Password (TV series) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Password Password logo from 1967. Format Game Show Created by Bob Stewart Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Presented by Allen Ludden Country of origin United States No. of episodes 1555 (1961-1967, CBS Daytime) 201 (1962-1967, CBS Nighttime) 1099 (1971-1975, ABC Daytime) GRAND TOTAL: 2855 Production Running time 30 Minutes Broadcast Original channel CBS (1961-1967) ABC (1971-1975) Original run October 2, 1961 – June 27, 1975 For other uses, see Password and Password (disambiguation). Password is an American television game show. The show was hosted by Allen Ludden and was created by Bob Stewart for Goodson-Todman Productions. Password originally aired for 1,555 daytime telecasts M-F from October 2, 1961 to September 15, 1967 on CBS, along with weekly prime time airings from January 2, 1962[1] to September 9, 1965[1] and April 1967[1] to May 22, 1967.[1] An additional 1,099 daytime shows aired from April 5, 1971 to June 27, 1975 on ABC. The show's announcers were Jack Clark and Lee Vines on CBS, and John Harlan on ABC. Two revivals later aired on NBC in the 1970s and 80s. A revival with a $1 million top prize and Regis Philbin as host began development for CBS in late 2007, and premiered on Sunday June 1, 2008 at 8 pm ET/PT, 7 pm CT/MT. [2] Contents [hide] 1 Rules 2 Contestants 3 Revivals 3.1 Password Plus and Super Password 3.2 Million Dollar Password 4 Episode status 5 Theme music 6 Broadcast history 6.1 CBS: 1961-1967 6.2 ABC: 1971-1975 7 Versions outside the USA 8 Other versions 9 Sitcom spoofs 10 References 11 External links [edit] Rules Two teams, each consisting of one celebrity player and one regular contestant, competed. The word to be conveyed (the "password") was given to one player on each team and was shown to the studio audience and home viewers. Game play alternated between the two teams. On each team, the player who was given the password gave a one-word clue from which his/her partner attempted to guess the password. If the partner failed to guess the password within the allotted five-second time limit, or if an illegal clue was given (two or more words, a hyphenated word, or any part or form of the password), play passed to the opposing team. A game in progress in 1975.The game continued until one of the players guessed the password correctly or until ten clues had been given. Scoring was based on the number of clues given when the password was guessed, e.g. 10 points were awarded for guessing the password on the first clue, nine points on the second clue, eight points on the third clue, etc., down to one point on the tenth and final clue. If the clue-giver said the password, the points were awarded to the opposing team. On the ABC version a limit of six clues was imposed to expedite game play, with the last clue worth five points. In addition, teams were given the option of either playing or passing control of the first clue to the opposing team. Specifically, the team that was trailing in score, or who had lost the previous game was offered the pass/play option; when the score was tied, the team that failed to get the password was awarded the pass/play option. The first team to reach 25 points won the game and a chance to win up to $250 by playing the "Lightning Round", in which the civilian contestant on the prevailing team tried to guess five passwords within 60 seconds from clues given by his/her celebrity partner. $50 was awarded for each correctly-guessed password (increased to $100 from 1973 to 1974). The Big Money Lightning Round from 1975.The Lightning Round was among the first bonus rounds on a television game (along with the phrase game on the original Beat the Clock). On the ABC version from 1971 to 1974, immediately after completing the Lightning Round, the player wagered any amount of his/her winnings on his/her celebrity partner's ability to guess a "Betting Word" within 15 seconds. On each episode from 1961-1975, Ludden would caution the players about unacceptable clues by stating, "When you hear this sound (a buzzer would sound) it means your clue has not been accepted by our authority, (name of word authority)." Word authorities on the CBS version included New York University professor David H. Greene and World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary editor Dr. Reason A. Goodwin. Robert Stockwell and Carolyn Duncan served as word authorities during the ABC version. The practice of the announcer whispering the password to the home audience – as well as displaying it on screen – was devised by creator Bob Stewart for the benefit of his mother, who could speak but not read English. Clark, Vines, and Harlan did this on the first two versions of the show, but the practice was discontinued during the final months of the ABC run. However, probably to bring a nostalgic tone to the proceedings, Gene Wood (himself a one-time announcer on the original show's run) began whispering the words on Super Password starting on November 3, 1986. During the last few weeks before its cancellation in 1969, the set of the Goodson-Todman game Snap Judgment on NBC changed to resemble the look of the CBS Password. G-T did this to correspond to rule changes that, in fact, made Snap Judgment identical to Password. [edit] Contestants On the CBS daytime version, contestants played two matches, win or lose, with each game awarding $100 to the winner. During the first few months of the CBS nighttime version, the same two players stayed for the entire show, playing as many matches as time allowed. However, after one contestant won $1,200 on an August 1962 episode (which made CBS nervous in those early post-quiz show scandal days), this practice was soon changed to having two new contestants play each game (generally, three pairs of contestants competed in the course of each show), with winning contestants receiving $250 and losers receiving $50. For only two shows in 1965, the nighttime version experimented with a "championship match" format, in which the winners of games 1 and 2 would return to compete against each other in the final game. Also in 1965, the show adopted an annual "Tournament of Champions" where contestants on the daytime version who won both their games were invited back to compete for more money. On the ABC version, winning contestants could stay until either defeated or win a maximum of 10 games, thus retiring them as undefeated champions (ABC removed this limit later in the show's run). From 1973-1974, the first contestant to win a two-out-of-three match played the Lightning Round. Every three months, the four top winners during that period would return for a quarterly contest. The winner would earn $1,000 and the right to compete in the annual Tournament of Champions. The winner of the annual contest won $5,000 and faced the previous year's champion in a best-of-seven match for $10,000. From November 18, 1974 to February 21, 1975, Password became Password All-Stars, where teams of celebrities played for charity in a tournament-style format. At the end of each week, the highest scorer would win $5,000 and advance to the Grandmasters' Championship, which would award the winner another $25,000. The first tournament's finalists were Dick Gautier, James Shigeta, Peter Bonerz and Don Galloway, with Shigeta winning the championship; the second tournament's finalists were Richard Dawson, Bill Bixby, Hal Linden and Betty White, with Dawson winning the championship (Dawson had almost made it to the first tournament finals, but Gautier beat him out during their preliminary week by just one point). After the celebrity format modification proved unpopular with fans, Goodson-Todman made Password All-Stars simply Password again, but the show carried over elements of All-Stars, mainly in order to use the set that had been redesigned for the all-celebrity period. Among these were an elimination round in which four contestants (two new players and the two players from the previous game) competed with the help of the two celebrities in the first round. In the qualifying round, one of the two celebrities used a one-word clue to a password (with both celebrities alternating turns on giving clues), and the four contestants would ring in with the password. A correct response earned that contestant one point, with three points needed to qualify for the regular game. An incorrect response locks that player out of the word in play. The first two contestants to reach three points went on to play the regular Password game. In the regular game, an addition to the rules was the "double" option, which the first clue giver could ask to increase the word value to 20 points by giving only one clue; if that word was missed, the other team could score the 20 points with a second clue. The first team to reach 50 points or more could win thousands of dollars in the Big Money Lightning Round, using a three-step structure in which the winning team attempted to guess three passwords within 30 seconds per step. The contestant was paid as follows: Part one: Each password paid $25. Guessing all three passwords in 30 seconds further netted $5 for each second left on the clock. Obviously, the round ended if the received proved unable to guess at least one of the three passwords, and the contestant returned to the elimination panel to compete for the right to play the main game again. Part two: The money earned in part one would be multiplied by the number of passwords guessed in part two. Naming all three passwords this time added $10 for each second left. If the receiver failed to identify at least one of the passwords in part two, the round ended and the contestant still kept all part-one winnings. Part three: Naming all three passwords in 30 seconds multiplied the contestant's part-two winnings tenfold (meaning if a player accumulated $500 after two parts, guessing all three passwords in this part would earn $5,000). Password won the first-ever Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show in 1974. The ABC Password was the first of the Goodson shows to be taped regularly on the West Coast. The original CBS version made annual trips to CBS Television City during the 1960s, including once when the CBS New York studios were fitted for color TV. Otherwise, it was most often taped in New York at CBS-TV Studio 52 (later converted to the Studio 54 discothèque) and CBS-TV Studio 50 (the Ed Sullivan Theater) until the end of the daytime run in 1967. Password moved permanently to Hollywood, California at ABC Studio TV-10 "The Vine Street Theater" in Hollywood and the ABC Television Center on Prospect Avenue when ABC brought it back in 1971. The CBS revival in 2008 moves the show back to New York at Kaufman Astoria Studios. As part of the farewell on the ABC version, Mark Goodson mentioned that numerous elementary schoolteachers in the U.S. used the numerous editions of the Milton Bradley-packaged home game as a tool to teach their pupils English. [edit] Revivals [edit] Password Plus and Super Password Main article: Password Plus and Super Password NBC brought Password back as Password Plus on January 8, 1979 with Allen Ludden returning as host. It was originally announced in Variety magazine as Password '79, in the manner that Match Game named its 1973 version with the year, but the name was changed when, during a run-through, Carol Burnett commented "this is more than Password, it's Password Plus."[citation needed] On September 24, 1984 NBC brought the format back as Super Password with Bert Convy hosting (Ludden had died in 1981) and Gene Wood announcing. Rich Jeffries was the announcer for the first ten weeks and filled in for Wood sporadically thereafter. Bob Hilton also filled in for one week in 1985 or 1986. Super Password ran until March 24, 1989 and was cancelled on the same day as another NBC game show, Sale of the Century. In some markets in the Eastern time zone, the show was pre-empted by local news due to its Noon timeslot. NBC stations in the Central and Pacific time zones usually pre-empted Scrabble at 11:30 for local news and aired Super Password at 11:00. [edit] Million Dollar Password Main article: Million Dollar Password CBS picked up a new version of the show entitled Million Dollar Password, hosted by Regis Philbin which premiered Sunday June 1, 2008 at 8 pm ET/PT, 7 pm CT/MT.[2] The series is taped in New York, and the initial order consists of six, hour-long episodes. This is the second million-dollar game show that Philbin has hosted (the first was the American prime time version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire). [edit] Episode status All of the CBS primetime episodes were preserved on videotape. The final year of the CBS daytime version and the second primetime version were preserved on color videotape, as the producers chose to syndicate those reruns following the program's first cancellation. Most of the earlier daytime episodes are presumed lost; at least two daytime episodes are available on home video, each one as part of a general game show compilation package. On December 2, 2008, BCI/Eclipse released a DVD boxed set titled The Best of PASSWORD: The CBS Years 1962-1967. The ABC version is considered to be almost completely gone. Clips from the December 7, 1971 episode featuring Brett Somers and Jack Klugman was featured on VH1's I Love the '70s: Volume 2 in 2006. GSN aired the complete Somers/Klugman episode on the morning of September 11, 2006 in the early morning hours as part of its weekly overnight classic game show programming. That episode was rebroadcast following the death of Brett Somers as a tribute. A second studio master, from 1972 and featuring Sheila MacRae and Martin Milner, is also known to have survived; an excerpt of that show can be seen on YouTube. Three episodes from 1975 survive on the videotape trading circuit, as recorded by home viewers: the Password All-Stars Finale; Episode #15 of the big-money revamp with Betty White and Vicki Lawrence; and the June 27, 1975 Finale with Kate Jackson and Sam Melville. A few more episodes from this run are held in UCLA's film and television archive. It is believed that the videotapes that were used for the ABC Password were recycled and reused for the Dawson version of Family Feud a few years later. Both NBC revivals exist in their entirety and continue to air on GSN. [edit] Theme music The theme song used on Password from 1961 to 1963 is called "Holiday Jaunt" by Kurt Rehfeld. That was followed by a catchy swing theme composed by Bob Cobert which was used from 1963 until the CBS version's cancellation in 1967; the name of this is disputed. Viewers would often see emcee Ludden snapping his fingers to the swing tune as the closing credits were shown, and at one point celebrity guest Bob Crane suggested recording a vocal version. When Password returned on ABC in 1971, Score Productions provided a theme with a synth arrangement (similar to the cues later heard on The Price Is Right). The theme used later in that version's run (beginning with Password All-Stars in 1974) was titled "Bicentennial Funk", and was used until the finale in 1975. That theme, as well as the themes for Password Plus and Super Password, were also composed by Score Productions. [edit] Broadcast history [edit] CBS: 1961-1967 With Goodson-Todman established as a reliable packager of high-rated games for CBS like What's My Line?, To Tell the Truth, and I've Got a Secret, the network confidently gave the new word-association game the 2:00 PM/1:00 Central timeslot, replacing the courtroom-themed game Face the Facts. As television's first successful celebrity-civilian team game, Password attracted a large and loyal audience that made it the solid Nielsen favorite at that slot for nearly five years as shows came and went with great frequency on the other networks. The concurrent prime-time version was also successful, albeit somewhat less than the daytime show. Both versions performed strongly in the ratings and looked to run well past the late 1960s. But on July 11, 1966 CBS preempted Password in favor of live coverage of a press conference held by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on the progress of the Vietnam War. Because the other two networks did not grant their news divisions anywhere near the power that CBS did in making programming decisions, they went ahead with their regular schedules instead of the conference. A new show began that very day on ABC - The Newlywed Game - and some frustrated Password fans began defecting immediately. NBC, meanwhile, experienced success with their recently-launched soap opera Days of our Lives. Over the next year, Newlywed and Days wore down Password. CBS daytime head Fred Silverman, not a personal fan of the genre, had seen enough by Spring 1967 and decided to cancel Password. The cancellation occurred after squabbles over where the show would be taped (New York City or Hollywood). Silverman wanted the show permanently moved to CBS Television City (which it was moved to for part of the 1966-1967 season to make the show in color, as CBS' New York studios full colorization was dragged out). Host Allen Ludden moved to California at that time (and commuted back to New York for the last part of the 1966-1967 season). Although Silverman and Goodson-Todman agreed to move the show to 4:00/3:00 PM, Mark Goodson bitterly opposed a permanent move of the show to Hollywood - which provoked Silverman's cancellation decision. Password was replaced in favor of a CBS-produced soap, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, which had a five-and-a-half-year run. [edit] ABC: 1971-1975 In the meantime, though, Goodson-Todman sold reruns of the CBS version to local stations via syndication in the late 1960s, and in some markets they performed quite well in mid-morning or late-afternoon slots. This prompted ABC to contact Mark Goodson about reviving the game; this time around, Goodson agreed to have the show tape in Hollywood per ABC's wishes. Password would become Goodson-Todman's first show to be staged in Los Angeles full-time rather than New York City; eventually the company moved almost all production to southern California during the 1970s. The network and packager faced an unusual and potentially disturbing obstacle, however. The network slated Password to replace the cult soap Dark Shadows at 4:00 PM/3:00 Central on April 5, 1971. Some of the more devoted fans of Shadows threatened ABC with physical disruption of the first tapings of Password at the Hollywood studios. However, these plans apparently never materialized and ABC went ahead, managing strong results against NBC's Somerset and reruns of Gomer Pyle, USMC on CBS. Pleased with its performance, ABC promoted the show to 12:30 PM/11:30 AM on September 6, where it faced stronger challenges in the form of CBS' long-running Search for Tomorrow and NBC's The Who, What, or Where Game, which had been on for two years at this point. Nonetheless, Password held up well there for six months until the network moved it up a half-hour to Noon/11:00 to make way for the new game Split Second. At Noon/11:00, Password came in a solid second to NBC's Jeopardy! but easily defeated the CBS soap Where the Heart Is. However, CBS would launch the youth-oriented The Young and the Restless to replace Where the Heart Is, causing Password and Jeopardy! to hit ratings trouble beginning in Summer 1973 - in large measure due to the college and high school-aged viewers being lured away by the serial. Even though NBC moved Jeopardy! in January 1974 from Noon/11:00 in favor of Jackpot!, the ABC Password was sliding into third place. One failed gimmick to boost ratings involved Betty White hosting the show while her husband played as a celebrity. In the fall, the show decided to take a risk, at the insistence of ABC, on an all-celebrity format called Password All-Stars. Although Goodson-Todman had success with celebrity-driven formats such as Match Game (which debuted in 1973) and Tattletales (which began earlier in the year) through the late 1970s, the lack of civilian contestants and significantly-altered rules on Password drove even more viewers away. On February 24, 1975 Goodson-Todman abandoned the format (but changing the contestant configuration in order to avoid another set redesign) in a last-ditch effort, but it was too late - ABC dropped the show on June 27 with Ludden giving an emotional farewell on the Finale and Mark Goodson declaring him "Mr. Password". All was not lost for Goodson-Todman, however, as Password was replaced with a new game - their ill-fated Showoffs, which lasted six months. In 1978, Goodson-Todman tried again and successfully brought Password to NBC on January 8, 1979 - now titled Password Plus. [edit] Versions outside the USA In Turkey, a Mehmet Aslantuğ version called Parola is aired weekdays a week on Kanal 6. In the United Kingdom, versions of Password were produced by the BBC in the 1970s, and by Thames Television for Channel 4 which was hosted by Tom O'Connor and UTV for ITV in the 1980s which was hosted by Gordon Burns. In New Zealand, a Maori language version has aired since 2006. In Spain, the Million Dollar Password format has been adapted for their audience. The program, entitled Password, premiered on July 7, 2008.[3] Hosted by Luján Argüelles, it is nearly identical to the American revival. The biggest differences include the top prize of €25,000 and changing the program to a forty-five minute (with commercials) weekday broadcast. It airs on the country's Cuatro channel.[4] In France, a version called Pyramide, inspired both by Pyramid and Password series, aired on Antenne 2 then France 2 from 1991 to 2003. [edit] Other versions Although Password can be played without any equipment, commercial versions of the game have also been successful.The Milton Bradley Company introduced the first home version of Password in 1962 and subsequently released 24 editions of the game until 1986. (Owing to common superstition, these releases were numbered 1-12 and 14-25, skipping 13.) It was tied with Concentration as the most prolific of Milton Bradley's home versions of popular game shows, and was produced well into the Super Password era of the television show. Milton Bradley also published three editions of a Password Plus home game between 1979 and 1981, but surprisingly never did a version for Super Password. More recently, Endless Games has released seven editions of Password since 1997, including a children's edition (with gameplay closer to the Pyramid game show) and a DVD edition featuring the voice of Todd Newton. In addition, Endless released a home version of Million Dollar Password in 2008. A computer version of Super Password was released by GameTek for MS-DOS systems, as well as the Apple II and Commodore 64, shortly before the show was canceled; a Nintendo Entertainment System version was also planned but never released. Tiger Electronics also released an electronic handheld "Super Password" game in the late 1990s--oddly, many years after the show had been cancelled. More recently, Irwin Toys released a new handheld electronic version featuring a touch screen with stylus to enter words. As with several other Goodson/Todman game shows, Password has been adapted into a slot machine by WMS Gaming. A simulated Allen Ludden emcees the proceedings, with the voices and caricatures of Rose Marie, Dawn Wells, Adam West and Marty Allen. One bonus round offers the player free spins; the other involves choosing from 4 envelopes offered by the celebrities. Finding the "Password" envelope advances the player to a new level with 4 more envelopes, worth more prize money.[1] And, in December, BCI/Eclipse will release a DVD boxed set The Best of PASSWORD-the CBS Years 1962-1967. [edit] Sitcom spoofs The ABC version was featured in a 1972 episode of The Odd Couple, where Felix (Tony Randall) and Oscar (Jack Klugman) were playing as a team on a New York-based version (Oscar's "celebrity" status referring to his sports writing) and also featured Allen Ludden and Betty White as themselves. The high point in the segment was when, for a password of "Birds", Felix gave the clue "Aristophanes", to which an utterly mystified Oscar replied with "Greek". (Aristophanes wrote the play "The Birds") During the commercial break, Oscar tells Felix no more Greek clues as Aristophanes is ridiculous. When the gameplay resumed the next password was "Ridiculous". Oscar gave the clue "Aristophanes" in a mad tone and Felix responded with "Ridiculous", stumping Allen. Password was also spoofed in a 2000 episode of Family Guy. Peter is seen playing the game with Tony Randall on a version of the CBS set (in color) and tries to convey to him the password "Flaming", saying repeatedly, "You...you..." Randall guesses incorrectly twice with "Actor" and "Tony". [edit] References ^ a b c d Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (Oct. 1995) [1979] (trade paperback). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present (Sixth ed.). New York: Ballantine Books, a Division of Random House, Inc.. p. 800. ISBN 0-345-39736-3. ^ a b Breaking News - CBS UNVEILS ITS 2008 SUMMER SCHEDULE | TheFutonCritic.com ^ "Cuatro estrena el lunes su nuevo concurso, Password". Ojotele. 07-05-2008. http://www.ojotele.com/2008/07/06-cuatro-estrena-el-lunes-su-nuevo-concurso-password. Retrieved on 01-09-2009. ^ "Password". Cuatro. http://www.cuatro.com/programas/programas/entretenimiento/password/. Retrieved on 01-07-2009. [edit] External links Password at the Internet Movie Database Password Plus at the Internet Movie Database Super Password at the Internet Movie Database Million Dollar Password at the Internet Movie Database Curt Alliaume's Game Shows '75: Password CBS Daytime and Nighttime Password Guide The ABC Password Page password-plus.com Funny Password clues and answers The Password Home Game Home Page Preceded by First winner Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show 1974 Succeeded by Hollywood Squares Preceded by Face the Facts 2:00 p.m. EST, CBS 10/2/61 – 9/15/67 Succeeded by Love Is a Many Splendored Thing Preceded by Dark Shadows 4:00 p.m. EST, ABC 4/5/71 – 8/27/71 Succeeded by Love, American Style Preceded by Love, American Style 12:30 p.m. EST, ABC 8/30/71 – 3/17/72 Succeeded by Split Second Preceded by That Girl 12:00 p.m. EST, ABC 3/20/72 – 6/27/75 Succeeded by Showoffs Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_(TV_series)" Categories: Word games | British game shows | Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions game shows | American Broadcasting Company network shows | CBS network shows | NBC network shows | 1961 television series debuts | 1967 television series endings | 1971 television series debuts | 1975 television series endings | 1960s American television series | 1970s American television series | Television series by FremantleMedia | American game shows | Television series with missing episodes