The Hollywood Squares

Hollywood Squares - NBC Promo

The Hollywood Squares was an American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money (cash) and prizes. The "board" for the game is actually a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by an entertainer (or "star") seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions and the contestants judge the veracity of their answers in order to win the game.

Although The Hollywood Squares was a legitimate game show, the game largely acted as the background for the show's comedy. The show was "scripted" in the sense that the panel of celebrities knew the questions in advance and were provided with answers and suggestions for bluffs and jokes (Zingers). Typically, a star's first answer to a question was a humorous one. This was then followed by the true answer or bluff. It had to be stressed that this did not mean the actual gameplay was scripted or predetermined, as the onus was still on the contestant to determine whether or not the provided answer to a question was the correct one.

The show got its beginning as a black-and-white pilot episode filmed for CBS on April 21, 1965. That pilot was hosted by Bert Parks with the squares occupied by Cliff Arquette (in his "Charley Weaver" comic persona), Wally Cox, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Abby Dalton, Jim Backus, Gisele MacKenzie, Robert Q. Lewis and Vera Miles. The first five of the initial panelists were to later appear on the first broadcast week (October 17-21, 1966) and become all five of its initial regulars on NBC-TV.

CBS shot a second pilot hosted by Sandy Baron, but chose not to pick up the program with either host. A year later, NBC acquired the rights to the show and chose Peter Marshall as host, a job he held for fifteen years until 1981. During most of its daytime run, NBC broadcast Squares at 11:30 a.m. Eastern/10:30 a.m. Central time, where it dominated the ratings until 1976, when it moved to the first of a succession of different time slots.

The show also ran at night, first on NBC from January 12 to September 13, 1968, as a mid-season replacement for the short-lived sitcom Accidental Family, then as a nighttime syndicated entry running from November 1, 1971 to September 11, 1981. The latter version ran once a week at first, then twice a week and finally expanded to a five-day-per-week strip in its final season.

Paul Lynde, in addition to his recurring role as "Uncle Arthur (Winsome)" on Bewitched had his greatest fame as the coveted "center square" throughout most of the original show's run. However, on October 14, 1968, after two years on the show, Lynde became the regular center square. Lynde was the only panelist on the show to win two daytime Emmy Awards in 1974 and 1978. Other regulars and semi-regulars over the years included Nanette Fabray, Kaye Ballard, John Davidson, Wally Cox, Cliff Arquette ("Charley Weaver"), Morey Amsterdam, Florence Henderson, Marty Allen, Wayland Flowers, George Gobel, Vincent Price, Rose Marie, Charo, Sandy Duncan, Carol Wayne, Jonathan Winters, Karen Valentine, Roddy McDowall and Joan Rivers. Lynde left the series after taping the August 20-24, 1979, week of shows, but returned when the series relocated to Las Vegas in the 1980-1981 season.

Some stars would frequently be asked questions pertaining to a certain topic or category. For instance, Cliff Arquette (Charley Weaver), a history buff, would often get questions on American history and would almost always give a correct answer. Rich Little would almost always get questions about other celebrities, which gave him an opportunity to do an impression of that individual. Roddy McDowall would usually give correct answers about the plays of Shakespeare. Rose Marie often got questions on dating and relationships. Lynde would always get a loaded question just so he could come up with an initial hilarious response. Some, such as Robert Fuller (then on NBC's Emergency!), were excellent bluffers. Sanford and Son co-star Demond Wilson frequently guested on the panel, and as a running gag, Marshall would ask an innocent question that "coincidentally" referred to Black stereotypes. Wilson always responded by walking off the show in mock anger.

The daytime series was played as a best 2-out-of-3 match between a returning champion and an opponent with each individual game worth $200 and a match worth $400; a five-match champion retired with $2,000 and a new car. During the final years of the NBC run (1977-1980), players who won five matches earned $10,000 and two new cars, a total of over $25,000. Early in the first season, from October 17, 1966 to February 10, 1967, each game awarded $100 with the winner of the match earning a $300 bonus for a total of $500. Beginning in 1976, an "endgame" of sorts was added to the show, with the champion simply selecting a star, each of whom held an envelope with a prize concealed within that features the top prize being $5,000.

Both the (twice-)weekly syndicated and NBC primetime versions featured the same two contestants playing for the entire half-hour with each completed game worth $300 (NBC primetime) or $250 (syndicated). If time ran out with a game still in progress (interrupted by what the host called the "tacky buzzer," a loud horn), each X or O on the board at that point was worth an additional $50 to the players, with each player guaranteed at least $100 in total winnings. The player with the most money at the end of the show won a bonus prize, which on the (twice-)weekly syndicated series was usually a new car. On the daily syndicated series, each game awarded its victor a prize and each winner advanced in a $100,000 tournament.
From: Wikipedia.org