Password (American game show)
A classic word-guessing game show with celebrity partners.
Password is an American television game show in which two teams, each consisting of a celebrity and a contestant, try to convey mystery words to each other using single-word clues to win cash prizes. Created by Bob Stewart and originally produced by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, the show has aired in various incarnations since the 1960s. Allen Ludden hosted every version broadcast between 1961 and 1975.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Game show
- Creator
- Bob Stewart
- Presenter
- Allen Ludden; Keke Palmer
- Announcer
- Jack Clark
- Lee Vines
- Bern Bennett
- John Harlan
- A. D. Miles
- Theme music
- Kurt Rehfeld (1961–1963)
- Bob Cobert (1963–1967)
- Score Productions (1971–1975)
- James Poyser (2022–present)
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Seasons
- 6 (CBS)
- 5 (ABC)
- 3 (NBC)
Facts from the source article.
Broadcast history
Password made its debut on CBS at 2:00 PM Eastern, 1:00 Central, taking over the slot from the courtroom game Face the Facts. A prime-time version followed in January 1962. Over the following year, both The Newlywed Game and Days of Our Lives pulled in better ratings. CBS daytime chief Fred Silverman pulled the plug on Password in early 1967. Silverman had wanted the show to relocate permanently to CBS Television City, where it had been moved for part of the 1966–1967 season to tape in color, since CBS’s New York facilities hadn’t fully converted. Mark Goodson resisted making the move to Hollywood permanent. For most of its daytime run, which ended in 1967, Password was taped in New York at CBS-TV Studio 52, later turned into the Studio 54 nightclub, and at CBS-TV Studio 50, now the Ed Sullivan Theater. The original CBS version made yearly trips to CBS Television City during the 1960s, including one when the New York studios were being upgraded for color. Over its run, the show used all four CBS New York studios at different points: 31, 33, 41, and 43. Goodson-Todman sold reruns of the CBS episodes to local stations in the late 1960s, and in some markets they did well in mid-morning or late-afternoon slots. That success led ABC to approach Mark Goodson about bringing the show back. This time, Goodson agreed to tape in Hollywood as ABC wanted, making Password the first Goodson-Todman show to be based in Los Angeles full-time instead of New York. The company would eventually shift nearly all its production to Southern California during the 1970s. The revival taped at ABC Studio TV-10, known as the Vine Street Theater, and at the ABC Television Center. ABC scheduled Password to replace the soap opera Dark Shadows at 4:00 PM Eastern, 3:00 Central, on April 5, 1971. It posted strong numbers against NBC’s Somerset and CBS reruns of Gomer Pyle – USMC.
Home games
The first home version of Password was released by the Milton Bradley Company in 1962, and the company put out 24 editions of the game up through 1986. Because of a common superstition, these editions were numbered 1 through 12 and then 14 through 25, skipping 13. This game tied with Concentration as the most numerous of Milton Bradley's home adaptations of popular TV game shows, and it continued to be produced well into the Super Password television era. Between 1979 and 1981, Milton Bradley also published three editions of a Password Plus home game, but they never made a version for Super Password. Starting in 1997, Endless Games has released seven editions of Password, including a children's edition that plays more like the various Pyramid shows, a special 50th Anniversary Edition in 2011, and a DVD edition that features the voice of Todd Newton and uses the original ABC logo on its packaging. Endless also put out a home version of Million-Dollar Password in 2008. GameTek released a computer version of Super Password for MS-DOS systems, as well as for the Apple II and Commodore 64, shortly before the TV series was canceled. A version for the Nintendo Entertainment System was planned but never came out. Tiger Electronics released an electronic handheld Super Password game in the late 1990s. More recently, Irwin Toy released a new handheld electronic version with a touch screen and a stylus for entering words. An online version of Password was once available on the now-defunct website Uproar.com, where players could join a party atmosphere with many other people instead of just one partner. However, as of September 30, 2006, that website no longer offers any game show-based online games. Interactive online versions of Password Plus and Super Password were once available from Game Show Network, where players could play along while watching the show. Like several other Goodson-Todman/Goodson game shows, Password was adapted into a slot machine by WMS Gaming. A simulated Allen Ludden hosts the game, with the voices and caricatures of Rose Marie, Dawn Wells, Adam West, and Marty Allen. One bonus round gives the player free spins; the other involves picking from four envelopes offered by the celebrities. Finding the Password envelope moves the player to a new level with four more envelopes, which are worth more prize money.
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