Scrabble (game show)

The first round of every game was the Crossword round, in which two contestants competed to guess words as they were laid out on a computer-generated Scrabble board. Originally, two new contestants played each Crossword, with the winner advancing to the Scrabble Sprint to face the reigning champion (see below). On September 29, 1986, as part of a broader format change, episodes were re-structured to include two Crosswords. The first Crossword was played between the show's reigning champion and a challenger, and the second Crossword was played between two new contestants. Each Crossword was played as a best-of-five match, with the first contestant to score three correctly identified words winning the Crossword and advancing to the Scrabble Sprint to try and become champion.

A horizontal or vertical row of squares was outlined to indicate the number of letters, with one already filled in and referred to as the letter the contestants were "building on". Each subsequent word built on one of the letters in the previous word and was played in the opposite direction; i.e., the first word was played horizontally, the second vertically, and so on. Each word was accompanied by a clue designed to aid the contestants in solving it.

Initially, the winner of a backstage coin toss got to start each game. When the second Crossword was introduced and the champion was inserted into the first game, his/her opponent started; the second game still employed the coin toss to determine who began.

At the beginning of each contestant's turn, he/she was either allowed to guess the word or draw from a series of blue numbered tiles. Each tile represented one letter, and when placed in a slot in front of the contestant the letters were displayed on a screen ready to be placed in the word.

Not every letter was in the word, however. For instance, if the contestants were playing a nine letter word, a total of eleven tiles were available. Eight of the tiles represented the remaining letters in the word. The other three were decoys referred to as "stoppers".

After a letter was placed properly, the contestant could opt to place the other letter or guess the word. As long as he/she kept correctly placing letters, a contestant retained control. Finding a stopper or guessing incorrectly passed control to the opponent. If there was a letter displayed when the opponent got control, he/she selected a tile before taking the turn.

Play continued on a word until there was only one letter left unrevealed. If the contestant in control failed to guess it, the opponent got a chance. If neither one correctly identified the word, the answer was given and the word thrown out.

If a contestant uncovered the third stopper for a word, the opposing player was given one final chance to guess. After that, the game entered Speedword. In Speedword, the unrevealed letters were placed in the word one at a time until there was only one blank space left. The contestants used their signaling devices to attempt to guess. If either contestant guessed incorrectly, they were locked out of the rest of the word while the other contestant could ring in whenever he/she desired. If neither contestant correctly identified the word in Speedword, it was thrown out.

The first contestant to three words won Crossword and a cash prize. Initially, games were played to their conclusion and matches could and often did straddle episodes. Following the 1986 restructuring of the format, each Crossword was played to time. Speedword was played if time was running short.

In the first week of the show, a cumulative money pot was used in the Crossword round. Each letter placed in a normal square was worth $25, with blue squares adding $50 and pink squares $100. The winner of the round collected all the money in the pot. After that week, the Crossword winner received a flat $500.

Beginning in October 1984, contestants could win a cash bonus with the colored squares by placing a letter in one of them and immediately solving the word. Blue squares awarded $500, while pink squares awarded $1,000. Beginning in 1985, the bonus rule was added to Speedword, provided a contestant guessed the word right after a letter was placed into a bonus space. Also, if a word was being built on a letter in a bonus square, the contestant who started the word could win the bonus with an immediate solve. In the event that the last letter that could be placed was placed in a bonus square and the contestant that placed the letter could not guess the word, the other player could win the bonus if he/she gave a correct guess. Both contestants kept any bonus money they won, regardless of who won the Crossword round.

For the 1993 version, money won from bonus squares was added to the Bonus Sprint jackpot instead of being awarded directly to the contestant.

For three months in 1985, contestants not only had to guess each word correctly, but also had to spell the word one letter at a time. Similar to the format used during the first week, each correct letter added money to a pot: Regular squares added $50, blue squares added $100, and pink squares added $200 (later $500). In one episode, two contestants repeatedly failed to spell the word MOSQUITOS correctly, despite knowing it was the correct answer. This rule was abandoned by the fall of 1985.

The Scrabble Sprint round was the second part of the game and determined the show's champion. In this round, the goal was to solve a set of words of increasing length as quickly as possible. There were two different formats.

From the premiere until September 26, 1986, the Crossword rounds were played to determine who faced the reigning champion in the Sprint Round. If there was no champion, two Crossword rounds were played and the winners of those rounds faced off to become the champion.

In the first format, both the champion and the Crossword winner played separate sets of words against the clock. The Crossword winner played first and chose one of two envelopes, leaving the other for the champion. A row of blanks was shown, and Woolery read a clue. Once the contestant indicated that he/she was ready, two letters were displayed, which he/she called one at a time to place in the word. Additional letters then appeared one at a time, but as in Crossword, the last letter was not given. Every letter displayed appeared in the word, so there were no stoppers.

The Crossword winner continued to place letters while the clock counted up from zero, and once he/she had a guess pressed down on a plunger to indicate such and stop the clock. The contestant then gave his/her guess and, if correct, the rest of the letters were filled in. If the guess was wrong or the contestant did not answer immediately upon stopping the clock, ten seconds were added to the clock and play continued. Once all the letters were placed, the contestant had five seconds to register a guess; if not, the word was thrown out and an alternate was played.

Once the Crossword winner correctly solved three words, the champion took his/her turn with a different set of words. The clock started at the Crossword winner's final time and then counted backward to zero, and any penalties for wrong guesses were deducted from it. If the champion completed his/her words before time ran out, he/she won the Scrabble Sprint; if not, the opponent became the new champion. The prize for winning was originally three times the pot from the preceding Crossword round, but was changed to a flat $1,500 after the first week. A contestant received a $20,000 bonus if he/she won five Sprint rounds in a row. If he/she reached ten consecutive Sprint victories, the contestant was awarded an additional $20,000 and retired as champion.

In March 1985, both contestants began using the same set of words. The champion was placed in isolation while the Crossword winner played, then tried to beat the time set. In addition, after a contestant called one of the two displayed letters, the other one disappeared and two new letters were presented as long as there were at least three blanks left in the word. The contestant was shown only one letter when there were two blanks. This change remained in place for the remainder of the series run, and a fourth word was later added to the Sprint.

In addition to the contestants now using the same set of words, the Sprint payoff rules changed. Five consecutive wins resulted in champions having their total winnings augmented to $20,000. If any champion reached the ten-win limit, they retired with $40,000.

On September 29, 1986, Scrabble began a 13-week-long tournament called The $100,000 All-American Scrabble Tournament. This tournament was conducted with a different format from usual Scrabble matches, and these changes were eventually made permanent.

A total of 188 contestants were selected via a nationwide search, with four competing on each episode in preliminary matches from Monday through Thursday over the first 12 weeks. Two Crossword rounds were played (with the typical $500 and $1,000 bonuses for blue and pink squares, respectively), and each was followed by a Scrabble Sprint round. The winner of the first Crossword round won $500, and played four words of six, seven, eight, and nine letters to try to set a time for the winner of the second Crossword round between two other contestants. That contestant attempted to beat the time set by the first contestant, and if successful, he or she won $1,000 and advanced to the next round. On Friday, the four winners competed in two quarterfinal matches, and whoever won the second Sprint round won $5,000 and advanced to the semifinals round, for the final week of the tournament.

Because only four episodes aired during the week of November 24–28 (no episode aired that Thursday, due to the Thanksgiving holiday), a wild card contestant was chosen to advance to that Friday's quarterfinals alongside the three preliminary match winners.

During the final week, starting on December 22, the 12 quarterfinal winners and four wild card contestants competed in semifinal matches on Monday through Thursday. The four winners advanced to the final matches that Friday, with a grand prize of $100,000 for the winner. In the end, contestant Mark Bartos won the grand prize.

With slight adjusting, this tournament format became the new permanent Scrabble format on December 29, 1986. As noted above, each episode now featured four contestants and two Crossword games worth $500 each. The champion played in the first Crossword, whose winner set a Sprint time for the second winner to beat, and the Sprint winner received $1,000 and took or retained the championship. With this format change, Scrabble became a self-contained 30-minute program. In the previous format, play continued until time was called and episodes could straddle.

With the adoption of the new format came a new final round. Called the Bonus Sprint, this round enabled the champion to win a cash jackpot.

The champion faced two final words, the first with at least six letters and the second with at least seven, and played with the same set of rules as the normal Sprint round. If the champion correctly guessed both words within 10 seconds, he or she won the jackpot which started at $5,000 and increased by $1,000 for each unsuccessful playing. The penalty for an incorrect guess was an automatic loss.

Champions competed until either winning five Sprint rounds or being defeated.

When the series returned in 1993, the Bonus Sprint jackpot began at $1,000. Additional money was only added to the jackpot if a contestant landed on a blue or pink square in the Crossword game and solved the word immediately, adding either $500 or $1,000, respectively. No cash bonuses were given directly to contestants in this version; all bonuses went into the Bonus Sprint jackpot.

• RTL plus (as phone-in quiz show.)