Blockbusters (American game show)

This article is about the American television game show. For the British adaptation, see Blockbusters (British game show). For the Australian children's adaptation, see Blockbusters (Australian game show). For other uses, see Blockbuster.

Blockbusters is an American game show, created by Steve Ryan for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, which had two separate runs in the 1980s. On this program, contestants answered general-knowledge questions to complete a path across or down a game board composed of hexagons. The first series of the show debuted on NBC on October 27, 1980, and aired until April 23, 1982. In the first series, a team of two family members competed against a solo contestant. Blockbusters was revived on NBC from January 5 to May 1, 1987, but featured only two solo contestants competing. Bill Cullen hosted the 1980–82 version, with Bob Hilton as announcer; Bill Rafferty hosted the 1987 version with Rich Jeffries as announcer. The show is the basis of the British game show of the same name, which aired in various incarnations between 1983 and 2019.

Blockbusters
Created by	Steve Ryan
Directed by	Ira Skutch (1980–82) Marc Breslow (1987)
Presented by	Bill Cullen Bill Rafferty
Announcer	Bob Hilton Rich Jeffries
Theme music composer	Bob Cobert (1980–82) Music Design Group (1987)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	372 (1980–82) 85 (1987)
Production
Executive producers	Ira Skutch (1980–82) Robert Sherman (1987)
Producers	Robert Sherman (1980–1982) Diane H. Janaver (1987)
Production locations	NBC Studios Burbank, California
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions (1980–1982) Mark Goodson Television Productions (1987)
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	October 27, 1980 (1980-10-27) – April 23, 1982 (1982-04-23)
Release	January 5 (1987-01-05) – May 1, 1987 (1987-05-01)
Related
Blockbusters (United Kingdom)

Gameplay

1980–82

Blockbusters and Las Vegas Gambit, which premiered on the same day, were added to the NBC schedule to replace The David Letterman Show. Letterman's show, for which NBC had cancelled three game shows in June 1980 to free up airtime, did not draw good ratings. It only managed a total of 18 weeks of episodes (and was cut in length from 90 minutes to 60 minutes midway into its run) before NBC decided to return to a more traditional morning lineup.

Three contestants played in each game, with a solo contestant playing against a team of two related contestants that was referred to as the "family pair". The solo contestant played behind a red desk while the family pair played from a white one.

The game was played on a board that consisted of four interlocking rows of five hexagons each. Within each hexagon was a different letter of the alphabet, which represented the first letter of the correct answer to a question. For example, if the letter P was chosen, a sample question might be: "What 'P' is a herbivorous North American mammal whose body is covered with thousands of bristles called quills?", in which case the correct answer would be "Porcupine". Contestants attempted to complete a connection of hexagons to win each round: in red from top to bottom for the solo player, and in white from left to right for the family pair. The solo player had the advantage of being able to win with as few as four hexagons, while the family pair required at least five. Due to the game board's design, there was no way to end a game in a tie. In addition, the two members of the family pair were not allowed to discuss questions at any time. All questions had one-word answers.

Each game started with a letter chosen at random. The first contestant to buzz in was given a chance to answer; if a contestant did so before the host finished the question, he stopped reading and the contestant had to answer immediately. A correct answer awarded the hexagon to that team and allowed them to choose the next letter, while a miss gave the opposing team a chance to hear the entire question and respond. If the solo contestant missed, only one member of the family pair could attempt to answer. If both teams missed the same question, a new one was asked using the same letter.

Originally, winning the first round earned the team no money but allowed the winning team to play the bonus round for $2,500. A second win allowed a return trip to the bonus round for an additional $5,000. Later, each round earned the winning team $500, and teams advanced to the bonus round only after winning two rounds. If the family pair advanced to the bonus round, the captain decided which member would participate.

From the premiere until the change in the front game format, champions retired from the show after winning eight matches. This limit was raised to 10 matches after the change, and later to 20. Following the second increase, several previously undefeated 10-time champions were invited to compete again on the show.

Gold Rush/Gold Run

The same board layout was used, with the left and right sides now colored gold, and the object was to complete a path across the board within 60 seconds. Each hexagon now contained up to five letters, standing for the initial letters in the solution to a clue (e.g. for "RTRNR" and a clue of "He pulled Santa's sleigh," the solution would be "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"). A correct response turned the hexagon gold, while a miss or pass turned the hexagon black, forcing the contestant to work around that space to complete the path.

The bonus round was originally known as the "Gold Rush" and was played after each game in the match. A contestant/family team's first attempt was worth $2,500 if successful, and an additional $5,000 for the second attempt (dubbed the "Super Gold Rush"). Contestants earned $100 per correct answer if they failed to make a connection. When the format changed to a best-two-out-of-three match with $500 awarded per game, Gold Rush was played only after the match and was always worth $5,000.

In the show's 19th week on the air, the round's name was changed to "Gold Run".

1987 changes

When NBC revived Blockbusters in 1987, the solo-vs.-family pair contest was changed to two individual contestants playing. The champion represented white while the challenger represented red. Also, this version used a computer-generated board.

Again, the game was best two-out-of-three, with the advantage alternating between contestants in the first two games. If a tiebreaker game was needed, the board was reduced to a 4×4 field, with neither contestant having an advantage. Each win was worth $100. Contestants stayed until they won ten matches or were defeated.

The Gold Run was played exactly as before, with the contestant having to complete a left-to-right path within 60 seconds. The prize was originally a flat $5,000, but partway through the run it became a jackpot that began at $5,000 and increased by that amount every time it was not won. The jackpot reset to $5,000 whenever it was collected or a new champion was crowned. Throughout the run, the contestant received $100 per correct answer if he/she did not win.

The 1987 theme music was a stock music piece called "Run, Don't Walk" from the KPM music library, composed by British composer Richard Myhill but credited to the Music Design Group.

Home game

The Milton Bradley Company published a single home game edition in 1982. The front game play was the same as the show (with six possible board configurations to play with, although the arrangement of the hexagons was upside-down from what was used on the show). The Gold Run was also played with one of these boards, using only single-letter definitions rather than the multi-letter combinations frequently used on the television show.

Episode status

Both versions of the series are intact, and have aired on Game Show Network at various times. Reruns were first aired on CBN (now Freeform) from October 8, 1984, to August 30, 1985, and was the first Goodson-Todman game show (along with Card Sharks) to be rerun on cable TV, pre-dating the launch of GSN 10 years later. GSN resumed airing the Cullen version on December 2, 2013, but it has since been dropped. The Bill Cullen version began airing on the second day of Buzzr programming on June 2, 2015.

An episode was featured in the 1998 movie Great Expectations.

Reception

Cullen received an Emmy Award nomination for Best Game Show Host, his first ever, for hosting the show.

International versions

Country	Local name	Host(s)	Channel	Aired
Australia	Blockbusters	Michael Pope	Seven Network	1991–1994
France	Parcours d'enfer	Pierre Bellemare	TF1	1987
Germany	Supergrips (originally called Grips)	Frank Laufenberg (1988–1990) Ingo Dubinski (1991–1995)	Bavarian TV	1988–1995
Indonesia	Aksara Bermakna	Kepra Anton Gemilar	TVRI Antv	1989–1996 1997–1999
Israel	(פיצוחים (שעשועון (Pitzuhim)	Shosh Atari Avri Gilad Ito Aviram Anat Dolev Mennachem Perry Nahum Ido	Israeli Educational Television	1985–1995
	مسارات (Masarat)			1996
Italy	Doppio Slalom	Corrado Tedeschi (1985–1990) Paolo Bonolis (1990)	Canale 5	1985–1990
Jordan	Lo3bet El-Hourouf لعبة الحروف'	Zaid Al-Ali	Amman TV	2019–present
Netherlands	Blokletters	Fred Oster	AVRO	1983–1986
Paraguay	Blockbuster	Clari Arias	Telefuturo	1997–1999
Saudi Arabia	حروف Huruf	Ibrahim al-Qasim Majid Cub Ghanem Al Saleh Ghalib Full Salman Al-Otaibi (2017)	Saudi 1	1987–1994 1997–1998 2017
Sweden	2 mot 1	Stellan Sundahl	SVT1	1998–1999
Switzerland	Blockbusters	Sven Epiney	SF2	1997–1999
Turkey	Haydi Bastir	Mim Kemal Öke	Show TV	1992–1993
United Arab Emirates	حروف Huruf	Ibrahim Allan Fawzi Al-Khamis	Abu Dhabi TV Dubai TV	1988 1990–1994
United Kingdom	Blockbusters	Bob Holness	ITV	1983–1993
			Sky One	1994–1995
		Michael Aspel	BBC Two	1997
		Liza Tarbuck	Sky One	2000–2001
		Simon Mayo	Challenge	2012
		Dara Ó Briain	Comedy Central	2019

See also

• Hex (board game)
• Blockbusters (British game show), the longer-running British version based on the U.S. show

External links

• Blockbusters @ peasontv.com
• Blockbusters (1980) at IMDb
• Blockbusters (1987) at IMDb