The Cross Wits (J. Clark Version)

[TimK2003]

I randomly happened upon an old VHS tape with the first half of of an ep from the first week of shows that is in the trading circuit and came up with a few questions.


Did they only have one board in play, or did they have a second board they could switch with between rounds?  I ask that since it looks like it had to have taken considerably longer to switch out the puzzle each round on Cross Wits than it was on WOF.

If it was a single board they used, how was the puzzle switching separated from the contestants/celebs/audience.  Was it tucked behind a curtain of some sorts, and/or were the players taken off-set?

How long did it take to make a full episode, including the stop-downs to change puzzles?

Were the "letters" similar in format to the letters used on WOF -- i.e. clear slides w/ dark letters that slid into blank back-lit boxes?

What were the actual measurements of the puzzle board itself?

Any other known details of the workings of the board would be welcome as well.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'244329\' date=\'Jul 16 2010, 10:28 PM\']Were the "letters" similar in format to the letters used on WOF -- i.e. clear slides w/ dark letters that slid into blank back-lit boxes?[/quote]It looks like they're letters that light up from behind, like the numbers for Three Strikes. You put a guy back there with the grid, he drops the cards in place like for Jeopardy, and you're off to the races.

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'244329\' date=\'Jul 17 2010, 01:28 AM\']How long did it take to make a full episode, including the stop-downs to change puzzles?[/quote]

24 minutes.

[DoorNumberFour]

It looks like a 10x10 grid of squares with lights behind them--they probably had a supply of black squares that fit over the lights that weren't used in a particular puzzle.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'DoorNumberFour\' post=\'244343\' date=\'Jul 17 2010, 12:32 PM\']It looks like a 10x10 grid of squares with lights behind them--they probably had a supply of black squares that fit over the lights that weren't used in a particular puzzle.[/quote]
The puzzle solution was on a 3 wide by 2 high card embedded somewhere low in the puzzle so Jerri Fiala could remove the category and reveal the answer.

If you number the squares from 1-100, squares 95 and 96 were reserved for the two clock digits, which were lighted vane-style numbers. At the end of the bonus round the squares read 00. On one occasion square 94 had a G and square 97 had an N, and celebrity guest Soupy Sales noted the G00N combination was an eleventh word in the puzzle - "That word on the bottom there - that's a four letter word for Bruce Belland!"