'' was an
American Game Show that aired on
CBS from
April 23 ,
1979 , until
May 30 ,
1980 . It was hosted by
Tom Kennedy , and announced by
Rod Roddy .
The game was created by
Jay Wolpert (his first creation after leaving
Mark Goodson - Bill Todman Productions to form his own company). Production was initially credited to "The Bud Austin Company," then later changed to "Jay Wolpert Productions in association with
Burt Sugarman , Inc."
Two players competed in the main game. They were told the categories for the first two rounds of play, and the challenger (or the winner of a coin toss in cases where there are no champions) decided who would "Charge" and who will "Block" for the first round. Whoever was selected as the first Charger was sent offstage while the Blocker was shown the gameboard. The board consisted of 28 spaces arranged in a 5x5 matrix, with an additional row of three spaces above these (see representation below). Behind each space was a "Blooper," a factual statement with a portion of it mangled to make it humorously incorrect, usually (but not always) in a rhyming fashion. The incorrect portion of the statement was underlined, and the Charger would have to correct only that portion of the statement to receive credit for a right answer. (For instance, "
Jeff Probst says on ''
Survivor '', '
The tribe has broken,'" would be answered with "The tribe has spoken," while the right answer for "The
B&O was the first American passenger
smell" would be "railroad.")
Once the Charger was offstage, the Blocker placed six Blocks on the board, which became five-second penalty spaces if called by the Charger. Blocks could be placed anywhere on the board adherent to these two restrictions: No more than three could be placed on any one of the Levels 1-5, and only one could be placed on Level 6.
After the Blocker made his or her selections, the Charger returned, and was given sixty seconds to correct one Blooper from each level, starting at Level 1 and working their way up the board, one level at a time. If the Charger picked a square that had been blocked, they were forced to wait for five seconds (the audience and host would count down the time) before choosing another Blooper on that level. Bloopers generally increased in difficulty only by dollar value, not level; that is to say, for instance, a $30 Blooper on Level 4 is theoretically no more difficult than a $30 Blooper on Level 1.
If time was running out and it appeared unlikely the Charger could make it through the board, he or she had the opportunity to make one last-ditch effort to win the round. By yelling "Long Shot!" the clock would stop and the Charger would immediately jump to Level 6, bypassing all of the levels in between. The Blocker would then get the chance to add a secret Block to that level, in addition to the one Block (if he or she chose to put one there) previously placed on that level. Once the new Block was placed, the Charger had one chance to reveal one of the three positions on Level 6. If the Charger, after calling for a Long Shot, found a Blooper and correctly answered it, they then won the round. If, however, the Charger incorrectly answered a blooper or uncovered a Block, the Blocker would take the round.
The Charger wins the round by either calling a Long Shot then correctly answering a Blooper, or finishing all levels within 60 seconds. The Blocker wins by either the Charger hitting a block after a Long Shot, or the Charger running out of time. If the Charger won, he or she won all the money attached to the Bloopers he or she corrected; if the Blocker won, he or she won all the money attached to whatever Blocks the Charger uncovered. This added an element of strategy, as the Blocker could theoretically place blocks on all the $50 spaces in the hopes of winning the theoretical maximum amount per board ($750), but the Charger could see this coming and go for the lower values instead.
The two players traded Charging and Blocking roles for the second board. A third tie-breaker board, if necessary, would have the champion (or the loser of the earlier coin toss, if there was no champion) deciding who would Charge and Block. The first player to win two rounds won the match and moved onto the bonus round.
In the unlikely event the Charger would go through all five positions on a given level without correctly answering one Blooper, he or she was allowed a free pass to the next level. However, by this point so much time would have been taken off the clock that it would be almost impossible to save the round without resorting to a Long Shot.
The winning player faced a series of 10 "
Villain s", wooden caricatures of stereotypical "bad guys," each of them trying to prevent the player from winning the money. The player's time limit for this round was 60 seconds, plus 1 second for each $100 won in the main game. (Thus, a player who won $1,100 had 11 additional seconds to go with the base time of 60, for a total of 71 seconds.) Host Kennedy read a Blooper in front of each Villain, and the contestant then had 2 seconds to answer it. (For this round only, all Bloopers featured only one incorrect word, and it was always the last word of the statement.) If the player answered correctly, he or she moved on to the next Villain; if not, the correct answer appeared in a monitor set into that Villain's "Telly Belly," and the player was held at that Villain until he or she gave a correct answer. The villains also had one arm which would stick out; this arm would fall down when the contestant beat that villain, allowing the player to advance to the next villain.
If the player reached the end of the Gauntlet, they won $25,000 (and retired from the show, $25,000 being the CBS "winnings cap" at the time for game shows featuring returning champions). If the player failed, they received $100 for each Villain passed. Early in the show's run, a contestant could keep playing until they either were defeated or won the $25,000. This was later shortened to a maximum of five tries at the bonus round (this has since been nicknamed the "Howard Wilson Rule").
Though rarely used on the air, each of the ten Villains in the Gauntlet had names. These were, in order:
- Alphonse the Gangster
- Bruno the Headsman (a Medieval Executioner )
- Mr. Van Louse the Landlord
- Nero the Fiddler
- Count Nibbleneck the Vampire
- Frank and his little friend Stein
- Kid Rotten the Gunslinger
- Jeremy Swash the Pirate
- Dr. Deranged the Mad Scientist
- Lucretia the Witch
About halfway through the show's run,
Celebrities were assigned as partners to either contestant. The teams of two (one celebrity and one contestant) alternated Charging duties between levels, placed 3 of the 6 Blocks each on the board, and each took half of the Gauntlet of Villains bonus round. Aside from these adjustments, no other changes in format were made.
During ''Whew!'''s last week on the air (May 26-30, 1980), the format was slightly adjusted so the show no longer "straddled"; that is, could end with a game or match still in progress, to be resumed on the next episode. Under these new rules, each episode began a new match between two teams (the "celebrity" format still being in place here), and if one team won the best-of-three match in two straight rounds, that team would play a special third round (what would have been the tie-breaker round) solo, with a pattern of Blocks randomly selected from a database of many different legal Blocking patterns by a computer (ostensibly programmed by the "Villains" of the endgame). This "bonus round" was played for additional money for the contestant, as well as additional Gauntlet time. These adjustments were made to help ensure that the series would not end in the middle of a game that could not be completed.
All episodes are presumed to exist in the possession of
Burt Sugarman , the current copyright holder of the ''Whew!'' program and format.
- Randy Amasia - won $26,190 on his first appearance which spanned two episodes (the final two acts of show #1, and the first act of show #2); later went on to become a one-day '', 2001 , from Throat Cancer , shortly before receiving a VHS videocassette of his $25,000 win (presumably from Burt Sugarman, as the tape was Watermarked with the words NOT FOR BROADCAST)
- Howard Wilson - player seven full games before finally winning the $25,000 in the Gauntlet for a grand total of over $36,000; Wilson's long run prompted the creation of a new rule : contestant must retire after either winning the $25,000 or running the Gauntlet five times (prompting Alt.tv.game-shows to unofficially nickname this rule the "Howard Wilson Rule"); Wilson went on to be a contestant on ''Jeopardy!'', however he finished in last place on his one and only appearance
- Steven LeBlang - the final ''Whew!'' player to win the $25,000 in the Gauntlet of Villains before the switch to celebrity players; LeBlang was a former poster on alt.tv.game-shows
A slightly reworked format of the Gauntlet of Villains was later used as the bonus round for the short-lived
Lifetime Television game show ''
Rodeo Drive '', also created by Jay Wolpert.
- ''"Close calls... Narrow escapes... Split-second decisions... And $25,000 in cash! A combination guaranteed to make you say... WHEW!"'' - Opening spiel, as provided by Rod Roddy (and a pre-recorded sound effect for the "Whew!" portion)
- ''"Close calls... Narrow escapes... Split-second decisions... And a chance at $25,000 in cash! All here on Celebrity Whew!"'' - Opening spiel, as provided by Rod Roddy, for ''Celebrity Whew!''
- ''"Giving me the level, and the money amount... CHARGE!"'' - Tom Kennedy sends another Charger off on a run up the board
- ''"I would now like to introduce you to ten of the most vagrants that ever stood between a person and his money, and here... they... are!"'' - Kennedy would custom-tailor this introduction of the Gauntlet of Villians with a different Alliterative phrase each time, and including the contestant's occupation
- ''"Charge on outta here!"'' - Kennedy would send the Charger for a given round offstage so as to not be able to see or hear anything while the Blocker is placing the six Blocks on the board for that round.
