BLANKETY BLANKS

	Bill Cullen
	Bob Clayton
	Elysee Theater in New York
	(ABC) 21-April-75 / 27-June-75

Blankety Blanks was a game of puns hosted by BSP mainstay Bill Cullen.  The object of the game was for a team, consisting of one celebrity and one contestant, to solve a "Blankety Blank"--a pun with key words missing (being the blanks).  However, to be allowed a chance to solve a "Blankety Blank," one member of a team had to solve an unrelated puzzle.

 Sitting next to host Bill Cullen was a turntable with 100 cards.  Bill would pull one out at random and stick it inside of his electric eye machine.  The machine would read which of the four players would play, and for how many points (between 300 and 1000).  The player selected would select one of six half-clues and after it was revealed, would guess at the subject (the subject had a clue in it) and if right, would play a "Blankety Blank."  If wrong, another card would be chosen and the game continued.

Example of a clue (courtesy of a promotional picture in EoTVGS Volume 2, probably the pilot):

Answer: Psycho

A "Blankety Blank" (from the premiere):

Answer: Twister

Art Kurtz explains the rule change beginning Week 4:

"[There were now] only 60 cards...15 punch cards per position.  No more strikes...I distinctly remember a metal plate covering the strike indicators.  The mini puzzle was solved and the amount went into the bank but now the Blankety Blank was not solved to win the money, it was to simply double the amount just added. Play continued until a team reached $2,000. The contestant kept $2,000 and played another game as champion. (The loser did not keep any money accumulated on their bank in the game they lost - a new player got nothing but consolation prizes and if a champ lost they just kept money won (in $2000 increments) in games they won.)

"In the old way almost all players got some money by solving one Blankety Blank before three strikes.  I liked it better the original way.  It wasn't big money but a fun game."

The Encyclopaedia of Television Game Shows' recap of Blankety Blanks recaps only the second format only. The sudden format change and the fact that it was placed against the perennial favorite The Hollywood Squares limited the show to just over 2 months on the air.

MEMORIES OF THE SHOW

Art Kurtz remembers Blankety Blanks:

"The photo of the Blankety Blanks set reminded me of a funny memory of an episode.  The Elysee Theater (ABC-TV 15) was in an awful place on West 58 Street.  You may remember (or heard that) fire engines often were heard during ABC's Pyramid; there was a firehouse across the street.  During one broadcast of Blankety Blanks, there was a horrible staticy sound.  I thought there was something wrong with my TV when Bill Cullen said: 'Gee, It's raining in New York.'

"It sounded like there was a tin roof.  At the time I had no idea that this was the same place Pyramid was taped!  Pyramid never had that loud rain!  It was really bad -- you could hardly hear the show.  Though I liked Blankety Blanks I almost changed the channel.

"I have a good friend who also watched Blankety Blanks...  To this day when it's raining hard here our 'inside joke' is 'It's raining in New York'.

"Sadly the Elysee is long gone... Torn down soon after The $50,000 Pyramid ended... I guess I was one of the last audience members there.  It was replaced first with a parking lot, then with a school.  Too bad the NY Landmark Preservation Law didn't protect it. (It did protect the Ed Sullivan Theater.)"

EPISODE GUIDE

Thanks to Brendan "Beatmaster" McLaughlin for the celebrity guide!

Blankety Blanks had the usual assortment of mid-70s Bob Stewart Celebrities, and the only one that sticks out as being "irregular" is the mid-May appearance of Larry Blyden. Less than a month later, Larry Blyden would be killed in a car accident. Larry's only other known Bob Stewart celebrity experience was on the May 28, 1973 week of The $10,000 Pyramid. Interestingly enough, each celebrity that played Blankety Blanks had played either The $10,000 Pyramid or The $25,000 Pyramid previously.

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