Post by billmcdee on Jul 8, 2020 5:31:03 GMT -5
I recently watched the first 8 episodes from July 1984 of "Scrabble" from NBC with Chuck Woolery.
For the first 7 or 8 episodes, rather than pay a flat $500 to the winner of the crossword round, they instead had a growing pot.
It started at $25 and increased by $25 for every letter placed, but $50 if it was on a blue square and $100 on a pink square.
The first to 3 words right won the pot and then played the Scrabble Sprint against the Sprint "champ" for 3 times the amount of the pot.
In addition to that being somewhat cumbersome, it dawned on me that the pot could have, in theory, grown to thousands of dollars.....
Since every good letter added money to the pot, if both players were unable to solve the word, they would have to play another.
Theoretically speaking, both players could elect to miss on purpose several words and make the pot grow super large, so I suspect that may have been one reason why they ended up just paying a flat $500 for a crossword win.
Unfortunately for a time, the pink and blue squares did nothing. Eventually they did make them worth bonus money though.
It was a very fun and clever game, had a great play along factor too, and it's sad that it left the airwaves in 1990.
The 1993 comeback was dreadful. The set was so barren, and now pink and blue squares only added money to the Bonus Sprint jackpot which began with a piddily $1,000 in it.
For the first 7 or 8 episodes, rather than pay a flat $500 to the winner of the crossword round, they instead had a growing pot.
It started at $25 and increased by $25 for every letter placed, but $50 if it was on a blue square and $100 on a pink square.
The first to 3 words right won the pot and then played the Scrabble Sprint against the Sprint "champ" for 3 times the amount of the pot.
In addition to that being somewhat cumbersome, it dawned on me that the pot could have, in theory, grown to thousands of dollars.....
Since every good letter added money to the pot, if both players were unable to solve the word, they would have to play another.
Theoretically speaking, both players could elect to miss on purpose several words and make the pot grow super large, so I suspect that may have been one reason why they ended up just paying a flat $500 for a crossword win.
Unfortunately for a time, the pink and blue squares did nothing. Eventually they did make them worth bonus money though.
It was a very fun and clever game, had a great play along factor too, and it's sad that it left the airwaves in 1990.
The 1993 comeback was dreadful. The set was so barren, and now pink and blue squares only added money to the Bonus Sprint jackpot which began with a piddily $1,000 in it.
