Child's Play (game show)
| Child's Play | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Mark Goodson |
| Directed by | Ira Skutch |
| Presented by | Bill Cullen |
| Narrated by | Gene Wood |
| Theme music composer | Score Productions |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 258 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Chester Feldman Jonathan Goodson |
| Producer(s) | Mimi O'Brien |
| Location(s) |
CBS Television City Hollywood, California |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Mark Goodson Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | September 20, 1982 – September 16, 1983 |
Child's Play is an American television game show in which adult contestants tried to guess words based on definitions given by children. The Mark Goodson-produced series debuted on CBS from September 20, 1982 at 10:30 am EST (immediately following The New $25,000 Pyramid, which debuted the same day). That time slot was held by Alice for a little over two years. Despite running for almost a year, Child's Play was never able to make ratings headway against either Wheel of Fortune or Sale of the Century, two hit game shows that NBC aired opposite it; CBS ended the series on September 16, 1983 and replaced it with Press Your Luck, which performed much better for CBS.
Child's Play was hosted by game show veteran Bill Cullen. This was both Cullen's final game for CBS and his last for Mark Goodson, ending a 30-year association with the Goodson company as an emcee. Gene Wood was the primary announcer for the entire run, with Johnny Gilbert and Bob Hilton (who also announced on the pilot) filling in on occasion.
Cullen first plugged the show during his only appearance on Bob Barker's version of The Price Is Right.
Two contestants competed. The object of the game was to correctly identify words based on videotaped definitions given by elementary school-age children (ages 5–9). The game was played in two rounds.
In the first round, a word was given to the home audience, and a video clip of a child defining that word was played. (e.g., a child stating "It's something you use to unlock a door to a house or a car." to describe a "key.") Any incriminating words (including the word itself) were censored.
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