Blackout (game show)
| Blackout | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jay Wolpert |
| Written by | Joel Hecht Jay Wolpert Jon Field Meredith Kornfeld |
| Directed by | John Dorsey |
| Presented by | Bob Goen |
| Narrated by |
Johnny Gilbert Jay Stewart |
| Theme music composer | Middle "C" Productions |
| Country of origin |
 United States
|
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jay Wolpert |
| Producer(s) | Joel Hecht Randall Neece Stacey Babbitt (assistant) |
| Location(s) |
CBS Television City Hollywood, California |
| Running time | approx. 26 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Jay Wolpert Productions Taft Entertainment Television Inc. |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | January 4 – April 1, 1988 |
Blackout is an American game show that was broadcast on CBS as part of its daytime schedule from January 4, 1988 until April 1, 1988. The program was created and produced by Jay Wolpert.
Bob Goen served as the host for Blackout. The show's original announcer was Johnny Gilbert, with Jay Stewart announcing for the last two weeks. This was Stewart's final announcing job before his 1989 death.
Two teams, each consisting of a contestant and a celebrity partner, played. One of the players was usually a returning champion and sat at a yellow desk with his/her partner, while the challenger's team played from a red desk.
The object of the game was to solve word puzzles that consisted of a sentence or short paragraph with four blank spaces, usually incorporating a pun or play on words. Each blank represented a word, and the object of the game was for one of the players to guess the word based on clues provided by their partner. A typical puzzle: "The _____ wasn't _____, he just had a _____ in his _____ ." With the words "sick," "code," "spy," and "nose," the solution would be: "The spy wasn't sick, he just had a code in his nose."
Play in the first round began with the red team. The celebrity was shown one of the four missing words and had 20 seconds to describe it, while the contestant donned a pair of headphones and his/her seat was moved forward to prevent him/her from seeing or hearing anything. The celebrity's comments were recorded; after time was up, the contestant was brought back into the game to hear the playback. However, the opposing team's celebrity could use a plunger on his/her desk, known as a "blackout button," to silence portions of the audio in an attempt to hinder the contestant's attempt to guess. The blackout button could be used for a maximum of seven seconds, with one extra second added for every instance of the celebrity repeating a significant word or phrase in his/her description.
If the contestant correctly guessed the word, he/she won $100. An incorrect response allowed the opposing team to guess, with the advantage of having heard the entire description. The team that guessed the word was then given a chance to solve the puzzle by filling in all four blanks; successfully doing so scored one point. If neither team guessed a word, it was put up on the board and play continued with the next word. Teams alternated describing the four words in the puzzle. Saying the word or any form of it in the description immediately awarded $100 and a free guess at the puzzle to the opposing team. If both teams missed the fourth word, Goen read a definition of it as a toss-up, and the first team to buzz in with the answer received the $100 and a guess at the puzzle. If the team that guessed the fourth word failed to solve the puzzle, their opponents were given a chance to solve it.
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