Scrabble (game show)


Scrabble is an American television game show that was based on the Scrabble board game. Muriel Green of Exposure Unlimited came up with the initial concept for a television game show based on the Scrabble board game. During 1983 Green convinced Selchow and Righter, who at that time owned the Scrabble board game, to license Exposure Unlimited the right to produce the television show. Exposure Unlimited hired and co-produced the show with Reg Grundy Productions and licensed the show to NBC. It ran from July 2, 1984, to March 23, 1990, and again from January 18 to June 11, 1993, with both runs airing on NBC. A total of 1,335 episodes were produced from both editions; Chuck Woolery hosted both versions of the series. Jay Stewart was the announcer for the first year and was replaced by Charlie Tuna in the summer of 1985, who announced for the remainder of the original version and the entirety of the 1993 revival.

Game play

All words used in the game were between five and nine letters in length. For each word, Woolery gave a clue that often involved a pun or play on words. Viewers could win a Scrabble T-shirt by submitting a word and clue and having them selected for use in the show's opening title sequence.

Crossword Round

The first round of every game was the Crossword round, in which two contestants competed to guess words as they were laid out on a computer-generated Scrabble board. Originally, two new contestants played each Crossword, with the winner advancing to the Scrabble Sprint to face the reigning champion. On September 29, 1986, as part of a broader format change, episodes were re-structured to include two Crosswords. The first Crossword was played between the show's reigning champion and a challenger, and the second Crossword was played between two new contestants. Each Crossword was played as a best-of-five match, with the first contestant to score three correctly identified words winning the Crossword and advancing to the Scrabble Sprint to try and become champion.
A horizontal or vertical row of squares was outlined to indicate the number of letters, with one already filled in and referred to as the letter the contestants were "building on". Each subsequent word built on one of the letters in the previous word and was played in the opposite direction; i.e., the first word was played horizontally, the second vertically, and so on. Each word was accompanied by a clue designed to aid the contestants in solving it.
Initially, the winner of a backstage coin toss got to start each game. When the second Crossword was introduced and the champion was inserted into the first game, his/her opponent started; the second game still employed the coin toss to determine who began.
At the beginning of each contestant's turn, he/she was either allowed to guess the word or draw from a series of blue numbered tiles. Each tile represented one letter, and when placed in a slot in front of the contestant the letters were displayed on a screen ready to be placed in the word.
Not every letter was in the word, however. For instance, if the contestants were playing a nine letter word, a total of eleven tiles were available. Eight of the tiles represented the remaining letters in the word. The other three were decoys referred to as "stoppers".
After a letter was placed properly, the contestant could opt to place the other letter or guess the word. As long as he/she kept correctly placing letters, a contestant retained control. Finding a stopper or guessing incorrectly passed control to the opponent. If there was a letter displayed when the opponent got control, he/she selected a tile before taking the turn.
Play continued on a word until there was only one letter left unrevealed. If the contestant in control failed to guess it, the opponent got a chance. If neither one correctly identified the word, the answer was given and the word thrown out.
If a contestant uncovered the third stopper for a word, the opposing player was given one final chance to guess. After that, the game entered Speedword. In Speedword, the unrevealed letters were placed in the word one at a time until there was only one blank space left. The contestants used their signaling devices to attempt to guess. If either contestant guessed incorrectly, they were locked out of the rest of the word while the other contestant could ring in whenever he/she desired. If neither contestant correctly identified the word in Speedword, it was thrown out.
The first contestant to three words won Crossword and a cash prize. Initially, games were played to their conclusion and matches could and often did straddle episodes. Following the 1986 restructuring of the format, each Crossword was played to time. Speedword was played if time was running short.

Pot

In the first week of the show, a cumulative money pot was used in the Crossword round. Each letter placed in a normal square was worth $25, with blue squares adding $50 and pink squares $100. The winner of the round collected all the money in the pot. After that week, the Crossword winner received a flat $500.

Bonus squares

Beginning in October 1984, contestants could win a cash bonus with the colored squares by placing a letter in one of them and immediately solving the word. Blue squares awarded $500, while pink squares awarded $1,000. Beginning in 1985, the bonus rule was added to Speedword, provided a contestant guessed the word right after a letter was placed into a bonus space. Also, if a word was being built on a letter in a bonus square, the contestant who started the word could win the bonus with an immediate solve. In the event that the last letter that could be placed was placed in a bonus square and the contestant that placed the letter could not guess the word, the other player could win the bonus if he/she gave a correct guess. Both contestants kept any bonus money they won, regardless of who won the Crossword round.
For the 1993 version, money won from bonus squares was added to the Bonus Sprint jackpot instead of being awarded directly to the contestant.

Spelling

For three months in 1985, contestants not only had to guess each word correctly, but also had to spell the word one letter at a time. Similar to the format used during the first week, each correct letter added money to a pot: Regular squares added $50, blue squares added $100, and pink squares added $200. In one episode, two contestants repeatedly failed to spell the word MOSQUITOS correctly, despite knowing it was the correct answer. This rule was abandoned by the fall of 1985.

Scrabble Sprint

The Scrabble Sprint round was the second part of the game and determined the show's champion. In this round, the goal was to solve a set of words of increasing length as quickly as possible. There were two different formats.
From the premiere until September 26, 1986, the Crossword rounds were played to determine who faced the reigning champion in the Sprint Round. If there was no champion, two Crossword rounds were played and the winners of those rounds faced off to become the champion.

First format

In the first format, both the champion and the Crossword winner played separate sets of words against the clock. The Crossword winner played first and chose one of two envelopes, leaving the other for the champion. A row of blanks was shown, and Woolery read a clue. Once the contestant indicated that he/she was ready, two letters were displayed, which he/she called one at a time to place in the word. Additional letters then appeared one at a time, but as in Crossword, the last letter was not given. Every letter displayed appeared in the word, so there were no stoppers.
The Crossword winner continued to place letters while the clock counted up from zero, and once he/she had a guess pressed down on a plunger to indicate such and stop the clock. The contestant then gave his/her guess and, if correct, the rest of the letters were filled in. If the guess was wrong or the contestant did not answer immediately upon stopping the clock, ten seconds were added to the clock and play continued. Once all the letters were placed, the contestant had five seconds to register a guess; if not, the word was thrown out and an alternate was played.
Once the Crossword winner correctly solved three words, the champion took his/her turn with a different set of words. The clock started at the Crossword winner's final time and then counted backward to zero, and any penalties for wrong guesses were deducted from it. If the champion completed his/her words before time ran out, he/she won the Scrabble Sprint; if not, the opponent became the new champion. The prize for winning was originally three times the pot from the preceding Crossword round, but was changed to a flat $1,500 after the first week. A contestant received a $20,000 bonus if he/she won five Sprint rounds in a row. If he/she reached ten consecutive Sprint victories, the contestant was awarded an additional $20,000 and retired as champion.
In March 1985, both contestants began using the same set of words. The champion was placed in isolation while the Crossword winner played, then tried to beat the time set. In addition, after a contestant called one of the two displayed letters, the other one disappeared and two new letters were presented as long as there were at least three blanks left in the word. The contestant was shown only one letter when there were two blanks. This change remained in place for the remainder of the series run, and a fourth word was later added to the Sprint.
In addition to the contestants now using the same set of words, the Sprint payoff rules changed. Five consecutive wins resulted in champions having their total winnings augmented to $20,000. If any champion reached the ten-win limit, they retired with $40,000.

Second format

On September 29, 1986, Scrabble began a 13-week-long tournament called The $100,000 All-American Scrabble Tournament. This tournament was conducted with a different format from usual Scrabble matches, and these changes were eventually made permanent.
A total of 188 contestants were selected via a nationwide search, with four competing on each episode in preliminary matches from Monday through Thursday over the first 12 weeks. Two Crossword rounds were played, and each was followed by a Scrabble Sprint round. The winner of the first Crossword round won $500, and played four words of six, seven, eight, and nine letters to try to set a time for the winner of the second Crossword round between two other contestants. That contestant attempted to beat the time set by the first contestant, and if successful, he or she won $1,000 and advanced to the next round. On Friday, the four winners competed in two quarterfinal matches, and whoever won the second Sprint round won $5,000 and advanced to the semifinals round, for the final week of the tournament.
Because only four episodes aired during the week of November 24–28, a wild card contestant was chosen to advance to that Friday's quarterfinals alongside the three preliminary match winners.
During the final week, starting on December 22, the 12 quarterfinal winners and four wild card contestants competed in semifinal matches on Monday through Thursday. The four winners advanced to the final matches that Friday, with a grand prize of $100,000 for the winner. In the end, contestant Mark Bartos won the grand prize.
With slight adjusting, this tournament format became the new permanent Scrabble format on December 29, 1986. As noted above, each episode now featured four contestants and two Crossword games worth $500 each. The champion played in the first Crossword, whose winner set a Sprint time for the second winner to beat, and the Sprint winner received $1,000 and took or retained the championship. With this format change, Scrabble became a self-contained 30-minute program. In the previous format, play continued until time was called and episodes could straddle.

Bonus Sprint

With the adoption of the new format came a new final round. Called the Bonus Sprint, this round enabled the champion to win a cash jackpot.
The champion faced two final words, the first with at least six letters and the second with at least seven, and played with the same set of rules as the normal Sprint round. If the champion correctly guessed both words within 10 seconds, he or she won the jackpot which started at $5,000 and increased by $1,000 for each unsuccessful playing. The penalty for an incorrect guess was an automatic loss.
Champions competed until either winning five Sprint rounds or being defeated.
When the series returned in 1993, the Bonus Sprint jackpot began at $1,000. Additional money was only added to the jackpot if a contestant landed on a blue or pink square in the Crossword game and solved the word immediately, adding either $500 or $1,000, respectively. No cash bonuses were given directly to contestants in this version; all bonuses went into the Bonus Sprint jackpot.

Theme weeks

Over the years, Scrabble had several special weeks, including Soap Week, Teen Week, College Week, and others, as well as two Tournaments of Champions, at least one Tournament of Teen Champions and a $100,000 All American Tournament.
Once in 1987, and again in 1988, the series aired "Game Show Hosts Week". Participants for the first such week were Peter Tomarken, Marc Summers, John Davidson, Tom Kennedy, Bill Rafferty, and Jamie Farr. The latter two returned in 1988, joined by Vicki Lawrence, Jim Lange, Wink Martindale, and Jeff MacGregor.
Summers hosted during the 1987 week when Chuck Woolery played segments of the game.

Licensed merchandise

A board game based on this version was released by Selchow & Righter as TV Scrabble in 1987. It was the only home version which was originally a board game itself until Trivial Pursuit: Game Show released by Parker Brothers in 1993 and Celebrity Name Game released by Playmonster in 2016.

Broadcast history

Scrabble premiered in the 11:30 am time slot on July 2, 1984; the time slot had been occupied by the Bob Eubanks-hosted game show Dream House for the past 1¼ years. The show went up against the highly-rated CBS game show The Price Is Right and four ABC game shows in its time slot during the first three years of its run. On September 7, 1987, Scrabble was moved to the 12:30 p.m. time slot in order to make room for the daytime version of Win, Lose or Draw ; its new competitors in that time slot were the soap operas The Young and the Restless and Loving. The show lasted 1½ years in that time slot, as it was moved to the 10:00 a.m. time slot on March 27, 1989 after both Sale of the Century and Super Password finished their runs; the 12:30 p.m. time slot was taken over by the soap opera Generations. Scrabble aired against the CBS version of Family Feud in that time slot, and remained there until its final episode aired on March 23, 1990; three days later, the show's time slot was occupied by reruns of 227.
In late 1992, NBC announced that it would return the 3:00 p.m. time slot to its affiliates as a result of the cancellation of the soap opera Santa Barbara. After Santa Barbara aired its final episode on January 15, 1993, NBC took back the 12:00 p.m. hour from its affiliates and decided to program a revival of Scrabble and the new game show Scattergories in that hour; both shows began airing in that hour three days later. Most affiliates of the Big Three networks had aired local newscasts or other syndicated programs in the noon hour since the mid-1970s, and as a result both Scrabble and Scattergories were not cleared by all NBC affiliates. Both shows did not perform well against local newscasts, The Young and the Restless, and Loving on affiliates that aired both shows in the noon hour. As a result, NBC canceled both Scrabble and Scattergories after twenty weeks of episodes were produced; the final episodes for both programs aired on June 15, 1993.
All episodes still exist. Fremantle North America, which is a direct successor to Reg Grundy Productions, and Hasbro, which owns the Scrabble board game in the United States and Canada, currently own the rights to the series as well as any future revivals. Reruns aired on USA Network from September 16, 1991, to October 13, 1995. The short-lived 1993 revival has not been rerun since cancellation.
An unsold pilot with Los Angeles TV personality Steve Edwards, taped for an intended syndication run via Group W Productions, was taped in 1990; clips from this pilot were uploaded to YouTube in 2014.

International versions

Germany