Hollywood Squares

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Image:Hollywood Squares.jpgThe Hollywood Squares is 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 X 3 = 9 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a 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 at its best the game is simply 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 are known as 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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Basic rules

Image:Tic-tac-toe-game-1.png Although there have been variations over the years in the rules and the prize-winning aspects of the game, certain aspects of the game remained fairly consistent. 2 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's bluffing. If the contestant is right, he or she gets the square; if wrong, the other contestant gets the square, unless that causes the opponent to get 3-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 5 of his or her symbols "X" or "O" on the gameboard (thus preventing "cat's games" or ties); this is called a "5-square win."

Peter Marshall's explanation of the rules was legendary: "Object for the players is to get 3 stars in a row; either across, up-and-down or diagonally. It is up to them to determine if a star is giving a correct answer or just making it up; that's how they get the square."

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Original version

The show's greatest success was during its original run. In its heyday in the early 1970s, it was the most popular daytime show in the country and a platform for the stars to promote their work which seemed almost as popular as Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.

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 show (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 choose not to follow-up 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.

The show also ran at night, 1st 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 1st, then twice a week and was a 5-day entry 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. But he wasn't (as is commonly believed) the first person to take that position; Ernest Borgnine held that honor. However, on October 7-11, 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, Jonathan Winters, Karen Valentine, Roddy McDowall and Joan Rivers. Lynde left the series after taping the August 27-31 1979 week of shows, but returned when the series relocated to Las Vegas in the 1980-81 season.

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, A Match worth $400 & A 5-match champion retired with $2000 and a new car. Early in the 1st season from October 17, 1966 to February 10, 1967 each game collected $100 with the winner of the match rewarding a $300 bonus for a total of $500. Beginning in 1976, an "endgame" of sorts was added here, the champion simply selected a star each of whom held an envelope to earn the 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 and annoying 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.

Image:Connie francis in a fur coat on hollywood squares.jpg 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, 1 of the 9 stars was selected at random (and revealed to the home audience only) as the "Secret Square" and 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" started at from $1000 to $1500 in cash and-or prizes and added valued prizes & cash are placed after losing 1 game and so on for the 1966-1980 show). For the syndicated version, initially the 1st 2 and later the 1st 3 games were all "Secret Square" games ("The Secret Square" valued from $2000 to $7000 on the syndicated show from 1971 to 1981).

The daytime show aired its last episode on June 20, 1980. The Stars for the 3536th and last NBC-TV broadcast consisted of Rose Marie (the only person other than Peter Marshall to appear on both the first and last network broadcasts), Tom Poston, Michele Lee, Vincent Price, Leslie Uggams, George Gobel, Marty Allen, Charlie Callas and Wayland Flowers (with "Madame") in the Center Square. 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) before it was canceled for good.

Peter Marshall wrote about his experiences on the show in the 2002 book Backstage With The Original Hollywood Square [sic] (ISBN 1558539808).

The 1st theme song used from 1966 to 1969 is called "The Silly Song" by Jimmie Haskell. The 2nd and most famous theme song that used from 1969 to 1979 is called "Bob & Merrill's Theme" by William Loose (named after the show's original co-executive producers, Bob Quigley and Merrill Heatter). The 3rd theme that used from 1979 to 1981 of the Marshall network and syndicated versions was called "The Hollywood Bowl", a modern version of "Bob & Merrill's Theme", orchestrated by Stan Worth.

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"The 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.

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Revivals

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

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1983-1984

Template:Main 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 and music stars like Christian recording star David L Cook who was also one of the youngest stars to appear on the show). 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.

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1986-1989

John Davidson hosted The New Hollywood Squares (after the second year, the name was just 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 while Rivers hosted on an April Fools Day episode.

The rules of the game reverted to the original rules prior to the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour era; most notably in that games once again could not be won due to an opponent's error.

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 second season, the third 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 five days in a row, he/she won the car of his/her choice and retired undefeated. Each week saw a different set of five cars. 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 up to as many as that champion was already entitled to. In the final season, each of the nine 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 in New York, New York .

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 or Justin Wilson. Fitness guru Richard Simmons once led 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 couldn't 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.

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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. Whoopi Goldberg, who also served as co-producer, was the "Center Square" for the first four seasons. It was taped at CBS studio 33 which is 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, each game was worth $1000. 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, 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.

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) 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 lost 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 Peter Marshall in the Center Square, 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 December 12, 2002 show of that week, Marshall and Bergeron traded places with Bergeron in the center square and Marshall hosting.

This series ended on June 4 2004. Reruns from that season ended on September 10, 2004 in syndication, but later moved to GSN.

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Other versions

A UK version of the show, called Celebrity Squares and hosted by Bob Monkhouse, appeared on ITV from 1975 to 1979; it was revived with the same host from 1993 to 1995, 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.

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.

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Home versions of the show

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 smiilar 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 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 site had an online version of the show using the celebrities that was on that week.

"Celebrities" from the home versions

1967 and 1968 editions

  • None; players were ask to write names on the gameboard.

1974 edition

  • Harry Holsum; Stella Starlit; Slick Nick; Susie Slurp; Tim Type; Alice Actress; Hayseed (a probable take off on Charley Weaver); Star Burst; Frankie Fun

1980 edition

1986 edition

  • Cliff Hanger; Barbie Cue; Herman Heman; Rosy Glow; Tom Foolery; I. Lean; M. T. Promises; April Showers; Barry Tone; Belle E. Laugh; Will R. Gue; Lynn D. Hop

1999 edition

  • Milton Brothers; Parker Bradley; Avalon Hill; Tommy Thom; Platinum Blonde; Bubba D. Fence; Larry Latenite; Harmony; Mike Rafone; Sally Serve; Dr. Vivian Values; Carla Craft
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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 (the exact figure is still disputed) were discovered, thus the Marshall version would be seen for the first time in almost two-and-a-half decades (and to a whole new generation of fans whose previous one grew up on the classic incarnation). This discovery was a surprise to game show fans, even Peter Marshall himself. 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 (whom reportedly hated working with Bauman) requested that the show not be aired again, but this has not been confirmed. However, in 2004, The World of Soap Themes web site featured a selected episode with soap opera stars during one of its theme weeks. Episodes of the show can also been seen at both branches of the Museum of Television and Radio.
  • Episodes hosted by Davidson were rerun on the USA Network for a few years after the show's cancellation.
  • The Bergeron episodes continue to air on GSN in the 2000-2001 (4th Season) from 2003-2005. Since then, GSN currently reruns from the 2002-2004 season (5th season) of the algebra logo of H2.
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See also

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External links

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