Bumper Stumpers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bumper Stumpers was a Canadian game show in which two teams of two players tried to solve vanity license plates. It aired on the USA Network from June 29, 1987 to December 28, 1990, and was rebroadcast on Global Television Network from 1990-1995. It was produced by the Global Television Network and Barry & Enright Productions. It was created by Wink Martindale and was hosted by Al Dubois with Ken Ryan announcing.
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[edit] Main Game
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The game board. The Super Stumper
appeared in the centre monitor, while
jump-in plates appeared in the top two
monitors.
The goal of the game is to solve the Super Stumper, which is a plate with seven blank spaces. To start the game, the Super Stumper is revealed in the center monitor of a seven monitored game board, the clue for the Super Stumper is read, then the first blank revealed a proper letter or number in that position.
[edit] Jump-In Round
In the jump-in round, both teams were shown two plates on the top two game board monitors. Host Dubois read a clue pertaining to one of these plates (which is usually someone or something the plate belongs to). The first player to buzz-in chose which of the two plates the clue belongs to. If correct, the contestant's partner then has ten seconds to solve the plate; if wrong, the opposing team was given the chance to solve it. If a plate was solved correctly, the team doing so won the round; otherwise, the opposing team could try to solve it. If neither team solved it, another jump-in was played. The winner of a round earned a chance to solve the Super Stumper.
Note: Originally, the buzz-in player could decide to either let his/her partner play or challenge their opponents to solve the plate. That rule was scrapped when far more people wanted to play rather than pass.
In later episodes, a green light between the top two monitors was added. It lit up during a jump-in round to indicate when it's time for the contestants to buzz-in. This light was not lit (and hence the buzzers did not work) until after the clue was read (ala Jeopardy!).
Liz Orr was once a contestant on this show in the early stages of her game show career.
[edit] Super Stumper
(Example from the first show. The clue is "a plate that belongs to a pilot", and the Super Stumper would be: "O _ _ _ _ _ _")
The winners of each jump-in round chose which of the remaining spaces to reveal; they then had five seconds to solve it. Correctly solving the Super Stumper (which is in this case, O2BFLYN, or "Oh, to be Flying") won the game; otherwise the teams had to solve another jump-in. If a team could not solve the Super Stumper after all seven spaces were revealed, the opposing team had one final chance to solve it. If they missed, the game shifted into a speed round in which a new Super Stumper plate was played, and the teams alternated turns (starting with the team who won the last jump-in) revealing spaces in the new plate until one team solved it. (Originally, another full game was played with the new Super Stumper, with the value of the previous game carrying over).
[edit] Winning the Match
Originally the match consisted of one game with the winning team receiving $500 (plus $500 or double value for each game not won, whichever came first). The losing team retired after two losses. Later in the show's run, the format was changed to a best 2 out of 3 match with the winning team winning $1,000. In either case, the winning team advanced to a bonus round for the chance to win more money.
Winning teams were retired after five trips to the bonus game (originally ten, with the two-loss format).
[edit] Bonus Rounds
This show had three bonus rounds throughout the run.
[edit] Bonus Round #1
This game was split into two halves. In the first half, a team had 30 seconds to solve seven license plates, with each correct answer increasing the odds of winning the bonus round. If the winning team solved all seven plates in 30 seconds or less, they automatically won $2,000. If none of the plates were solved, however, the game ended immediately.
[edit] Final Stumper
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The game board setup for the
final stumper.
In the second half, the team played a round called "The Final Stumper" in which the seven monitors spelled out the word S-T-U-M-P-E-R. There were two versions of the Final Stumper.
[edit] Format #1
Behind some of the letters in "STUMPER" were money amounts ranging from $100 to $500. The remaining letters hid stop signs (the number of which was determined by how many plates were missed in the first half of the round). ($500 always goes first and each subsequent right answer added one of the lower money amounts to the board starting at $100 and ending with a second $500 space.) The contestants called out letters one at a time and banked whatever money was underneath them. If they accumulated $500 or more, the money won was doubled; however, finding a stop sign ended the game immediately. However, unlike most Barry & Enright shows using this type of game, a team finding a stop sign did get to keep whatever money was won in the bonus game up to that point.
[edit] Format #2
Although the first half remained unchanged, the Final Stumper itself was altered a bit. A "WIN" square was added to the dollar amounts, which still ranged from $100 to $500 (only this time they were added in descending order after the "WIN"). This time, in the tradition of Barry & Enright shows using this type of game, if a team uncovered a stop sign, they now lost the banked money; however, the team had the option to stop and take the money after each successful reveal. A team could win by accumulating $1,000 or more, or by finding the "WIN". Doing either of these won $2,000.
[edit] Bonus Round #2
The team was given 30 seconds to solve up to five license plates. If they guessed at least four out of five correctly, they won $200 plus a chance to solve up to three more plates should they choose to continue the round. Upon solving each of the three new plates, the team doubled their money (hence, the most a team could win was $1,600). If the contestants attempted to solve a plate and failed, or did not solve at least four of the five original plates before time ran out, the game ended and no money was awarded.
[edit] Bonus Round #3
In the final bonus round of the series, one member of the winning team was placed in an isolation booth while the other member solved five plates in 30 seconds. Each plate was a clue to a puzzle, and each one solved earned $100. After time expired, the plate solving player could decide to keep the money he/she won, or have his/her partner solve the master puzzle. In either case, the isolated player was brought back out and given an attempt to guess the puzzle. If the plate solving player risked the money, correctly solving the puzzle tripled the money for a maximum total of $1,500; otherwise they won nothing.
[edit] Sound Effects
The buzz-in sound effect was similar to that of a siren and was later used on Supertown Challenge. The time's up buzzer was taken from The $25,000 Pyramid, making this one of the only Canadian game shows to use a buzzer sound effect from another country.
Three bells were used over the series' run, each bell corresponding to the format of bonus round that was in use at the time. The first bell had a G note. The second bell, a C note, bears a striking resemblance to that used when a word was revealed on Password Plus and the buzz-in sound from the 1974 version of Now You See It. The third bell was an F♯ note.
