A game show hosted by Allen Ludden that pits two teams, each made up of a celebrity and a contestant, against one another. A secret word is given to one player from each team and they try to help. Watch full episodes of Password Plus and get the latest breaking news, exclusive videos and pictures, episode recaps and much more at TVGuide.com. TV Scorecard: Was Your Favorite Show Renewed.
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The show's (basic) history in one image.
From Hollywood, the word game of the stars, Password!
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Game Show created by Bob Stewart for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions in 1961, after the company searched for parlor games that could be played for modest stakes in the wake of the quiz show scandals. Stewart suggested a game whose players asked themselves a simple question: 'How well can I communicate with just one word?'
Password debuted in October 1961 on CBS as the first game to have celebrity guests as teammates for civilian contestants, which was a big freaking deal at the time. Allen Ludden left G.E. College Bowlnote to moderate Password (Robert Earle replaced him on the former), which ran until 1967 on CBS daytime and primetime. Frequent guests included the stars of Bewitched.
Ludden returned as host of ABC's 1971-75 revival, which went through two theme tunes and two sets. The changes were made for Password All-Stars (November 1974 to February 1975), after which members of the public were once again allowed to compete.
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Two more daytime revivals appeared on NBC — Password Plus from 1979-82, and Super Password from 1984-89. Both used Password Puzzles, wherein each round consisted of five passwords that described another person, place, or thing; for instance, 'Wiki', 'Lampshade', 'Hanging', 'Topics', and 'Egregious' might be used to describe TV Tropes. These versions also featured a Bonus Round ('Alphabetics' on Plus, 'Super Password' on Super) where the celebrity had to describe ten passwords, beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet, within 60 seconds for a bonus of at least $5,000.
In June 2008, CBS debuted Million-Dollar Password for a brief primetime run on Sunday evenings with Regis Philbin as host. CBS then ordered a second set of episodes, which began airing in January 2009. The show was canned after 12 episodes because, despite winning its timeslot more often than not, it wasn't drawing the demographics the network wanted.
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Interestingly, the show returned as a segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on January 18, 2011, hosted by Steve Higgins. The segment is, essentially, a simpler version of the later-era CBS style: the game now has words beginning at six points and no Lightning Round, and there's no stated prizes. Its first celebs were Fallon and Password stalwart Betty White. The game was also played during White's 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America's Golden Girl on NBC in January 2012; that edition was hosted by JoelMcHale. An edition of Plus with TomBergeron hosting was a part of the 2015 Daytime Emmy Awards, to introduce Betty White's Lifetime Achievement Award.
In May 2016, news surfaced that ABC (which aired the 1971-75 edition) was interested in potentially reviving the series; this came on the heels of their summer lineup being populated by several game show reboots, including fellow Goodson-Todman properties To Tell the Truth, Match Game, the returning Celebrity Family Feud, and a reboot of Password's close cousin, The $100,000 Pyramid.
The Password is Tropes *Ding*:
- Bonus Round:
- Lightning Round (the Trope Maker, CBS/ABC): One minute to solve five words at $50/word. When the show returned on ABC, a 'Betting Word' was added- where players could bet any or all LR earnings on one more word in 15 seconds; at some point in the run the payouts were doubled to $100 per word.
- 20:20 Password (All-Stars): Both celebrities on the winning team got 20 seconds to convey two passwords (one for each celebrity) to each other and score 20 points. The winning team's score was given to both celebrities who then became clue givers for the next elimination round.
- Big Money Lightning Round (75). Three levels, each involving 3 words in :30.
- Level 1: $25 a word, all three earns $75 plus $5 for every second left.
- Level 2: Each word is worth however much earned in level one, all three also earns $10/second.
- Level 3: All three words earn ten times the level two score.
- Alphabetics/Super Password (Plus/Super): Ten words in alphabetical order in one minute. Each one is worth $100, all ten wins a Progressive Jackpot.
- Plus: Originally a flat $5,000 (minus $1,000 per illegal clue). Later changed to $5,000 plus $5,000 per non-win up to $50,000 (illegal clues deducted either 20% of the jackpot or a flat $2,500 depending on whatever point in the run). Highest was $35,000.
- Super: Retains the jackpot, but there is no limit, and illegal clues forfeit the word (and jackpot) entirely. Highest was $55,000, won twice.
- Million-Dollar: Six levels, each involving five words in 1:30. First level had ten total, then nine and so forth down to five for the final level. The money is progressive ($10K/$25K/$50K/$100K/$250K/$1M), with $25K (and later $250K) as safe levels. The giver is only allowed three clues per word, and once reaching $250K, is shown the words for that level in order to help the player decide whether to go for it or not. Most won was $100,000.
- Bonus Space: To an extent, the Ca$hword on Super, which was played in every game after the second puzzle for another Progressive Jackpot of $1,000 plus $1,000 each game until claimed. Highest was $17,000.
- Celebrity Edition: While many all-celebrity weeks were done over the years (none on Million-Dollar) and All-Stars was built on this trope, there was a massive influx of them in 1974 during what can only be described as an immense pre-All Stars gimmickfest.
- Game Show Appearance:
- A famous 1972 episode of The Odd Couple featured Felix and Oscar on a New York-based version of ABC, with the duo Lampshading the obvious difference in sets. Allen Ludden and Betty White, naturally, played themselves.
- The Late Night segment mentioned above, as well as Betty White's 90th Birthday.
- Home Game: About a billion- Milton Bradley released one annually from 1962 all the way to 1986; there were a few variants, including an Educational edition and a Fine edition, which had better quality materials and included materials for the Lightning Round (which began to be included in the normal version starting in 1982). Plus received three from 1979-81, and Super received a computer game from GameTek in 1988 (an adaptation with speech abilities was planned for release on the NES in 1990, but got cancelled along with the show); starting in 1997 and continuing to 2003 Endless Games released their own adaptation based on the classic MB version, along with an adaptation of Million-Dollar in 2008.
- Personnel:
- The Announcer: Jack Clark announced on CBS, and John Harlan filled these duties on ABC/All-Stars. Gene Wood announced most of Plus with occasional substitutes. Rich Jefferies announced the first few weeks of Super until Gene took over on that show as well (Jefferies moved to helping Gene as an audience warm-up).
- Game Show Host: Allen Ludden was the first and most popular, holding the position from 1961-80. Bill Cullen filled in for four weeks in 1980, and Tom Kennedy hosted from late 1980 to 1982. Bert Convy hosted Super, and Regis Philbin hosted Million-Dollar.
- Betty White: Frequently appeared on both Plus and Super; she and Ludden were married from 1963 until his death in 1981.
- Show the Folks at Home: 'The Password is...'
- Who Wants to Be 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?': Million-Dollar, natch, with the Money Ladder and the overall rapid-fire restructuring of the main game. (And, of course, Regis.)
The Password is Examples. *Ding*:
- And the Adventure Continues: During the goodbyes on the final episode of Super, Betty White compared the show to a Phoenix that will surely rise again.
- Ascended Extra: Tom Kennedy on Plus, having been a celebrity partner before becoming host. Similarly, Bert Convy was a partner on Plus before hosting Super. Regis has appeared as a celebrity partner in Plus before hosting Million Dollar thirty years later.
- Berserk Button: If anyone used a sound-alike rhyming word as a clue in the original version, Allen would lightly scold them, saying that while such words are legal to use, in his opinion they go against the spirit of the game and hence discourages their use. By Plus, such words were regularly used without comment from Allen.
- Catchphrase:
- 'The password is...', whispered by The Announcer on all versions except All-Stars (and the following ABC revamp), Plus, the first two years of Super, and Million-Dollar. This was originated by the announcer of the original version, Jack Clark. Jack's parents watched the show, but they could not read the password on screen due to their poor eyesight, so he came up with this device just for them. It proved so popular that it stuck for many variants of the show.
- 'Hey, doll...' was Allen's greeting to Betty White's mother Tess at the beginning of nearly every show. Tess appeared on ABC as a celebrity challenger during the aforementioned gimmickfest (week of September 23-27, 1974).
- 'Next word, (IF you) please,' regularly used by Bert Convy on Super.
- Crossover: On an episode of I've Got a Secret, the panel of Bill Cullen, Betsy Palmer, Henry Morgan and Bess Myerson introduced 'the great new CBS series Password' by playing a few rounds. All four of them (as well as Secret host Garry Moore) would ultimately wind up appearing on the actual show in individual episodes.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- Jack Clark occasionally filled-in for Allen on CBS.
- For three weeks in 1974 (July 15–26 and September 23–27) during ABC's gimmickfest, Allen played as a celebrity guest while Monty Hall guest-hosted.
- Allen then played as a celebrity guest shortly after All-Stars ended (March 24-28, 1975), with Betty White guest-hosting.
- Tom Kennedy once played as a celebrity partner on Plus in March 1982, with his brother JackNarz hosting. It was the last time most of the country saw Narz hosting a game show; viewers of KDOC in Anaheim, California got to see him host the No BudgetYou've Got To Be Kidding in late 1987.
- Downer Ending:
- On an episode of Super, Dick Gautier and his teammate blazed through the first nine words of the endgame, but then Dick accidentally blurted out the answer to the last word, costing her $10,000.
- It more or less happened again on this one with Michael Dorn (skip to 11:45). He didn't give it away but even with 26 seconds, his partner missed that last word.
- On another Super episode, Roz Ryan and her teammate got past the first nine words before giving the illegal clue, 'Ha ha' for 'Joke', on the tenth. After guessing the word, the pair began celebrating until the judge informed them that 'Ha ha' is two words which meant they lost.
- On yet another episode of Super, Richard Simmons attempted to cut himself off while giving an illegal clue on the final word of the endgame, originally resulting in a $15,000 win. After checking the tape, the judges confirmed he did not stop himself in time and the endgame was declared a loss.
- Happened twice during a week with Edie McClurg on Super. The first time was when her clue of 'Abnormal' for 'Normal' got a delayed zap, negating a $5,000 win. The second happened when the judge ruled that 'Kung' wasn't a legal clue until she and her contestant were already celebrating what would have been a $20,000 win.
- Early Installment Weirdness: For the first few weeks of Plus, some elements of the set were different. Most notably, the Alphabetics board was suspended by wires, instead of hidden in a cabinet (they had to change it because people kept bumping their head on the board).
- Epic Fail: One Plus episode had a contestant getting none of the words in Alphabetics. Several episodes of the original Password have had contestants whiff on all five passwords (or stumble so long on one of them) in the Lightning Round, thereby netting $0.
- Every Episode Ending: Most episodes during Ludden's tenure ended with him giving a 'Password of the day' and a short statement or moral relating to the word, usually ending it with the words 'Think about it.'
- Expy:
- You Don't Say!, a word-association game which debuted in 1963, began with a virtually-identical set but moved the host's podium from the center to the far left in 1964 or '65.
- Also, The Object Is, a short-lived 1963 ABC game show (the first hosted by Dick Clark) which was a curious hybird of Password and You Don't Say.
- A more blatant example is Goodson-Todman's Snap Judgment (one of the only Goodson-Todman games that has been entirely wiped), which debuted on April 11, 1967. For most of its run, Snap was a contrived word-association game of its own, but for the last three months (December 23, 1968 to March 28, 1969) it was retooled as a 100% clone of original-recipe Password...complete with the same exact desk.
- NBC's most recent prime time game show, Hollywood Game Night, has a segment called 'Take A Hint,' in which the three celebrity players on each side each give one-word clues to their civilian partner for him/her to identify words.
- Fan Remake: Done by Greggo, and frequently taken to conventions, using the Super Password format and graphics.
- Grand Finale:
- The last episode of ABC in 1975 featured a final game played by four Goodson-Todman staffers. Neither team got to the normal format's 50-point goal.
- The last episode of Super in 1989 featured the infamous 'Magic Toaster II' incident described on the Funny Moments tab. Here's the first part of the episode, from its original broadcast.
- Halloween Episode: For one Halloween Week on Super, Bert had two bags — one orange marked 'Treats', one black marked 'Tricks'. For each puzzle, the winning contestant would pick a prize at random from the 'Treat' bag (toys and little gifts such as magnetic balls) and the loser a prize from the 'Trick' bag (things like a random piece of wood or assorted pocket lint).
- Have a Gay Old Time: A CBS episode with Elizabeth Montgomery and Jim Backus had “Vibrator” as a password. Judging by the fact there’s very little snickering and everyone keeps a straight face, the “sex toy” meaning of the word probably didn’t exist then.
- In and Out of Character: Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence were the celebs for one early week on Plus. At one point, Allen suggested they come back at a later date as their characters Eunice and Mama. They did just that a few weeks later, playing in character against McLean Stevenson and Joanna Gleason's Hello Larry characters Larry and Morgan.
- In-Series Nickname: The device concealing the Ca$hword check on Super was called the Magic Toaster.
- Leave the Camera Running:
- December 23, 1980: It took nearly five minutes to get Plus back on track after Tom Kennedy cracked up over Dick Martin's reaction to giving 'France' as a clue for 'French'. In 2008, Kennedy donated a copy of the unedited master tape to the Television Production Music Museum, anditquicklyspreadtoYouTube.
- January 1982: During one puzzle, the word 'Hairy' was ruled unacceptable for the password 'Harry'. Marcia Wallace contested this (since homophones of words are accepted), so the next day Tom hauled out a chalkboard and gave everyone a phonics lesson.
- Bert had to haul out that chalkboard as well at least once, over gerund/guarant (skip to 3:00).
- Literal-Minded: Following a celebrity accidentally giving the Cashword as a clue on Super, Bert asked the producer what they did in that situation. Upon being told to 'throw it out', he picked up the Magic Toaster and threw it behind him, asking what to do next as he did so. The Toaster broke as it hit the floor. Cue an Oh, Crap! look on Bert's face when the celebrity informed him that he broke the Toaster.
- Lucky Charms Title:
- Not the show itself, but the Ca$hword round on Super.
- Password Plus + if you count the + in the logo and all over the set.
- Moon Logic Puzzle: While the main-game passwords on Plus and Super were sometimes a bit tough, they paled in comparison to the Ca$hword. Some of these words were nothing short of impossible to convey using just one-word clues, even given three chances. (Prime example: 'Backgammon'.)
- Three clues: Dice; Checkers; fronT? (read that last clue with a rising tone, as to convey an opposite).
- Negated Moment of Awesome: A winner on Super walked away with $58,600 (including a record-setting $55,000 jackpot in the Bonus Round)...but it was later revealed that he was a convict who had entered the show with a pseudonym. More info here.
- Nintendo Hard:
- The words used in the Password All-Stars and the short-lived version of Password that came immediately after it. Words in the All-Star championship game included 'Chlorophyll', 'Artillery', 'Emancipate', 'Ferocious', 'Budget', and 'Abracadabra'. ALL of these words were solved, the latter three with one clue.
- The Ca$hword in Super.
- The time limits and/or word difficulty on Million-Dollar, coupled with the inane 'clue-response-clue' rule (see below) and forcing each half-hour to be self-contained, meant there was no way anybody was going to win the Million.
- Non-Standard Game Over:
- The end game of Password Plus & Super Password (Alphabetics on Plus and the eponymous segment on Super, but both were the same format) could finish before the time expires without the grand prize being won. If an illegal clue (or a password or part of one) is given, the password is put out of play and the jackpot is forfeited. The round does go on if any passwords are left at $100 apiece, leading to this if the remaining are guessed. The standard game over is either getting all ten words or time running out.
- For the Cashword, giving an illegal clue or any part of the word itself immediately ended the in-game bonus round in a failure, even if the contestant still has guesses left. This happened at least twice.
- Obvious Rule Patch:
- CBS went from one pair of contestants playing only one round, to the same pair playing two rounds after switching partners, to the whole half-hour featuring just those two players switching partners after every round.
- ABC introduced the play-or-pass option of passing the first opportunity to give a clue to the other team if the player felt the word needed a minimum of two clues to be guessed (as can be seen in the Odd Couple episode).
- For the first few weeks of Plus, Allen went out of his way to remind everyone that although the clues still had to be one non-hyphenated word, the passwords themselves could now be two words like 'New York' or 'Twenty-Four'.
- On April 23, 1979, Plus made antonyms illegal clues. Sure, some words are very hard to convey using one-word clues that aren't the opposite, but making antonyms illegal meant that brains were exercised by requiring more thought to convey words (much later, on Million-Dollar, contestants kept passing on words that didn't have a clear opposite).
- Similarly, Plus changed its Alphabetics jackpot in 1981 to increase by $5,000 until claimed, with illegal clues deducting $1,000 (later 20% of the current total being played for).
- Super reversed the Plus antonym rule (making them legal again), the Bonus Round rules (once again denying the ability to gain the jackpot if an illegal clue was given, likely done to prevent celebrities from intentionally giving illegal clues if stuck on a word), and removed the play-or-pass option.
- Off the Rails: The 'testimony' incident.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Bert's reaction to blurting out the password, which he did quite often. He gets a particularly good moment here.
- He also had a pretty good reaction when he discovered he broke the Magic Toaster after dropping it.
- Opening Narration: Several over the course of the run. The 1971-1974 version, as done by John Harlan, is quoted at the top of the page.
- Ludden credited long time Password player Carol Burnett with coming up with the narration 'It's more than Password... it's Password Plus!' After a while, 'It's more than Password' was dropped.
- Super shortened it to 'It's Password... It's Super Password!'
- Opening Narration Drop: As seen in one of the early GSN ads for Plus, while talking with Allen, David Letterman slips in the Opening Narration while Allen describes the new gameplay.David Letterman 'Well, (of course), it's more than just Password...David Letterman 'Well...yeah...'
- Press X to Die: Anyone who ever gave the password as a clue. This may or may not be justified as a case of Ignore the Disability, as the word is right in front of them, and that's probably the same reason that Bert Convy himself did it more than once.
- Product Placement: Of all the Bonus Round words beginning with N, the NBC versions were quite fond of using Nabisco as a password. Q-Tip and Xerox also showed up; justified since not too many words begin with Q, and especially X. Geritol also showed up frequently in Plus.
- Replaced the Theme Tune:
- The ABC version changed its set and theme tune for the transition to Password All-Stars. Robert Israel's synthesized theme was replaced by Bob Cobert's 'Bicentennial Funk'.
- In 1963, the first theme—Kurt Rehfeld's Holiday Jaunt—was replaced with a Bob Cobert composition many believe to be called 'You Have the Password.'
- Running Gag:
- It was common on Super for someone to throw a roll of tape at Bert if they thought he was on the verge of blurting out the answer — something that actually did happen frequently enough that it practically was another Running Gag in itself. On at least one occasion, Bert did end up applying the tape to his mouth following one of his gaffes.
- Also on Super, if neither Bert nor the teams knew the answer to a puzzle, Bert would sometimes ask announcer Gene Wood whether he knew, to which Gene would always cheerfully respond, 'Yep!'
- Another Super one- The guy working the board looking like Santa (tends to come up more in the Christmas week shows, of course).
- Scenery Porn: All of the show's sets were bright and colorful with attention paid to every detail (including the parts not normally seen on-camera)... except the Million-Dollar set. It might have been cool to some, but it certainly wasn't bright or colorful — most likely to emphasize the higher stakes of this version of the game.
- Secret Word: In this game show contestants had to guess a secret word through a series of one-word clues.
- Selective Enforcement: In all versions, hand gestures were forbidden but the judges haphazardly enforced this rule. Here is a pretty bad example of a gesture slipping by the judges.
- Shout-Out:
- Every once in a while the writers included a password that had a meaning for one of the celebs, such as 'Secret' for Betsy Palmer, 'Crane' for Bob Crane, 'Ukulele' for Arthur Godfrey, 'Court' for The Defenders' E.G. Marshall, 'Huddle' for Frank Gifford — and, perhaps most famously, 'Skipper' for Bob Denver.
- Lest we forget 'Miser' for Jack Benny. His clue to his partner: 'Me!'
- It once happened in reverse — Florence Henderson got the word 'Bunch' about three years before she became Mrs. Brady.
- One Plus episode had the first three puzzle clues 'STUFFED' 'RED' 'HEAD'. Lucille Ball jokingly guessed 'Me!' (The actual answer was cabbage.)
- One Super puzzle during the week that Star Trek stars James Doohan and Michael Dorn played against each other contained the word 'Scottish'. Dorn gave the clue 'Doohan', and despite all the nodding he did to the other side he could not make his partner understand that he did not say 'Doing'.
- The title character of the short-lived Game Show NetworkBurt Ludden's Love Buffet was a Shout-Out to the hosts of 'Plus' and 'Super' (albeit spelled Burt instead of Bert).
- Signing-Off Catchphrase: Allen Ludden always ended his versions of the show with a password of the day.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: On one episode of Super, Vicki Lawrence gave a clue that had to be censored with the Ca$hword sound effect.
- Syndication Title: Ludden explained to the folks at home that the answer 'Jim Rockford' was accepted for one 'Plus' puzzle with the answer The Rockford Filesbecause the series had just entered syndication under the new title 'Jim Rockford,Private Investigator'
- Trash the Set: The aforementioned incident with Betty and the Magic Toaster.
- Up to Eleven: The original intro to Plus went 'It's more than Password, it's Password Plus!'
- Urban Legend: It has been rumored for many years that an African-American contestant (or sometimes, an African-American celebrity such as Nipsey Russell), given the clue of 'Doe' (for the word 'Deer'), answered with 'Knob'. According to Snopes, there is no record of this having ever happened; further, if it did happen and it was on CBS (daytime) or ABC, there's a pretty good reason why there's no record.note
- Word Association Test: The Game.
'Allen Ludden saying the Password for today is 'TV Tropes'. TV Tropes collects and expands on conventions and devices in creative works, such as Password, and we think it's a pretty nice place. See you next time, I hope.Think about it.'
Alternative Title(s):Super Password, Password Plus
Index
Password Plus | |
---|---|
Genre | Game show |
Created by | Bob Stewart |
Developed by | Robert Sherman |
Directed by | George Choderker[1] |
Presented by | Allen Ludden Bill Cullen Tom Kennedy |
Narrated by | Gene Wood |
Theme music composer | Score Productions[1] |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 801 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Howard Felsher[1] |
Producer(s) | Robert Sherman[1] |
Production location(s) | NBC Studios Burbank, California |
Camera setup | Six cameras, later five |
Running time | 22 minutes |
Production company(s) | Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions |
Distributor | Fremantle |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Picture format | NTSC |
Original release | January 8, 1979 – March 26, 1982 |
Chronology | |
Preceded by | Password (1961–1967, 1971–1975) |
Followed by | Super Password (1984–1989) Million Dollar Password (2008–2009) |
External links | |
Website |
Super Password | |
---|---|
Genre | Game show |
Created by | Bob Stewart |
Directed by | George Choderker[2] |
Presented by | Bert Convy |
Narrated by | Rich Jeffries (1984) Gene Wood (1984–1989)[2] |
Theme music composer | Score Productions[2] |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 1,151 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Chester Feldman Robert Sherman Howard Felsher |
Producer(s) | Diane H. Janaver Joe Neustein[2] |
Production location(s) | NBC Studios Burbank, California |
Camera setup | Multiple-camera setup |
Running time | 22 minutes |
Production company(s) | Mark Goodson Television Productions |
Distributor | Fremantle |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Picture format | NTSC |
Original release | September 24, 1984 – March 24, 1989 |
Chronology | |
Preceded by | Password (1961–1967, 1971–1975) Password Plus (1979–1982) |
Followed by | Million Dollar Password (2008–2009) |
External links | |
Website |
Password Plus and Super Password are American TV game shows that aired separately between 1979 and 1989. Both shows were revivals of Password, which originally ran from 1961 to 1975 in various incarnations. With only subtle differences between them, both Password Plus and Super Password followed the same general gameplay as their predecessor, whereby two teams of two people each – a celebrity and a contestant – attempted to guess a mystery word using only one-word clues.
Password Plus and Super Password aired on NBC, and were taped on Stage 3 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. Password Plus was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production and Super Password was a Mark Goodson Production.
Password Plus aired from January 8, 1979, to March 26, 1982, for 801 episodes. The program also won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show in 1982. Super Password aired for 1,151 episodes from September 24, 1984, to March 24, 1989.
- 1Cast
- 2Gameplay
Cast[edit]
Hosts[edit]
Password Plus was hosted by Allen Ludden from its inception until April 1980, when he took a leave of absence after he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Bill Cullen filled in as host until Ludden returned in May.[1] Ludden left the program again in late October due to further health problems and was replaced this time by Tom Kennedy. (Cullen had recently begun hosting Blockbusters, another Goodson-Todman production also airing on NBC.)[1] Ludden would make no more television appearances before his death in 1981, and Kennedy stayed on to host the remainder of the series.
Bert Convy was the host for the entire run of Super Password.
Announcers[edit]
Gene Wood was the regular announcer on both Password Plus and Super Password. Johnny Olson, Bob Hilton, John Harlan, and Rich Jeffries substituted for Wood on different occasions on Password Plus.
Jeffries was the first announcer of Super Password and served as a regular announcer until November 23, 1984. After the first nine weeks, Wood replaced Jeffries as announcer on November 26, 1984. Jeffries and Hilton occasionally substituted for Wood.
Gameplay[edit]
The rules for Password Plus and Super Password were almost identical. Two teams, each composed of a contestant and a celebrity, competed. The object, as on the original Password, was for the clue-giving partner to get the receiving partner to guess a given word (the 'password'). The giving partner on the first team offered a one-word clue, to which the receiving partner was allowed one guess; there were brief time limits for both the clue and the guess. Teams alternated giving one-word clues until the password was guessed, or until each side had given two clues (three in the early days of Password Plus until June 15, 1979). Giving an illegal clue (multiple or hyphenated words, using more than one word, using overly-expressive gestures or too much physical movement, forms of the password, made-up words, incorrect conjugations, etc.) forfeited the receiver's turn to guess, as did having clue-giving time expire without giving a clue.
Like the ABC run of Password, the first clue-giver for each password on Password Plus had the option to give the first clue or pass to the other team. Originally, the team that did not get the previous password was given the option, but this changed on August 13, 1979. This option was eliminated on Super Password, with the team that got the previous password given first crack at the next one.
The rules regarding cluegiving were the same as on all previous versions of Password, with the exception of two instances exclusive to Password Plus. Beginning with the April 23, 1979 edition of Password Plus and continuing until the series went off air in 1982, two rules were put into place. The first disallowed any password's direct opposite as a legal clue (such as 'loose' for 'tight'). The second expanded a penalty already present in the game. When the series began, if the cluegiver being given the option to play or pass did not decide in time or failed to give a clue, the other team's cluegiver was allowed to give two clues to his/her partner. After the change, the two-clue penalty was extended to any time a cluegiver failed to give a clue in time.
Password Puzzle[edit]
The new element of the revivals was the 'Password Puzzle'. Each password, once revealed, became one of five clues to a puzzle referring to a person, place, or thing. The passwords themselves were not worth any money; only the puzzle affected the scores. A guesser who correctly guessed a password was given a guess at the answer to the puzzle. A password that was not guessed by either player was added to the board without a guess at the puzzle, and if it was the final password in the puzzle, the solution was revealed, the puzzle thrown out, and a new puzzle was played.
![Online Online](https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/gameshows/images/2/2e/620-carol-burnett-appears-game-show-password.imgcache.rev1366306128486.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130629033905)
For the final password in a puzzle, if the guesser was incorrect, their partner was given a guess as well. On Password Plus, if both teammates did not guess correctly, the puzzle solution was revealed and a new puzzle was played. On Super Password, if one team failed to guess the puzzle after all five words were revealed, the opposing team's contestant and celebrity partner were each given a final chance to come up with the correct solution.
Correctly guessing the puzzle won the contestant money; any remaining passwords (if any) were revealed and new puzzles were played until one contestant had enough money to win the game. If the solution to the puzzle was inadvertently revealed in any way, the puzzle was thrown out.
From | To | Goal | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4+ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | 1981 | $300 | $100 | $200 | ||
1981 | 1982 | $500 | $100 | $200 | ||
1984 | 1989 | $100 | $200 | $300 | $400 |
In 1981, the switch in celebrity partners that normally took place before the start of each game was moved to after the third puzzle. On Super Password, the contestants switched partners after the Cashword game which followed the $200 puzzle. However, on All-Star Specials, partners did not switch after the Cashword game.
Cashword[edit]
'Cashword' was an additional bonus on Super Password played by the winner of the second puzzle for an accumulating cash jackpot. The celebrity acted as clue-giver and was given a more difficult password. If the contestant teammate guessed the password within three clues, he or she won a jackpot which started at $1,000 and increased by that much each time it was not won; this did not affect the scores and only counted as bonus money. If at any time an illegal clue was given, the Cashword round immediately ended and the jackpot was forfeited.
Alphabetics/Super Password[edit]
The winning team played for a cash prize in the bonus round, called 'Alphabetics' on Password Plus and, initially, 'Super Password' on Super Password.
The gameplay of the round was the same on both shows. The round featured 10 passwords beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet, and the celebrity was always the clue giver. He or she could see only the current password until the contestant either guessed it or passed. As in the main game, all clues had to be one word; the celebrity could use multiple words to form sentences, but had to pause distinctly after each word. For the period on Password Plus in which opposites were forbidden, this was enforced in Alphabetics as well. The contestant won $100 per guessed word, and the entire jackpot for guessing all 10 words in 60 seconds.
On Password Plus, the grand prize was originally a flat $5,000, but if an illegal clue resulted in a solved password, the jackpot value was reduced by 20% of the original total. Later, during the time Tom Kennedy hosted, the bonus round was played for an accumulating jackpot, which started at $5,000 and increased by that much each time it was not won. Illegal clues still reduced the pot by 20%, but this was later changed to a flat $2,500 reduction in late 1981. By the final week, the 20% reduction had returned.
Super Password's bonus round was also played for a jackpot. However, if an illegal clue was given, the word in play was thrown out and the contestant forfeited a chance at the jackpot, but still won $100 for each correct password. Also, NBC imposed no limit as to how high the pot could go.
Champions could return for a maximum of seven matches on Password Plus. On Super Password, champions could return for up to five matches.
Merchandise[edit]
Three editions of the Password Plus board game were made by Milton Bradley in the early 1980s. Milton Bradley made an eight-track cartridge version of the game for its OMNI Entertainment System. In 1983, a version for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision was going to be made by The Great Game Company. However, both versions were scrapped later on due to the Video Game Crash at the time.
A Super Password video game was released for DOS, the Apple II, and the Commodore 64 by Gametek in 1988. A version for the NES was also planned around that time, but never surfaced. In 2000, a Super Password hand-held game was released.
Broadcast history[edit]
Password Plus was first shown at 12:30p.m., replacing America Alive. Two months after its debut, the series made its first move when it replaced the short-lived revival of Jeopardy! at noon. It moved back to 12:30p.m. on August 13, 1979 when the Goodson-Todman game Mindreaders premiered at noon. On June 20, 1980, three other NBC game shows were canceled to make room for David Letterman's morning talk show and in the shuffle that followed, Password Plus was moved on August 4, 1980 to 11:30a.m. when the daytime drama The Doctors moved from 2:00p.m. to 12:30p.m., (this time facing the second half-hour of CBS's The Price Is Right and ABC's Family Feud) with Card Sharks taking the noon slot on June 23, 1980, replacing Chain Reaction. The series returned there in October 1981 upon the cancellation of Card Sharks and remained there for the remainder of its run. The final episode aired on March 26, 1982, and through a scheduling shuffle its place on NBC's schedule was replaced by Search for Tomorrow (which had moved to the network from CBS).
The program returned in 1984 as Super Password and aired in the noon Eastern time slot, facing, for its first two weeks, the then 8-year-old Family Feud, then Ryan's Hope on ABC. Although several stations passed on it to air local news or syndicated programming, Super Password remained in that time slot for its entire 41⁄2-year run. Later in the decade, though, NBC affiliates began dropping most of the network's daytime game shows, along with Super Password, causing ratings to slide. The show's final episode aired on March 24, 1989, the same day Sale of the Century aired its series finale and a little more than two months after Ryan's Hope ended. Super Password was Bert Convy's last network game show (and final for Mark Goodson Productions) hosted before his death two years later, though he emceed a pilot for an ABC revival of Match Game in late 1989, he was too ill to host when it was picked up a year later. Convy later hosted Win, Lose or Draw and 3rd Degree for syndication before his death from brain cancer in 1991.
Episode status[edit]
Both shows exist in their entirety, and can currently be seen on Buzzr. Both shows were previously aired on GSN. However, certain episodes were not shown due to celebrity clearance issues that were out of GSN's control.
Beginning on July 2, 2018, GameTV in Canada began airing the first 65 episodes of Super Password.[3]
Controversy[edit]
In January 1988, a man later discovered to be a previously convicted felon with active warrants for his arrest appeared on Super Password.[4] Kerry Ketchem, who competed on the program under the name 'Patrick Quinn', won a total of $58,600 in cash over four days on Super Password, which included a record-tying $55,000 jackpot win in the bonus round. However, his appearance on the show led to his apprehension on charges of fraud.
Ketchem's arrest came as the result of an investigation started when a bank manager in Anchorage, Alaska, called the United States Secret Service after having seen his episodes. He was discovered to have outstanding fraud warrants in Alaska and Indiana, and producer Robert Sherman was contacted by the Secret Service shortly thereafter. Around the same time, Ketchem—claiming that he would be leaving the country on work-related business—called Mark Goodson Productions and asked if he could collect his winnings in person instead of having a check mailed to him, which is the usual standard procedure. Sherman said yes, with the knowledge of the Secret Service, and gave him a date and time. When Ketchem showed up to the Goodson offices he was apprehended and taken into custody by local officials. The arrest came two days after his appearances finished airing.[5] Booked on the outstanding Indiana warrant, Ketchem was found to have used his 'Patrick Quinn' alias (which came from the name of one of Ketchem's college professors) to commit credit card fraud in Alaska;[5] to defraud a used car dealer; and to collect illegally on an insurance policy on the life of his ex-wife.[6] Ketchem, who had previously spent eighteen months in prison on an unrelated felony charge, agreed to a plea deal in May 1988 on charges of mail fraud. He was sentenced to five years in prison[4] and his winnings were rescinded as he was ruled to have violated contestant eligibility rules.[7]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ abcdefSchwartz, David; Ryan, Steve; Wostbrock, Fred (1999). The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows (3 ed.). Facts on File, Inc. pp. 165–166. ISBN978-0816030941.
- ^ abcdSchwartz, Ryan, Wostbrock, p. 213
- ^'Super Password schedule'. GameTV. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
- ^ abMurphy, Kim (5 September 1997). 'Game Show Winner Gets 5 Years for Insurance Scam'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
- ^ ab''Super Password' Then Jeopardy Big Winner On Game Show Identified As Wanted Con Man'. Orlando Sentinel. United Press International. 16 January 1988. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
- ^'Luck Runs Out for a Winner As TV Publicity Boomerangs'. The New York Times. 16 January 1988. Retrieved 2013-09-15.
- ^'The luck of Kerry D. Ketchem ran out the day...'Orlando Sentinel. 3 February 1989. Retrieved 2013-09-15.
External links[edit]
- Password Plus on IMDb
- Super Password on IMDb
- Password Plus at TV.com
- Super Password at TV.com
Preceded by The $20,000 Pyramid | Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show Password Plus, 1982 | Succeeded by The $25,000 Pyramid |
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Password_Plus_and_Super_Password&oldid=935521081'