Hit Man (game show)
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Hit Man was an American television game show that ran from January 3 to April 1, 1983, on NBC. Peter Tomarken hosted this Jay Wolpert production, while Rod Roddy was the announcer.
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[edit] Rules of the game
[edit] First round
Each game of Hit Man began with three contestants listening to a 3-minute short story about a specific topic. Peter Tomarken then read questions pertaining to that story once it was finished. The object of this round was to climb a ladder by answering five questions correctly. Contestants buzzed in to answer questions; each correct answer moved the contestant up one rung while an incorrect answer eliminated that contestant from the next question.
The first contestant to answer five questions correctly won $300 and the second player to do so won $200; both players advanced to the next round while the third player was eliminated from the game, leaving with only parting gifts.
[edit] Second round
The two remaining contestants competed against the show's returning champion in this round. A short story about a different topic was presented. After the story, each player was given a number of "hit men" to defend. The champion was given seven hit men, the first contestant to reach the top of the ladder in the first round was given four, and the second contestant to reach the top was given three. The object for the challengers in this round was to eliminate all of the champion's hit men, while the object for the champion was to eliminate both challengers' hit men.
The champion competed against one of the other two challengers in each question during this round. The first challenger to reach the top of the ladder in the previous round had the option to go against the champion first or allow the other challenger to go first. Once that decision was made, Tomarken started asking questions pertaining exclusively to the second story. If a challenger answered a question correctly, the champion lost a hit man; if a challenger answered incorrectly or failed to reply, he/she lost a hit man and lost control to the other challenger.
The champion defended his or her title by eliminating both of the opponents. If the champion lost all of his/her hit men first, the challenger who eliminated the champion's last hit man was deemed the winner, and therefore the new champion.
[edit] Triple Crown round
The winner of the game played the "Triple Crown" bonus round. The contestant had their back to a board with eight randomly-placed columns: one column had one square, two columns had two, two columns had three, two columns had four, and one column had five. It was up to the contestant to fill each square with a "money man" by correctly answering questions about both of the short stories that were presented during that episode.
The contestant was given 60 seconds to fill three columns with "money men" (each completed column was indicated by a crown above it (hence the title)). The contestant, not knowing how many spaces are in each column, would call out a column, and would be asked questions alternating between each subject. If a contestant answered any question incorrectly or failed to give an answer, that column could not be played anymore and a new column had to be started. The contestant won $1,000 for filling one column and $2,000 for filling two. If three of the eight columns were filled within 60 seconds, the contestant won $10,000.
[edit] Trivia
- Hit Man was one of three game shows to premiere on NBC on January 3, 1983, after the soap operas Texas and The Doctors were canceled. The other two were Just Men!, an equally short-lived show hosted by Betty White, and Sale of the Century, which ran for six years on NBC. In an additional coincidence, this was also the very same day that the pricing game Plinko debuted on The Price Is Right. Plinko would go on to become one of The Price Is Right''s most popular games.
- In the first round, when a player moves up one, a two-part sound was played: the first part was an electronic sound which would later be used to reveal a word on Super Password, and the second part was a high-pitched ding commonly used on Sale of the Century. The two-part sound followed the regular NBC bell, indicating a question was correctly answered. The player's buzzers in the first round has a sound effect that was similar to the buzz-in sound on Password All-Stars in the mid-1970s.
- On the series finale, announcer Rod Roddy gave a memorable contestant plug: "If you would like to be a contestant on Hit Man, forget it!" Randy West, who later became a game show announcer in his own right, was the champion of that episode.
- Peter Tomarken and Rod Roddy later went to CBS to become the successful host-announcer team of Press Your Luck, which debuted more than five months after Hit Man was canceled.
- Hit Man will never be seen in reruns because the films that appeared in the program were licensed for only one appearance. It is not known whether or not these episodes were erased, however.
