Scrabble (game show)
| Scrabble | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Robert Noah |
| Directed by | Chris Darley |
| Presented by | Chuck Woolery |
| Narrated by |
Jay Stewart (1984–85) Charlie Tuna (1985–90, 1993) |
| Theme music composer | Marc Ellis Ray Ellis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 1,230 (1984–90) 105 (1993) Total: 1,335 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Robert Noah |
| Producer(s) | Gary Johnson |
| Location(s) |
NBC Studios Burbank, California |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Reg Grundy Productions Exposure Unlimited |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | July 2, 1984 – March 23, 1990 January 18, 1993 – June 11, 1993 |
Scrabble is an American television game show that was based on the Scrabble board game. The show was co-produced by Exposure Unlimited and Reg Grundy Productions. It ran from July 2, 1984 to March 23, 1990, and again from January 18 to June 11, 1993, both runs on NBC. A total of 1,335 episodes were produced from both editions; Chuck Woolery hosted both versions of the series. Jay Stewart was the announcer for the first year and was replaced by Charlie Tuna in the summer of 1985, who announced for the remainder of the original version and the entirety of the 1993 revival.
All words used in the game were between five and nine letters in length. For each word, Woolery gave a clue that often involved a pun or play on words (e.g., "Some people want him to get off their case" for "detective"). Viewers could win a Scrabble T-shirt by submitting a word and clue and having them selected for use in the show's opening title sequence.
The first round of every game was the Crossword round, in which two contestants competed to guess words as they were laid out on a computer-generated Scrabble board. Originally, two new contestants played each Crossword, with the winner advancing to the Scrabble Sprint to face the reigning champion (see below). On September 29, 1986, as part of a broader format change, episodes were re-structured to include two Crosswords. The first Crossword was played between the show's reigning champion and a challenger, and the second Crossword was played between two new contestants.
A horizontal or vertical row of squares was outlined to indicate the number of letters, with one already filled in. In order to fill the rest in, the contestants drew from a rack of numbered blue tiles placed in the middle of the contestant desk. The contestant with initial control could either guess the word immediately or draw two tiles, inserting them into a slot in front of him/her. Each numbered tile represented a letter, and there were always three more tiles than were needed; for example, if a word had eight spaces to fill in, the contestants would have eleven tiles to choose from. These extra tiles represented letters that were not in the word, which were referred to as "stoppers".
After the contestant was shown the letters represented by the tiles drawn, he/she chose one to be placed. If the letter was in the word, the contestant could either guess the word immediately or have the second letter placed. If both letters were in the word, the contestant could either attempt a guess or continue to draw tiles.
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