Bumper Stumpers
Host: Al DuBois
Announcer: Ken Ryan
Premise: Two teams try to solve vanity license plates that build to the Super Stumper and a small cash prize.
Play: Al shows the Super Stumper, which has one letter/number revealed, and six blank spaces.
The Jump-in
The teams are then shown a pair of plates on the top two screens. The two teams must decide which of two plates belongs to the person Al describes.
The person who buzzes first must say whether the correct plate is the one on the "left or right". If correct, the partner could solve the puzzle, or in the early weeks, challenge the opponents to.
If incorrect on the "left/right" part, or the partner unsuccessfully solves
the plate, both opposing partners can solve it within 10 seconds.
The team that wins the Jump-in selects one of the spaces in the Super
Stumper, then the team has five seconds to solve it. If they do, they win the round. If not, another jump-in is played until someone can solve the Super Stumper.
Version one: Each time a team solved a Super Stumper, they won $500, and played the Bonus Round, version one.
Version two: The teams played best two out of three, the winners getting $1000, and playing a similar bonus game. All versions after played the same front game, but different bonuses.
Bonus Game: Originally, the team had 30 seconds to solve seven plates. Each solve removed a "STOP" sign from the board in the "Final Stumper". In that, money amounts were on the board: 500-500-400-300-200-100-500. Each unsuccessful solve put a STOP sign in place of the rightmost dollar amount. The team picked letters in the word STUMPER, and tried to avoid the STOP signs lurking about. If they got to $500, they won an additional $1000.
Version two: Now, the team had to collect $1000 to double it to $2000. A WIN square replaced the first 500.
Version three: In the first phase, the team had 30 seconds to solve four out of five plates to win $200. The team was offered up to three double or nothing opportunities to solve three more plates, for up to $1,600. A miss at any point ended the round and lost the money.
Version four: One partner had 30 seconds to solve five plates for $100 each. The player could risk the money trying to triple it
hoping that the partner could successfully solve the puzzle from the plates showing: $1500 was possible. If the partner, after coming out of isolation couldn't solve the puzzle, the money won from solving the plates was forfeited.
Teams could stay on for five games, and some actually won over $10,000, and returned for a tournament of champions.
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