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Password. The game that was as easy as when Allen Ludden explained in every show. It's a very simple game of word communication. Where you try to get your partner to say the password with one word clues.
This show was created in 1961 by Bob Stewart. In the book entitled "The Box", Bob had said "The original idea for Password didn’t work. That was, you had two opponents facing each other. When one looks at the other, behind his head he sees a word. Each one gives the other a one-word clue to see who gets it first. The problem is what’s to stop one from giving the other deliberately bad clues. So then, Bob and What's My Line director, Franklin Heller tweaked the game a little bit and turned it into the Password that we all know and love. But then, what about the Word judge that Allen would mention? When I presented the show to Mark [Goodson], he said, ‘If you can only give one-word clues, it won’t work because what are you going to do if somebody says mother-in-law. Who is going to know if it is one word or two?" "Gil Fates said, "Why don’t you get a judge?" "I said, "What a wonderful idea. We’ll get the best etymologist in the world." "I got to the World Book Encyclopedia and find out their etymologist was a guy named Reason A. Goodwin, a wonderful name. We would plug the World Book, and he would be the judge. It was fabulous. Goodson agrees to do it. We sell the show in fifteen minutes, and we’re now in the first or second week of taping. Sure enough, someone says something with a hyphen in it, which would be unacceptable. Everybody now looks anxiously at Reason A. Goodwin. Is he going to accept it? Reason A. Goodwin very calmly opens up a dictionary, looks up the word. We were hysterical. We could have had a girl do that twice as fast."
The show was a hit. And made CBS a very popular network and hit #1 in the ratings very quickly. But in 1966, CBS aired a press conference dealing with the Vietnam War which a lot of people didn't watch. So they decided to turn to another network called ABC with a new show called "The Newlywed Game" with a new found face named Bob Eubanks. Because of that, Password's ratings started to fall down. And for that reason, CBS cancelled the nighttime version of Password for the second and last time on May, 22 1967 and then cancelled the daytime version a few months later on September, 22 1967. Then, four years later on April, 5 1971, ABC "walked the plank" by bringing back Password on the 4 PM time slot. This was the first game show to be returned to the air years after its original cancellation, excluding the short period between runs for Truth or Consequences and the 1950s version of Break the Bank. There were a few rule changes to the new ABC version of Password. First, a player could stay up to five days if they kept on winning. Then, the team that won would play the "Betting Word" after the Lightning Round. The "Betting Word" gave a player the chance to risk any or all of the money that they had won on the ability to get his/her celeb partner to say a password in 15 seconds and doing so would thereby double their point value. And if you didn't think that there were any more things to change the show there was. A new Tournament of Champions which the winner would return the next week to face the previous year's grand champion in a best-of-seven playoff for $10,000. Password, once again became an instant hit just like it did in 1961. And when Allen would take the day off, there would be some sub hosts one that subbed the most was none other that "Lets Make a Deal" host Monty Hall. But after three years, the original format of Password was starting to go south. So then, on November, 18 1974, the game of Password was changed completely. A new set, game, format, but the same host. The new game was called Password All-Stars. And of course, there were more rule changes made. The main game had a "double" rule which gave the celeb player (I forgot to say that there were no more civilian contestants, just celebs) a chance to double points by trying to get his/her partner to say the password with one clue instead of two clues. Then there was a jump-in elimination round before the main game. And then, the Lightning Round was replaced with a new 20/20 password round which contributed to a celebs point total. But people started to get bored with just celebs winning money for their charities.
People wanted to and still want to see regular Joe Blows winning money; so the Password All-Stars format went south and ABC decided to bring back the contestant format of Password on the 24th of February 1975. The pre-game elimination round and the "double" feature remained. But they had to put yet another rule change. This time, there was a 3-step Lightning Round. But nothing worked at all. So on June, 27 1975, Password was cancelled to make way for a new ABC game show called "Showoffs" with a host named Bobby Van (By the way, Bobby was married to actress Elaine Joyce.) Also, Showoffs was yet another Goodson-Todman production. But Password wasn't off the air for long. In 1979, NBC decided to bring back Password. The show was called Password plus (Initially, the show was supposed to be called Password '79 but was changed at the last minute.) Allen was the star of course. There was something new added to Password Plus was called "the Password Puzzle. The Password Puzzle contained five passwords that identified a person, place, or thing. The first two Password puzzles were worth $100. The next two puzzles were worth $200. The first team to get to $300, won the game and went on to play Alphabetics. The Alphabetics round was similar to the Lightning round. The celeb was shown 10 passwords with for example: the first letter being "B" proceeding alphabetically to end with the letter for example: "K". The celeb had 60 seconds to convey those 10 passwords to his/her partner. If the 10 words were not given in the allotted time, the contestant was given $100 for each word that was given. But, if all 10 words were given correctly might I add, the contestant was given $5000! Illegal clues in the Alphabetics round included: antonyms ("opposites") were also illegal clues in the later run of Password Plus. In mid-1980, Allen Ludden went in for surgery and was absent for several weeks of taping. The person that filled in for Allen was Bill Cullen. (This was Bill's first daytime game show since the original Price Is Right) Several weeks later, Allen returned thinner, but still sharper than a tack.
But in October of 1980, even though he never reveled that he was suffering from cancer and that surgery didn't help that much. Allen suffered a stroke which took him out of the game show scene permanently. NBC had debated about bringing back Bill Cullen. But since Bill had then since begun hosting "Blockbusters", NBC decided to bring in Tom Kennedy (Tom hosted "Name That Tune" and would be the future host of the short-lived nighttime $Price Is Right in 1986.) Tom was very good friends with Allen and Betty for a long time. (Betty White was Allen's 2nd wife) Tom guided Password Plus with as much sensitivity as possible mentioning Allen's recovery on the air often. Although, people who were close to Allen knew that the chances of him coming back to the Game Show scene were bleak....very bleak indeed. And then, on June 9th 1981, a very sad in Game Show history indeed, Mr. Password, Allen Ludden passed away of cancer. But to a lot of us, he's still here. Giving that hand signal showing that the password was about to come on the screen. He will be missed without a doubt. Tom was the host of Password Plus until it was cancelled on March 26, 1982.
But two years later, NBC decided bring back Password with a few different things. Is would be called "Super Password". And the host of the new show would be the former host of "Tattletales" Bert Convy. The changes in the show were very minor. Each puzzle had a different value: the first puzzle-$100; the second-$200; the third-$300; and the forth-$400. The first team to $500 went on to play the Super Password round (The Super Password round used to be the Alphabetics round. The name was just changed.) There were a few different things about the Super Password round that made it interesting. The same $100 was given for every word given. But, if they got all 10 words, they won the Super Password round which started out at $5000. Here's the cool part, if the contestant didn't win the Super Password, another $5000 was added into the jackpot until it was won. However, if an illegal clue was given such as two-word clues or words with exact same meaning of too much a form of the words or sentences eliminated the contestant’s chances to win the jackpot. There was also something that was added to Super password. It was called the "Ca$hword". The team that won the $200 puzzle got the chance to play the "Ca$hword". These were the rules, the celeb was given three chances to convey the word to his/her partner. If the partner got the word in three clues or less, the person got $1000 just like that. But if the word wasn't figured out, then the value of the word was increased by $1000. The word could be either really easy or a super pain in the neck. As we all know, Bert Convy passed away in 1991 of brain cancer and will be missed as much as Allen will be. As you also know, GSN hasn't aired any episodes of any of the Passwords in a while. And maybe if you write to them enough, they might just bring them back.
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Here are some interesting links to Password that I think you'll like
Tim'sPassword site
The ABC Password page
www.curtalliaume.com/password.html
Jay Smith's Super Password Page
Brian Conroy’s Password Plus Episode Guide
Linda Johnson's Bert Convy page
