PDQ (game show)
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- For other uses of this three letter acronym, see PDQ (disambiguation)
PDQ was an American television game show created by Heatter-Quigley Productions, which aired from September 6, 1965 to September 26, 1969, primarily on NBC-owned stations but in syndication in markets where NBC did not own a station. PDQ was named after its original sponsor, a flavored drink mix. The show and the product shared the same logo. Baffle was a reworked version of PDQ that aired on NBC from March 26, 1973 to March 29, 1974, without a specific sponsor.
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[edit] Host
Dennis James was the original host, with Monty Hall filling in on at least one occasion in James's absence before Let's Make a Deal moved to ABC. Kenny Williams was the announcer, and Arlo Hults provided the music. The contestants consisted of three celebrities and one civilian. Two celebrities were paired as the "Home Team"; the third celebrity and the civilian contestant made up the opposing team, which was known as "The Challengers".
[edit] Rules
These two teams played a word game that required quick thinking, where the object was for a player seated in an isolation booth to guess a famous name, title, or phrase posed by their teammate who displayed letters as clues (one at a time starting with three letters with one of them being the first) on their own individual game board. A musical tone every few seconds served as a signal to add another letter. Each team took a turn at the same puzzle, with the team using fewer letters winning the game. A tie was considered a win for the contestant and the challengers. Prizes were awarded to the contestant for every game won by the challengers. A prize "for just being on the show", in the words of Kenny Williams, was always included, so that even if the challengers lost every game, the contestant would not leave empty-handed. Each show featured a three-game "PDQ Special" match, with special prizes awarded to the contestant if the challengers won two out of three games. Another format had the teams score points according to the difference between how many letters used by both teams (a tie was considered a draw and nobody scored) with the first team to reach 10 points winning the game (the civilian contestant won $100 X the difference between the winning & losing scores).
[edit] Bonus game
A bonus round was played by the contestant towards the end of the show in which they had to identify ten words with only three letters each to work with (for example, BTR for betray, which was often missed), with only five seconds allotted for each word. Each correct guess was worth $25 or, if the challengers used fewer letters than the home team/score 10 points first, $50. If all ten words were guessed correctly in 60 seconds, in addition to winning $250 or $500, they would also win a car. Otherwise, the dollar amount won was redeemed for merchandise from the Spiegel Catalog. This was arguably one of the most difficult bonus rounds of any game show; very few automobiles were won.
For the game show, the initials PDQ were said to stand for "Please Draw Quickly."
[edit] Baffle and All-Star Baffle, NBC, 1973-74
PDQ ran for four years in syndication, from 1966 through 1969. In 1973, the format (minus the original sponsor) was revived and altered somewhat, re-christened as Baffle, and broadcast weekday mornings on NBC. The format was altered again for a further season in 1974, this time with all the players being celebrities, with a title change to All-Star Baffle. Dick Enberg was the host with Johnny Haymer subbing on occasion in Enberg's absence Kenny Williams returned as announcer, and Mort Garson was musical director. The futuristic looking set designed by Jim Newton marked the first use of neon on a game show set. The program premiered on March 26, 1973, with guest celebrities Arte Johnson and Barbara Feldon.
[edit] Rules
The object of the game was for a team of two players (a contestant and a celebrity player, in the original version, pairs of celebrities in the second) to guess a word or short phrase in less time than the opposing team. One player would sit in an isolation booth, and the partner would stand outside the booth in front of a rack, on which letters representing the answer were placed. These letters were out of view of the partner in the booth. When signaled by Enberg, that player would take three letters from the answer and place them on a board behind him or her where the partner in the booth could see them. (By rule, the first letter of the answer had to be used, but the first three letters could not (nor could letters that appeared the same - for example, if the answer is "Boston Red Sox", B-O-S could not be used even if the S from "Sox" was used, although B-S-O was allowed); a player who did so was penalized, with 15 seconds being added to their elapsed time.) The player with the letters would then make gestures, similar to charades, that would aid the partner in guessing the answer. Every few seconds a bell would ring, and the player would add a letter from the rack to the board. The partner in the booth would shout out answers until the correct one was guessed, at which time the clock stopped, or the time limit of 60 seconds was reached.
The process would be repeated for the other team, using the same answer; the player in the other team's booth could not hear the show's audio when the first team was playing. The team that solved an answer the quickest won a prize.
Four rounds were played; after two rounds, either the contestants changed partners or, in the all-star version, each team's partners switched positions. The team with the lowest total elapsed time won the game, and the "civilian" contestant went on to the bonus round. When it was all-stars, the winning celebrity team drew a card from the drum (filled out by the studio audience), the lucky audience member got to play the bonus round.
[edit] Bonus round
There were two versions of the bonus round. In both versions, the contestant had 30 seconds to guess words based on three letter clues given by Enberg, such as "GDN" for "garden." In the celebrity-contestant version, the contestant played up to five words; each correct answer was worth $50 plus three seconds toward a sixth, much harder, word, and the contestant won a car if this was correctly answered. Contestants could win multiple cars this way; at least one contestant won all five of her matches, went undefeated in the bonus round, and won five Chevrolet Vegas.
In the all-star version, there were nine words; the contestant won a prize based on how many correct answers were given, with the prize for eight always being a new car, and the prize for nine being the car, a trip, and $5,000.
[edit] Scheduling history
This revamped version of PDQ took the honor, dubious to some, of replacing the venerable Concentration on NBC's daytime schedule at 10:30 a.m./9:30 Central on March 26, 1973. CBS, whose Price Is Right led the 15-year-old game to its end, trotted that show off to afternoons and placed its new word-association game The $10,000 Pyramid at 10:30/9:30 that same day. Generally speaking, the Dick Clark-hosted Pyramid got the better of things in the Nielsens, although Baffle, which featured many regular celebrities from its sister, Hollywood Squares, fought heartily.
But NBC daytime programming head Lin Bolen needed that slot for Jackpot, and on January 7, 1974, she assigned Baffle to 12:30 p.m./11:30 a.m., where it had to shave off five minutes for a newscast anchored by Edwin Newman before the top of the hour. This excision, the strength of CBS' traditional Search for Tomorrow and the ABC game Split Second, and a replacement of civilian contestants with an all-celebrity format some months earlier brought all worked to bring the year-old game to a halt on March 29, with Celebrity Sweepstakes taking over the next Monday.
Both shows were produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions, a company best known for the highly popular 1960s and 1970s celebrity-panel game Hollywood Squares. Many of the celebrities appearing on both versions were fixtures on Squares and several other H-Q-packaged shows.
