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Whew! 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 (his first such game show work). more...

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The game was created by Jay Wolpert. Production was initially credited to the Bud Austin Company, then later changed to Jay Wolpert Productions in association with Burt Sugarman Inc.

The show aired at 10:30am (EST) on CBS, with the previous occupant of that time slot, The Price is Right, moving to 11am to make room, where it still airs to this day in many parts of the United States. Its actual runtime, with commercials, was 25 minutes; the remaining time (in between the show and The Price is Right) was taken up by the five-minute CBS Mid-Morning News with Douglas Edwards.

Gameplay

Main game

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 would 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. 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, "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 which had not been blocked, Tom Kennedy would read the pun out loud, and the contestant would then attempt to correct the blooper; the contestant was not allowed to answer until after Kennedy finished reading the pun. (Unlike the Gauntlet of Villains, all puns were displayed on the trilons so the contestant could see it in written form.) 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.

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