(Not So) Super Password

[jdhernandez]

On today's doubleheader of Super Password episodes....

....it took two full episodes to complete ONE game of Super Password before going to the bonus round.

This game took SEVEN puzzles to finish the game, at the end of the 2nd episode.

Vicki Lawrence & Joe Campanella led the two contestants, Amy & Angella through nearly an hour of game play before the game was FINALLY won by Angella and Vicki for the endgame.

This leads me to ask a question:

Is this the highest number of puzzles needed to complete just one game... or has there been a more inept game than this? (Maybe even TWO consecutive episodes without an endgame?)

[Jimmy Owen]

That's an example of "No Money Syndrome."

Does there really need to be an endgame on every show?  I didn't see it, but if it takes seven puzzles to win, maybe it's a case of two evenly matched opponents?

[Adam Nedeff]

[quote name=\'jdhernandez\' post=\'146591\' date=\'Feb 21 2007, 05:51 PM\']
This game took SEVEN puzzles to finish the game, at the end of the 2nd episode.

Is this the highest number of puzzles needed to complete just one game... or has there been a more inept game than this? (Maybe even TWO consecutive episodes without an endgame?)
[/quote]
Uh, I guess this doesn't REALLY answer your question because it's not Super Password, but Password Plus took 12 puzzles over three episodes to complete a game. Guests were Steve Allen & Jayne Meadows.

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'146592\' date=\'Feb 21 2007, 06:21 PM\']I didn't see it, but if it takes seven puzzles to win, maybe it's a case of two evenly matched opponents?[/quote]
"Evenly matched" in the sense that they let either three or four puzzles go completely unsolved. (Not accounting for technical errors, Bert "helping" with the clues, etc.)

[Jimmy Owen]

I guess by today's standards, any unsolved puzzles would have been edited out and we would have never seen them.  Of course, back then they didn't want to take eight hours to crank out one hour of show.

[TheLastResort]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'146603\' date=\'Feb 21 2007, 07:02 PM\']
I guess by today's standards, any unsolved puzzles would have been edited out and we would have never seen them.  Of course, back then they didn't want to take eight hours to crank out one hour of show.
[/quote]
Plus, think of how much money the producers saved.  They basically did an entire show without giving away a dime.

[Ian Wallis]

I believe there were times during that era where an un-solved puzzle was edited out.  I remember on occasion hearing the announcer state something like "...because the third puzzle went unsolved, a new puzzle was substituted and the tape edited".

[bandit_bobby]

Yeah, that was terrible playing alright. But then again, by this point in the run, having no bonus round on a show wasn't uncommon every time they start the show at the top of a new match.

[uncamark]

In one of his TV Guide articles on game shows, Art James complained that producers back in the late 70s had become too perfectionist, recalling that they wouldn't let a page let an audience member leave to go to the bathroom during a series of technical snafus and tape stoppages (on what I suspect was "The Magnificent Marble Machine").  All while reminiscing of the days of live television, where he'd be done with "Say When!" at 11:00 every day and at the track or having a long liquid lunch at Hurley's Bar in Rockefeller Center.

One wonders what Art would've thought of "DOND" taking three hours plus to tape a one-hour show.  The technical problems of "MMM" would have seen rather minor.

[Joe Mello]

[quote name=\'TheLastResort\' post=\'146631\' date=\'Feb 21 2007, 11:19 PM\']
[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'146603\' date=\'Feb 21 2007, 07:02 PM\']
I guess by today's standards, any unsolved puzzles would have been edited out and we would have never seen them.  Of course, back then they didn't want to take eight hours to crank out one hour of show.
[/quote]
Plus, think of how much money the producers saved.  They basically did an entire show without giving away a dime.
[/quote]

That's actually a good point.  Due to the structure of the bonuses, your average full game with bonus was going to cost 6-7K in prize-cash.  Since there was no real way to control that (aside from ending the progressive nature of the bonuses), the only way to assuredly save money is to have games last absurdly long.

[TheLastResort]

[quote name=\'Joe Mello\' post=\'146668\' date=\'Feb 22 2007, 02:20 PM\']
[quote name=\'TheLastResort\' post=\'146631\' date=\'Feb 21 2007, 11:19 PM\']
[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'146603\' date=\'Feb 21 2007, 07:02 PM\']
I guess by today's standards, any unsolved puzzles would have been edited out and we would have never seen them.  Of course, back then they didn't want to take eight hours to crank out one hour of show.
[/quote]
Plus, think of how much money the producers saved.  They basically did an entire show without giving away a dime.
[/quote]

That's actually a good point.  Due to the structure of the bonuses, your average full game with bonus was going to cost 6-7K in prize-cash.  Since there was no real way to control that (aside from ending the progressive nature of the bonuses), the only way to assuredly save money is to have games last absurdly long.
[/quote]

True.  To go off on a tangent for a second, I found it interesting that on Super Password, it actually costs the show MORE money if the contestant loses the end game.  They have to shell out up to $900 in consolation money, PLUS add the $5000 to the next end game.