Password with Alan Ludden
Thanks! Now I know what it wasn’t called - wonder what it was? If no one else recalls a show that had contestants in swimsuits taking rubber rafts to picture perfect tiny islands trying to fit a key into a treasure chest, I suppose I’ll always wonder.
Any chance it was Crystal Maze? (I can’t link easily; you’ll have to look it up).
I loved that show! Tom Kennedy’s version was much faster-paced than Monty Hall’s.
I remember one episode in particular that went right down to the wire. One of the contestants was a really sharp woman who was majoring in Russian at (IIRC) USC. She pounced on the buzzer when
**Government paper
Party paper
News agency
**
came up on the board. Before Kennedy could finish the question (“Name these three things of the Soviet Union”) she’d given the correct answers (Izvestiya, Pravda, TASS) and won her fifth game!
I’m pretty sure this was in 1972, because I had just started learning Russian too.
And even if it is, it may depend on your cable service. AT&T U-Verse and DirecTV, for example, do not carry broadcast stations’ “subchannels,” which is how Buzzr is broadcast.
I don’t know about swimsuits, but it sounds like you are describing a 1968 ABC show called Treasure Isle, but I think the rubber rafts and the treasure chest were two different parts. In one part, each husband of the two husband-and-wife teams had to move a rubber raft around and pick up one of three answers to a question, while blindfolded (the wives were calling out directions), and I think the treasure chest was part of the bonus round for the winners.
Missed the edit window…
Here is an episode, although it is in black and white.
[quote=“NetTrekker, post:61, topic:789056”]
Password with Alan Ludden
[/QUOTE]My fav when I was in high school was another Allen Ludden show from the 1960s - College Bowl. Two teams from various colleges squared off every week. The questions were challenging, and for me getting 3 or 4 right every show felt like a major accomplishment. A few episodes are available on YouTube.
And I just beat both USC and Barnard by knowing the exact first line of Caesar’s Commentaries in Latin - GO ME !!! 
[quote=“NetTrekker, post:61, topic:789056”]
Password with Alan Ludden
[/QUOTE] I remember a brief period in the late 1970's when Allen Ludden's name was code for dullness:Q: What do you get when you cross Allen Ludden with cardboard?
A: Cardbored.
Q: What’s Allen Ludden’s CB handle?
A: The click when you turn the radio off.
I think it may have been Mad Magazine (possibly National Lampoon?) with a paper puzzle pieces (all irregular) that could supposedly be assembled or folded into a square (they could not)…turned out to be a picture of Allen Ludden.
Thank you! That must be it, and I had details very confused.
Not just a square, but a **perfect **square! It was in MAD.
He was “the most perfect square” they could think of! 
[quote=“NetTrekker, post:61, topic:789056”]
Password with Alan Ludden
[/QUOTE]The episode of ***Password ***I remember best was one with Max Baer, Jr, aka “Jethro Bodine” (unfortunately, I don’t remember who his celebrity opponent was).
The password was “Zone.” Neither Max nor his opponent could think of the obvious clue, and the **only **thing Max could think of was “End.” He repeated it over and over again.
(I must have been 10 or 11 at the time, and not being a sports fan, I didn’t get the reference either.)
Finally, after the celebrities had exhausted all their opportunities, Alan Ludden said “May I try something here? ‘TWILIGHT!’”
It was a real DUH! :smack: moment all around.
The one I remember second best had Juliet Prowse, the dancer, as one of the celebrities. They had to stop the lightning round because she, as a South African, didn’t know what “Caboose” meant. Her counterpart (a guy; which one, I don’t recall) had to take over and finish the round for her.
Whenever someone starts crowing about Alex Trebek/Jeopardy, I mention the game show he had in the early '70s with the giant pinball machine (I just found the name on Google–“The Magnificent Marble Machine.”). I remember a HUGE porn-star mustache, a sorta-afro and polyester bell-bottomed suits.
This Magnificent Marble Machine? You sure you’re not thinking of The Wizard of Odds or High Rollers?
Nope. Alex was a frequent “celebrity contestant.” (I thought he was the host, but not so; he was just on it a lot. With the BIG 'stache.)
Ah, that explains it. 
I watched that just to make sure. I guess the attitude toward television he’s now famous for – well, for the last several decades – was slow to develop.
But, FWIW, I take my hat off to Mr. Ludden. He lassoed Betty White, in her natural prime.
I loved To Tell the Truth–especially when the other 2 were asked questions so far in right field that it essentially turned into a game of “Balderdash”.
Even better is when that happened and the panelists believed the other 2 over the one who wasn’t talking out of his/her ass.
As far as could be demonstrated, and I’m quite sure the producers tried very hard to attempt to demonstrate this, Michael Larson did not “scam” Press Your Luck. He simply played the game with more skill than the producers had anticipated. He took no actions that were not within the rules of the game. See this documentary on YouTube.