Over the years there have been countless celebrity based game shows. IMHO, the overall greatest celebrity game is Pyramid, the greatest spontaneous comedy game is Match Game, the best written comedy (and bluffing) game is Hollywood Squares, and the best panel game is To Tell The Truth. But all of these shows had had revivals over the last four years…which leaves the best communication game of all time, the game without home Pyramid would never have come into being, and no game show would have a bonus game: Password.

The first time I watched Password as a little boy, it was the latter years of Password Plus with Tom Kennedy. I did not have the pleasure of watching the legendary Allen Ludden work his magic until the advent of Game Show Network. As a little boy, I understood the insanely simple mechanics of Password, but found it somewhat dull (although I found myself playing the classic format game in its Milton Bradley home-game form on a houseboat trip during the mid-80's with the offspring of my dad's childhood friend, John Nichols). But as I grew older, I understood how cool Password truly was.

Most of my Password experience from my elementary school days came from watching Bert Convy host Super Password. Bert was a fine host, but after watching most of the available Password shows, my preference has come to be that of Allen Ludden excitedly hosting the third of the four incarnations of the show, Password Plus.

From the mouth of Allen Ludden himself:

"Password is a game of communication, where you try get your partner to say the password by giving them a one-word clue."

It's that simple.

Well, maybe not.

Password, as seen on CBS throughout the 1960's, is played by two teams of two participants, one celebrity guest (one man and one woman celebrity played for entire week's worth of shows), and one civilian contestant, who collects any money that is won. One player on each team (either both celebrities or both contestants) are given a secret "password" (which is shown to the audience, and presented by the announcer, with the famous phrase: "the password is…"). The first team says a one-word clue to their partner, who them makes one guess at the word. If they fail, the other team tries. When a team succeeds, they earn points based on how many clues have been given for that word (10 points if it's the first clue, reduced by one for each clue afterward).

The first team to earn 25 points is the winner, collects $100 ($250 during the primetime show), and plays the Lightning Round.

The Lightning Round: television's original bonus game, the Lightning Round challenged the winner to try to guess five more passwords in 60 seconds, each word worth $50. The celebrity players ALWAYS gave the clues. Teams could pass on a word, but could not come to get the passed words later.

During the daytime show, a pair of civilian contestants played two games (switching celebrity partners between games) after which they both retired. One player could win as much as $700. The original Password ended in 1967.

When Password returned to television on ABC in 1971, it was very similar to the original Password, although the Lightning Round now featured a "betting word," which potentially double a contestant's winning for a game. Returning champions were used on this version during its first three years, and they could play for as many as five games.

In 1974, Mark Goodson made one of his few mistakes: he reformatted Password as Password All-Stars, and had only celebrities play the game. Each day's action started with that week's six celebrities playing a jump-in qualifying round. Four of those celebrities played Password, but now they played to 50 points, and a nifty new strategic rule was added: the "option." The first clue-giver on each password could play the word normally, pass it to their opponent, or try a "double," that is, if they could communicate the password in ONE clue, they earned 20 points instead of 10, but if they missed, the other team got the chance to try for 20 points. The winners played "20-20 Password" to try to add 20 points to their overall score. The player with the highest overall score for the week won $5,000 for their favorite charity.

A few months into the All-Stars format, viewer complaints forced the reinstatement of civilian contestants into the game, who now played the All-Stars format, but instead of 20-20 Password, the winners played a new three-step Big Money Lightning Round which could have paid-off thousands of dollars. The ABC series was cancelled in 1975.

Password reappeared in 1979 as Password Plus. IMHO, Plus was Password at its highest form, with Allen Ludden (and later Tom Kennedy, and even Bill Cullen for a while), Bobby Sherman's classic "Password Puzzle" format, the strategic "option" rule, and the awesome Alphabetics endgame.

On Plus, passwords were no longer worth points, but now were clues to the identity of a famous person, place or thing. The first clue-giver for each password now could only pass or play, and each team only got three chances to communicate the word (later, only two) and early in the series, a controversial new "no opposites rule" was added for clue-givers. Guessing the password put that word into the Password Puzzle (with as many as five password clues to the solution), and earned the guesser one free shot at the puzzle. A correct guess at the solution earned money: $100 for the first two puzzles, and $200 for the last two. The celebrities gave all the clues for the first puzzle, and switched roles with the contestant for each puzzle afterward. $300 won the game, and sent the winners to Plus's incarnation of the Lightning Round: Alphabetics.

Alphabetics: the Lightning Round at its most evolved state. Ten passwords arranged in alphabetical order were show to the celebrity, who tried to communicate them to the contestant. Each word was worth $100, and if ten were guessed in 60 seconds, the contestant won $5,000. Words could be passed on, and returned to if time remained to do so.

Password Plus was cancelled in 1982, victim to a reshuffling of the NBC daytime lineup.

The last version of the show (debuting with Bert Convy in 1984) was almost identical to Plus, except that the "pass or play option" and the "no-opposites" rules were removed. The first puzzle was worth $100, and the value increased by $100 for each puzzle afterward (with $500 winning the game). The team that solved the second puzzle now played a "Ca$hword" bonus round, where a celebrity tried to get the contestant to say a word in three clues for a rolling cash jackpot (starting at $1,000 and increasing by $1,000 for each game that it was not won). Contestants switched celebrity partners after the Ca$hword game.

The Super Password Round ("the Endgame"): literally identical to Alphabetics, except for a rolling jackpot (starting at $5,000 and increasing by $5,000 every time it was not won).

Super Password, the last known first-run incarnation of Password, was cancelled in 1989, and featured the first lady of Password, grandmaster Betty White destroying the infamous "magic toaster" prop used for Ca$hword, and a hilarious plug for the services of Password Plus and Super Password producer/developer Bobby Sherman.

It's so simple, and yet it's so challenging. Literally anyone can understand the game simply by watching it being played, but playing the game was no easy trick. Password was okay by itself, but the addition of the Password Puzzles strengthened the game, taking the concept of using one word clues even farther.

Absolutely. The format is all but bulletproof. Only mindless tinkering (and too many celebrity players) killed the 1970's version, and even though our society is not as articulate as it once was, it still must rely on its communication skills to survive, and few other games feature those skills as well as Password does.

Above: hypothetical logo for a Password Plus revival; my own design based on that of Bente Christensen using Montana font.

You can guess what this section is about. Password Plus is my favorite of the Password shows, and naturally, that's what I'd call my version.

Host: I'd like to host it myself, but I have two alternates in mind: Whammy! host Todd Newton, and current Hollywood Squares master, Tom Bergeron. Both have experience dealing with celebrities, and in hosting game shows. The question, though, is whether these guys can live up to the standard Allen, Tom and Bert (and yes, Bill too) set so many years ago. I don't know about Todd, but I'm certain Tom could.

The Format: Password Plus to the core. The "pass-or-play option" is in effect, but the "no-opposites rule" is out. The first two puzzles would be worth $500; the last two worth $1000. $1500 wins and plays Alphabetics. Like on Super Password, the winners of the second puzzle get to play Ca$hword, only the jackpot starts at $5,000.

Endgame: Alphabetics with a new payoff system. Returning champions can play as many as five times, and the more often they play Alphabetics, the more money offered per word AND the higher the jackpot:

Any player who wins ALL FIVE Alphabetics will win a total of $100,000 (in addition to the money they win for the front game and the Ca$hword).

The Set: High-tech, with large backlit view-screens embedded in the walls to display the Password Puzzles, the current score, and the Alphabetics graphics. Celebrities enter from two large areas on either side of the center desk, which double as the Alphabetics playing areas for each celebrity. Lots of red, yellow, and blue neon, vari-lights, and chasing lights. No steel girders, please.

Music: Robert Israel's Password Plus score, re-recorded with an updated flavor.

Above: hypothetical Ultimate Password logo; my own design using Montana font.

Curt Alliaume, webmaster of Game Shows of 1975, came up with this idea, combining the point-scoring format of the original Password, the puzzle format of Plus and Super, and the mechanics of the recent critically-acclaimed board game 25 Words or Less. Unfortunately, the odds of convincing 25 Words copyright holders, Winning Moves, to allow their game to be subsumed into a Password format are non-existent, but the basic idea of using both formats in the same show is actually quite sound.

The Format (my version): Four civilian players and two celebrities participate in a one-hour show. Two civilians play classic Password to 100 points with the "pass-play-double option," but the scoring starts at 20 points per word and is reduced by 5 for each clue (for four maximum clues, like Plus). The winner of this first game plays Plus against the winner of a second classic Password game, played by the other two civilian players. The Plus game plays as above, with doubled stakes ($1000 for the first two puzzles and $2000 for the last two, $3000 wins the game; this resembles the original Plus). The winner of Plus is the day's champion and plays Super Alphabetics.

Endgame: "Super Alphabetics," played in two stages.

Alphabetics: it starts with the original Alphabetics with this payoff system

The Big Three: After completing Alphabetics, the celebrity clue-giver is shown three more words, much harder than those used in Alphabetics. The team must then decide if they want to play "triple-double" (each word doubles the contestant's winnings, for a maximum of eight times their original Alphabetics winnings; not guessing all the words in time still lets the contestant keep the money they've won) or play "all-or-nothing" (guessing all three words applies a straight modifier of x10; the potential payoff is higher, but there is a risk of losing the Alphabetics winnings if all three words are not guessed). After the team makes their choice, the clue-giver has 20 more seconds to communicate the three new words. If the team goes "all-or-nothing," the clue-giver may arrange the three words in any order; they do not get this privilege if they play "triple-double."

Regardless of the outcome, the champion returns the next week to play against three new challengers. A maximum of $1,000,000 can be won (in addition to the frontgame money).

The Set: Same as my Password Plus set, above.

Music: A new score, based on Robert Israel's Password All-Stars theme.

As always, comments, questions, concerns, and the like are welcome at gameshowman@winning.com.

Password Links:

The ABC Password Page at http://www.oocities.org/ABCPass

Curt Alliaume's Password All-Stars/Password page (also featuring his version of Ultimate Password) at http://www.curtalliaume.com

David Livingston's Password Plus and Super Password tribute pages at the Game Show Galaxy at http://www.gameshow-galaxy.net

The visual feast known as Password Forever at http://www.passwordforever.com.

The Super Password Page at http://www.oocities.org/SiliconValley/Hardware/4472/spassword.html

And tell 'em the Game Show Man sent ya.

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