Pitfall

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PITFALL
The Pitfall logo.
Airdates:	Syn. September 1981 - September 1982
Host:	Alex Trebek
Announcer:	John Barton
Producers:	Catalena Productions

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Front Game 1.2 Bonus Round 2 Notes

Gameplay

Front Game

Two contestants competed. The host would ask a question with four choices to the studio audience, who would then vote on the keypads at their seats with their answer. Each contestant then chose which answer of the four they believed was most popular by the audience. The game's challenger picked first on the first question, and then that privilege alternated between the players for the remaining questions. The player that chose the most popular answer scored a point; the first player to score five points, or whoever was ahead after five minutes of play, won the game and advanced to the Pitfall Bridge bonus round. In addition, the player earned a "Pit Pass" for use in the bonus round upon scoring their first, third, and fifth point.

Bonus Round

The bonus round began with the player watching a light show involving the eight stations of the Pitfall Bridge. Each section of the bridge flashed at least once; those that were predetermined to be "Pitfalls" would also flash a second time during the sequence. Later in the series, this pattern was reversed. Afterward, the player would redeem the Pit Passes earned in the front game by selecting up to three sections of the bridge they would like to skip. The player was then escorted to the bridge, and the host began asking questions. Each time the player supplied a right answer, they were allowed to advance to the next section of the bridge. If the player had a Pit Pass for a particular section, they were allowed to skip that part of the bridge and move to the following one, but only if they offered the Pit Pass to the host. (On numerous occasions, the player would forget to give the Pit Pass to the host and ended up wasting that pass.) If the player advanced to a portion of the bridge that had a Pitfall, that section would drop to the studio floor as the clock continued to run. When the Pitfall reached the bottom of the stage, the questions would resume, and the player would have to answer another question right to stop the clock and bring himself back up to the top level.

If the player managed to cross the bridge in under 100 seconds, he won a prize package valued at around $5000 (Canadian). Otherwise, he won $100 for each section of the bridge he did reach. Later in the show's run, the fifth section of the bridge offered a small prize, and the prize package at the other side of the bridge was valued around $2500.

Notes

• This show was filmed in Vancouver, Canada, although it was syndicated both in Canada and the US.
• Many winners on the show failed to receive their winnings, as the production company went bankrupt after the first season.