Hollywood Squares
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The Hollywood Squares was an American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money and prizes. The "board" for the game is actually a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by an entertainer (or "star") seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions and the contestants judge the veracity of their answers in order to win the game.
Although The Hollywood Squares is a legitimate game show, the game largely acts as the background for the show's comedy. The show is "scripted" in the sense that the panel of celebrities know the questions in advance and are provided with answers and suggestions for bluffs and jokes (Zingers). Typically, a star's first answer to a question is a humorous one (or at least an attempt at a humorous one). This is then followed by the true answer or bluff. It must be stressed that this does not mean the actual gameplay is scripted or predetermined, as the onus is still on the contestant to determine whether or not the provided answer to a question is the correct one.
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[edit] Basic rules
Although there have been variations over the years in the rules of and the prizes in the game, certain aspects of the game have remained fairly consistent. Two contestants, a woman playing Os (noughts) as "Miss Circle" and the man playing Xs (crosses) "Mister X", take turns picking a star and following the traditional tic-tac-toe strategies for which square to select. The star is asked a question and gives an answer. The contestant has the choice of agreeing with the celebrity or disagreeing if they think the star is bluffing. If the contestant is right, he or she gets the square; if wrong, the other contestant gets the square, unless that would cause the opponent to get three in a row. In that case, the opponent has to win the square on his or her own. A player can also win by getting five of his or her symbols "X" or "O" on the game board (thus preventing "cat's games" or ties); this is called a "five-square win."
Stars were not required to give a correct answer even if they knew the question.
On rare occasions, a star would not know the correct answer to a question or be unable to come up with a decent bluff. In such instances, the host would offer the question to the contestant. If the contestant answered correctly, he or she got the square; if not, their opponent got the square unless it would give the other contestant three in a row. Usually the contestant passed, in which case they incurred no penalty, and the same star would be asked another question.
Peter Marshall's explanation of the rules:
- Object for the players is to get three stars in a row, either across, up-and-down or diagonally; it is up to them to figure out if a star is giving a correct answer or making one up; that's how they get the square. Each game is worth $200 (or $250 in the syndicated version).
[edit] Original version (1966-1981)
The show got its beginning as a black-and-white pilot episode filmed for CBS on April 21, 1965. That pilot was hosted by Bert Parks with the squares occupied by Cliff Arquette (in his "Charley Weaver" comic persona), Wally Cox, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Abby Dalton, Jim Backus, Gisele MacKenzie, Robert Q. Lewis and Vera Miles. The first five of the initial panelists were to later appear on the first broadcast week (October 17-21, 1966) and become all 5 of its initial regulars on NBC-TV.
CBS shot a second pilot hosted by Sandy Baron, but chose not to pick up the program with either host. A year later, NBC acquired the rights to the show and chose Peter Marshall as host, a job he held for fifteen years until 1981. During most of its daytime run, NBC broadcast Squares at 11:30 a.m. Eastern/10:30 a.m. Central time, where it dominated the ratings until 1976, when it moved to the first of a succession of different time slots.
The show also ran at night, first on NBC from January 12 to September 13, 1968 as a mid-season replacement for the short-lived sitcom Accidental Family, then as a nighttime syndicated entry running from November 1, 1971 to September 11, 1981. The latter version ran once a week at first, then twice a week and finally expanded to a five-day-per-week strip in its final season.
Paul Lynde, in addition to his recurring role as "Uncle Arthur (Winsome)" on Bewitched had his greatest fame as the coveted "center square" throughout most of the original show's run. However, on October 14-18, 1968 after two years on the show, Lynde became the regular center square. Lynde was the only panelist on the show to win 2 daytime Emmy Awards in 1974 and 1978. Other regulars and semi-regulars over the years included Nanette Fabray, Kaye Ballard, John Davidson, Wally Cox, Cliff Arquette ("Charley Weaver"), Morey Amsterdam, Florence Henderson, Marty Allen, Wayland Flowers, George Gobel, Vincent Price, Rose Marie, Charo, Sandy Duncan, Carol Wayne, Jonathan Winters, Karen Valentine, Roddy McDowall and Joan Rivers. Lynde left the series after taping the August 20-24 1979 week of shows, but returned when the series relocated to Las Vegas in the 1980-81 season.
Some stars would frequently be asked questions pertaining to a certain topic or category. For instance, Cliff Arquette (Charley Weaver), a history buff, would often get questions on American history and would almost always give a correct answer. Rose Marie often got questions on dating and relationships. Paul Lynde would always get a loaded question just so he could come up with an initial hilarious response. Some, such as Robert Fuller, were excellent bluffers.
The daytime series was played as a best 2-out-of-3 match between a returning champion and a challenger with each individual game worth $200 and a match worth $400; a 5-match champion retired with $2000 and a new car. During the final years of the NBC run, players who won five matches were awarded over $25,000 in prizes, including two new cars. Early in the first season, from October 17, 1966 to February 10, 1967, each game awarded $100 with the winner of the match earning a $300 bonus for a total of $500. Beginning in 1976, an "endgame" of sorts was added to the show, with the champion simply selecting a star, each of whom held an envelope with a prize concealed within. (The top prize was $5000 in cash.) Both the syndicated and NBC primetime version featured the same two contestants playing for the entire half-hour with each completed game worth $300 (NBC primetime) or $250 (syndicated). If time ran out with a game still in progress (interrupted by what the host called the "tacky buzzer", a loud horn), each X or O on the board at that point was worth an additional $50 to the players. The player with the most money at the end of the show won a bonus prize, which on the syndicated series was usually a new car.
The "Secret Square" round was played as the 1st or 2nd game on a given broadcast (or the first complete game if a show began with one already in progress) during the daytime series. In this game, one of the nine stars was selected at random (and revealed to the home audience only) as the "Secret Square". If that panelist was picked during this game, the contestant who picked him or her could win a bonus prize package for correctly agreeing or disagreeing with the star. The "Secret Square" package started at over $2,000 in prizes, with additional prizes being added if it was not won.
In the syndicated version, initially the first two games were Secret Square games; if the prize was not claimed in the first round, it would be carried over to the second. Later, the first three games would have a Secret Square, with the prizes changing each game. On this version, a Secret Square package was usually worth between $2000 and $7000. For the last year of this version, there was no money awarded per game, no Secret Square, and the winners of each game advanced to a $100,000 tournament.
The daytime show aired its 3,536th and last episode on June 20, 1980. Squares ran for one more year in syndication; this last year of shows was taped at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Marshall wrote about his experiences on the show in the 2002 book Backstage With The Original Hollywood Square [sic] (ISBN 1-55853-980-8).
[edit] Theme songs
The first theme song used from 1966 to 1970 was and orchestration of "The Silly Song" by Jimmie Haskell; however, the music used on the show is not the version released on the LP (Jimmie Haskell's French Horns, Vol. 2). The track found on the LP is a version with vocals and has a different instrumentation than the version used on the program.
The second and most famous theme song that was used from 1970 to 1979 was "Bob & Merrill's Theme" by William G. Loose (named after the show's original co-executive producers, Bob Quigley and Merrill Heatter). The theme was edited in later broadcasts, cutting out a piccolo section of the music. This version of the theme song is available on The Best of TV Quiz and Game Show Themes; however, the track on the CD was edited even further by removing a few seconds of music near the end of the pipe organ solo.
A third theme song was used from 1979 to 1981. Stan Worth recorded a "disco" version of "Bob & Merrill's Theme" and named it "The Hollywood Bowl". Three versions of "The Hollywood Bowl" were created for the show - one for the opening music, one for the secret square prize descriptions and one for the main theme.
[edit] Storybook Squares
Storybook Squares, a Saturday-morning children's version aired briefly from January 4 to August 30, 1969. It featured stars dressed as fairy tale, historical and television characters. It would later air occasionally in the 1970s during the run of the original Marshall version. In an interview with E!'s True Hollywood Story, Marshall lauded the concept, but lamented that by the time each of the characters was introduced, very little of the show's half-hour format was left for actual gameplay.
[edit] Revivals
There have been several revivals, each with variations in the prize-winning rules but still based on the core premise.
[edit] 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. While the basic game play was similar to the versions before and after it, there were several major differences. Each square was worth $25 plus a bonus for winning each game ($100 in round 1, $200 in round 2, $300 in round 3, etc.). Also, there was no "Secret Square" round, and all questions were true/false or multiple choice. Additionally, contestants were able to win "by default" if an opponent made a mistake while attempting to block.
[edit] 1986-1989
John Davidson hosted The New Hollywood Squares (after the second year, the name was reverted back to simply Hollywood Squares). This version was produced by Century Towers Productions for Orion Television, 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 (always occupying the bottom-center square). Most seasons featured Joan Rivers as the center square. Jm J. Bullock was another regular usually occupying the upper-left square. Both Bullock and Stevens did guest-hosting stints while Rivers hosted on an April Fools' Day episode.
The rules of the game reverted to the original rules from the Marshall era; most notably in that games could not be won due to an opponent's error. For the first season, each game was worth $500 with a bonus of $100 per square if time ran out in the middle of a game in progress. Beginning with the second season, the third and subsequent games were worth $1000 apiece and the bonus also increased to $200 per square. The second game on every show was a "Secret Square" game, usually worth a trip (instead of an accruing prize package). If a trip was won, Davidson would inform the contestant that their answer was correct by saying "Pack your bags!"
[edit] Car round
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). The contestant would also choose a good luck celebrity to sit or stand besides the car. If their key 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 five days in a row, that player won the car of his/her choice and retired undefeated. Each week featured a different set of five cars, usually all sharing the same make. In the event that 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 corresponding to the number of prior attempts. In the final season, each of the nine celebrities held a key, and all five cars were available, no matter how many times the champion had been to the bonus round. The champion had to pick a key each day. At this point, champions could simply stay on until winning a car, or until they were defeated (the five game limit was dropped).
[edit] Notes
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 in New York, New York. The Florida shows were unique in that they used a manual set, where the stars would insert cards into their podiums containing either an orange or a pair of crossed water-skis depending on if O or X (respectively) won the square.
This version of Squares became noted for gimmickry a la I've Got A Secret, such as musical questions (wherein Davidson, a former recording artist, sang songs for the celebrity to finish), questions involving props in a panelist's square or presented as skits involving outside actors, "surprise" special guests, and so on. One week, the entire group of Solid Gold Dancers managed to squeeze into a single square; other times, the lower left square would turn into a rectangle to accommodate extra stars or props, such as kitchens for Wolfgang Puck, Joe Carcione, or Justin Wilson. Richard Simmons once led the audience in exercise routines. Ray Combs once led the audience in singing a terrible rendition of the theme to The Brady Bunch. 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 the female "contestant" shoving the male off of the set's raised contestant dais, is a popular staple of game show blooper specials, and inspired another prank on the later version, see below.) 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. The final episode ended with the cast and crew singing "Happy Trails to You!", then disappearing off the set while soundbites from the series played.
[edit] 1998-2004
After 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) in 1997, a revival of the format was assembled. On September 14, 1998, the final version of the show to date debuted, hosted by Tom Bergeron. Whoopi Goldberg, who also served as co-producer, was the "Center Square" for the first four seasons. It was taped at CBS Television City Studio 33 which is also known as the Bob Barker Studio.
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, up to three games were played, each worth $1000. The first player to win two games played the bonus round. This did not apply during certain theme weeks where certain groups of people (lifeguards, celebrity lookalikes) played, as the show used the previous season's format for these particular weeks.
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 was not 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 (Bergeron referred to it as "The Secret Square Stash"). In the last season, the "Secret Square" was played in the second game of each match, with a different prize offered each time.
[edit] Endgames
The end game underwent numerous changes throughout the run of the Bergeron version.
[edit] "Pick a star and win a prize"
Originally, the show used 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. For the first season, and for some special weeks in subsequent seasons, if a contestant was unsuccessful in winning the bonus prize, he/she won $2500 as a consolation prize. During the second format, the show did away with returning champions, but by the start of the second season returned the rule to the show.
[edit] Big money round
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 to be their partner for the round, each of whom concealed a different dollar amount from $1000-$5000. The contestant was then asked as many questions as possible in 60 seconds. The two could confer, but only the contestant could answer the question. 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.
[edit] The new look
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, with Ellen DeGeneres and Martin Mull being the most frequent. The set underwent an update, and Teena Marie recorded a new version of her R&B hit "Square Biz" as the show's new theme song.
[edit] New key bonus round
Also in this season, the "ten questions" endgame was dropped and replaced with yet another bonus round, this one a variation of the "car keys" game from the Davidson version. This time, the player selected one 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. The contestant 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 a contestant selected the wrong key during any bonus round, he/she won $500 (later $1000) for each correct answer as a consolation prize. The prize structure was as follows:
- 1st win: Car
- 2nd: $25,000 (in safe)
- 3rd: Trip Around the World or Trip of a Lifetime (in steamer trunk)
- 4th: $50,000 (in safe)
No contestant ever advanced to a fifth prize, which was rumored to be $100,000 in 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 (only cheaper for some reason):
- 1st win: Trip (steamer trunk)
- 2nd: $10,000 (safe)
- 3rd: Luxury Car
- 4th: $25,000 (safe)
- 5th: Trip Around the World (steamer trunk)
Only one person reached the fifth prize in the final season, but lost it.
This era of Squares was notable for its reliance on "theme weeks." One of the most well-known was a December 9-13, 2002 "Game Show Week" which featured Peter Marshall in the Center Square, marking the first time he 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. Marshall had refused to appear on the Whoopi Goldberg-produced shows as he disliked them immensely, feeling they were too crude in tone. However, the show never regained the popularity it enjoyed after Goldberg's departure, and the series ended on June 4, 2004 due to declining ratings. Reruns from that season ended on September 10, 2004 in syndication, but later moved to GSN.
Two episodes of this version have been noted in blooper specials. The first came in the show's first season, where the first game of the show took the entire episode to complete, because of the contestants' inability to correctly agree or disagree with panelist Gilbert Gottfried's answers (which he would follow by yelling "YOU FOOL!" at the contestants). The second was a duplicate of the April Fools' prank played on John Davidson in the show's fifth season, featuring among others E.E. Bell (best known as Bob Rooney on Married...with Children).
[edit] Other versions
- In Spain, Tres en Raya, a sixty minute version hosted by Carolina Ferre, has aired on La Sexta since 2007. The show previously aired from 1990-1992 as VIP Noche on Telecinco, hosted by Emilio Aragón, who is now president of La Sexta.
- A UK version of the show, called Celebrity Squares and hosted by Bob Monkhouse, appeared on ITV from 1975 to 1979 which was produced by Associated TeleVision; it was revived with the same host from 1993 to 1995 produced by Reg Grundy Productions for Central Television, the 1993 series named New Celebrity Squares.
- In Australia, the show has been known as Celebrity Squares, Personality Squares and All-Star Squares, and was scheduled to return in 2005; however, the show didn't go ahead as The Australian version of Wheel of Fortune was revived in its place.
- Sweden had a version of the program in the 1980s and 90s, called Prat I Kvadrat, "Talking In A Square"
- In Brazil the program is named Jogo da Velha. It was hosted by Fausto Silva on Sunday mornings. The program ran from 1989 until 1993.
- In Singapore, the show was called Celebrity Squares and ran on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 in 2001. A Chinese version was also ran on MediaCorp TV Channel 8 for 4 seasons before ending in 2003.
[edit] Home versions
Watkins-Strathmore created the first two home versions of the show in 1967. Ideal issued a version of the game in 1974 with a picture of Peter Marshall on the box; this was the first of the adaptations to featured humorous gag names for the celebrities (The game was also marketed in the UK under the name "Celebrity Squares" with a picture of UK host Bob Monkhouse). Milton Bradley created two versions, first in 1980 based on the Marshall version, then in 1986 for the Davidson version, with a 3D board and twelve "celebrities" to insert onto the board. Parker Brothers released a similar game in 1999 based on the Bergeron version. This one saw the return of play money and "Secret Square" rules, missing since the original game.
GameTek released a version of Hollywood Squares in 1988 for MS-DOS, Commodore 64 and Apple II computers, and later for the NES. In 1999, Tiger Electronics released an electronic LCD handheld game based on the Bergeron version. In 2002, the official Hollywood Squares website had an online version of the show using the celebrities that were on that week.
[edit] Reruns
- It was believed that NBC destroyed the whole Marshall version, but during a search for original master tapes of the soap opera Dark Shadows, at least 100 network master tapes of the classic Hollywood Squares episodes were discovered. A majority of these episodes, which aired on GSN in 2002 and 2003, were of the 1970s syndication run, while others were of the network nighttime version shown in the late 1960s. One episode, aired on GSN for Halloween 2002, was of a special 1977 Storybook Squares week.
- All of the Bauman version's episodes are assumed to be intact, but the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour has never been rerun on any network, primarily because of cross-ownership issues between Sony/Comcast (the consortium whose partners are successors-in-interest to MGM) and FremantleMedia (successor-in-interest to Goodson-Todman Productions). There have also been rumors that co-host Gene Rayburn (who reportedly hated working with Bauman) requested that the show not be aired again, but this has not been confirmed.
- Episodes hosted by Davidson were rerun on the USA Network for a few years after the show's cancellation. This is the only version of Hollywood Squares GSN does not have the rights to just yet. Those were owned by Orion Pictures.
- The Bergeron episodes air on GSN, which currently airs reruns from 2002-2004 (the "H2" era).
- In the early 1970s, a "Best of Hollywood Squares" vinyl record was released, containing the audio tracks of what were considered to be some of the show's funniest moments.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- A tribute to the original The Hollywood Squares
- UK Gameshows Page: Celebrity Squares
- Curt Alliaume's history of the Hollywood Squares
- Screencaps of The 80s Hollywood Squares
Categories: Comedy television series | First-run syndicated television programs | TV Tic-tac-toe | Game shows | NBC network shows | USA Network shows | Television series by Sony Pictures Television | 1966 television program debuts | 1960s American television series | 1970s American television series | 1980s American television series | 1990s American television series | 2000s American television series
