Break the Bank

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Break the Bank is a title that has been used for three entirely separate American game shows throughout television history.

Contents

[edit] The first version (1948-1957)

The first of these series was a long-running quiz show which aired variously on ABC, CBS and NBC from 1948 through 1957. It began on radio, and generally had Bert Parks as a host. Bud Collyer co-hosted from 1948 through 1953.

Contestants were drawn from the studio audience and brought up on stage to play a quiz game. The contestant was asked a series of questions worth progressively more money. One wrong answer was permitted, but two wrong answers lost the money to the bank. Question seven was the "Gateway to the Bank" worth $500, and question eight would win the contents of the bank which started at $1,000.

The record bank win was $8,870, until Break the $250,000 Bank was created in response to "The $64,000 Question" and other big money shows. However, this big-money version was to run for only three months (October 1956 – January 1957) and during this brief run no one was to come close to the $250,000 top prize theorhetically possible. The most notable contestants during this period were African American actress Ethel Waters, who won $10,000 she said would go toward back taxes, and two escapees from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, who competed in a special category, "Fight for Freedom".

[edit] 1976-77

The Break the Bank title was revived in 1976 as part of a celebrity-driven game show that, aside from the name, had virtually no connection to the previous series. This version debuted on ABC on April 12, 1976 with Tom Kennedy as host, running until July 23 of that year. The show then jumped to syndication on September 18, and ran until September 11, 1977. Jack Barry, co-producer of this show with partner Dan Enright, hosted the syndicated series. It was the first game show produced by the revived Barry & Enright Productions. Barry wore tinted eyeglasses during the syndicated series, mainly due to the strong lighting in the studio which hurt his eyes; this was the only time he would be seen with eyeglasses in his career.

On this version, nine celebrity panelists sat on the edges of a 4x5 trilon gameboard, so that each space on the board connected to two different celebrities. Two contestants, one man playing against one woman (ABC had returning champions) and playing in turn, called out numbered gameboard spaces from 1-20, which were then turned around to reveal either money ($100, $200, or $300), a money bag, a wild card (indicated by the "W" on a rainbow background), or an empty space. After the reveal, if it was a money space or wild card, the two celebrities "attached" to that space were posed a question by the host. Both gave different responses; one gave the correct answer while the other bluffed. The contestant's job was to pick the celebrity that gave the correct answer. Doing so put the player's symbol in that box (a moustache for the male contestant, or painted lips for the female contestant) and the right to pick again; if not, the space was covered back up and control passed to the opponent. Later in the run, the space was given to the opponent, unless it would give that player the win by default. That contestant would have to earn that box outright.

Note: If both stars gave a bluff answer, the question was thrown out, and a new a one was asked.

If the space contained a money bag, no question was asked; instead the player was given the option to claim it, or to give it up and select another number. If claimed, the player's symbol was placed in that box and control passed to his/her opponent. Blank spaces automatically ended a player's turn, while wild cards could be used as a match for any dollar amount on the board.

The board configuration was naturally different with each game, but always adhered to these rules: The $100, $200, and $300 spaces always connected to each other along one side (no diagonals), although two different amounts did not necessarily have to connect. Money bags and blank spaces were never adjacent to each other, although a money bag could be next to a blank. Wild cards could be anywhere. Each board contained three each of the three dollar amounts, five money bags, five blanks, and one wild card. On the syndicated show, the $200 boxes were increased to $500.

The object of the game was for players to uncover and earn three like dollar amounts. The first player to do so won the game, three times the money amount that was used for the triple, and a bonus prize. If however, the player won the game by getting three money bags, he/she instead "broke the bank" and won a jackpot of cash and/or prizes. On the ABC version, the bank was usually a cash jackpot that started at $5,000 and increased by $500 (later $250) for each game until won. On the ABC version, champions stayed until defeated or they reached the $20,000 limit. On the syndicated version, the bank was always worth $10,000 in prizes, which included a new car.

The ABC version had a straddling format, meaning that games would stop when time ran out in the show and had to be completed on the next episode. The syndicated version was self-contained: two players competed for the entire show with multiple games per show. With this format, the player who broke the bank first or won the most games became champion and played the bonus round. If time ran short in the middle of a game, both contestants would alternate turns with no questions being asked, and the first player to get three of anything won.

[edit] The bonus game

The ABC version featured no endgame, but one was added for the syndicated series. Here, the winner chose celebrities, each of whom concealed a different dollar amount. One of them, however, was holding a "BUST" card, which lost all bonus round winnings. The player could stop at any time and keep the bonus round winnings. Accumulating $2,000 or more before finding the "BUST" card augmented the player's bonus round winnings to $5,000.

[edit] Trivia

  • ABC did not cancel Break the Bank due to low ratings; indeed, evidence shows the series was just starting to catch on when the plug was somewhat abruptly pulled on it, a victim of ABC's expanding soap opera block. One Life To Live and General Hospital were each expanded from 30 to 45 minutes to cover the time.
  • The theme music to the show was called "Hustle The Bank" by Stu Levin. It would be used again on Jack Barry's The Joker's Wild during its $1,000,000 Tournament of Champions in 1980 and for a short-lived 1982 syndicated series called Soap World.
  • Johnny Jacobs announced the ABC Daytime version while Ernie Anderson announced the Jack Barry syndicated run.

[edit] 1985-86

Break the Bank was revived in name once again in 1985, and once again the new show was completely unconnected to the ones that came before. It debuted September 16 in syndication with Gene Rayburn as host, but by December 20th, he was fired due to a dispute with the producers over its production. Rayburn was replaced by Joe Farago the following Monday. The co-host for most of the run was Julie Hayek (Kandace Kuehl was to co-host for the first week).

In this version, two couples competed to break the bank. There were two formats to the show.

[edit] Format #1

The couples competed for "seconds" which would be used in the bonus round. Six questions were asked, the answers to which were one-word clues to a master puzzle.

[edit] Values of Seconds

Each correct answer was worth different amounts of seconds as follows:

1st - 5 seconds
2nd - 10 seconds
3rd - 20 seconds
4th - 40 seconds
5th - 80 seconds
6th - 100 seconds

[edit] Puzzle Solving

In addition to the seconds, the couple with a correct answer could either take a chance at solving the puzzle or answer another question for more seconds. A correct solution to the puzzle won the round, but an incorrect solution gave the opposing couple a chance to answer the next question unopposed. The first couple to solve two puzzles won the game. If the game ended in a tie, one last round was played but without questions. Each clue to the puzzle was revealed one at a time until one couple buzzed in to solve it. The first couple to solve that puzzle won the game plus an extra 30 seconds.

[edit] The Prize Vault

The winning couple took the seconds they earned and entered them into the bonus game area known as "The Prize Vault". They used this time to participate in various knowledge/skill-based stunts in the endgame's Prize Vault. Each completed stunt earned a bonus prize, as well as a choice of up to five "Bank Cards" for each stunt. During this round, one event was randomly selected to be played for more than one bank card; when that event was chosen, one of the players ran over to the "Number Jumbler" which shuffled numbers from 0-5. The contestant pressed a button to stop the Number Jumbler to determine how many extra bank cards that stunt was worth. This process continued until all the seconds were used up.

After earning Bank Cards, the winning couple took them to bank vault to see if they can "break the bank". The couple fed them, one at a time, into an electronic reader to see if it contained the numerical code that would "break the bank". The couple could stop at any time and take a cash and/or prize buyout in exchange of the remaining bank cards in their hands. The bank in question is an accruing jackpot of cash and prizes that started at $20,000 and increased every day until won. Each day a couple returned to the Prize Vault, the number of possible Bank Cards was reduced.

[edit] Format #2

Not long after Farago took over as host, the format was adjusted somewhat. In the revised version, correct answers were now worth money instead of seconds, and the game was played to $2,000.

This is how the scoring worked in the new format:

Round 1 - $100
Round 2 - $200
Round 3 & Beyond - $400 per solved puzzle

In each of the first two rounds, whoever solved the puzzle won a bonus prize as well.

[edit] The Bonus Game

Whomever reached $2,000 first wins. The winners kept the money won, earned one Bank Card to start with, and played the "Master Puzzle" to earn up to ten more. All forty Bank Cards were displayed on a stand in the Prize Vault, and could now each be worth a different prize or cash amount if they didn't break the bank. The couple could stop at any time and take the cash and prizes accumulated in the round up to that point; however, one card in the mix read "BANKRUPT". If this was picked, the couple lost everything they had won in the bonus round up to that point. As before, one card still broke the bank, and if the team didn't break the bank, and returned to the bonus round, the appropriate number of cards earned in the previous trip to the bonus round were taken out of the mix. However, the BANKRUPT card would always be in the mix, even if was picked previously.

[edit] Champions Rule

For the first few months of the 80s run, teams stayed on until they won $75,000 or more, or until defeated. Any overage of winnings was donated to the team's favorite charity. Later on, when the rules were changed, any team who broke the bank retired as undefeated champions.

[edit] Rerun/Episode Status

CBN aired reruns of the Joe Farago episodes in 1987. Due to legal issues surrounding Gene Rayburn's dismissal from Break the Bank, his episodes have never reran (at his request).

The Game Show Network aired the 1976 version of Break The Bank during the "The Dark Period". Within a year or so after the Dark Period ended, Game Show Network aired several scattered episodes of the syndicated Barry version.

All rerun episodes of BTB (1976 and 1986 versions) still exist.

[edit] Trivia

  • The puzzle board was on the Prize Vault doors. The game board logos on the clue monitors spun around when the show began, and when the doors opened.
  • The contestant podiums were placed at an awkward position, sort of to the right of the Prize Vault rather than directly facing it which meant the couples had to turn their heads a little to see the clues

[edit] External links

[edit] 1976

[edit] 1985

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