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Author Topic: (Super) Password (Plus) Questions  (Read 4031 times)

TimK2003

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« on: June 14, 2005, 07:47:10 PM »
It's been nice to see the last 2 incarnations of Password on GSN as of late.  The one question about the whole Password empire is why on the 60's Password and Super Password incarnations did the contestants have to swap chairs midway during the game?  

On Password Plus, the contestant and the celebrity partner (like practically every other celeb/civilian game show) would stay together until the match was over, and then they would change celebs when the new contestant came out.

Since I haven't seen nor remembered enough '70s Password episodes, I don't know if they swapped players in mid-matches of that incarnation or not.

But anyhoo, the questions are these:

1) Why the Mid-Match Swaps?

2) Was it done on the 70's version? And now that I think about it,
2a) On the 60's versions, did the switching occur between the end of the first game's lightning round and the start of the second game, or was that in mid-game as well?

3) Why did they bring back the "swapping" on Super Password after the Password Plus incarnation had it's long run without it?

4) Which did you prefer?

I thought the mid-game switches were too confusing.  First off, you ruin any groove you get into with your celebrity partner, which could help you when playing the bonus round.  And the last thing you do with your celebrity partner is play the Ca$hword which in most cases worth less than the bonus game.

clemon79

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2005, 07:52:51 PM »
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Jun 14 2005, 04:47 PM\']1) Why the Mid-Match Swaps?
[/quote]
Because if one player gets an idiotic partner, they're not stuck with them the whole game.
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2) Was it done on the 70's version?
Not in mid-game, no.
Quote
2a) On the 60's versions, did the switching occur between the end of the first game's lightning round and the start of the second game, or was that in mid-game as well?
Between games. Each player got to play one game with each celebrity. To, as I said before, keep it fair.
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3) Why did they bring back the "swapping" on Super Password after the Password Plus incarnation had it's long run without it?
Because it's....fair.
Quote
4) Which did you prefer?
I like my games....fair.
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dzinkin

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2005, 07:54:18 PM »
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Jun 14 2005, 07:47 PM\']3) Why did they bring back the "swapping" on Super Password after the Password Plus incarnation had it's long run without it?
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One correction: contestants did switch partners in mid-match on Password Plus, but only in the last part of the Kennedy run.  The Narz/Ford week in the trading circuit (one episode of which has aired on GSN, if memory serves) has the switching, for example.

To answer part 4, I prefer the switching; if your celebrity partner in the first part of the game was having a bad day (or week), you could make up for it in the second part.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2005, 07:58:11 PM by dzinkin »

TwoInchQuad

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2005, 10:17:21 PM »
[quote name=\'dzinkin\' date=\'Jun 14 2005, 03:54 PM\']
To answer part 4, I prefer the switching; if your celebrity partner in the first part of the game was having a bad day (or week), you could make up for it in the second part.
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On the other hand, if your choices are either Mimi Hines or Phil Ford, it's best just to fall and break your leg on the way out to the set.   :^)

-Kevin

Ian Wallis

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2005, 08:48:38 AM »
Quote
One correction: contestants did switch partners in mid-match on Password Plus, but only in the last part of the Kennedy run. The Narz/Ford week in the trading circuit (one episode of which has aired on GSN, if memory serves) has the switching, for example.


Does anybody know exactly when they started the swapping on "Password Plus"?  It must have just the last few weeks of the run as the eps from fall 1981 don't have it.  Maybe a last-ditch attempt to boost ratings(?)
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zachhoran

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2005, 09:07:23 AM »
[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jun 15 2005, 07:48 AM\']
Quote
One correction: contestants did switch partners in mid-match on Password Plus, but only in the last part of the Kennedy run. The Narz/Ford week in the trading circuit (one episode of which has aired on GSN, if memory serves) has the switching, for example.


Does anybody know exactly when they started the swapping on "Password Plus"?  It must have just the last few weeks of the run as the eps from fall 1981 don't have it.  Maybe a last-ditch attempt to boost ratings(?)
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I believe they started the switching when the progressive jackpots in Alphabetics began. At that time, the maingame scoring format changed to 100-100-100-200-200-200, with $500 needed to a win. This was probably done to limit the number of bonus rounds played in a week.

tvwxman

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2005, 10:31:16 AM »
[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jun 15 2005, 08:07 AM\']
I believe they started the switching when the progressive jackpots in Alphabetics began. At that time, the maingame scoring format changed to 100-100-100-200-200-200, with $500 needed to a win. This was probably done to limit the number of bonus rounds played in a week.
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I don't buy this....

If you're trying to limit bonus rounds to limit payoffs and lower the weekly cash giveaway total, why install a progressive jackpot, which would ensure a $5000 payout for every complete game...and an even higher weekly cash payout , esp if the week didn't have a lot of wins (becuase then, you're adding $100/word to the total)....

Chris?
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TLEberle

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2005, 10:36:40 AM »
I thought the jackpot only went up as long as the same person kept getting back to Alphabetics...in that case it's possible you only have to pay off a few hundred a game.

But ChrisC himself said that the P+ weekly buget was $22,000 a week.  So I don't think they'd do anything to jigger the numbers either way.
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uncamark

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(Super) Password (Plus) Questions
« Reply #8 on: June 15, 2005, 12:34:35 PM »
On the 70s version, when they went to best-two-out-of-three-games, the players did switch partners.

And during "All-Stars," on the finals day with four players, they would rotate positions after every game so that each player was one seat farthe down and the one of the far right went around to the far left.  This was so that there wouldn't be a tie score, since the player with the highest individual score for the day was declared the week's winner.  (I forget whether they split the points between the team members or awarded each team the same number of points--since the latter was done for the rest of the week's competition, I would assume the same on Friday.)