PDQ (game show)

PDQ (1965–69)

Dennis James served as the original host of PDQ, with Monty Hall stepping in at least once when James was unavailable, before Hall's own show Let's Make a Deal moved to ABC. The announcer was Kenny Williams, and Arlo Hults handled the music. For a long time, a rumor persisted that Bill Cullen took over as host later in the series, but only one reference—Alex McNeill's Total Television—ever made that claim. That rumor was effectively disproven by the existence of an episode recorded on October 3, 1968, which still featured James as host. Additionally, Cullen was based in New York City at the time, while PDQ was taped in Hollywood; Cullen did not move to California until 1978.

Each episode brought together three celebrities and one civilian contestant. Two of the celebrities formed the "Home Team," while the remaining celebrity paired with the civilian to create the opposing team, called "The Challengers." The game itself was a word puzzle. One player sat in an isolation booth and tried to guess a famous name, title, or phrase. Their teammate, standing at a separate game board, revealed letters one at a time as clues—starting with three letters, one of which was always the first letter of the answer. A musical tone sounded every few seconds, signaling the teammate to add another letter. If the guessing player correctly identified the answer after that tone, the team was still charged for the letter that would have been revealed next. Both teams took turns on the same puzzle, and the team that used fewer letters won. A tie counted as a win for the civilian and the Challengers. The civilian received prizes for each game the Challengers won. Kenny Williams noted that a prize "for just being on the show" was always given, so even if the Challengers lost every game, the civilian still left with something.

Each show included a three-game "PDQ Special" match, where special prizes went to the civilian if the Challengers won two out of three games. In another format, teams earned points based on the difference in letters used between them—a tie meant no points for either side—and the first team to reach 10 points won. In that version, the civilian won $100 multiplied by the difference between the winning and losing scores.

Baffle (NBC, 1973–74)

In 1973, NBC revived the PDQ game show format on weekday mornings, dropping the original sponsor and making some changes. The new version was called Baffle. Later that same year, the show was altered again, this time featuring only celebrity contestants, and was renamed All-Star Baffle. Dick Enberg served as host, Kenny Williams returned as announcer, and Mort Garson handled the music.

The goal was for a two-person team to guess a word or short phrase faster than the opposing team. In the first version, each team had one civilian contestant and one celebrity. In the all-star version, both players were celebrities. One teammate sat inside an isolation booth, while the other stood outside in front of a rack holding letters that spelled out the answer. The player in the booth could not see these letters. When Enberg gave the signal, the player outside took three letters from the answer and placed them on a board behind them, where the partner in the booth could see them. The first letter of the answer always had to be used, but the first three letters of the answer could not be chosen together. Also, letters that looked identical could not be used at the same time. For example, if the answer was "Boston Red Sox," the player could not pick B, O, and S even if the S came from "Sox," but B, S, and O was allowed. Breaking this rule added 15 seconds to the team's time. After placing the letters, the player outside used gestures, like in charades, to help the partner guess.

A bell rang every few seconds, signaling the player to add another letter from the rack to the board. The partner in the booth shouted out guesses until the correct answer was given, at which point the clock stopped, or until the 60-second time limit ran out. The same answer was then used for the other team. While the first team played, the player in the other team's booth could not hear any audio from the show. The team that solved the answer faster won a prize.

Episode status

The UCLA Film and Television Archive holds two pieces of PDQ history: the 1964 pilot and episode #826, recorded on October 3, 1968. That episode featured celebrity players Stubby Kaye, Jo Anne Worley, and Arte Johnson. The pilot is believed to be in the public domain due to the absence of a copyright notice, and it can be found on the Internet Archive. It likely came from the personal archives of the host, who kept recordings of every show he hosted. The same archive also holds three 1973 episodes of Baffle, from March 28, April 5, and April 13. A clip from the April 10, 1973, Baffle episode, featuring Hollywood Squares regulars Peter Marshall and Rose Marie, was uploaded to Wink Martindale's YouTube channel in June 2014. The full episode finally premiered there on April 4, 2025. Rights to the show and any future revivals belong to MGM Television, which inherited them through Filmways' purchase of the Heatter-Quigley library in the late 1960s.