Major Alphabetics Flaw

[Don Howard]

On this rainy Sunday morning, I played a little catch-up with some of the stash in my VHS collection and landed on a Password Plus episode from 1979 featuring Patty Duke Astin and John Astin. In the Alphabetics round, Patty accidentally saw the word LUGGAGE and pulled a Jack Paar (she gave LUGGAGE as the clue). As Patty groaned over what she'd done, Allen from the sidelines beckoned the contestant to "Say it! Say the word!!". She then went on to solve the rest of the ten and received $4000. Now then. With time running out, what's to stop a celeb from seeing MATTRESS and giving the following clues: "Mattress....say....mattress....say.....mattress" so that the player gets $4000 instead of $900? At least this was rectified when during "The End Game", upon the arrival of Super Password, illegal clues meant no jackpot.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'May 2 2004, 11:45 AM\'] MATTRESS and giving the following clues: "Mattress....say....mattress....say.....mattress" so that the player gets $4000 instead of $900? At least this was rectified when during "The End Game", upon the arrival of Super Password, illegal clues meant no jackpot. [/quote]
 Nothing is stopping them at all.

Now that you mention this, I think it'd be appropriate to discuss other games that have actual flaws.  I'm not talking about a set not being the right color; or a show that should give out $1,000,000 instead of $10,000.  

This is one that sticks out.  Another is "Get The Picture's" speed round...in which a team could repeatedly hit the buzzer, without penalty.  On an episode I saw the other day, one team buzzed in 9 times, with wrong answers...before getting it correct..the other team never got a chance.

[adamjk]

Okay I guess I'll start. This doesn't bother me, but I know some don't like it, in that on Price, a contestant is allowed to one up another contestant's bid during a one bid.

[JMFabiano]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'May 2 2004, 11:53 AM\'] [quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'May 2 2004, 11:45 AM\'] MATTRESS and giving the following clues: "Mattress....say....mattress....say.....mattress" so that the player gets $4000 instead of $900? At least this was rectified when during "The End Game", upon the arrival of Super Password, illegal clues meant no jackpot. [/quote]
 [/quote]
 I had to ask it...wouldn't it mean $2000 (cause, you  see, he/she's saying "Mattress" three times...)

[JayC]

[quote name=\'adamjk\' date=\'May 2 2004, 12:32 PM\'] Okay I guess I'll start. This doesn't bother me, but I know some don't like it, in that on Price, a contestant is allowed to one up another contestant's bid during a one bid. [/quote]
 I really don't see what's wrong in doing this.  It's just the right strategy, and I'm sure you'd do it also if the opportunity was there and it was necessary.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'adamjk\' date=\'May 2 2004, 01:32 PM\'] Okay I guess I'll start. This doesn't bother me, but I know some don't like it, in that on Price, a contestant is allowed to one up another contestant's bid during a one bid. [/quote]
 I, too, agree with JayC...I dont' think this is a flaw, this is strategy. To me that's like saying WoF has a flaw if the puzzle is, let's say "DUKE OF EARL", and a contestant prefaces it with "The" when he tries to solve the puzzle, loses his turn, and next player down the line, who had no idea, solves it correctly without adding "The".

Now, you want to talk flaw? Here's one that always bugged me, but they corrected (I don't know when, but I'm sure someone will).

1986HS - Games are worth $500 each - a player jumps out to a $1000 lead, it's VERY hard for other player to come back and tie, as very rarely (if ever?) are four complete games played. This was later rectified by making the third game $1000, as well.

[MCArroyo1]

From a different Password+ episode, the word "Quicksand" came up during the Alphabetics round, and it was mentioned after the round had ended that the celeb could have said "Sand" or "Quick" as legal clues.

I believe that parts of the word were illegal clues on the original run of Password, but this rule was inexplicably removed for the first NBC revival.

So the celeb COULD recite "Say...Quick...Sand...Say...Quick...Sand..."

[Brandon Brooks]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'May 2 2004, 11:45 AM\'] On this rainy Sunday morning, I played a little catch-up with some the stash in my VHS collection and landed on a Password Plus episode from 1979 featuring Patty Duke Astin and John Astin. In the Alphabetics round, Patty accidentally saw the word LUGGAGE and pulled a Jack Paar (she gave LUGGAGE as the clue). As Patty groaned over what she'd done, Allen from the sidelines beckoned the contestant to "Say it! Say the word!!". She then went on to solve the rest of the ten and received $4000. Now then. With time running out, what's to stop a celeb from seeing MATTRESS and giving the following clues: "Mattress....say....mattress....say.....mattress" so that the player gets $4000 instead of $900? At least this was rectified when during "The End Game", upon the arrival of Super Password, illegal clues meant no jackpot. [/quote]
I personally didn't understand why more celebs didn't just do this in the first place.

Brandon Brooks

[Big Brain]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'May 2 2004, 11:53 AM\']This is one that sticks out.  Another is "Get The Picture's" speed round...in which a team could repeatedly hit the buzzer, without penalty.  On an episode I saw the other day, one team buzzed in 9 times, with wrong answers...before getting it correct..the other team never got a chance.[/quote]
Talking about Nick shows with major flaws immediately brings to mind Finders Keepers.  I recall a couple of occasions where a team swept all four hidden pictures, but then they could only find the hidden object in one of the four rooms they searched.  The result?  Score becomes 150-150, the other team ties the game without doing a damn thing.  I've heard some argue that searching the rooms is more important than finding hidden pictures; this is true, but I don't see the justification in awarding a team that searched nothing.

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'Brandon Brooks\' date=\'May 2 2004, 02:11 PM\'] [quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'May 2 2004, 11:45 AM\'] On this rainy Sunday morning, I played a little catch-up with some the stash in my VHS collection and landed on a Password Plus episode from 1979 featuring Patty Duke Astin and John Astin. In the Alphabetics round, Patty accidentally saw the word LUGGAGE and pulled a Jack Paar (she gave LUGGAGE as the clue). As Patty groaned over what she'd done, Allen from the sidelines beckoned the contestant to "Say it! Say the word!!". She then went on to solve the rest of the ten and received $4000. Now then. With time running out, what's to stop a celeb from seeing MATTRESS and giving the following clues: "Mattress....say....mattress....say.....mattress" so that the player gets $4000 instead of $900? At least this was rectified when during "The End Game", upon the arrival of Super Password, illegal clues meant no jackpot. [/quote]
I personally didn't understand why more celebs didn't just do this in the first place.

Brandon [/quote]
 Maybe they enjoyed the game and wanted to be booked for a future week?  Wasn't the jackpot reduced by a grand everytime something like that happened?  To get any money you'd still have to get six the right way.

[Little Big Brother]

Maybe they enjoyed the game and wanted to be booked for a future week? Wasn't the jackpot reduced by a grand everytime something like that happened? To get any money you'd still have to get six the right way.

Not only that, but the contestant would also have to be in on the strategy in order for it to work effectively.

Word:  Mattress
Celeb:  "Say"
Contestant: "Mumble"
Celeb: "Mattress"
Contestant: "Ummm...clue?"
Celeb: "Say"
Contestant:  "Pass it"

Also, if the contestant is not in on it, they might be pretty peeved if the celeb tried to take the easy way out (at a cost of $1000) instead of trying for the word.

[Terry K]

Didn't they change this rule on P+ after Tom Kennedy came on?  (Or shortly before TK came onboard?)  I recall there was something to the effect that the rule was changed to eliminate any chance at the Alphabetics Jackpot for an illegal clue to stop just what you're talking about.

[beatlefreak84]

Didn't they change this rule on P+ after Tom Kennedy came on? (Or shortly before TK came onboard?) I recall there was something to the effect that the rule was changed to eliminate any chance at the Alphabetics Jackpot for an illegal clue to stop just what you're talking about.

No; in fact, the flaw was actually WORSENED when they switched to the increasing jackpot format ($5,000 plus $5,000 each day not won); when this occurred, the rule was that each illegal clue docked 10% from the potential jackpot, so illegal clues at the $5,000 level now only cost $500 instead of the $1,000 it did before!

No rule changes to prevent a jackpot win on NBC Password were put in place until SP, which, IMO, was the way it should've been done in the first place.  Why did they decide to conduct the bonus round the way they did on P+?

Anthony

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'May 2 2004, 01:58 PM\']
1986HS - Games are worth $500 each - a player jumps out to a $1000 lead, it's VERY hard for other player to come back and tie, as very rarely (if ever?) are four complete games played. This was later rectified by making the third game $1000, as well. [/quote]
 They almost never got to four complete games in one show of Davidson HS, unlike the Marshall Syndie HS. The Marshall Syndie version used a similar cash per game structure to the 1986-87 Davidson HS season, except the monies were half what they were in 1986. If a contestant had a $750-$0 lead on Marshall HS, there wouldn't be much chance to catch up, as Marshall Squares rarely completed more than five games, regardless of how fast Peter usually kept things moving.
The Davidson HS "third and subsequent games worth $1000" rule debuted on the next to last week of the first season IIRC.

[Strikerz04]

Wasn't it 20%, rather than 10? It was no difference in either TK or AL who hosted, it was still a 20% deduction in that jackpot for an illegal clue.