If it becomes impossible for either contestant to form a winning line, whether or not all nine spaces had been claimed, the game is declared a draw, and a new one began with the pot rolling over.

On the 1978 CBS series, contestants played until either being defeated or reaching the network's $25,000 total winnings limit.

The syndicated series allowed contestants to play until defeated, and for every five matches that they won, champions were rewarded with a new automobile.

The contestant won the money and a prize package for finding the "Tic-Tac-Dough" line but could quit and take the cash at any time.

On the syndicated run, the squares contained the words TIC and TAC, six dollar amounts: $100, $150, $250, $300, $400, $500 (originally $50, $150, $250, $350, $400, and $500), and a dragon.

The goal was to accumulate $1,000 or more without finding the dragon; if successful, the contestant won the money and a prize package usually worth between $2,000 and $5,000.

Finding both TIC and TAC constituted an automatic victory, awarding the prize package and increasing the pot to $1,000.

For a time in 1983, members of the studio audience were invited to play a special "Dragon Finder" game whenever the bonus round was won or a contestant stopped early.

The pot began at $500 when the champion first uncovered their chosen symbol in a box, and doubled for each additional one found.

Over the course of nine weeks in 1980, Thom McKee defeated 43 opponents and amassed a winnings total of $312,700, including eight cars and over $200,000 in cash – a record at the time.

One match ended with McKee winning the single biggest pot in the show's history to that time, which reached $36,800 after four tie games against challenger Pete Cooper.

[citation needed] Although champions remained on the show until defeated, a cap was placed on their overall winnings from 1982 until 1984 as noted above.

This was done after CBS, by way of acquiring Tic-Tac-Dough for its flagship station WCBS-TV in New York, became the program’s network-of-record; this meant that the show, as well as its Barry & Enright stablemate The Joker's Wild had been a year earlier when CBS did the same thing for that series, was subjected to network standards and practices.

At the time, CBS had set a $50,000 winnings limit for all game shows broadcast over its airwaves, with any overage being donated to a charity of the champion’s choice.

[6] Tic-Tac-Dough premiered on NBC daytime television on July 30, 1956, hosted by co-creator and co-executive producer Jack Barry.

Twenty-One later moved to Monday nights in February, 1957, and Barry once again hosted the show all five days of the week.

Jay Jackson was the original host, and was replaced by Win Elliot on October 2, 1958, for the duration of the show's nighttime run.

[1] In August 1958, the cross-network hit game show Dotto was canceled after network and sponsor executives discovered that it had been rigged.

The April 3, 1958 episode featuring U.S. military serviceman Michael O'Rourke winning over $140,000 became one key subject of the federal grand jury investigating the quiz fixing.

This led her to the offices of Tic-Tac-Dough producer Felsher, who provided Kirsten with the answers and hints to win on the show and a promise to showcase her talent and sing.

Felsher was fired in the fallout of the quiz show scandals by NBC,[8] but later resurfaced as a producer for Goodson-Todman Productions in the 1970s and 1980s.

Almost two decades after its original cancellation, the game was reborn as The New Tic-Tac-Dough on CBS gave it a place on its daytime schedule.

The series ran from July 3 to September 1, 1978, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern/9:00 a.m. Central, replacing the Bill Cullen-hosted Pass the Buck.

[9] TTD was one of numerous failed attempts by CBS to find a suitable lead-in to The Price Is Right, by then a daytime institution; it was not until The New $25,000 Pyramid and Press Your Luck arrived in 1982 and 1983, respectively, that the network finally succeeded in that effort.

This was a nearly identical situation to a 1976 game packaged by Barry and Enright, Break the Bank, which was hurriedly put into syndication after ABC cancelled it just three months into a daytime run in order to expand two of the network's daytime serials; the syndicated version ran during the 1976–77 season.

Throughout its eight-year run, the show used its theme song entitled "Crazy Fun", which was composed by Hal Hidey.

As noted above, Patrick Wayne hosted, while Larry Van Nuys announced with Art James substituting for two weeks.