Pass the Buck (U.S. game show)
| Pass the Buck | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Bob Stewart |
| Directed by | Mike Gargiulo |
| Presented by | Bill Cullen |
| Narrated by | Bob Clayton |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Bob Stewart |
| Producer(s) | Sande Stewart |
| Location(s) | Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Distributor | Sony Pictures Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | April 3 – June 30, 1978 |
Pass the Buck is a game show that aired on CBS television's daytime lineup from April 3 to June 30, 1978. The series was hosted by Bill Cullen and was created by Bob Stewart. Bob Clayton was the announcer.
Gameplay
Four contestants compete to give a list of items that fit into a specific category announced at the beginning of each round. The bank for each game starts at $100. Each contestant gives one answer at a time, proceeding left to right, and $25 is added to the bank for each valid answer.
If a contestant repeats a previous response, fails to respond within the allotted time, or gives a response that the judges deem invalid, the next contestant in line can eliminate him/her by giving an acceptable answer. If consecutive contestants miss, an acceptable response by the next contestant in line eliminates all of them. However, if all the contestants give invalid responses, the category is thrown out and a new one is announced to begin the next round. A new category is also given whenever one or more contestants are eliminated.
When only one contestant is left in the game, he/she wins all the money in the bank and advances to the Fast Bucks bonus round.
Fast Bucks
The Fast Bucks round is played on a triangular board with four rows: one box on the top row, two on the second, three on the third, and four on the bottom. The winning contestant begins on the bottom row and is given a category with more defined answers (e.g., people from Happy Days, U.S. States). The contestant has 15 seconds to give as many answers as possible that fit the category, trying to match any of the ones on the current row.
Revealing at least one answer on a row allows the contestant to move up to the next one. The process is the same for the other rows. If at any time the contestant fails to reveal any answers on a row, the bonus round ends and he/she receives $100 for each revealed answer on the board. However, if the player reveals either all of the answers on one row, or at least one answer on every row, he/she wins $5,000 and becomes the champion.
The same four contestants remain on the show until one of them wins the $5,000 and the championship, at which point the other three depart (keeping all money won to that point) and three new challengers are introduced.
Broadcast history
CBS tried to make amends with packager Stewart for prematurely canceling his The $10,000 Pyramid four years earlier (with the top prize having increased to $20,000 on the ABC version since then) by taking Pass the Buck to replace Goodson-Todman's Tattletales.
The original (unaired) pilots of Pass The Buck were videotaped at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Manhattan during the weekend of May 7–8, 1977; its tapes were then placed on the network's shelves for almost a year until it finally decided to put the show on the daytime schedule.
At the start of its run, Pass The Buck looked to easily dominate Sanford and Son reruns on NBC (the program had already ended in primetime) at 10:00 AM (9:00 Central) and become a stable companion to The Price Is Right, the original version of which Cullen had finished hosting almost 13 years earlier.
However, NBC sprang a surprise three weeks later in the form of its first Goodson-Todman game since 1969, Card Sharks, whose winsome host Jim Perry and thrilling gameplay rendered Pass The Buck tame to many viewers by comparison. Card Sharks doomed Stewart's high hopes when Pass The Buck was canceled and simply ended after 13 weeks on June 30.
In what transpired as a trial run for its eventual syndicated success, Tic-Tac-Dough replaced it the next Monday, but ran only two months; the syndicated version continued until 1986.
Taping location
The show videotaped during its brief run at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, now the home of the Late Show.
Episode status
The series is believed to be intact. Game Show Network aired episodes of the series between October 11, 1997 and April 18, 1998.