and even with the variety in the rounds played in this game to help the contestants each choose who they think is their “perfect match”, the whole show seems stale and monotonous. The computer dating system was still young at the time, but it wasn’t a good idea to have any involvement in a relationship game show anyway. Using the computer dating system to find the “perfect match” doesn’t seem bad, but it doesn’t make for a good relationship game show. The computer used for matching the contestants with each other isn’t even shown on the show. Also, the names of the contestants in the envelopes don’t even stick well on the board, as they often fall off it when placed there. The cash and prizes were fine for the time, though.

There’s another relationship game show of the same name but without the word “the” in it, and I’m gonna be covering that show next week. Is it any good? We shall see in next week’s edition when I cover Perfect Match.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hey, there, you crazy couples! This is Flo, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

Nine weeks ago, I covered a game show called That’s The Question, which was hosted by Bob Goen and produced by Scott Sternberg. This week, I’ll be covering another game show that was hosted by Bob Goen and produced by Scott Sternberg. And not only is this game show a relationship game show, but it’s also the last one that I’ll be covering for a while, since today is the last Friday of February. And since I covered The Perfect Match last week, the game show that I’ll be covering this week is Perfect Match. You know, without the word “the” in the title. It’s Perfect Match!

Perfect Match aired in syndication from January 13, 1986 to September 12 on that same year. Not only was this show hosted by Bob Goen and produced by Scott Sternberg, but it was also the first game show that Bob Goen hosted—Fast Friends and Beat The I.R.S. don’t count, because those are unsold pilots—and it was a game show not produced in Scott Sternberg’s production company Scott Sternberg Productions. This show was also announced by Jeopardy! announcer Johnny Gilbert, produced by The El Encanto Group and XPTLA, Inc., and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation, with those companies also having produced and distributed a game show that I already covered back in year one called The $1,000,000 Chance Of A Lifetime, which premiered one week after this show premiered.

The game is played by three married couples. Before the show, the husbands and the wives are separated, and they are asked questions about their relationships with their spouses. At the start of the show, the couples are reunited when they are introduced by Bob, and they take their seats.

The couples are started off with $200 each, and they are asked three questions, with the husbands having to match answers given by their wives on the first and third questions and the wives having to match answers given by their husbands on the second question. On each question, each half of a couple making an attempt to match the answer given by their spouse has to make a wager from $10 to all the money that couple has up to that point. That person’s spouse’s answer is then revealed to the home viewers in a thought bubble graphic. If that person correctly matches their spouse’s answer, the wager is added to the couple’s total; but if not, the wager is deducted from the couple’s total.

Like in The Newlywed Game and other game shows with gameplay similar to that show, a failure to make a match often results in the couple getting in into an argument. In some cases on this show, a couple hits each other with pillows as they argue.

After the three questions, the couples play the final round of the entire show. This round involves love letters, each with three blanks for a person to fill in. Before the show, each half of each couple is given help from the show’s staff in writing love letters to their spouses. In this round, each person reads their love letter to their spouse, having to stop reading each time they reach a blank in that letter so that their spouse can fill in that blank. Each time a person correctly fills in a blank, that couple gets cash added to their total. There is no cash deduction for an incorrect guess in this round. On each set of turns, the couples play in order of their score, from lowest to highest. On the first set of turns, the husbands read their love letters, and the wives fill in the blanks, with each correct match worth $100. On the second set of turns, the wives read their love letters, and the husbands fill in the blanks, with each correct match worth $200.

At the end of the game, all three couples keep all the money they have won up to that point, but the couple with the most money wins the game and an additional $1,000, with that money split between the couples tied for the lead if the game ends in a tie. However, if a couple correctly fills in all the blanks on both love letters, that couple wins a total in the final round of $5,000.

That’s Perfect Match, and as the first game show hosted by Bob Goen, it sucks. It’s yet another clone of The Newlywed Game, and that makes for an unimpressive game show. The graphics of thought bubbles and the pillows used in arguments over incorrectly matched answers don’t make it any better. The idea of couples making wagers on questions is different for a game show like this, but it’s not even close to being enough to save this game show. The number of questions played before the final round is also uneven. The husbands have to match their wives on two questions, and the wives have to match their husbands on only one question. Does that sound right? No, it doesn’t.

You know what I found bad about this show other than the gameplay? This was the replacement for Catchphrase, a game show that I already covered back in year one. Telepictures Corporation distributed Catchphrase before the merger with Lorimar Productions. Catchphrase is the better game show of the two, and I can’t believe it was cancelled for a clone of The Newlywed Game, especially one like this. This show didn’t need to have existed, but if it never existed, Bob Goen would never have begun his game show hosting career. However, this is not a good show for him or any veteran game show host to begin their game show hosting career. You know who else had the misfortune to work on Perfect Match but later went on to work on a better game show? The executive producers of this show, Bob Synes, Scott A. Stone, and Jay Feldman. These three continued to work on $1,000,000 Chance Of A Lifetime as executive producers. Later on, Scott A. Stone went on to found his own production company, Stone Entertainment—later known as Stone-Stanley Productions and currently known as Stone & Company Entertainment—where he produced a good number of game shows, especially with David G. Stanley back when the company was known as Stone-Stanley Productions. One of those game shows was Fun House, which was created by Bob Synes and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation.

Now, that’s it for Perfect Match. There’s another game show the same name, and I’ll be covering that show next week. See you then.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hi, people! Flo here, welcoming you to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

Well, I covered two relationship game shows that are each far from being a “perfect match”, despite the titles of those shows claiming exactly that. Since today is the start of March, I will be covering another game show with that title, and it’s not a relationship game show, this time. This week, I’ll be covering a sports-themed game show hosted by the same person who hosted Remote Control and a game show that I already covered nearly four months ago called Smush. So, here’s the sports-themed game show called Perfect Match.

Perfect Match aired on ESPN from October 3, 1994 to December 30 on that same year. It was hosted by Ken Ober, co-hosted by Challen Cates, announced by Lou DiMaggio, packaged by Bilkstar Productions, and taped at Empire Studios in North Hollywood, California.

The game is played by four contestants, who play two at a time. Two of the contestants are male, and the other two contestants are female, and both contestants playing against each other are the same gender, with the female contestants playing the first face-off and the male contestants playing the second face-off.

In each face-off, the two contestants playing in it play two rounds. And in each round, a category is given, and twelve answers are shown on the outer spaces of a 4x4 game board. Twelve clues under the category are given, one at a time, and on each clue, the contestant in control has to choose which answer they think matches that clue. The contestant in control has 30 seconds to make as many matches as possible, with each correct match worth 3 points in round one and 7 points in round two, for a possible 120 points.

After two rounds, the contestant with the most points wins the face-off and advances to the bonus round with the winner of the other face-off.

In the bonus round, the winners of the face-offs play together as a team. They have 45 seconds to make all twelve matches under one more category. Succeeding in doing so wins the contestants a grand prize, while failing to do so wins them a consolation prize.

At one point in the show, an interactive game takes place. In the interactive game, the home viewers have to match eight clues within a total of 48 seconds—6 seconds for each clue—using their touch-tone telephones. On each clue, a home viewer chooses an answer that matches that clue by pressing a number key that corresponds to that answer. After all eight clues have been played, the home viewer who makes the most correct matches in the fastest time wins a prize and gets a chance to play against other winning home viewers at the end of the month for a grand prize of $2,500.

That’s Perfect Match, the ESPN game show from 1994. Out of all the game shows I covered here that have the Perfect Match title, this one is the best one, especially considering that this one is not a relationship game show like the other two. Matching answers to sports-related clues within a time limit makes for good gameplay, especially for a game show that has everything to do with sports. The fact that two contestants who win the game, with one being a male and the other being a female, and playing together as a team in the bonus round is a lot like how contestants win the game and play together in the bonus round in Straight To The Heart, which I already covered three weeks ago. The point values of correct matches are random, though. 3 points for each correct match in round one and 7 points for each correct match in round two? Why can’t the point values be 5 points per match in round one and 10 points per match in round two, or maybe even 10 points per match in round one and 20 points per match in round two? The interactive game for the home viewers is good, though I think that a cash prize as a grand prize for the home viewer who ends up winning at the end of a month is not the right prize to play for if no cash prizes are played for by the contestants on the show itself. How about they make the grand prize for the home viewers be a trip instead of a cash prize?

No full episodes of this show could be found anywhere on the Internet, so everything said about it here may be accurate. As of this release, there’s only a video on YouTube that has a couple of clips of an episode of it that features the person who uploaded that video as a contestant there. That video also features clips of other game shows that that person was a contestant on. The game shows other than Perfect Match that this person, Billy Baker, whose username on YouTube is buckeyebillyb, appeared on as a contestant are Trivial Pursuit—which I already covered back in the previous year—Designated Hitter, Debt—which I already covered back in year one—and Free 4 All—which I already covered back in year two. So, out of all the game shows featured in that video, Designated Hitter is the only one I haven’t covered here. And you know what? I’m gonna cover that next week. Sure, there may not be a full episode of that show anywhere on the Internet to show how accurate all the information about it that I found is, but I have covered game shows this way before, especially just now. So, join me next week when I cover Designated Hitter.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hello, baseball fans! This is Flo, your coach, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

When I covered Perfect Match—the ESPN game show from 1994—in last week’s edition, I mentioned a contestant on that show and a video of his that shows him as a contestant on that show and on other game shows, all of which I already covered except one. That contestant is Billy Baker, who has an account YouTube as buckeyebillyb, and those game shows are Trivial Pursuit, Perfect Match, Debt, Free 4 All, and the one game show that I haven’t covered yet but will be covering today, Designated Hitter.

Designated Hitter aired on ESPN from December 1, 1993 to March 31, 1994. It was hosted by host of Grandstand—which I already covered twenty-one weeks ago—and hallway interviewer and announcer of The People’s Court Curt Chaplin, announced by Rick Stern, and produced by Bill Carruthers—the producer of Press Your Luck, Second Chance, You Don’t Say!, The Neighbors, and Give-N-Take, with the latter two shows having already been covered back in year two—in his production company The William Carruthers Company.

The game is started off with three contestants, all wearing baseball uniforms. The three contestants play round one, where they are asked five questions in each of the five following categories: Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Curve Ball. In Baseball, Basketball, and Football, contestants are asked questions about those sports. In Curve Ball, the contestants are asked questions about any other sports. On each category, the contestant in control chooses a question, with the contestant who answers it correctly winning money and choosing the next question. The first four questions on each category are toss-up questions for all three contestants to buzz in on and answer; the first question is a single worth $25, the second question is a double worth $50, the third question is a triple worth $75, and the fourth question is a homer worth $100. The fifth question on each category, however, is a “pitch-hit” worth an undisclosed amount of money, and only the contestant who has chosen that question gets to answer it. Each time a contestant answers a question incorrectly, they get an “out”. If a contestant gets three “outs”, they get $100 deducted from their score.

At the end of this round, the two contestants with the highest scores advance to round two, and the contestant with the lowest score is eliminated.

In round two, the two remaining contestants each choose one category to play. There are four categories, all the same as in the previous round. There are four questions in each category, with the first question still a single worth $25, the second question still a double worth $50, the third question still a triple worth $75, and the fourth question still a homer worth $100. There’s no buzzing in to answer questions; this time, the contestants take turns answering questions. A contestant wins money for answering a question correctly, but if they answer incorrectly, the other contestant has the option to answer that question and win the money. There are no “pitch-hit” questions in this round, but there are still “outs” for incorrect answers and $100 being deducted from a contestant’s score for three “outs”.

At the end of this round, the contestant with the most money wins the game and advances to the bonus round called “Grand Slam”.

In “Grand Slam”, the winning contestant is asked four questions, one from each category. The categories are all the same as in the main game. Each question answered correctly wins the contestant money. The first question is worth $250, the second question is worth $500, the third question is worth $750, and the fourth question is worth $1,500. A possible $3,000 can be won if all four questions are answered correctly. All the money won in this round is added to the money that the contestant has won in the main game.

That’s Designated Hitter. From what I was able to get as I was putting together this edition, this seems to be a good Q&A game show all about sports, and it does have a strong baseball theme. The set looks like a baseball field, the contestants wear baseball uniforms, and even some baseball terms are used, like “out”, “pitch-hit”, and “designated hitter”. The way the rounds in the main game are good, though I feel that the dollar values of the questions in round two could’ve been doubled so that the contestant who is trailing has a fair chance to catch up. The one particular thing about this game show that I feel is a letdown is “Grand Slam”, the bonus round. All that happens in that round is that the winning contestant is asked four questions, one from each category, with each question answered correctly winning the contestant more money. The bonus round could’ve been called “Home Run” and had a game board that looks like a baseball field. For this bonus round, the winning contestant could’ve been made to light up all four bases—starting at home base, and going to first base, second base, third base, and back to home base, in that order—by answering four questions in a row within the time limit, with each question answered correctly lighting up the next base. If the contestant answers a question incorrectly or passes on it, they start back at home base and must start over in lighting up the four bases all over again. The contestant could’ve won $250 for every question answered correctly in that round, regardless of the outcome of it, and a bonus of $2,000 added to their bonus winnings if they light up all four bases by answering four questions in a row correctly before time runs out. That would’ve been a great bonus round for this game show, since this is a baseball-themed game show.

The video I mentioned earlier in this edition and at the end of last week’s edition and the article on this show on US Game Shows Wiki are the only sources that exist on the Internet of this show. As for sources out of the Internet, well, I don’t know if Curt still remembers this show to this day. He’s been working on The People’s Court for so long that he probably had forgotten all about it. He may still remember Grandstand, and I believe he has a better chance at remembering that show, since it has more articles and some full episodes that can be found on the Internet, which sadly, isn’t the case for Designated Hitter.

There’s another game show as rare as Designated Hitter that I plan to cover here, and I’ll be covering that show next week. That game show is No Relation. Join me next week for that.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hello, families, real or fake! This is Flo, your family photographer, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

If a game show has gameplay that is really good, that would bring people in, and they would not only watch the show, but also play along with it. It can be fun for people to play along alone, but it can be more fun for people to play along with friends or family. But what if a family member playing along with the rest of the family is an impostor? That’s actually something that is the whole point of the game show that I’m gonna be covering today. That game show is No Relation.

No Relation aired on FX from August 12, 1996 to February 8, 1998. It was hosted by host of Dirty Jobs and Somebody’s Gotta Do It Mike Rowe, announced by Jennifer Martin, produced by Dick Clark in his production company Dick Clark Productions, and taped at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California, on the exact same stage as The Price Is Right.

The game is played by one family consisting of five members, one of which is an impostor, who has been briefed by the family with the real fifth member of that family before the show.

The family—four of the real members and the impostor—face a panel of three celebrities, who has to figure out which member of the family is the impostor by interrogating them.

There are two rounds of interrogation in this game. In round one, the five family members are interrogated by the panel, one at a time. At each family member’s turn, the other four members are in isolation so they can’t hear the interrogation, and each panelist has 30 seconds to interrogate the member in turn. In round two, the five family members are all onstage together, and each panelist has 45 seconds to interrogate them about each other.

After the two rounds of interrogation, each panelist chooses which of the five members of the family that they think is the impostor. The impostor then reveals themselves, and each panelist who gets stumped wins the family a prize attached to them, with the family winning a grand prize vacation on top of the three prizes if the entire panel gets stumped.

And that’s No Relation. As you can tell, the gameplay is similar to that of To Tell The Truth. The way the gameplay is done here is interesting, not only with a real family playing the game and a panel of celebrities figuring out which member of that family is an impostor, but also with each round of interrogation played differently and the family winning prizes attached to the celebrities, with a vacation won as a bonus for stumping the entire panel. But because there are no full episodes of this show to be found anywhere on the Internet, everything I said about the gameplay may not be accurate, and I may miss a few details. There’s only one video of this show that can be found on the Internet, and it’s a clip that shows Ryan O’Donnell on the show as a contestant, which was uploaded by Ryan himself, just like Billy Baker uploaded a video of the game shows that he appeared on, and I have mentioned that video in the last two editions. The video that Ryan posted, as well as the article about this show on the US Game Shows Wiki and an article from Mike Rowe about his experience in working on the show on his website are the only sources about this show that can be found on the Internet.

Well, I’ll be luckier in the next edition, because the game show that I’ll be covering there has more sources about it that can be found on the Internet. Join me next time, and I’ll tell you all about it.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hi, guys! Flo here, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

I have been covering rare game shows in this series since the beginning of it, and that’s what this series is all about. Some of the game shows that I covered here are rare to the point that only two or three sources about them can be found on the Internet, none of which are full episodes of those shows that can be found on YouTube or any other websites where videos can be uploaded. This is what has happened here in the past three editions when I covered Perfect Match—the ESPN game show from 1994—Designated Hitter, and No Relation. For this week’s edition, it’s gonna be different, as the game show that I’m gonna be covering has more sources about it that can be found on the Internet. Sort of. This game show is called The Face Is Familiar.

The Face Is Familiar is a primetime game show that aired weekly on CBS from May 7, 1966 to September 3 on that same year. It originally aired in black and white but later aired in color. It was hosted by Jack Whitaker, announced by Jack Clark, created and produced by Bob Stewart in his production company Bob Stewart Productions in association with Filmways Television, sponsored by Parliament and Marlboro cigarettes, American Safety Razor Company, and Clark’s Teaberry chewing gum, and taped at Studio 41, CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, New York. This show also used “Brasília”, a piece of music by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, as its theme music.

The game is played by two teams, each one consisting of a contestant and a celebrity. The object of the game is to choose from seven horizontal strips on a game board, revealing parts of a photo of a celebrity’s face, and choose which parts of that photo to switch around, with the first team to correctly identify the celebrity on that photo winning the contestant on that team some money.

This show has two formats during its run, with each format having both the main game and the bonus round played differently. So, because of this, I’ll explain the main game and the bonus round in the first format, and then, I’ll explain the main game and the bonus round in the second format afterwards.

In the first format, one member of each team is given incomplete statements, and the first person to buzz in gets to complete it with a correct answer. Team members take turns buzzing in to completing statements, with the celebrities playing against each other on a statement, the contestants playing against each other on the next statement, and so on. Buzzing in with a correct answer wins a team member the right to correctly identify the celebrity on the photo, but buzzing in with an incorrect answer wins their opponent that right by default.

After a team member wins a statement, a part of the photo is revealed before they can make their guess. The seven horizontal strips are stacked on top of each other, with each strip covering a part of the photo, and the parts of the photo are arranged in random order. The parts of of the photo are also revealed in random order, as well. The game is started off with one part of the photo revealed, one more piece revealed after each of the first two statements, and two more pieces revealed after each of the next two statements.

The first team to correctly identify the celebrity on the photo wins the game. If a correct guess on the celebrity on the photo is not made, another statement comes into play. If a correct guess on the celebrity on the photo is not made after all seven parts of it are revealed, the teams will be given more statements to earn the right to choose two parts of the photo to switch, with the team member who has buzzed in with the correct answer making the first choice of part of the photo to switch, and their teammate making the second choice of part of the photo to switch. The team gets to make a guess on the photo after the two chosen parts of it have been switched. Also, at this point, a team does not win a statement and the right to guess the celebrity on the photo by default, this time.

The first team to correctly identify the celebrity on the photo wins the game. The contestant on the winning team receives $150 and advances to the bonus round called “Three Of A Kind”.

In the “Three Of A Kind” bonus round, the winning team is told three celebrities to choose the correct eyes, mouth, and nose of. For the first celebrity, the celebrity of the winning team is shown three pairs of eyes, one at a time, and they have to choose which pair of eyes they think belongs to that celebrity. For the second celebrity, the contestant of the winning team is shown three mouths, one at a time, and they have to choose which mouth they think belongs to that celebrity. And for the third celebrity, the celebrity of the winning team is shown three noses, one at a time, and they have to choose which nose they think belongs to that celebrity. After a strip is chosen, it’s placed in its proper position, and the entire face of the celebrity who the chosen part it belongs to is revealed. The contestant wins $50 for each of the first two correct guesses made and $250 for the first correct guess made. So, if the contestant makes a correct guess of part of all three celebrities’ faces, they win a maximum total of $500.

After the bonus round is played, the winning contestant leaves with all their winnings, and the losing contestant wins $50, and another game is played by two new contestants.

In the second format, the main game is played in a best-two-out-of-three-game match, and there are no incomplete statements. The teams take turns choosing parts of a photo of a celebrity for each other to guess and not for themselves to guess, with the celebrities choosing parts of the photo for each other first, and the contestants choosing parts of the photo for each other next, and so on.

The first team to correctly identify the celebrity on the photo wins the game, and the contestant on that team receives $100. If a correct guess on the celebrity on the photo is not made after all seven parts of it are revealed, the teams then take turns switching two parts, with one member choosing a part, and the other member choosing another part. The first team to correctly identify two celebrities wins the match and a total of $200 for the contestant on that team, and that team advances to the bonus round called “$500 Bonus Try”.

In the “$500 Bonus Try” bonus round, the winning team is shown one strip of each celebrity within 60 seconds, with each strip showing a pair of eyes, a mouth, or a nose. What the team has to do is correctly identify four of the celebrities based on the parts of their faces shown. The contestant on the team wins $50 for each correct guess. After a correct guess is made or a correct guess isn’t made within 10 seconds, the entirety of the photo in play is revealed, and a strip of another photo comes into play. If the team correctly identifies four celebrities before time runs out, the contestant on the team wins $500.

After the bonus round is played, the same two contestants play another game. The two teams play against each other for the entire episode.

That’s The Face Is Familiar. Having teams buzz in to give answers to incomplete statements and revealing parts of photos of celebrities’ faces that are arranged in random order is good gameplay. I just thought it would be better if the teams choose for themselves which parts of photos they want revealed after they win a statement in the first format. Also, why did they drop the statements for the second format? It isn’t that much of a good game without them. And why is it that in the second format, each team has to choose parts of a photo of a celebrity for the other team to make a guess on instead of for themselves to make a guess on? The way the main game is played makes a game very short, no matter which format it’s in. The bonus round in both formats are good, though I prefer the one in the second format, because the winning team has an unlimited number of chances to win the $500 for the contestant on that team, as the bonus round in that format has an unlimited number of photos of celebrities shown within a time limit of 60 seconds. The bonus round in the first format has only three photos of celebrities, and if the winning team misses just one photo, their chance to win the $500 for the contestant on that team is automatically gone. Speaking of $500, that’s an acceptable maximum amount of money for a contestant to win, since this is a game show from the 1960s, though contestants can win more money than that in the second format, which is also acceptable, since this show aired in the late half of the 1960s. By that time, I think cash prizes were gradually starting to go up again.

This game show was also innovative for the time. The use of technology that this show had was something that no other game show before it had. The game board on this show was an electronic screen that showed the photos of celebrities and switched parts of those photos instantly, a split-screen shot was used in the first format whenever contestants were playing an incomplete statement and wiped to the side to show both members of a team when the contestant on that team buzzes in, and the timer used in the bonus round in the second format was an electronic light display that was superimposed at the bottom of television screen for home viewers to see.

At least two episodes of the series and the pilot episode still exist. I found these episodes on YouTube, with one of these episodes also found on the Internet Archive and is available for free download there. About the pilot episode, it was hosted by Jack Clark, announced by Hal Simms, and sponsored by Winston cigarettes. The game there is played in the first format, except that the contestant on the winning team receives $200 and receives an additional $500 for winning the bonus round, for a total of $700.

Well, I think I said all that needed to be said about this show. Next time, we’ll go back to September 1963 and look into a game show that had contestants play for a cash prize of $100,000. Yeah, $100,000 played for on a game show in the early 1960s. I really never thought I’d come across a game show like that. Join me next week, though, and I’ll tell you all about it.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hello, everybody! It’s me, Flo, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

There were game shows in the 1950s where contestants can win thousands of dollars in cash. I mentioned this nineteen weeks ago when I covered Big Game. However, after the quiz show scandals, limits to how many games and how much money a contestant can win on a game show were put in place. There wouldn’t be any game shows for the next decade where a contestant can win thousands of dollars in cash. Or would there? There actually was a big money game show in the 1960s. On September 1963, to be exact. Yeah, it’s hard to believe, but this game show from 1963 had contestants play for $100,000. $100,000 in 1963! This much money was never won or even played for on a game show before this one! No other game show in the 1960s would even attempt to have that much money played for! This game show is called 100 Grand!

100 Grand is a primetime game show that aired in black and white and weekly on ABC from September 15, 1963 to the 29th of that same month of that same year. It was hosted by Jack Clark, announced by Scott Vincent, created by Bob Stivers Productions, produced by Larry-Thomas Productions, and taped at Studio A, ABC 66th Street Studios in New York City, New York.

Two people, one of them being a contestant, each have claimed to know all about a particular subject, such as the Civil War or opera, than anyone else. The contestant is referred to as the “amateur”, and the other person is referred to as the “professional”. The amateur asks the professional questions under the subject that they both claim to know all about. The object of the game is for the amateur to stump the professional in order to win cash and do so for five weeks without failing. If they are able to do that, they have earned the right to answer five questions submitted to the show by home viewers. If all five of those questions are answered correctly, the amateur wins a total of $100,000.

And that’s pretty much all there is to the game. Stumping your opponent with questions under a subject can work as a big money game show, but why does a contestant have to successfully do this for five weeks just for a chance to win the $100,000? They should’ve just started the game off easy and make it increasingly difficult, just like other big money game shows do. That would’ve made more sense, right? With the way the top cash prize has to be won, there was no interest in this show, and the show was cancelled after only three weeks. As a matter of fact, it has been said to The New York Times by Bob Stivers, the show’s executive producer, that the public looked, weren’t interested, and voted “no”.

During the show’s three-episode run, there were only two contestants. The first contestant was William Neill, who faced Dr. Joe Coss on the subject of the Civil War. The second contestant was Frederick Kushin, who faced Walter Kappasser on the subject of opera. Both amateurs were defeated by the professionals, and the amateurs each received a $1,000 savings bond, while the professionals each received $10,000 in cash.

100 Grand got cancelled after three episodes due to low ratings and lack of interest from the public. After the show got cancelled, it got replaced by a comedy/variety show called Laughs For Sale, which was also very short-lived and was hosted by The $64,000 Question host Hal March. All the episodes of 100 Grand are believed to be destroyed due to network practices at the time, as there are no television archives and museums that have them. An archival video that features the audio of the opening of an episode of the show can be found on YouTube, as well as a promo for the show.

As ABC’s attempt to bring back game shows with high stakes played for, 100 Grand wasn’t really that good of a comeback after the quiz show scandals, as people and networks were still recovering from that and therefore not ready for another game show with high stakes played for. Top cash prizes would gradually increase again over the years, and it wouldn’t be until 1999 when ABC made a successful comeback in big money game shows when it first aired Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, based on the UK game show of the same name, as a primetime game show. Speaking of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, images of the set for 100 Grand and the fact that 100 Grand is played for high stakes reminds me of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

So, now that I’m done talking about 100 Grand, what game show will I be covering next week? I’ll reveal that when the time comes. All I can say, though, is that this game show has men playing for prizes for women in their lives. Keep that in mind.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hey, guys! This is Flo, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

Contestants usually get to choose who they want to play for, whether it’s for themselves, any of their friends, any of their family members, or anyone like that. In game shows or special episodes of them where the contestants are celebrities, they are obligated to play for their charities, home viewers, or members of the studio audience, depending on what the show is or what prizes or amounts of cash are being played for. However, there is a game show where men are obligated to play for women in their lives, and that’s The Big Payoff.

The Big Payoff aired in black and white as a daytime game show from December 31, 1951 to October 16, 1959, originally on NBC until March 27, 1953 and later on CBS starting on the following Monday until this run’s end. It also aired once again in black and white as a primetime game show on NBC from June 29, 1952 to September 14 on that same year and again from June 21, 1953 to September 27 on that same year, and it aired in syndication in 1962. It was hosted by Randy Merriman from 1951 to 1957, Bob Paige from 1957 to 1959 and again in 1962, and Bert Parks in 1959. It was announced by Ralph Paul—who was also one of the sub-hosts of the show—and Mort Laurence. Other people who sub-hosted this show were Bobby Sherwood, Warren Hull, Bob Haymes, and Jimmy Blaine. It was co-hosted by Bess Myerson, who was also one of the models of this show, along with Pat Conlon, Nancy Walters, Marion James, Pat Conway, and Fran Miller, with Hollis Burke and Sydney Smith sub-co-hosting this show. The theme song for this show was “A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody” by Irving Berlin, sung on this show by Betty Ann Grove, Denise Lor, and Judy Lynn, collectively known as “The Burt Buhram Trio”. This show was also produced by Walt Framer Productions and taped in New York City, New York.

Whew! That was a lot of information about everyone and everything about this show. Now, we can get to the gameplay, which will be easy on me.

The game is played by two men—three in the final three weeks of the CBS daytime run—each one accompanied by a woman in his life, such as his wife, his mother, his mother-in-law, etc. The men are asked a series of questions with numerical answers, and on each question, each contestant writes down a number and hands it to the host, who then reads the contestants’ guesses out loud. The correct number is then announced, and the contestant who comes closest to the correct number, high or low, wins the question.

The two contestants play against each other in three rounds. In each of the first two rounds, up to three questions are asked, with the first contestant to win two questions scoring one point in round one and two points in round two. In round three, only one question is asked, with the contestant who wins that question scoring three points. Also, at the end of each round, the woman accompanying the contestant who has won that round receives a prize.

After three rounds, the contestant with the most points wins the game and is asked one more question. On that question, a list of events is given, and the winning contestant has to guess what year those events have occurred in. This time, it’s a verbal guess rather than one that has to be written down. If the contestant’s guess is correct, he wins a grand prize for the woman accompanying him.

On Tuesdays, the show and format is changed to The Little Big Payoff, where the contestants are children, who play for themselves, with each question won winning a contestant a prize. The final question for a grand prize is not played under this format.

And that’s the show. The idea of contestants playing for people in their lives is a good idea for a game show, but they could’ve added more variety in who the contestants are and who the contestants are playing for other than men playing for women in their lives. Even though they mix it up on Tuesdays by having children play for themselves, that’s still not enough, and contestants shouldn’t be playing the game for themselves anyway, even as children. Writing down numerical answers to questions and scoring points by winning rounds is good gameplay, but instead of handing the written answers to the host, why couldn’t the contestants simply place them in front of them for everyone to see? That would’ve made more sense. It also would’ve made more sense if the host reveals the correct number instead of someone offstage.

It’s possible that many of the episodes of this show were destroyed due to network practices at the time. Well, at least all the episodes of all the network runs may have been destroyed. At least one episode of the syndicated run still exists, and that episode has been uploaded on YouTube by two different users. Also, from what I saw and heard from that episode, the theme song wasn’t sung. Maybe it was sung in the network runs and never in the syndicated run. In any case, one of the theme song’s singers, Denise Lor, took over as the co-host in the syndicated run, and she also modeled prizes along with other models as she described them, particularly a mink fur coat, which wouldn’t be an appropriate prize to play for on a game show nowadays. I’m not surprised that all the co-hosts and models would change jobs on this show around, considering how many of them were and how long the show has been in existence. Speaking of change, the gameplay that I just explained is a change made from the network runs to the syndicated run. In the original format, contestants play the game, one at a time, and a contestant is asked four questions, with each question answered correctly winning a prize for the woman accompanying him. If the contestant answers all four questions correctly, he will be asked a “Payoff Question”, with a correct answer to that question winning a grand prize for the woman accompanying him. It’s a decent format, but I find the format that I described earlier in the body of this edition more interesting. I apologize for going a bit out of order here, but if there were articles on the Internet about this show that are more detailed and episodes from the network runs on YouTube or any other video-sharing website, I wouldn’t be having this kind of problem.

There’s just one more thing about this show that I have to bring up before I close, and it is the fact that home viewers get a chance to be “payoff partners” of the women accompanying the contestants. What the home viewers have to do is send a card to the show. There are two winners on each episode, one for each woman accompanying a contestant. Whatever a woman wins will be duplicated and won by that woman’s payoff partner, and the payoff partner of the woman accompanying the winning contestant has a chance to win a bonus prize.

And that’s it for The Big Payoff. For the next game show that I’ll be covering, I’ll be sticking to black-and-white-aired game shows. Which one will I be covering next week? You’ll have to join me then to find out.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hello, everybody! It’s me, Flo, and welcome to another edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

Back in year two, I covered a game show called All About Faces. That show sucked. This week, I’ll be covering another game show of almost the same name. Almost. Is this show any better than that other show? Well, I’ll tell you how I feel, right now, about this show called About Faces.

About Faces aired in black and white on ABC from January 4, 1960 to June 30, 1961. It was hosted by Ben Alexander, announced by veteran game show host Tom Kennedy—who sub-hosted this show for Ben at some point in its run—and created and produced by Ralph Edwards in his production company Ralph Edwards Productions.

The main focus of the game is that one member of the studio audience, the “face in the news”, is someone who has done something to have made the news, and at three different points of the show, another member of the studio audience is chosen to make a guess on who the face in the news is or what the face in the news has done to make the news. Before a studio audience member can be chosen to make a guess, the face in the news gives a clue to who they are or what they have done to have made the news. After three clues and three guesses, the face in the news reveals themselves, and the studio audience member who makes the correct guess, if anyone, wins a prize, while each contestant who doesn’t make a correct guess wins a smaller prize.

At one point in the show, a celebrity guest makes an appearance to play a game called “Place The Face”. In this game, the celebrity guest is introduced to someone in their past. After the person in the celebrity guest’s past is shown, the name of that person and what connection they have with the celebrity guest in the past is revealed by Tom to the studio audience and the home viewers. The celebrity guest has to figure out who that person is by asking them yes-or-no questions within three minutes. Along the way, clues are given to help the celebrity guest figure out who that person is.

At another point in the show, a member of the studio audience is called up on stage for a segment called “About Faces Past And Present”. In this segment, the studio audience member is shown on a television screen pictures of people in their lives and explains them, while at the same time, those pictures are shown to the studio audience on a screen on a wall on the set.

So, that’s About Faces. The idea of guessing identities of people who made the news is okay, but the format is just all over the place. What they could’ve done was have two full games played in each episode, with each game having three contestants ask yes-or-no questions to a face in the news to identify who that person is, with each game played in up to three rounds, the face in the news giving a clue at the start of each round, and each round lasting up to one minute. Also, have each contestant make one final guess after three rounds. Yes, I know that it sounds a lot like Figure It Out, but it would’ve worked in this show. This show isn’t better than All About Faces in terms of gameplay, as much as I find the gameplay in that show unimpressive, but it is better than that show in terms of entertainment. We hear from the “faces” the stories behind what got them famous, and we see celebrity guests get together with people in their past and try to identify who they are, such as Zsa Zsa Gabor trying to identify the milkman who delivered dairy products to her home and succeeding. This happened on the show’s premiere episode, which can be found on YouTube and split in two parts.

Speaking of episodes of this show, it has a pilot episode taped in May 6, 1959. And one more thing to say about this show is that the “Place The Face” segment was inspired by an earlier show that was also produced by Ralph Edwards. And guess what? I’m gonna be covering that show next week. So, next week, the game show that I’m gonna be covering here is Place The Face. See you then.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hello, people! Flo here, welcoming you to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

When I covered About Faces last week, I mentioned that a segment of that show called “Place The Face” was inspired by an earlier game show of the same name. I also stated that I’ll be covering that show next week. Well, guess what? Next week is now. So, here we go. This is Place The Face.

Place The Face is a primetime game show that aired weekly in black and white on NBC from July 2, 1953 to August 20 on that same year as a summer replacement, on CBS from August 27, 1953 to August 26, 1954 and on NBC again from September 18, 1954 to Christmas Day on that same year as a show with full seasons, and on NBC once again from June 28, 1955 to September 13 on that same year as another summer replacement. It was hosted originally by radio host Jack Smith, later by Queen For A Day host Jack Bailey, and finally by veteran game show host Bill Cullen. It was announced by veteran game show host Jack Narz and produced by Ralph Edwards in his production company Ralph Edwards Productions. It was also taped entirely in California, originally at NBC Studio D in Hollywood, and later at Studio 41, CBS Television City and El Captain in Los Angeles.

Okay, now, this much information being put in before I even get to the gameplay is a bit easier for me. Just a bit. But whatever. On with the gameplay.

Three games are played each episode, and on each game, one contestant is introduced to someone from their past. Each game is started off with Jack revealing to the studio audience and the home viewers the name of the person from the contestant’s past and what connection that that person and the contestant have with each other, with a drawing or other visual of said connection that these two people have had being shown at the same time. What the contestant has to do is figure out who that person from their past is by asking them yes-or-no questions. The contestant has three minutes to figure out who that person from their past is, with some clues given by that person and occasionally by the host in order to help the contestant out. If the contestant correctly guesses who that person from their past is, they win a prize depending on how much time they have taken to figure their out; the faster they figure it out, the more valuable the prize.

The contestants are originally civilians, but when Bill Cullen has taken over as the host, the contestants are celebrities.

And that’s Place The Face. The gameplay is well-structured, straightforward, and simple to follow, unlike About Faces. The time limit for each game and the fact that contestants win more valuable prizes the faster they correctly identify the people from their past are all well done. This is something that About Faces could’ve been, and that could’ve been a revival of this show. Swapping civilians for celebrities as contestants is a step down for not just this show, but for any game show. They could’ve had civilians as contestants in the first two games of each episode and celebrities as contestants in the third game of each episode, and whatever a celebrity wins should go charity or to a member of the studio audience.

Now, I have to say that while Place The Face inspired a segment of the same game of About Faces, it in turn was based on yet another Ralph Edwards-produced show called This Is Your Life. Now, that’s a reality/documentary series and not at all a game show, so that’s obviously not gonna be covered here. I do have a game show in mind that I want to cover next week, and given the fact that this Sunday is Easter, it’s appropriate that the game show that I plan to cover in next week’s edition is very colorful, and I do mean literally. I hope to see you next week when I cover Storybook Squares.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hello, dear children. I’m Flo, your storyteller, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

Well, Easter came and went, and I prepared something special that can’t be put in any Easter basket. It’s a game show that I will be covering today. A game show played by children, if you will. And it’s not just any children’s game show; it’s a children’s spin-off of the well-known tic-tac-toe-based game show Hollywood Squares. So, gather around and get ready for a little story called Storybook Squares.

Storybook Squares had two runs, both of which aired during the original NBC daytime run of Hollywood Squares. The original run aired as a regular series on Saturday mornings from January 4, 1969 to April 19 on that same year, while the revival aired as a series of special theme weeks on the NBC daytime run of Hollywood Squares from August 9, 1976 to December 30, 1977. Both runs aired on NBC. Just like the NBC daytime and primetime runs and the first syndicated run of Hollywood Squares, all of which lasted in total for fifteen years from 1966 to 1981, Storybook Squares was hosted by Peter Marshall, announced by Kenny Williams—who plays the role of the “Guardian of the Gate”, a role similar to the role of the “town crier” that he played on Video Village and Video Village Jr., both of which I already covered back in the previous year—produced by Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley in their production company Heatter-Quigley Productions, and taped at NBC Studios in Burbank, California.

Each episode begins with a panel of nine celebrities—sometimes ten, as two of them will be on the show as a pair—being introduced by Peter as they walk in on the set, with each panelist briefly interacting with Peter before taking their place on the show. The panelists themselves are dressed as historical figures and characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, novels, and television shows and movies that they star in. Occasionally, puppets appear on the show as panelists, such as Big Bird from Sesame Street.

The game is played by two child contestants, one of which is a boy, and the other of which is a girl. The boy plays X, and the girl plays O. The contestants face an oversized tic-tac-toe game board, with each space on it being an open-faced cube occupied by a panelist seated at a desk and facing the host and contestants.

The contestants play as many games as possible until time runs out. In the original run, the contestants play on their own for the entire show. In the revival, the contestants play on their own for the first half of the game, while their parents—the boy’s father and the girl’s mother—join in and play for the second half of the show.

In each game, the contestants take turns choosing panelists. After a panelist is chosen, that panelist is asked a question, and they give an answer that is either a true one or a bluff, which are a correct answer and a plausible but incorrect answer, respectively. Often, before the chosen panelist gives their real answer, they give a joke answer called a “zinger” in order to get laughs from everyone in the studio.

Before the show, the panelists have been supplied the jokes, bluffs, and briefings of the subjects of the questions by the writers. In this sense, the show is scripted, but the gameplay is legitimate.

In rare cases, a panelist may be unable to come up with a true answer or a good bluff to a question. If that’s the case, the contestant in turn has the option to answer that question themselves or have a different question asked.

After the chosen panelist gives an answer, the contestant in turn decides whether to agree with that panelist if they think that answer is a true one or disagree with them if they think that answer is a bluff. If that contestant makes a correct judgment on that panelist’s answer, they get the square occupied by that panelist and get their symbol placed on it; but if they make an incorrect judgment on that panelist’s answer, the opposing contestant gets that square and gets their symbol placed on it. However, if the contestant in turn chooses a panelist to block the opposing contestant and makes an incorrect judgment on that panelist’s answer, the square occupied by that panelist remains unclaimed, and the opposing contestant must earn that square for the win on their own, as a game can’t be won by default.

In order for a contestant to win a game, they must get three spaces in a row, and they can do that either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. However, if the game is reached to the point of it’s impossible for a contestant to get three in a row, that contestant can still win the game by claiming five squares.

A contestant is rewarded for each game they win. In the original run, a contestant receives a prize for each game they win. In the revival, a contestant receives $300 for each game they win.

The first two games are “Secret Square” games. In each “Secret Square” game, a bonus prize is played for, and at the start of that game, one of the panelists is revealed to be the “Secret Square” to the home viewers only. If a contestant chooses the “Secret Square” and makes a correct judgment on that panelist’s answer, they win the bonus prize. Just like the square needed for the win, the opposing contestant doesn’t win the bonus prize by default if the contestant in turn makes an incorrect judgment on the answer given by the “Secret Square”. If the bonus prize is not won in the first “Secret Square” game, it’s carried over to the second “Secret Square” game and played for on top of the bonus prize played for there. If the bonus prize or bonus prizes is not won in the second “Secret Square” game, it or they are not won and remain unclaimed.

If time runs out while a game is in play, the contestant who has claimed the most squares in that game up to that point wins the prize in that game in the original run, and each contestant receives $50 for each square that they have claimed in that game up to that point in the revival. If, in the original run, there’s a tie for most squares in a game during which time has run out, both contestants win the prize in that game. In the revival, the contestant with the most money at the end of the match wins the game, and they and their family wins a grand prize, which is usually a car or a vacation; if the match ends in a tie for most money, the board is cleared, and a contestant chooses one more panelist for a tiebreaker question, with a correct judgment on that panelist’s answer winning the game for their family and an incorrect judgment on that answer automatically giving the win to the other family.

And that’s the end of the story. Now, it’s time to share my thoughts. The gameplay is as good as it can be, as it’s exactly the same as that in the show it’s a spin-off of at the time. The show used the same set as the one used in the adult show, which is understandable, since it would’ve been too expensive back then, and also probably pointless, to build a separate set for this one. There were other game shows back in the 1960s and 1970s that used the exact same sets for their spin-off shows for children, like Video Village for Video Village Jr. and The Joker’s Wild for Joker! Joker!! Joker!!! For this particular children’s spin-off, though, the set was decorated with a cartoonish medieval theme in the original run and a more presentable and polished medieval theme in the revival in order to fit the storybook theme of the show. Also, to fit the storybook theme of the show, they had celebrities dress up as historical figures and characters from different stories and media and be referred to as those historical figures and characters. Better for the children playing the game as contestants to choose panelists by the names of the historical figures and characters that they are dressed as than to choose them by their real names, as children playing the game probably don’t know much about about them, if at all. Receiving a prize for each game won is a good way of contestants winning something in lieu of winning cash in the original run, but couldn’t they also have had the contestants score points during the game, which was the case for other children’s spin-offs of game shows played by adults, and have the contestant with the most points at the end of the match winning a grand prize? I’m glad that they have contestants play for money in the revival, but I don’t see a reason for their parents to join in and take over as contestants themselves for the second half of the show. The children should be the only contestants on the show in the revival, which is the case for the original run. Also, the interactions between the panelists and Peter during the introductions of the panelists take up more time at the beginning of the show than they should.

One episode from the original run and two episodes from the revival are the only episodes of the show that are believed to still exist, and they all could be found on YouTube. One of those episodes from the revival aired on GSN as part of a Halloween-themed marathon that aired in 2002. The rest of the episodes of this show are believed to be wiped due to network practices at the time.

There were plans for another revival of Storybook Squares. It was planned to replace Wheel 2000—which I already covered back in the year one premiere—on the Saturday morning schedule on the block on CBS called CBS Kids in 1998, but those plans were scrapped in favor of Blaster’s Universe.

Now, this is the second game show that I covered here that’s part of the Hollywood Squares franchise, with the first one being Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. There’s another spin-off of Hollywood Squares called Hip Hop Squares, which originally aired on MTV2 back in 2012, and it has been airing on VH1 since 2017. Most recently, there’s word that another spin-off of Hollywood Squares will be premiering soon this year on CMT called Nashville Squares. I’ll be looking forward to that, but right now, I’ve had enough of Hollywood Squares and its related shows going on in my mind. So, for next week’s edition, how about we go green? Would you like that? I would. That’ll be good. So, I’ll see you next time when you cover a game show that was hosted by Tom Green. Join me next week for that.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hey, there, everybody! This is Flo, helping out the environment and welcoming you to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

It’s time that I cover a game show that aired on a channel owned by Discovery, Inc. called Destination America, which was originally known as Discovery Travel & Living Network, later known as Discovery Home And Leisure, later known as Discovery Home & Leisure Channel, later known as just Discovery Home Channel, and later known as Planet Green when this show in question aired. Back when the channel was known as Planet Green, its focus was on environmentalism and sustainable living. This show is one of the shows that focuses on environmentalism. So, let’s all get together and help the environment as I cover Go For The Green!

Go For The Green! aired on Planet Green from November 8, 2008 to February 21, 2009. It was hosted by Canadian-American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and talk show host Tom Green, and it was packaged by Andy Friendly Productions and Wheeler-Sussman Productions.

The game is started off with fifty members of the studio audience, who are being asked dual-choice environmentalism-related questions, with the choices of answers on each question labeled “A” or “B”. After a question is asked and its two choices of answers are revealed, the members of the studio audience each run to one of two sections of the studio audience seating, with one section in green and the other section in blue, and take a seat in that section. A member of the studio audience takes a seat in the green section if they think that the correct answer to the question is “A” or takes a seat in the blue section if they think that the correct answer is “B”. After all the members of the studio audience are seated in the sections that corresponds to their choices of answers, the correct answer to the question is revealed, and the members of the studio audience who are seated in the section that corresponds to the correct answer stay in the game and are asked another question, while the members of the studio audience who are seated in the section that corresponds to the incorrect answer are eliminated. More questions are asked until there are only eight to ten members of the studio audience at maximum remaining in the game.

In the next round, the remaining contestants are given categories and have to decide whether to answer a question in a category themselves or challenge one of the other contestants to answer that question. A contestant is selected by a randomizer and given the category. After that contestant chooses whether to answer a question in that category themselves or challenge one of the other contestants to answer that question, that question is asked, and one of the contestants ends up being eliminated after that question. If the randomly-selected contestant chooses to answer the question themselves, they either choose one of the other contestants to eliminate if they answer it correctly or end up getting themselves eliminated if they answer it incorrectly. But if the randomly-selected contestant chooses to challenge one of the other contestants to answer the question, either the challenging contestant ends up being eliminated if the challenged contestant answers it correctly or the challenged contestant ends up being eliminated if they answer it incorrectly. More categories are played until there are only two contestants remaining in the game.

The two remaining contestants play the final round called the “chain game”, one at a time. While the contestant going first in this round plays, a contestant going second is isolated offstage where they can’t see or hear anything going on onstage. One question with seven answers is asked, and the answers are presented in the form of physical images. Each contestant must place the images on holders in order from left to right according to the question, which can be from longest to shortest, from highest to lowest, from most to least, or something like that. A clock is also used in this round, with the clock counting up on the first contestant’s turn and counting down on the second contestant’s turn. After a contestant has placed all the answers in the order they think is correct, they must lock in their guess by hitting a button, which stops the clock. If any of the answers are incorrectly placed, the clock starts counting again, and the contestant in turn must switch around the answers that they think are incorrectly placed. Each contestant is allowed up to three lock-ins. If the first contestant has all the answers placed in the correct order, then the second contestant must do so in a faster time. But if the first contestant doesn’t have all the answers placed in the correct order after their third lock-in, then the second contestant must beat the first contestant’s score within the same amount of time. The winner of this round wins the game and receives an eco-friendly vacation.

And that’s Go For The Green! The way each round is played is not something that has never been done before on other game shows before it, but it works well. Studio audience members staying in the game for correct answers and being eliminated for incorrect answers in the first round is a good idea for a first round in a game show where elimination is involved, but the way it’s done here isn’t that great. Why do the members of the studio audience have to start on the set and run to sections of the studio audience seating and take their seats there just to answer questions in that round? Why can’t they already be seated in the audience seating and use paddles or something to answer those questions? It doesn’t help that one section is green and the other section is blue, and Tom signals the studio audience members to “Go for the green!” to answer a question, which can be mistaken for him telling them to go take their seats in the green section. The second round is a well-done elimination round, with one of the remaining contestants being eliminated after every question in that round. The final round is a good way of deciding which one of the remaining two contestants will win the game and go on that eco-friendly trip.

While the gameplay is good, the show didn’t last very long. After the run of Go For The Green! ended, Planet Green would continue to last, but not for long, as it was considered a failure. So, the schedule for that channel was populated by shows that are non-environmentalism to bring more people in, but that move didn’t change anything. So, by 2012, the channel was rebranded to what is known as today, which is Destination America.

I sure picked the right time to have covered this show, since this show’s run ended in late February ten years ago, and today is the first Friday of May. This is another one of the times that I covered a game show that’s as recent as I could get without breaking my rule of covering game shows that ceased production at least ten years ago. Next week, I’m gonna go further back again and cover a game show that can be viewed as an inspiration of two game shows that I already covered back in year three and year four. So, I’ll see you next week.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hello, people! Flo here, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

In the previous year, I covered a game show called Wordplay, where, in the main game, obscure words are given as well as choices of definitions of those words, and contestants must choose which definitions are the correct ones of those words. In the year before that, I covered a game show called Balderdash, which is based on the game show of the same name, and while the board game involves obscure words and definitions of them, the game show itself doesn’t have that happen so much. Today, I will be covering a game show that also has obscure words and definitions of them. This one, though, aired long before the other two game shows did. The show is Call My Bluff.

Call My Bluff aired in black and white on NBC from March 29, 1965 to September 24 on that same year. It was hosted by Bill Leyden, announced by Don Pardo, Johnny Olson, and Wayne Howell, produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman in their production company Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, and taped at Studio 6A at NBC Studios in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center in New York City, New York.

The game is played by two teams, each one consisting of two contestants and one celebrity, with the contestants on one team returning champions.

The teams are given obscure words, and on each word, each member of one team is provided with a definition; one of those definitions is the correct one of that word, while the other two definitions are “bluffs”. The opposing team has to choose which definition they think is the correct one of that word. Choosing the correct definition of that word scores the opposing team a point, while choosing an incorrect definition scores the original team a point.

The teams take turns giving out definitions and choosing them. This goes on until one team scores two—later three—points, with the team that does so first winning the game. The contestants on the winning team receives $100, and get a shot at a cash jackpot in the bonus round.

In order for the bonus round to work, both teams take part in it. In the bonus round, the teams are introduced to a guest with an unusual or interesting story. The guest gives brief clues to the identity of their story. Each member of the winning team is given three cards, one of which has the correct story on it, and the other two of which are blank. The members of the winning team who are given the blank cards fill them out with bluffs. Then, all three of the stories are revealed, and the losing team has to choose which story is the correct one. If the losing team chooses the correct story, they get to stay on the show and play the game again against the winning team, and no money is won. But if the losing team chooses a bluff, the contestants on the winning team wins a jackpot that starts at $200 and increases by another $200 each time it’s not won, and the losing team leaves the show and gets replaced by a new team.

And that’s Call My Bluff. The idea of having teams choose definitions and stories from each other and try to stump each other with bluffs is good, but there doesn’t seem to be that much in the gameplay, as the main game is too short with a point going to a team after every word and a goal of only either two or three points needed to be reached in order for a team to win the game, and the bonus round seems a bit too easy with just one of two bluffs needed to be chosen by the losing team in order for the winning team to win the cash jackpot. They could’ve done more to the game. They could’ve made it more challenging. The cash prizes are good for the time, though, especially with the cash prize played for in the bonus round being a jackpot that increases each time it’s not won. I also like how both teams play against each other again each time the jackpot is not won and the winning team plays against a new team each time the jackpot is won. With $100 awarded each time a team wins the game, both teams can win themselves some money before the jackpot can be won and the losing team can leave the show. It’s just like Pass The Buck, a game show that I already covered in the previous year, even though that show came over a decade after the run of this show ended.

Now, all the information about this show may not be completely accurate because there’s not even a clip of it on the Internet apart from the opening of it. In fact, it has been believed to be destroyed due to network practices at the time. There are two rehearsal episodes of the show that are known to exist, one of which is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Even though this show had a short run, it had a board game based on it issued by Milton Bradley, and it had international adaptations of it in Australia, Finland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, all of which each lasted longer than the original US version did, with the UK version having lasted the longest. The UK version lasted for four decades, and full episodes of that version can be found on the Internet.

Now, there’s yet another game show that involves obscure words and definitions, and it started out as a local game show and later became a national game show, not to mention that it was the first game show hosted by Jim Lange, though it wasn’t the first national game show that he hosted; that actually was The Dating Game, the game show that he was best known for hosting. This game show in question, however, is called Oh My Word, and I’ll be covering that show next week.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hello, everybody! This is Flo, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

Last week, I covered a game show called Call My Bluff, where teams are given obscure words, give out possible definitions, and hope to have bluffs chosen by opposing teams in order to score points and win cash. After that show, there were more game shows that involve obscure words and definitions, and just like that one, these all came and went. I already such game shows like Balderdash and Wordplay, but there’s one such game show that premiered on the same year that the run of Call My Bluff ended. That game show is called Oh My Word.

Oh My Word aired in black and white originally as a local primetime game show on KGO from March 20, 1965 to an unknown day in September 1966 and later as a national weekly syndicated game show from an unknown day in September 1966 to an unknown day in September 1967. It was the first game show hosted by Jim Lange, though it wasn’t the first national game show that he hosted; the first national game show that he hosted was The Dating Game, the show that he was best known for. This show was also announced by Jay Snyder, created by Dr. Arthur Hough, packaged by Circle Seven Productions and Seven Arts Television, and taped at KGO-TV in San Francisco, California.

The game is played by two celebrity guests, each of whom is playing for a home viewer. The celebrity guests face a panel of four celebrities. Jim reveals a series of obscure words, but before each word, the celebrity guests each reveal which home viewer they are playing for and where that home viewer is from. On each word, each panelist gives a definition, one of which has the correct one; the panelists who don’t have the correct definition have to come up with definitions of their own for that word, as they have never heard that word before or have gotten the correct definition of that word before. Afterwards, the celebrity guests each choose which given definition that they think is the correct one of that word, and Jay announces which definition is the correct one of that word. Each celebrity guest who chooses the correct definition wins $20 for the home viewer who they’re playing for, while each celebrity guest who chooses an incorrect definition still wins $10 for the home viewer who they’re playing for.

And that’s Oh My Word. The gameplay is decent, and the definitions—particularly incorrect ones—and explanations behind them for words can be amusing, but the cash prizes for the home viewers to win are too low for one person to win, even for 1965 to 1967, and also even for a local game show that later became a national game show. They could’ve had home viewers winning $50 or even $100 for correct definitions of words being chosen and simply a small consolation prize for incorrect definitions of words being chosen.

This show got revived in 1982 as Take My Word For It!, also hosted by Jim Lange. I will be covering that show next week. This should be interesting.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.

[Flowgli]

Hey, people! Flo here, and welcome to this week’s edition of Game Show Corner, where we take a look at the obscure side of the world of game shows.

Two weeks ago, I covered Call My Bluff, a word game where teams provide and choose definitions of obscure words, hoping to stump each other to score points and win money. Last week, I covered Oh My Word, a word game where celebrity guests win money for home viewers by choosing which definitions provided by a celebrity panel are correct ones of obscure words. This week, I will be covering a game show that is a revival of Oh My Word called Take My Word For It!

Take My Word For It! aired in daily syndication from September 13, 1982 to an unknown day in September 1983. Just like Oh My Word, this show was hosted by The Dating Game original host Jim Lange, who, just before this show, hosted a Barry & Enright-produced game show Bullseye. It was also announced by Scott Beach, produced by Omni Productions and Golden Gate Productions, distributed by Worldvision Enterprises, Inc., and taped at KQED Studio A in San Francisco, California.

The game is played by two contestants, both civilians instead of celebrity guests. The contestants face a panel of four celebrities and play three rounds. In each round, Jim reveals an obscure word, and each panelist gives a definition of that word, one of which has the correct one. Then, the contestants each choose which given definition that they think is the correct one of that word, and Scott announces which definition is the correct one of that word. Each contestant who chooses the correct definition scores points and wins a prize. Each correct choice of definition is worth one point in rounds one and two and two points in round three.

After three rounds, the contestant with the most points wins the game and advances to the bonus round. If the game ends in a tie, more words are given, with only one definition provided on each word. On each word, each contestant must guess if the provided definition of that word is true or false. This continues until one contestant makes a correct guess, with the one who does so winning the game.

In the bonus round, which is called “Turnabout”, the winning contestant is given the definition of one more word, and they must describe it in a way that they can stump the panel. Each celebrity takes a guess on what the word being described is, with the number of celebrities failing to correctly guess what the word being described is determining what prize that the contestant will win in this round; the more celebrities that are stumped, the more valuable the prize. If the contestant stumps the entire panel, they win the grand prize.

And that’s Take My Word For It! After checking out Oh My Word and this show, I will say that this show is the better one. It has civilians playing the game as contestants, it has a main game played in three rounds, it has prizes won on top of points scored for choosing correct definitions of words, and it has a fair scoring system. The point values seem too low, but they’re still just points, and it’s not like they determine how much money a contestant wins or is playing for, since no money is played for in this show anyway. The bonus round is good, as it has the winning contestant describing one word in a way that they can stump the panel and win a prize depending on how many celebrities that get stumped. And because contestants win prizes on top of scoring points for choosing correct definitions of words in the main game, they are guaranteed something good if they don’t win a prize in the bonus round.

But you know what? I’ve talked enough about word games that involve choosing definitions of words. So, how about next week, I cover a relationship game show played by kids? Um, yeah. There’s one like that. Really strange. You know what makes it stranger? It was hosted by the same guy who hosted Fun House and the first season of Masters Of The Maze. Yeah, I’ll see ya.

So, that does it for this week's edition of Game Show Corner. Thank you, everybody, and have a great day.