Password+ Premiere Week ?s

[Neumms]

I'd never seen the first week before, so here are a bunch of dorky questions for the group:

1. At first, when a team guesses a password but not the puzzle, the option goes to the other team. When did they change it, and what was behind it?

2. When did the whole "pass or play" thing start? It wasn't on the original CBS version, was it?

3. To delve even deeper into the trivial, what that rectangular thing on the front of Allen's lecturn? And did they originally plan to put the scores down on the desk, on either side of the password?

4. Was the pilot done as "Password Plus" or "Password '79"? If it was the later, what did the set look like?

Thanks a ton. It's always interesting to me to hear how shows develop.

[whewfan]

1- You can go to matchgame.org to see the Password Plus celeb listings, which will tell you when the rule change took place. On the previous versions of Password, the person that didn't get the previous word got the first clue/option. They realized later that this gave the opposing team an unfair advantage, because they'd have extra clues to help them solve the puzzle.

2- I believe the play/pass option started in the 70s run of Password

3- The passwords were loaded onto a carousel, and each puzzle and password was color coded. The producers would know if Allen had the carosel turned to the appropriate color. They later installed a small camera in Allen's podium, and covered up the rectangle. One thing I did notice about the desk was that the blue area was "hollowed out", and in later episodes, it's a solid blue rectangle. Why this is so.. I dunno.... Chris?!

Other things to note about the premiere week...

According to Chris C, the Alphabetics board was always intended to be placed behind the grey wall, but the doors weren't ready.

They experimented with how the players and celebs should stand or sit during the credits. During the early episodes, you'd see Allen, the contestants and the celebs standing around, and moving over to the Alphabetics position. Also, they had fun with Allen's "pit" as they went up and down the steps. (Later in the run, a contestant would fall into Allen's pit after being so excited about winning the big money)

Sometime later in the run, neon was added to the puzzleboard, and later still, the puzzleboard got the blue checkerboard motif, which Allen first said he disliked, but he later mentioned that he warmed up to it.

[JasonA1]

They later installed a small camera in Allen's podium, and covered up the rectangle.

Incorrect. Small cameras in '79 just for that purpose? According to our fair Chris circa 5/1/98:

"The passwords were grouped by puzzle and sat on a carousel on a shelf inside
Allen's podium. The original idea was to install colored flags on this
carousel so that they would peek through the aperture in such a way as to be
visible to an observer on the audience side of the set. This way the
producer could tell which set of passwords was facing Allen and whether they
matched the next puzzle scheduled to be played. A clever NBC stage
electronics guy replaced this whole system with a set of microswitches
attached to the carousel which would activate a light at the producer's
table, giving the producer the same information.  The aperture in the podium
thus became obsolete and was covered up with carpeting."

And indeed, the pass/play was introduced on the ABC run. During All-Stars and the post-All-Stars period of course, it was "play, pass or double?"

-Jason

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Feb 12 2006, 11:15 PM\']4. Was the pilot done as "Password Plus" or "Password '79"? If it was the later, what did the set look like?
[/quote]
IIRC, "Password '79" was just a working title; I'm not sure if the pilot even had a name.  P+ wasn't decided on until approx. 3 weeks before air.

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Feb 13 2006, 12:31 PM\'][quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Feb 12 2006, 11:15 PM\']4. Was the pilot done as "Password Plus" or "Password '79"? If it was the later, what did the set look like?
[/quote]
IIRC, "Password '79" was just a working title; I'm not sure if the pilot even had a name.  P+ wasn't decided on until approx. 3 weeks before air.

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[/quote]
Do you mean three weeks before taping, or three weeks before air?  I didn't think P+ taped that close to air, though I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that point.

In any event, the change definitely was too late for some of the listings services.  I know that for several weeks my local paper had the show listed as "Password '79," and then for several more weeks the show was listed with different titles on different days -- if memory serves, "Password Plus" on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and "Password '79" on Tuesday/Thursday -- as if there had been two different shows.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'dzinkin\' date=\'Feb 13 2006, 12:37 PM\']Do you mean three weeks before taping, or three weeks before air?  I didn't think P+ taped that close to air, though I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that point.

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[/quote]
I'm pretty sure the first P+ episodes taped the Friday before the premiere, which would've been 1/5/79.  I believe Chris C. mentioned that in a Usenet post when we were discussing copyright dates.  It was billboarded in TV GUIDE (underneath the "last show" listing of AMERICA ALIVE) as PASSWORD '79, however on the 1/5/79 CS (where Eubanks made his cameo to promote ALL-STAR SECRETS), Perry promoed P+ as well and called it "Password Plus."  That CS ep was taped before P+'s premiere week was taped (the CS ep carried a 1978 copyright, while the first P+ ep carried a 1979 copyright).

Doug -- and the countdown to 1800 continues