Whew!

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Whew!
Genre	Game Show
Running time	Approx. 25 minutes (with commercials)
Creator(s)	Jay Wolpert
Starring	Tom Kennedy
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	CBS, 1979-1980
Original run	April 23, 1979–May 30, 1980
No. of episodes	Unknown
IMDb profile

Whew! was an American game show that aired on CBS from April 23, 1979, until May 30, 1980. It was hosted by Tom Kennedy, and announced by Rod Roddy.

The game was created by Jay Wolpert (his first creation after leaving Mark Goodson - Bill Todman Productions to form his own company). Production was initially credited to the Bud Austin Company, then later changed to Jay Wolpert Productions in association with Burt Sugarman Inc.

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Main game

Two players competed in the main game. They were told the categories for the first two rounds of play, and the challenger (or the winner of a coin toss in cases where there are no champions) decided who would charge" and who would block for the first round. Whoever was selected as the first Charger was sent offstage while the Blocker was shown the gameboard. The board consisted of 28 spaces arranged in a 5x5 matrix, with an additional row of three spaces above these (see representation below). Behind each space was a blooper, a factual statement with a portion of it mangled to make it humorously incorrect, usually (but not always) in a rhyming fashion. The incorrect portion of the statement was underlined, and the Charger would have to correct only that portion of the statement to receive credit for a right answer. (For instance, "Jeff Probst says on Survivor, 'The tribe has broken,'" would be answered with "The tribe has spoken," while the right answer for "The B&O was the first American passenger smell" would be "railroad.")

Once the Charger was offstage, the Blocker placed six Blocks on the board, which became five-second penalty spaces if called by the Charger. Blocks could be placed anywhere on the board adherent to these two restrictions: No more than three could be placed on any one of the Levels 1–5, and only one could be placed on Level 6.

After the Blocker made his or her selections, the Charger returned, and was given sixty seconds to correct one Blooper from each level, starting at Level 1 and working their way up the board, one level at a time. If the Charger picked a square that had been blocked, they were forced to wait for five seconds (the audience and host would count down the time) before choosing another Blooper on that level. Bloopers generally increased in difficulty only by dollar value, not level; that is to say, for instance, a $30 Blooper on Level 4 is theoretically no more difficult than a $30 Blooper on Level 1.

If time was running out and it appeared unlikely the Charger could make it through the board, he or she had the opportunity to make one last-ditch effort to win the round. By yelling "Long Shot!" the clock would stop and the Charger would immediately jump to Level 6, bypassing all of the levels in between. The Blocker would then get the chance to add a secret Block to that level, in addition to the one Block (if he or she chose to put one there) previously placed on that level. Once the new Block was placed, the Charger had one chance to reveal one of the three positions on Level 6. If the Charger, after calling for a Long Shot, found a Blooper and correctly answered it, they then won the round. If, however, the Charger incorrectly answered a blooper or uncovered a Block, the Blocker would take the round.

The Charger wins the round by either calling a Long Shot then correctly answering a Blooper, or finishing all levels within 60 seconds. The Blocker wins by either the Charger hitting a block after a Long Shot, or the Charger running out of time. If the Charger won, he or she won all the money attached to the Bloopers he or she corrected; if the Blocker won, he or she won all the money attached to whatever Blocks the Charger uncovered. This added an element of strategy, as the Blocker could theoretically place blocks on all the $50 spaces in the hopes of winning the theoretical maximum amount per board ($750), but the Charger could see this coming and go for the lower values instead.

The two players traded Charging and Blocking roles for the second board. A third tie-breaker board, if necessary, would have the champion (or the loser of the earlier coin toss, if there was no champion) deciding who would Charge and Block. The first player to win two rounds won the match and moved onto the bonus round.

In the unlikely event the Charger would go through all five positions on a given level without correctly answering one Blooper (aka "exhausting the level"), he or she was allowed a free pass to the next level. However, by this point so much time would have been taken off the clock that it would be almost impossible to save the round without resorting to a Long Shot.

[edit] The Gauntlet of Villains

"I would now like you to meet ten of the most treacherous travesties that ever stood between a contestant and her money, and here... they... are!"

The winning player faced a series of 10 Villains, wooden caricatures of stereotypical bad guys, each of them trying to prevent the player from winning the money. The player's time limit for this round was 60 seconds, plus 1 second for each $100 won in the main game. (Thus, a player who won $1,100 had 11 additional seconds to go with the base time of 60, for a total of 71 seconds.) Host Kennedy read a Blooper in front of each Villain, and the contestant then had 2 seconds to answer it. (For this round only, all Bloopers featured only one incorrect word, and it was always the last word of the statement.) If the player answered correctly, he or she moved on to the next Villain; if not, the correct answer appeared in a television set into that Villain's belly, and the player was held at that Villain until he or she gave a correct answer. The villains also had one arm which would stick out; this arm would fall down when the contestant beat that villain, allowing the player to advance to the next villain.

If the player reached the end of the Gauntlet, they won $25,000 (and retired from the show, $25,000 being the CBS winnings cap at the time for game shows featuring returning champions, of course, champions got to keep anything they win over $25,000). If the player failed, they received $100 for each Villain passed. Early in the show's run, a contestant could keep playing until they either were defeated or won the $25,000. This was later shortened to a maximum of five tries at the bonus round after Howard Wilson ran the Gauntlet seven times and finally won the $25,000 on his seventh attempt for a grand total of over $36,000.

Though rarely used on the air, each of the ten Villains in the Gauntlet had names. These were, in order:

• 1. Alphonse the Gangster
• 2. Bruno the Headsman (a European medieval executioner)
• 3. Mr. Van Louse the Landlord
• 4. Nero the Fiddler
• 5. Count Nibbleneck the Vampire
• 6. Frank and his little friend Stein
• 7. Kid Rotten the Gunslinger
• 8. Jeremy Swash the Pirate
• 9. Dr. Deranged the Mad Scientist
• 10. Lucretia the Witch

[edit] Celebrity Whew!

About halfway through the show's run, celebrities were assigned as partners to either contestant. The teams of two (one celebrity and one contestant) alternated Charging duties between levels, placed 3 of the 6 Blocks each on the board, and each took half of the Gauntlet of Villains bonus round. Aside from these adjustments, no other changes in format were made.

[edit] Final Week Note

During Whew!'s final weeks on the air, the format was slightly adjusted so the show no longer straddled; that is, could end with a game or match still in progress, to be resumed on the next episode. Under these new rules, each episode began a new match between two teams (the celebrity format still being in place here), and if one team won the best-of-three match in two straight rounds, that team would play a special third round (what would have been the tie-breaker round) solo, with a pattern of Blocks randomly selected from a database of many different legal Blocking patterns by a computer (ostensibly programmed by the Villains of the endgame). This bonus round was played for additional money for the contestant, as well as additional Gauntlet time. These adjustments were made to help ensure that the series would not end in the middle of a game that could not be completed.

After the final episode of Whew! aired, the series was replaced the following Monday by repeats of Alice, which would air until September 17, 1982, when it was replaced by Child's Play.

[edit] Episode Status

All episodes are presumed to exist in the possession of Burt Sugarman, the current copyright holder of the Whew! program and format.

[edit] Notable Contestants

• Randy Amasia - won $26,190 on his first appearance which spanned two episodes (the final two acts of show #1, and the first act of show #2). In 1986, he appeared on Jeopardy! and became a one-day champion. He was a frequent contributor to alt.tv.game-shows. He was the Web master of a Whew! Web site [1]. Randy died on December 12, 2001, from throat cancer, shortly before receiving a VHS videocassette of his $25,000 win. (The tape is presumably from Burt Sugarman, as the tape was watermarked with the words NOT FOR BROADCAST.)

• Howard Wilson - Howard played seven full games before finally winning the $25,000 in the Gauntlet for a grand total of over $36,000. Wilson's long run prompted the creation of a new rule: contestant must retire after either winning the $25,000 or running the Gauntlet five times (prompting alt.tv.game-shows to unofficially nickname this rule the "Howard Wilson Rule"). Wilson went on to be a contestant on Jeopardy!, however he finished in last place on his one and only appearance (and according to Matt Kaiser's game show site, was not happy about his experience).

• Steven LeBlang - Steven was the final Whew! player to win the $25,000 in the Gauntlet of Villains before the switch to celebrity players. He was a former contributor to alt.tv.game-shows.

[edit] Trivia

A slightly reworked format of the Gauntlet of Villains was later used as the bonus round for the short-lived Lifetime Television game show Rodeo Drive, also created by Jay Wolpert.

The theme song was composed by Alan Thicke.

The show aired at 10:30am (EST) on CBS. The previous occupant of that time slot, The Price is Right, moved to 11am to make room. It still airs at 11am to this day in some parts of the United States.

Whew! always ended its broadcast at 10:55am. The remaining time (in between the show and The Price is Right) was taken up by the five-minute CBS Mid-Morning News with Douglas Edwards.

KIRO, the CBS affiliate in Seattle never aired "Whew" due to the airing of Phil Donahue at that time slot (9AM - 10 AM) however people in the area could watch the show from Bellingham's KVOS (if cable TV was available). Also, Boston's CBS affiliate, WNAC (now NBC affiliate WHDH) also did not clear the show, but viewers could get it from WLNE in nearby Providence, RI.

[edit] Quotes

• "Close calls... Narrow escapes... Split-second decisions... And $25,000 in cash! A combination guaranteed to make you say... WHEW!" - Opening spiel, as provided by Rod Roddy (and a pre-recorded sound effect for the "Whew!" portion)
• "Today, two great stars and their contestant partners are going to have close calls... Narrow escapes... Split-second decisions... And a chance at $25,000 in cash! A combination guaranteed to make you say...WHEW!" - Opening spiel, as provided by Rod Roddy, for Celebrity Whew! (again w/the sound effect for the show's title)
• "Giving me the level, and the money amount... CHARGE!" - Tom Kennedy sends another Charger off on a run up the board
• "I would now like to introduce you to ten of the most [villanous vagrants] that ever stood between a [real-estate person] and his money, and here... they... are!" - Kennedy would custom-tailor this introduction of the Gauntlet of Villains with a different alliterative phrase each time, and including the contestant's occupation
• "Charge on outta here!" - Kennedy would send the Charger for a given round offstage so as to not be able to see or hear anything while the Blocker is placing the six Blocks on the board for that round.

[edit] External links

• Classic Game Shows: Whew!, created by a former Whew! contestant. Randy Amasia, who died in late 2001, won $26,190 on the show in 1979 (site now hosted by Michael Klauss).
• Whew! on The Tom Kennedy Page @gameshowutopia.net
• Interview with Whew! champion Howard Wilson