Password (American game show)
Password is an American television game show in which two teams, each composed of a celebrity player and a contestant, attempt to convey mystery words to each other using only single-word clues, in order to win cash prizes.
Password
Password All-Stars (1974–75)
- Lou Tedesco (1961–67)
- Mike Gargiulo (1961–67)
- Stuart W. Phelps (1971–75)
- Ira Skutch (1971–75)[1]
- Tony McCuin (2022–)
- Kurt Rehfeld (1961–63)
- Bob Cobert (1963–67)
- Score Productions (1971–75)[1]
- James Poyser (2022–)
United States
English
- 5 (ABC)
- 2 (NBC)
- 1,555 (CBS Daytime)
- 201 (CBS Primetime)
- 1,099 (ABC)
- 15 (NBC)
- Frank Wayne (1961–75)
- Jimmy Fallon (2022–)
- John Quinn (2022–)
- Jim Juvonen (2022–)
- Howard Felsher (1971–75)[1]
- CBS Studio 52
- New York, New York (1961–66)
- CBS Television City
- Los Angeles, California (1962–67)
- CBS Studio 50
- New York, New York (1966–67)
- ABC Television Center
- Los Angeles, California (1971–75)
- Vine Street Theatre
- Los Angeles, California (1971–75)
- Universal Studios Lot
- Universal City, California (2022–)
- 22–23 minutes (1961–75)
- 25–26 minutes (1962–67; primetime)
- 43 minutes (2022–)
- Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions (1961–75)
- Universal Television Alternative Studio (2022–)
- Electric Hot Dog (2022–)
- Fremantle (2022–)
October 2, 1961 –
present
The show was created by Bob Stewart and originally produced by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. It aired on CBS from 1961 to 1967, and ABC from 1971 to 1975. The original host was Allen Ludden, who had previously been well known as the host of the G.E. College Bowl.
Two revivals later aired on NBC: Password Plus from 1979 to 1982, and Super Password from 1984 to 1989, followed by a primetime version, Million Dollar Password, on CBS from 2008 to 2009.[2] All of these versions introduced new variations in gameplay.
In 2022, NBC premiered a primetime revival of Password executive produced by Jimmy Fallon, and hosted by actress Keke Palmer. This version is a modernization of the original CBS version, and features Fallon as a regular panelist.
In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #8 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.[3]
Rules[edit]
Two teams, each consisting of one celebrity player and one "civilian" contestant, competed. The word to be conveyed (the "password") was given to one player on each team and was shown onscreen to viewers as well as spoken softly on the audio track. Gameplay alternated between the two teams. On each team, the player who was given the password gave a one-word clue from which their partner attempted to guess the password. (For example, the opposite clue "stop" might be given for the password "go", or the next instructional clue "synonym" might be given to elicit the password "halt"). 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, "coined" words, or any part or form of the password), play passed to the opposing team. If the password was revealed by the clue-giver it was thrown out.
The game continued until one of the players guessed the password correctly, any form of the password was given as a clue, or until ten clues had been given. Scoring was based on the number of clues given when the password was guessed, e.g. ten 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. On the ABC version, a limit of six clues was imposed to expedite gameplay, 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 that had lost the previous game, was offered the pass/play option; when the score was tied, the team that failed to get the previous password was awarded the pass/play option.
On the CBS daytime edition, the first team to reach 25 points won that contestant $100. On the nighttime edition, the winner won $250. The winning team earned a chance to win up to an additional $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. The Lightning Round passwords were shown on a small, pop-up display which appeared only in front of the clue-giver (which the camera could also see), and the contestant was allowed to give multiple responses to each clue. The clue-giver was also allowed to skip to the next password, but after all 5 were given, if time allowed, the outstanding ones were redisplayed in sequence. $50 was awarded for each correctly guessed password; this was increased to $100 from 1973 to 1974.
The Lightning Round was among the first bonus rounds on a television game (along with the scrambled phrase game on the original Beat the Clock). On the ABC version from 1971 to 1974, immediately after completing the Lightning Round, the player was given a chance at "the Betting Word," in which they could wager any amount of their winnings on their celebrity partner's ability to guess it within 15 seconds. This increased the maximum bonus prize to $500 ($1,000 from 1973 to 1974 when the regular Lightning Round values were doubled).
In each episode from 1961 to 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 (that dictionary being still a work-in-progress at the time of the show's first airing, first appearing in print form in 1963). Robert Stockwell from UCLA and Carolyn Duncan served as word authorities during the ABC version.
Jack Clark, Lee Vines, and John Harlan whispered the password to viewers on the first two versions of the show, but the practice was discontinued, beginning with Password All-Stars, when a computer (referred to as "Murphy" by Ludden) was incorporated. The computer would display the password one letter at a time (like a typewriter), followed by the quotation marks. A beeping sound would accompany each letter as it appeared on the screen. A final beep would signal that the password was revealed to the home viewer, and play would start. On Password Plus, a bell would ring when the password was revealed. On Super Password from September 24, 1984, to October 31, 1986, a chirping sound was heard when the password was revealed. However, Gene Wood began whispering the words on Super Password just like in the original, starting on November 3, 1986. The practice was again discontinued on Million Dollar Password, while the 2022 revival reinstated it.
Before the cancellation of the Goodson-Todman game show Snap Judgment on NBC in 1969, that program's set was changed to make it resemble the look of the CBS Password. Goodson-Todman did this to correspond to rule changes that made Snap Judgment identical to Password.
Contestants[edit]
On the CBS daytime version, contestants played two matches, win or lose, with each game awarding $100 to the winner. For most of the CBS nighttime version's first year, the same two players stayed for the entire show, playing as many matches as time allowed with each player guaranteed at least $100. However, after three contestants managed to break the $1,000 mark, this practice was changed in November 1962 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 a consolation prize (usually $50).
For two shows in July 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.
Early on in the ABC version, contestants played a single-elimination game; winning contestants could stay until they were either defeated or won a maximum of 10 games, thus retiring them as undefeated champions. Later on, the limit was dropped, and champions stayed on the show until defeated. From 1973 to 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, received a free trip to Macedonia, and faced the previous year's champion in a best-of-seven match for $10,000. Lewis Retrum, from Boston, won the Tournament of Champions two years in a row and retired undefeated when the show went off the air.
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 viewers, Goodson-Todman made Password All-Stars simply Password again, but the show carried over elements of All-Stars mainly to use the set that had been redesigned for the all-celebrity period. Among these was 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. If no contestant identified the password after four clues, the word would be discarded. A correct response earned that contestant one point, with three points needed to qualify for the regular game. An incorrect response locked 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, in 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:
Winners of $20,000 retired from the show. Until April, contestants could win no more than $20,000. However, later champions were allowed to win over $20,000 but had to retire immediately upon doing so.
Proposals[edit]
1998 version[edit]
According to a November 11, 1997, issue of Broadcasting & Cable magazine,[20] it was reported that former talk show host and emcee of the short-lived 1990 NBC daytime revival of To Tell the Truth, Gordon Elliott was being prepped to become the brand new host of a version of Password planned for syndication in the Fall of 1998, with Pearson/All-American Television to have produced the series. However, those plans never materialized.
2016 version[edit]
On May 14, 2016, an article from Buzzerblog[21] received word from an anonymous but reputable source that Password was listed as a possible new alternative series on the internal ABC affiliate website. But neither the host, premiere date, nor taping/casting information have been mentioned since.
Home games[edit]
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 never did a version for Super Password.
Since 1997, Endless Games has released seven editions of Password, including a children's edition (with gameplay closer to the various incarnations of Pyramid), a special "50th Anniversary Edition" in 2011 and a DVD edition featuring the voice of Todd Newton (notably, the latter uses the original ABC logo on its packaging). 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 series was canceled. A Nintendo Entertainment System version was also planned but never released. Tiger Electronics released an electronic hand-held "Super Password" game in the late 1990s. More recently, Irwin Toy released a new hand-held electronic version featuring a touch screen with a stylus to enter words.
An online version of Password was once available on its now-defunct website Uproar.com where instead of just one partner every time, you were allowed to play along with lots of other people in a party atmosphere. However, as of September 30, 2006, the website no longer offers any game show-based online games of any kind.
Interactive online versions of Password Plus and Super Password were once available from Game Show Network where you would play along while watching the show.
As with several other Goodson-Todman/Goodson 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 four envelopes offered by the celebrities. Finding the "Password" envelope advances the player to a new level with four more envelopes, worth more prize money.[23]