Host | |
Allen Ludden | |
Announcers | |
Bill Armstrong Charlie O'Donnell | |
Broadcast | |
NBC: 10/4/1976–12/31/1976 | |
Packager | |
Lin Bolen Productions |
If your partner and you can follow the clues and say the name, you'll win the game and a chance to win $20,000! Now here's (insert celebrity name) and his/her contestant partner, (insert contestant name). And (repeat last part), all here to play STUMPERS! And here's the host of STUMPERS, Allen Ludden!
A highly short-lived game show similar to Password.
Premise
Two teams of two (consisting of one celebrity & one contestant) competed in a game of solving a series of puzzles called "Stumpers". Each Stumper has three clues, all to a person, place or thing.
Main Game
In the main game, one team tried to stump the opposing team by giving clues that are the least likely to solve the Stumper. One member of one team was shown the three clues but not the answer, and chose which one is the least likely to get one member of the opposing team to solve the Stumper. On each clue, the opposing player had five seconds to solve it; he/she can take as many guesses as he/she wished and as soon as he/she said the right answer, that player scored points for his/her team. But if that player can't, the giver chose another clue. Points were scored to the opposing team according to how many clues were given. If the giver managed to stump the opposing player on all three clues, the giving team had a chance to solve the Stumper themselves for the value of the first clue. If they can't do that, both teams were stumped and nobody scored.
Two rounds were played. In the first round, the players gave clues to the players across from each other (contestant to contestant & celebrity to celebrity). Each player gets two Stumpers (for a total of four). Round two was the "Double-Up Round" in which the point values were doubled and both players on the team gave clues to both members of the opposing team. Each team gets only one Stumper.
Scoring
Here's how they scored for each round:
Clue | Round 1 | Round 2 |
---|---|---|
First clue | 15 points | 30 points |
Second clue | 10 points | 20 points |
Third clue | 5 points | 10 points |
The team with the most points at the end of the game was declared the winners. If the game ended in a tie, a tiebreaker Stumper was played in which host Ludden gave the clues himself. The first team to buzz-in with the correct solution won the game. The winning team went on to play the Super Stumper round for big cash.
Bonus Game (Super Stumpers)
In the Super Stumpers round, the winning contestant's job was to solve 10 Stumpers in 60 seconds or less. The celebrity partner gave clues he/she thought were the most likely to solve with. Each time the contestant was stumped, he/she can ask for another clue by yelling out clue, allowing the celebrity giver to choose another clue. In the event the contestant failed to say clue before the celebrity gave the next clue, the team must surrender their chance at the big money. Each Stumper solved was worth $100 and solving all ten won the grand cash prize.
Contestants stayed on the show until they were defeated or won the bonus round twice. The first Super Stumper win was worth $10,000, and the second Super Stumper win was worth a total of $20,000.
Inventors
Bill Barr & Lin Bolen
Press Pics
Trivia
For unexplained reasons, the rule of having the winning contestant saying "clue" when not thinking of an answer somehow found its way to Password Plus. There was no penalty, however, for the celebrity immediately giving another clue.
This show premiered & was canceled on the same days as another NBC program called 50 Grand Slam with Tom Kennedy. Tom & Allen walked onto each other's sets to promote each other's shows.
The “time’s up” signal in the Super Stumper round was later used as the family pair buzz-in sound on the Bill Cullen-hosted Goodson-Todman series, Blockbusters.
YouTube Links
- Full October 4, 1976 premiere: Parts 1, 2, and 3 (Dick Gautier & Robert Reed)
- Clips from December 7, 1976 (Rita Moreno & Greg Morris)
- Clips from December 8, 1976 (same as above)
- Full December 31, 1976 finale: Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 (Anita Gillette & Bill Bixby)