Scrabble (game show)
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Gameplay
Crossword round
Two contestants played a crossword game on a computer-generated Scrabble board. To start off, a placeholder for a mystery word got outlined on the board. The contestants were given one letter in the word to build on, the number of letters in that word, and a clue to help them figure out the word. The player going first had the option of guessing the word, or selecting two tiles from a rack of 11 (which included three stoppers--letters that were not in the word). The actual amount of numbers in the rack depended on how many letters were in the word (example: if there were 5 letters in the word with one letter already revealed, then the rack would have 7 tiles to choose from). The letters from the tiles were thus revealed, and the player had to choose one of the two letters. If it was in the puzzle, he/she could guess the word or select the other letter. If the other letter appeared in the word, he/she could again guess the word or select two more tiles. If a letter selected was a stopper (This term would also be used in the game show Lingo which has aired since the summer of 2002, over GSN), that player lost his/her turn.When control of the board was passed to the second player, he/she could guess the word or select two tiles. If that player had one unused letter when control changed hands, he/she could select only one tile, as the unused letter carried over to the second contestant.
If a contestant thought he knew the word, he/she hit a buzzer and guessed it. If correct, that player won the word. If incorrect, play continued and that player lost his or her turn. Originally, a player who knew the word simply guessed it without hitting his/her buzzer.
If a player picked the third and final stopper, his/her opponent could either guess the word or play "speedword", in which the remaining letters were put in place, one at a time, except for the final letter. The first player to buzz in with the right answer won the word. If guessed wrong, his/her opponent received a chance to see the remaining letters. If neither answered correctly, the word would be revealed, and no one scored.
Once a word was completely revealed, another word was put into play, building on a letter from the previously guessed word. The player who did not guess the last word went first. The first player to guess three words correctly won the game and $500 cash. In the event of a 2-2 tie, the fifth and last word is played as a speedword (instituted in 1985), and whoever guessed the word won.
In 1985, a new rule was added, in which if a player lands either on a pink or blue square and guessed the word immediately, that player won bonus money. A $500 bonus was awarded for the blue square, and a $1,000 bonus on a pink square (Originally, when the bonus word was guessed, players were given real money, this later changed to "Chuck Bucks" [blue and pink play money with Woolery's picture]). Originally the bonuses were not in play during speedword, but in 1986 the rule was changed to include it. In the 1993 version, there were no bonuses; however, landing on a colored square and guessing the word added money to a bonus sprint jackpot (explained later).
In early episodes, a pot was used instead of $500 for winning the game and the $500 and $1000 bonus squares. For every letter revealed, $25 was added to a pot; $50 was added if a letter landed on a blue square, and $100 was added for a pink square. The first to guess three words won the game and the money in the pot.
During a short time in 1985, not only did the player have to guess the word when he/she wanted to solve the puzzle, he or she had to spell the word, one letter at a time (like Lingo). That rule proved to be very unpopular and was eventually abandoned. One episode in particular was in 1985, when two contestants couldn't spell "Mosquitos". That eventually became one of the funniest moments on Scrabble and has been replayed on game show retrospectives such as VH1's Game Show Moments Gone Bananas.
NOTE: A male player always faced a female player in the crossword games, and both contestants had two different-sounding buzzers.
Scrabble Sprint
The Scrabble Sprint Round was originally played between the winner of the crossword game and the game's returning champion. The crossword winner selected one of two envelopes (pink or blue) and played three words from that envelope, establishing a time in which the champion had to beat, using the other packet with three different words.The sprint began with a five or six-letter word, with the clue given. After host Woolery said "go", two letters were revealed in a selector and the clock started. The challenger chose a letter from the selector, one at a time. (Originally when a letter was chosen, a new one replaced it. Later on, once a letter was chosen, the other went back into the shuffle to save time.) When the contestant knew the word, he/she stopped the clock by hitting a plunger to give an answer. If correct, the player moved on to the next word. If incorrect, a ten-second penalty was imposed, and the word continued unless all but one letter was revealed. Once a player hit his/her plunger, he/she had to give an answer immediately. If all letters except the last letter were revealed and the player did not know the word, he/she could allow five seconds to run off the clock without hitting the plunger to avoid the ten-second penalty, but he/she was then required to play a make-up word.
Once the crossword winner guessed all three of his/her words, the champion then had to guess three words of his/her own in less than the time established from the first player (with the clock counting down). If the champion guessed all three words before the clock hit double-zero, then he/she won $1500 (three times the value of the pot in early episodes). Otherwise, the crossword winner won $1500 and became the new champion.
Eventually, both contestants played the same set of words. To do this, the champion would head off stage where he/she was unable to see and hear the challenger.
When the rules changed and the champion played in the maingame, the winner from the first half would remain onstage when his/her opponent would come out for their sprint, with their podium blacked out so they couldn't do anything.
If a champion won five Scrabble Sprints in a row, that player won $20,000; a ten-time champion won $40,000 and was retired undefeated. In early episodes, the $20,000 was a bonus given at each winning plateau; five-time champions usually won about $28,500, and ten-time champions would win a minimum of $55,500. In later episodes, the contestant simply had his/her winnings increased to a flat $20,000, then $40,000.
A player named Sang, who was on the original version in 1985, holds an odd record for the sprint round: it took him 87 seconds to get through the round. 40 seconds of that was in penalties- on the first word of the game ("titter"), he buzzed in nervously as soon as Woolery said go, putting him ten seconds in the hole. He guessed the word after the last letter was placed, but cost himself several seconds when he forgot to hit the buzzer immediately afterwards. He got the second word without any trouble, but on his third word he gave an incorrect guess for the word "rudeness" (his guess was "nudeness"), giving another penalty. He was given an alternate word (he guessed on the last letter), but like he did on "titter", he buzzed in after Woolery said go, and cost himself 10 more seconds. Almost 5 seconds after that, he buzzed in with another incorrect guess, adding another penalty to his time. He finally got the word, which was "basic", but the damage had been done.
A female player on the 1993 revival had almost the same luck as Sang did, taking 69.3 seconds to get through her sprint round.
Second Format
In 1986, the rules changed to which two crosswords and sprint rounds were played in a half-hour's time. The first crossword game was played by one of three challengers and a returning champion (with the challenger going first to begin the game), and the second crossword game was played by the other two challengers, with a coin-toss determining which player went first. The rules of the crossword game remained the same; however, when time ran short in this round, five loud bells were sounded, and the rest of the crossword game was played in speedword format.The winner of the first crossword game played the Sprint round (which was now expanded to four words), establishing a time for the second player to beat. After the second crossword game, the winner of that game played the same four words (with the clock counting down towards 0.0). The contestant with the faster time won $1000 and a chance to win bonus money in the "Bonus Sprint". The fastest sprint round time was 11.1 seconds, and the longest was over 100 seconds, at which point the timer reset to zero.
Bonus Sprint
The "Bonus Sprint" was played like the Scrabble Sprint round, but the winner had to guess two words correctly within ten seconds to win the Bonus Sprint Jackpot which began at $5000 and increased $1000 every day until it was hit. An incorrect answer ended the game automatically (obviously, because incorrect answers were penalized 10 seconds, and the time would be automatically wiped out), but the champion returned the next day (up to five days maximum).The original run ended on a good note, as champion George Sealy, who had already won $3500 going into the Bonus Sprint ($2000 from front game bonuses alone) won $6000 and a total of $9,500. Sealy returned to play when the series was revived in 1993.
When the series returned in 1993, the bonus sprint jackpot began at $1000 and increased by either $500 or $1000 whenever a player landed on a pink or blue square in the crossword game and guessed the word immediately. The highest pot was $20,500. That change proved to be very unpopular and may have contributed to the demise of the 1993 version. Chuck Woolery was also known to carry a hangman's noose, which he would reveal in the event a player chose a letter that would not land on a pink or blue square, and only one letter was left in the word.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Trivia
- The Scrabble pilot had a slightly different set and a faster chase-light configuration (3 on, 1 off) than the actual series, which had a slower and different chase-light configuration (1 on, 3 off).
- The program always began with the neon-filled Scrabble board from the pilot zooming in afterwhich a clue and word from a viewer was revealed; then letters from the show's title bounce around while the announcer was saying "It's the crossword game you've played all your life, but never quite like this", then they appear one by one to make the show's logo followed by the audience yelling out the show's name; then after the logo breaks away, the board disappears square-by-square. At first the set from the pilot would be shown, and then when host Chuck Woolery was introduced, the current set would be shown. By 1986 the series opened with the darkened current set and the Scrabble board from the pilot.
- Later in the run, as was the case when viewers sent in poems on Card Sharks, words and clues were sent in from viewers on Scrabble, and if a clue and word was read, the viewer who sent the word in won a Scrabble T-Shirt.
- Like its Reg Grundy counterpart Sale of the Century, Scrabble held various themed-weeks over the years, including Teen Week, College Week, and Game Show Hosts Week, which featured Jim Lange, Peter Tomarken, Marc Summers, Bill Rafferty and Wink Martindale, among others. Jamie Farr also participated, although he was not a game show host, but he did sub for Tom Kennedy on Wordplay and was in fact working on a game show project for Reg Grundy at the time.
Episode status
All episodes are believed to exist, except for the first season; the status of those episodes is unknown. FremantleMedia currently owns the rights to the series. Repeats of Scrabble aired on cable's USA Network from September 16, 1991 to October 13, 1995.Another version of Scrabble was in the works in between the 1984-90 and 1993 runs, hosted by Los Angeles personality Steve Edwards. That version never made it to the air. Yet another version of Scrabble was planned exclusively for the Game Show Network hosted by Kennedy (the former host of Game Show Network's Friend or Foe?), but with rules more towards the board game rather than the 1980s version, and with no involvement from Chuck Woolery. However, that show didn't make it to air either.
External links
- [SuperShow 8000: Scrabble]
- [Clips from the show circa 1987]
- [Classic TV Game Show Downloads], where you can download a home-made version of Scrabble
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