Blankety Blanks (U.S. game show)

Blankety Blanks
Created by	Bob Stewart
Presented by	Bill Cullen
Narrated by	Bob Clayton
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	50
Production
Running time	30 Minutes
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	April 21 – June 27, 1975

Blankety Blanks is an American game show that aired on ABC from April 21 to June 27, 1975. This Bob Stewart Production starred Bill Cullen as its host with Bob Clayton announcing.

Two teams are composed of a celebrity and a contestant attempted to solve puzzles and fill in "Blankety Blanks" in the form of puns. For example, the Blankety Blank response to "When Richard Nixon spilled coffee on Gerald Ford's lap, he said ____ ____" would be "Pardon Me!"

At the start of each game, a category and keywords within a puzzle was revealed. The puzzle had numbers 1–6 that each hid a clue to that puzzle, with each clue being one half of a statement. Cullen then pulled out a card from a rotating wheel of 100 situated next to him and placed it into an electronic reader, which chose at random one of the four players and a point value from 100–1000 in 10-point increments.

The chosen player (either the contestant or the celebrity) picked a number and the associated clue was revealed. Unlike some celebrity-civilian games of the period, the celebrity or contestant could not assist his or her partner playing at the moment. A correct answer won the team the designated money amount, but an incorrect answer or no answer at all resulted in the game continuing, with Cullen selecting another card.

Play continued until the puzzle was solved, at which point the team who solved the puzzle attempted to turn the points into money by solving the Blankety Blank. In this part of the game, the celebrity and the contestant were allowed to work together. Each correct Blankety Blank solve gave the opposing team a strike, with three strikes eliminating a contestant from the game. If a team failed to solve the Blankety Blank, no strikes were given and the point value in-play was held until that team solved another puzzle.

Starting with the fourth week, the number of cards in the rotating wheel was reduced to 60, the point values ranged from 100–750, and any points earned from solving a puzzle accumulated in a team's bank. Solving a Blankety Blank doubled the points in the team's bank. The first team to reach $2,500 won the championship.

The $10,000 Pyramid's success on ABC's daytime schedule since May 6, 1974 prompted the network to order another show from packager Stewart. Blanks replaced reruns of The Brady Bunch at 11:30 AM (10:30 Central), opposite the top-rated Hollywood Squares on NBC and the soap opera Love of Life on CBS. In an unusual move, when ABC cancelled Blanks, Brady Bunch returned to that timeslot in preparation for its eventual huge success in syndication later that year.

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