Hollywood Squares: Encyclopedia II - Hollywood Squares - Revivals

Hollywood Squares - Revivals

There have been several revivals, each with variations in the prize-winning rules but still based on the core premise.

Hollywood Squares - 1983-1984

From October 31, 1983 to July 27, 1984, Jon “Bowzer” Bauman of Sha-Na-Na hosted a version packaged back-to-back with Match Game. The Match Game - Hollywood Squares Hour as it was called was jointly produced by Orion Television, which had purchased the rights to Squares upon acquiring the Filmways production company and Mark Goodson Productions. The show featured not only celebrities of the day (many of whom had appeared on Match Game or Hollywood Squares or both, in the past), but also future stars (such as comedian Bruce Baum, Arsenio Hall, John de Lancie and Mary Page Keller). While the basic gameplay was similar to the versions before and after it, there were several major differences: Each square was worth $25 for the contestant in addition to the money that they earned for winning each game, there was no "Secret Square" round, the questions were true/false or multiple choice and contestants were able to win "by default" if an opponent made a mistake.

Hollywood Squares - 1986-89

John Davidson hosted The New Hollywood Squares, produced by Orion Television for Century Towers Productions. from September 15, 1986 to September 8, 1989. Shadoe Stevens was the announcer and, from midway through the second season onward, was also a regular panelist (he always occupied the bottom-center square). Most seasons featured Joan Rivers as the center square. Jim J. Bullock was another regular usually occupying the upper-left square. Both Bullock and Stevens did guest-hosting stints.

The rules of the game reverted to the original rules prior to the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour era.

For the 1st season, each game was worth $500, with a $100/square bonus if time ran out in the middle of a game in progress (with a more pleasant horn than the earlier version). Beginning with the 2nd season, the 3rd and subsequent games were worth $1000 apiece, and the bonus also increased to $200/square. The second game on every show was a "Secret Square" game, usually worth a trip (instead of an accruing prize package as on the Marshall version). If a trip was won, Davidson would use the tag line "Pack Your Bags!"

The day's winner would choose one of five keys, which would start one of five cars (borrowed from an earlier 1970s game show, Split Second.) If the key selected started the car selected, he or she won it and retired; otherwise, he or she held on to the key and returned on the next show, with that car being eliminated from the choices should he or she retain the championship. If any champion won 5 days in a row, he/she won the car of his/her choice and retired undefeated. (Each week saw a different set of 5 cars in the event a champion crossed over to a new set of cars, he or she picked a new key with the lowest-value cars on offer already eliminated up to as many as that champion was already entitled to.) In the final season, each of the 9 celebrities held a key.

The Davidson version was one of the first game shows to go "on the road" and tape episodes from remote locations including Hollywood, Florida and Radio City Music Hall.

This version of Squares became noted for gimmickry a la I've Got A Secret, such as musical questions (with one or more panelists singing along), questions involving props in a panelist's square, questions presented as skits involving outside actors and "surprise" special guests and so on. On one occasion, when noted chef Wolfgang Puck was a guest, his square was outfitted with a complete kitchen. On another, the Solid Gold Dancers managed to squeeze into a special elongated square (lower left corner). Fitness guru Richard Simmons would sometimes lead the audience in exercise routines. TV alien puppet ALF, supposedly on a dare from host Davidson, actually guest hosted one episode. And on a memorable April Fool's Day episode in 1987, the two contestants were actually actors hired by the producers to play a joke on the host and panel. (The climax of this gag, featuring one "contestant" shoving the other off of the set's raised contestant dais, is a popular staple of game show blooper specials.) Although such gimmicks made the show a popular favorite early on, its momentum could not be maintained long term and it folded after just three years.

Hollywood Squares - 1998-2004

On September 14 to 18, 1998, King World bought the worldwide format rights to the show from MGM (successor-in-interest to Orion Pictures and Filmways, who produced the respective previous incarnations of the series) and relaunched the final version of the show to date, hosted by Tom Bergeron. It starred Whoopi Goldberg in the center square (she also co-produced it for its first four years). MGM and Sony Pictures Television however owns the domestic rights because of Orion.

For the first several weeks, the scoring format worked like this:

• First and second games: $500 apiece.
• Third game: $1000.
• Fourth and subsequent games: $2000.
• $250 for each square if time ran out during a game.

These figures were doubled in short order and would continue for most of the rest of the run.

In the last season, each game was worth $1,000. The first player to win two games played the bonus round.

The first season also saw up to two "Secret Square" games. The first one was in its customary position as the second game played on each episode with its prize package carrying over to the third game if it wasn't won. From the second season onwards, the "Secret Square" reverted to essentially its old Marshall-era format: played as the second game on each show worth an accruing prize package. In the last season, the "Secret Square" was played in the second game of each match with a different prize offered each time.

The end game underwent numerous changes throughout the run of the Bergeron version. Originally, it was the same "pick a star, win a prize" format the Marshall version had used during its last few years on the air. Within several weeks, this had been slightly adjusted to where the day's winner had to correctly agree or disagree with a "Secret Square"-style question to win that prize. In November 2001, in the wake of shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire raising the bar in terms of prize money, Squares adopted an entirely new endgame; the champion selected one of the nine panelists, each of whom concealed a different dollar amount from $1000-$5000. The contestant was then asked a series of ten questions, each worth that much money, with sixty seconds to get through them all. At the end of time, if the player so desired, he or she could risk the total money earned on one final double-or-nothing question. In this fashion, this game could earn a player as much as $100,000. This round, however, was generally disliked by fans who felt it was needlessly complicated.

In its fifth season it underwent an update after Henry Winkler and Michael Levitt took over as executive producers, taking on the nickname H² and switching to a rotating series of center square occupants. The set and theme were also upgraded at this time. Also effective with this season, the unpopular "ten questions" endgame was dropped and replaced with yet another bonus round, this one a variation of the "car keys" game from the '80s Squares. This time, the player selected from up to nine keys, only one of which would open or start a given grand prize. Before choosing a key, however, he or she would play a game to eliminate incorrect keys from the selection process; he or she had 30 seconds to answer as many true/false questions about celebrities on that week's panel as possible and with each correct answer one false key was taken off the board. Also in the fifth season, for each returning champion, an incorrect key was eliminated for every time the contestant failed to win the prize previously. If the contestant won the grand prize and repeated as champion the next day, he/she played for a new prize, starting again with nine keys. If not, he/she won $500 for each correct answer. Shortly thereafter, that was upped to $1,000. The prize structure is as follows:

1st: Car 2nd: $25,000 (In Safe) 3rd: Trip Around the World or Trip of a Lifetime (In Steamer Trunk) 4th: $50,000 (In Safe) 5th: $100,000 (In Safe)

No one got to the fifth grand prize that season, but it was rumored to have been $100,000 cash. In the final season, champions always had nine keys to work with each time they played the bonus round, and the amount for each correct answer went back to $500. The prize structure was also changed as follows:

1st: Trip (Steamer Trunk) 2nd: $10,000 (Safe) 3rd: Car 4th: $25,000 (Safe) 5th: Trip Around the World (Steamer Trunk)

Only one person got to the fifth prize in the final season, but did not win it.

The Winkler-Levitt era of Squares was notable for its reliance on "theme weeks." One of the most well-known among genre fans was a December 9-13, 2002 "Game Show Week" which featured as that week's guest Center Square, none other than Peter Marshall himself, marking the first time the "Master of The Hollywood Squares" had appeared on any version of the program since 1981 (although in 1993 and 1994 he appeared as host of a parody version in several episodes of the sketch comedy program In Living Color). On the Thursday show of that week, Marshall and Bergeron traded places with Bergeron in the center square and Marshall hosting. In regards to that Thursday broadcast, Marshall would later agree that the experience felt to him like being home again.

This most recent series ended on June 6, 2004. The Reruns from that season ended on September 2004.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Revivals", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki