password all-stars champions

[Bill Neuweiler]

Hi everyone, I just saw a rerun of Password Plus, during the opening Sally Struthers says to Allen that she won the Password All-Stars and he seemed to agree with her.  Is this true? Does anyone recall who the other winners were? 

[Matt Ottinger]

Struthers won her week in 1975, but lost in the Grandmasters week, ultimately to Richard Dawson.  Struthers and Kaye Stevens failed to advance to the championship match that exists today with Bill Bixby, Betty White, Hal Linden and Dawson.

The first set of All-Stars winners were Nancy Walker, Peter Bonerz, Don Galloway, Dick Gautier, Joyce Bulifant and James Shigeta.  Shigeta won the Grandmaster championship. 

Fun fact:  Shigeta used his prize money to fund the James Shigeta Scholarship in Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  That scholarship continues to be awarded today.

EDITED to add Joyce Bulifant, based on comment below.

[Mr. Matté]

The first set of All-Stars winners were Nancy Walker, Peter Bonerz, Don Galloway, Dick Gautier, one other I can't recall and James Shigeta.  Shigeta won the Grandmaster championship. 

I thought I remember a week of MG '74 or '75 where at the top of the show, Richard sitting next to Joyce Bulifant was congratulating her for winning her week of Password All Stars.

ETA: For what it's worth, this Wiki says Joyce was one of the finalists: https://markgoodson.fandom.com/wiki/Password_(1971)/Episode_Guide#Password_All-Stars_(1974%E2%80%931975)

EETA: Here's the reference to Richard's congrats:

[Matt Ottinger]

I thought I remember a week of MG '74 or '75 where at the top of the show, Richard sitting next to Joyce Bulifant was congratulating her for winning her week of Password All Stars.

ETA: For what it's worth, this Wiki says Joyce was one of the finalists: https://markgoodson.fandom.com/wiki/Password_(1971)/Episode_Guide#Password_All-Stars_(1974%E2%80%931975)

That's gotta be it then.  Thanks! Reediting my reply.

[That Don Guy]

ETA: For what it's worth, this Wiki says Joyce was one of the finalists: https://markgoodson.fandom.com/wiki/Password_(1971)/Episode_Guide#Password_All-Stars_(1974%E2%80%931975)

If anyone is noticing a few names in the all-stars that you don't recognize, like Martha Peukert in the 13th episode, in the show's second series of seven, they started including Annual/Grand Champions from the earlier ABC version. (Unfortunately, I was always at school when these happened, so I couldn't tell you much, except from when Allen would mention things during the quarterly event held in the summer, but from what I remember, every 3 months, the best players got back together for a mini-tournament for $1000; each year, the four winners met for $5000; there was also a Grand Champion, which I assume started as the first annual winner, who would come back each year to "defend their title" for $10,000.)

[SuperMatch93]

The name Lew Retrum in that guide sticks out to me. If memory serves he was mentioned in print materials for the show, possibly even on the tickets for those tapings?

[snowpeck]

The name Lew Retrum in that guide sticks out to me. If memory serves he was mentioned in print materials for the show, possibly even on the tickets for those tapings?

Getty Images has several press photos of Lew Retrum playing with various celebrities.

[RMF]

Getty Images has several press photos of Lew Retrum playing with various celebrities.

Warning: A couple of these photos suggest that, for all the grief we've given Lin Bolen about how game show hosts appeared on NBC in the early-to-mid 1970s, the issue at hand was far, far broader than her personal tastes alone.....

[Eric Paddon]

Lew Retrum looks a lot like "Patrick Quinn"!