Pitfall (game show)
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Pitfall was an originally Canadian game show, hosted by Alex Trebek and announced by John Barton, that was syndicated for both American and Canadian audiences by Catalena Productions. The show was filmed at Panorama Studios in Vancouver and it ran for one season, from September 1981 until September 1982.
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[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Main Game
Alex Trebek asked the studio audience a question with four possible answer choices. Each member of the audience voted with a keypad for the answer that he or she believed was the correct answer. Trebek asked one of two contestants to choose one of the four responses as the most common response among those received by the audience. The second contestant chose a response from the remaining three. The player that chose the answer that a plurality of the audience members had chosen won a point. If neither contestant answered correctly, no points were awarded. On the first, third, and fifth points that a contestant earned, he/she was rewarded with a "Pit Pass" that could be used in the next round. The first contestant to five points or the contestant with the highest score when time was over won the round and advanced to the "bonus round".
[edit] Pitfall
The object of the "Pitfall" bonus round was for a contestant to cross a bridge in under 100 seconds.
The bridge had eight sections or "zones", three of which were "Pitfalls". Each safe zone was lit once, and each Pitfall zone was lit twice during a light show which was intended to distract the contestant from seeing and remembering the locations of the Pitfalls. If he/she remembered correctly after the light show, the contestant used his/her "Pit Passes" to pass over the Pitfalls when he/she reached them.
Once the Pit Passes were chosen, Trebek and the contestant rode an elevator to the top of the bridge, and the countdown from 100 seconds began. Trebek asked general knowledge questions at the contestant, who needed to answer one correctly before passing to the next zone. Each correct answer also earned the player $100.
If a player was about to cross a Pitfall, he/she would hand his/her Pit Pass to Trebek and continue to the next safe zone. If the contestant didn't have a Pit Pass and stepped onto a Pitfall, an elevator would take him/her back down to the stage level. To get back up, he/she needed to answer one of Trebek's questions correctly. The clock did not stop while the elevator sunk to the lower level (this effectively caused a 10-second time penalty); after a correct answer, however, the clock stopped as the elevator rose back to the main level. From there, the contestant needed to answer a second question in order to advance.
Crossing all 8 bridge zones in under 100 seconds won the contestant a $5,000 prize package (later it was changed to a $2,500 prize package).
[edit] Notes
Catalena Productions, which also produced the short-lived, early 1980s syndicated revival of Let's Make A Deal, went bankrupt before the end of Pitfall's run. As a result several contestants did not receive their winnings (a problem that also plagued the original version of Lingo in the 1980s), nor was Alex Trebek ever paid for his hosting duties.
Alex Trebek commuted between Los Angeles and Vancouver to host both Pitfall and Battlestars between October 1981 and mid-1982, the second emcee in recent game show history to helm a game show on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border at the same time.
