Password Plus and Super Password

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Password Plus and Super Password

Genre	Game show
Created by	Bob Stewart
Developed by	Robert Sherman
Presented by	Allen Ludden (1979–1980) Tom Kennedy (1980–1982)
Narrated by	Gene Wood
Theme music composer	Score Productions
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	801 (including 1 unaired)
Production
Production locations	NBC Studios Burbank, California
Camera setup	Six cameras, later five
Running time	22–26 minutes
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	January 8, 1979 (1979-01-08) – March 26, 1982 (1982-03-26)

Password Plus and Super Password

Genre	Game show
Created by	Bob Stewart
Developed by	Robert Sherman
Presented by	Bert Convy
Narrated by	Rich Jeffries (1984) Gene Wood (1984–1989)
Theme music composer	Score Productions
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	1,151
Production
Production locations	NBC Studios Burbank, California
Camera setup	Multiple-camera setup
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 24, 1984 (1984-09-24) – March 24, 1989 (1989-03-24)

Warning: Display title "Password Plus and Super Password" overrides earlier display title "Password Plus and Super Password" (help). Password Plus and Super Password are American TV game shows that aired separately between 1979–1989. While elements of the original game show format Password were modified for these two programs, both Password Plus and Super Password had the same general format with only subtle differences between the two.

Password Plus and Super Password aired on NBC, and were taped on Stage 3 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. Password Plus was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production and Super Password was a Mark Goodson Production.

Password Plus aired from January 8, 1979 to March 26, 1982, for 801 episodes (one of which was left unaired until the series hit GSN reruns in the mid-1990s). The program also won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show in 1982. Super Password aired 1,151 episodes from September 24, 1984 to March 24, 1989.

Cast

Hosts

Password Plus was hosted by Allen Ludden from January 1979 to April 1980, when he had to take a leave of absence from the show due to health problems. Bill Cullen substituted for Ludden during his first absence. Ludden returned in May, but he left the program in late October due to further health problems; he did not appear on television again before his 1981 death. Because Cullen had recently begun hosting Blockbusters, also a Goodson-Todman production airing on NBC, Tom Kennedy took over hosting and remained host until Password Plus ended. Bert Convy was selected as the host for Super Password's entire run.

Announcers

Gene Wood was the regular announcer on both Password Plus and Super Password. Johnny Olson, Bob Hilton, John Harlan, and Rich Jeffries substituted for Wood on different occasions on Password Plus, including a stretch in 1981 when Wood was recovering from an accident. Harlan substituted for Wood in March 1979, and Olson substituted for Wood in 1980. Hilton substituted on a few 1980 Ludden episodes and also substituted in 1981 and 1982, and Jeffries also substituted for Wood during several weeks in 1981 as well as 1982.

Jeffries was the first announcer of Super Password and served as a regular announcer until November 23, 1984. After the first nine weeks, totaling 45 episodes, Wood replaced Jeffries as announcer on November 26, 1984. Jeffries and Hilton also filled in for Wood on occasion on Super Password. Wood whispered the passwords to home viewers from October 20, 1986 until Super Password ended.

Gameplay

The rules for Password Plus and Super Password were almost identical. Two teams, each composed of a contestant and a celebrity, competed. The object, as on the original Password, was for the clue-giving partner to get the receiving partner to guess a given word (the "password"). The giving partner on the first team offered a one-word clue, to which the receiving partner was allowed one guess; there were brief time limits for both the clue and the guess. Teams alternated giving one-word clues until the password was guessed, or until each side had given two clues (three in the early days of Password Plus until June 15, 1979). Giving an illegal clue (multiple or hyphenated words, going over one word, using over-expressive gestures, forms of the password, made-up words, using too much physical movement, etc.) forfeited the receiver's turn to guess, as did having clue-giving time expire without giving a clue. If the word itself was given away by any of the players, or a clue was ruled illegal after the word had been correctly guessed, the opposing team was given the right to guess the puzzle. If the word was revealed prematurely by anyone other than the players, the word was put on the board and neither team guessed.

Like the ABC run of Password, the first clue-giver for each password on Password Plus had the option to give the first clue or pass to the other team. Originally, the team that did not get the previous password was given the option, but this changed a few months into the run. This option was eliminated on Super Password, with the team that got the previous password given first crack at the next one.

Initially, the rules regarding cluegiving were the same as on all previous versions of Password. Beginning with the April 23, 1979 edition of Password Plus and continuing until the series left the air in 1982, two rules were put into place. The first disallowed any password's direct opposite as a legal clue (such as "loose" for "tight"). The second added a penalty to the game; if a team in control either took too long to decide whether to play or failed to come up with a clue before the buzzer, the other team was given two chances to guess the password. Super Password did not use these rules.

Password Puzzle

The new element of the revivals was the "Password Puzzle." Each password, once revealed, became one of five clues to a puzzle referring to a person, place or thing. The passwords themselves were not worth any money; only the puzzle affected the scores. A guesser who correctly guessed a password was given a guess at the answer to the puzzle. A password that was not guessed by either player was added to the board without a guess at the puzzle, and if it was the final password in the puzzle, the solution was revealed and a new puzzle was played.

For the final password in a puzzle, if the guesser was incorrect, their partner was given a guess as well. On Password Plus, the puzzle was thrown out if the partner failed to guess, but on Super Password, both members of the opposing team took turns in attempt to guess for the value of the puzzle.

Correctly guessing the puzzle won the contestant money; any remaining clues would be revealed and new puzzles were played until one contestant had enough money to win the game. If the solution to the puzzle was accidentally revealed by anyone, the puzzle was thrown out.

From	To	Goal	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4+
1979	1981	$300	$100		$200
1981	1982	$500	$100			$200
1984	1989	$500	$100	$200	$300	$400

In 1981, the switch in celebrity partners that normally took place before the start of each game was moved to after the third puzzle. On Super Password, the contestants switched partners after the Ca$hword game which followed the $200 puzzle, except in the All-Stars version, there is no switching partners after the Ca$hword game which also followed the $200 puzzle.

Ca$hword

"Ca$hword" was an additional bonus on Super Password played by the winner of the second puzzle for an accumulating cash jackpot. The celebrity acted as clue-giver and was given a more difficult password. If their contestant teammate guessed the password within three clues, he/she won the jackpot which started at $1,000 and increased by that much each time it was not won, without limit, with the highest being $12,000. If at any time an illegal clue was given, the Ca$hword round immediately ended and the jackpot was forfeited.

Alphabetics/Super Password

The winning team played for a cash prize in the bonus round, called "Alphabetics" on Password Plus and, initially, "Super Password" (later simply referred to as "the End Game") on Super Password.

The gameplay of the round was the same on both shows. The round featured 10 passwords beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet (e.g., A–J, B–K, etc.), and the celebrity was always the clue-giver. He/she could see only the current password until the contestant either guessed it or passed. As in the main game, all clues had to be one word; the celebrity could use multiple words to form sentences, but had to pause distinctly after each word. For the period on Password Plus in which opposites were forbidden, this was enforced in Alphabetics as well. The contestant won $100 per guessed word, and the entire jackpot for guessing all 10 words in 60 seconds.

On Password Plus, the grand prize was originally a flat $5,000, with each illegal clue reducing its potential value by 20% of the total ($1,000). Later, during the time Tom Kennedy hosted, the bonus round was played for an accumulating jackpot, which started at $5,000 and increased by that much each time it was not won. Illegal clues still reduced the pot by 20% (e.g., a $35,000 pot would have $7,000 deducted for each illegal clue), but this was later changed to a flat $2,500 reduction in late 1981. By the final week, the 20% reduction had returned.

Super Password's bonus round was played for the same accumulating pot. However, if an illegal clue was given, the word in play was thrown out; the contestant forfeited his/her chance at the jackpot, which means that he/she didn't reach the end of the road, but could still win $100 for each correct password. Also, NBC imposed no limit as to how high the pot could go; though the highest the jackpot ever got was $55,000.

Champions could return for a maximum of seven matches on Password Plus. On Super Password, champions could return for up to five matches.

Tournaments

Super Password held its only Tournament of Champions in 1985, with Marcia Wallace & Bill Cullen, and Shelley Smith & Dick Gautier. In it, eight of the top winners competed. The front-game rules were identical to the regular season with no Cashword played throughout the tournament. The first-round matches consisted of only one game, with the winners playing Super Password for $2,500. The semi-final and final matches were best-of-three game matches. In the semi-finals, the first win by a player gave the contestant a chance at $2,500 in Super Password, and winning the match sent that player to the finals and gave the player a chance at $5,000 in Super Password. The winner of the tournament won $25,000 and a chance to double it in Super Password. The overall champion, Natalie Steele, earned a total of $106,000.

Both shows also held all-star weeks with various stars playing for charity. The end game was played for $5,000 to be split between the partners' respective charities. Super Password's Cashword was worth $1,000 throughout the entire week. When played on Password Plus, a $5,000 bonus was awarded to the player(s) with the highest total. When played on Super Password, $25,000 or any other money amount, like $40,000, $30,000, $5,000, $15,000 and so forth was awarded to the player(s) with the highest total.

In February 1986 and again in September 1986, Super Password also held a week-long "Tournament of Losers," with Patricia Klous & Dick Martin, and Constance McCashin & Dick Gautier. In it, players who had won nothing on their previous appearances returned to play in a week-long tournament. The Cashword was worth $1,000, and the end game was worth $5,000 all week long. The overall winner of the tournament at the end of the week won an additional $10,000. Regardless of the outcome, all players in the Losers tournaments were guaranteed at least $100 because losers can't go away empty-handed again.

Merchandise

Password Plus

Three editions of the Password Plus board game were made by Milton Bradley in the early 1980s. Milton Bradley made an eight-track cartridge version of the game for its Omni Entertainment System.

Super Password

A Super Password video game was released for DOS, the Apple II, and the Commodore 64 in 1988. A version for the NES was also planned around that time, but never surfaced.

In 2000, a Super Password hand-held game was released.

Broadcast history

Password Plus was first shown at 12:30 pm replacing America Alive. It would be relocated several times during its run between 11:30 am and 12:30 pm. On June 20, 1980, three other NBC game shows were canceled to make room for David Letterman's morning talk show. On October 26, 1981, Password Plus moved to 12:00 noon, a historically low-rated time slot. Many stations aired local news in that hour, while on other stations, it went up against Family Feud and The Young and The Restless on ABC and CBS, respectively. The show ended its run on March 26, 1982.

The program returned in 1984 as Super Password and aired in the 12:00-noon eastern time slot. Despite low clearances, Super Password lasted its Template:Convert/numdisp-year run at the same time slot. Later in the decade, though, NBC affiliates were dropping most of their other daytime game shows, along with Super Password. Ratings began to slide. The show's final episode aired on March 24, 1989, the same day Sale of the Century aired its series finale. Super Password was Bert Convy's last network game show hosted before his death two years later (though he emceed a pilot for an ABC revival of Match Game in 1990 and was too ill to host when it was picked up).

Episode status

Both shows exist in their entirety. Currently, Super Password can be seen weekday mornings on GSN, as the final season of Password Plus has been acquired, and airs Saturday and Sunday mornings. Both shows have previously aired on the network at various times as well. However, certain episodes are not shown due to celebrity clearance issues that are out of GSN's control.

References

External links

Preceded byThe $20,000 Pyramid

Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show
Password Plus, 1982

Succeeded byThe $25,000 Pyramid

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