Body Language (game show)

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Body Language is a television game show which aired from June 4, 1984, until January 3, 1986, on CBS. Tom Kennedy hosted the Mark Goodson production. Johnny Olson announced until his death in 1985; Gene Wood and Bob Hilton shared the announcing duties afterward.

Contents

[edit] Premise

The show pitted two teams against each other, each consisting of a contestant and a celebrity guest. The gameplay had two elements. The main gameplay centered around the party game charades, but contestants also had to solve word puzzles to win money. Each episode contained one full game.

[edit] Main game

Teams played separately, with the team on the left playing first. The one player went behind a podium, while the other went to the acting area in front of it. The actor had 60 seconds to get his/her partner to say as many of five words or phrases as they could. They could not talk or use props including their own clothing. They instead had to "pantomime" (as host Kennedy referred to it) the words. The actor could pass on any words he/she wished and come back if time remained. After a year on the air, a $500 bonus (not counted towards the score) was awarded if a team guessed all five words before time ran out (only used in the second round). The guesser was not immediately told what words they had missed because the round continued with a word puzzle. If an illegal clue was given during the acting time limit, the round immediately ends and the players get to then try to solve the puzzle. Should someone talk about the words after time has expired, that team loses control of the first guess at the puzzle to the other team.

The puzzle was a sentence or question with seven blanks was shown. Five of the blanks corresponded to the words or phrases that were acted out, and any that had been guessed correctly were revealed. The contestant then had one guess at what person, place or thing puzzle was describing. If the player was correct, they won money for that puzzle. If not, the player's opponent was called over to choose a blank to reveal and then make a guess. The two players alternated revealing blanks and making guesses until one got the correct answer and won the puzzle. If the players at the podium couldn't get the puzzle after all the words were revealed, then the players at the chairs (contestant area) would then have a chance to guess.

The game had two rounds with each team acting once per round. In the first round, celebrities acted, contestants guessed, and puzzles were worth $100. In the second round, the celebrities guessed while the contestants acted, and puzzles were worth $250.

The team that reached $500 dollars first won the game. It was common for neither team to reach that mark after two rounds, since the only way to do so would be to win one's own second round puzzle and steal his/her opponent's. A playoff would be played if neither team reached $500. In this round, there was no acting, and a new puzzle was shown. Contestants again took turns choosing a blank to reveal and guessing the puzzle until one guessed correctly, won the extra $250 and the game. The championship player was given the choice to start or have his/her opponent start. In the event the final $250 puzzle before the playoff went unsolved after all the words were revealed, the playoff puzzle would be worth $500 instead of the normal $250.

[edit] Sweepstakes

The winning team played a bonus round. Originally the celebrity of the winning team got to act; later in the run they had the choice of which team member would act and which would guess. They had 60 seconds to guess as many of ten words or phrases as they could. Like the previous rounds, only the celebrity and/or contestant (who acted) can pass on a word, and could comeback to it if time permits. Each correct word was worth $100. At the end of the first half, unlike the previous rounds, a contestant was immediately told what words he/she had missed. Were an illegal clue given, is was taken out of play for the rest of the round.

After the first half of the bonus game, a 20 second round was played with three words or phrases. If the team guessed all three, the money won in the first half of the bonus round would be multiplied by ten, for a possible bonus of $10,000; otherwise, they kept the money won in the first half.

[edit] Champions/Returning Players Rule

Originally, winning contestants returned for up to five games before being retired and losing contestants did not return. Beginning in September 1984, a new system was implemented under which players would remain until incurring two losses. It was initially explained that each pair of contestants would play best-of-three matches, however in practice, two losses in different matches still resulted in a player leaving. Under that new system, champions could stay on the show for up to six wins.

[edit] Notes

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • Body Language's puzzles were written by Steve Ryan, who also wrote all the puzzles for Password Plus, the questions and answers for Trivia Trap, who created Blockbusters and all the rebuses for Classic Concentration. He co-authored the Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows with David Schwartz and Fred Wostbrock. In 2005, Ryan released the best-selling paperback book, The Ultimate TV Game Show Book.
  • The show was based on another Goodson-Todman game show in 1975 called Showoffs. The show was similar to Body Language but it had no puzzles.
  • Later in the show's run, parentheses were added to the two words of puzzles that weren't acted out.
  • In the summer of 1985, Body Language had a month-long "Teen Week". The teens played the standard game, and each won a minimum of $2,500; anything over that amount went into a bond that matured on the player's 18th birthday. If the player didn't win $2,500 through the game, the total was raised to that amount. During Teen Week, getting all five clues in the main game within 60 seconds netted a special bonus prize, such as a Commodore 64 computer.
  • The buzzer used when time ran out or when a contestant and/or a celebrity answered the puzzle incorrectly and sometimes inadvertently say the word (when acting), was also known as the "groan" buzzer (this was also used in some circumstances on The Price is Right, most notably when a contestant goes over in either the Showcase, the Showcase Showdown and/or a few pricing games).
  • Two early episodes of Body Language featured future soap star Kassie DePaiva (billed as Kassie Wesley) as a contestant; she lost both of her games.
  • Body Language replaced the second run of Tattletales when it debuted in 1984. On January 6, 1986, Body Language was replaced by a relocated Press Your Luck, which itself was replaced by the Bob Eubanks hosted Card Sharks in its former timeslot.
  • Tom Kennedy's hair was noticeably graying when he started the show. However, he started coloring it because of his nighttime hosting duties on The Price is Right, explaining why later episodes have his hair being brown when earlier episodes have it getting gray.
  • Tom Kennedy hosted both Body Language and the nighttime The Price is Right at the same time. Both shows were taped in Studio 33 (The Bob Barker Studio) at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California.
  • The show originally used a superimposed Eggcrate display to keep time (and score in the bonus round). A few weeks in it became a superimposed LED display.
  • This was Johnny Olson's last announcing game show.
  • The sound effect that either a contestant or a celebrity used a prop in his/her clothing is the buzzer taken from both Password Plus later Super Password.
  • On one episode, Tom Kennedy chastised announcer Johnny Olson for correcting him by saying Body Language instead of Bawdy Language, at the beginning of every episode. When Olson said it the right way, Kennedy apologized after he didn't listen to him.
  • Both Tom Kennedy & Johnny Olson would become the short-lived host-announcer team on the syndicated version of The Price Is Right. After Olson's death in 1985, Rod Roddy replaced him.

[edit] Episode status

All episodes are intact, and the show currently airs on weekdays at 9:30 am Eastern Time on GSN.

[edit] External links

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