Hollywood Squares
The stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth of their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.
The original host Peter Marshall explained at the beginning of the Secret Square game, "the celebrities were briefed before the show to help them with bluff answers, but they are hearing the actual questions for the first time."
It then returned to NBC in 1983 as part of a 60-minute hybrid series with Match Game, featuring Jon Bauman hosting the Hollywood Squares portion of that show.
In May 2024, it was announced that the show would be revived by CBS (which has owned the rights to the program since 2000, when it acquired format owner King World), with Drew Barrymore as a co-executive producer and center square, and Nate Burleson as host.
Should a game develop in such a way that it is impossible to achieve three in a row, the round is won by whichever contestant is able to place their letter in at least five squares (a majority of the board).
During most of its daytime run, NBC broadcast The Hollywood Squares at 11:30 a.m. Eastern/10:30 a.m. Central; it dominated the ratings until 1976 when it made the first of several time slot moves.
Originally, a five-match champion retired with an additional $2,500, the Secret Square prize package (if not yet won), and a new car; the cash bonus was increased through the years.
[citation needed] The nighttime versions featured the same two contestants playing for the entire half-hour with each completed game worth $300 (NBC prime time) or $250 (syndicated).
For the final (1980–1981) season, the syndicated series left NBC's Burbank, California studio and moved to the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
's True Hollywood Story on March 30, 2003 (episode 7.21), Marshall lauded the concept, but lamented that by the time each of the characters was introduced, very little of the show's half-hour format was left for actual gameplay.
[13] In 1983, several years after Orion Pictures acquired Hollywood Squares rights owner Filmways, NBC decided to attempt a revival of the series.
What resulted was an effort produced by Mark Goodson Productions that combined the Hollywood Squares program, under license from Orion, with a revival of the Goodson-produced Match Game.
The 60-minute program was dubbed The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour and debuted on October 31, 1983, at 3 p.m. Eastern, replacing the Peter Marshall-hosted series Fantasy.
The Match Game segment featured six panelists, as it had from 1973 to 1982; for the Hollywood Squares portion, a third tier was added to the panel seating area, with three more celebrities being introduced to the proceedings at the show's midpoint.
The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour was not a success and NBC announced its cancellation in the spring of 1984, with the final episode airing on July 27, 1984.
King World Productions bid for and won the rights to the Hollywood Squares format;[17] six years later, a revival series began development.
In addition to her production duties, Whoopi Goldberg served as the permanent center square, with series head writer Bruce Vilanch, Gilbert Gottfried, Martin Mull and Caroline Rhea as regular panelists and Brad Garrett, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jeffrey Tambor, George Wallace, Kathy Griffin and various others as semi-regular panelists.
The 2002–2003 season launched with Henry Winkler and his production partner Michael Levitt as the new executive producers and Jeffrey Tambor as the announcer (in addition to retaining his semi-regular appearance).
Ellen DeGeneres, Alec Baldwin and Simon Cowell were among those who played center square, as well as Peter Marshall, who appeared during a special theme week in 2002.
The consolation prize amount also was used for each contestant's square if time ran out during a game and was counted towards their cash total to determine the day's champion.
At the end of the 60 seconds, the champion was given a choice to either quit with the money earned in the round or attempt to go double-or-nothing on an open-ended final question, with the category given to the contestant before he/she decided to play on.
The show returned five years later on VH1 and was hosted by DeRay Davis (who was previously a panelist in the original MTV2 version) while the announcer was executive producer Ice Cube.
The celebrities that were seen in this version were: Larry Groce, Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., Bil Lepp, Donnie Davidson, Charlie McCoy, Autumn Blair, Joyce DeWitt (also a local West Virginia native), Charisse Hailsop, Danny Jones, Steve Bishop, Billy Edd Wheeler, and Michael Cerveris.
Both versions featured a game board that allowed for writing in the celebrities' names under each square (using crayon, soft lead pencil, or a similar wipe-off medium).
A similar board game based on the UK version under the title Celebrity Squares was released by Buckingham Toys five years later in 1979 with a picture of host Bob Monkhouse on the cover.
Also in 1974, Event Records released a compilation album entitled Zingers from The Hollywood Squares (along with two companion books) on vinyl LP and cassette, containing the audio of what were considered to be some of the show's funniest moments.
In 2010, Ludia released their version of Hollywood Squares for the PC, Wii, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and on PlayStation 3's PSN downloadable service from November 15, 2011; the games were based upon the 2002–2004 format and featured the voice of host Tom Bergeron and video clips of celebrities Brad Garrett, Kathy Griffin, Jeffrey Tambor and Martin Mull as the center square.
It was noted at the time that substantially more Marshall episodes than the 130 that GSN aired are believed to exist, but for a number of reasons (including political correctness concerns and personality rights clearance issues) have never been rerun.
The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour episodes exist in their entirety and have been airing on the digital television network Buzzr, which is owned by Fremantle (the successor in interest to Mark Goodson Productions) since 2019.
[35] The 1986–1989 syndicated series aired as part of USA Network's afternoon game show rerun package from September 11, 1989, to June 25, 1993.
