The Big Showdown

From RulesWiki

THE BIG SHOWDOWN
The opening title to The Big Showdown.
Airdates:	ABC December 1974 - July 1975
Host:	Jim Peck
Model:	Heather Cunningham
Announcer:	Dan Daniels
Producers:	Ron Greenberg, Don Lipp

Gameplay

Three players competed. At the start of the game, the host asked the players a question for one point and control of the board. The player that earned control then selected a category from a board of six, with each category being assigned a point value from one to six. The host would then read a question to all three players. The object was to score enough points to reach the "payoff point", which started at 8 points and had seven to eight points added to it each time it was hit. Doing so won a cash prize between $25 and $500, which was randomly determined after the new payoff point was established. However, a player was not allowed to go over the payoff point. This meant that a contestant could not choose a category whose value was more than he needed to reach the payoff, and was blocked out of any question whose value would put that player over. A player could even cause a double-block and get the question all to himself in this way. Two boards of categories were played, the second one culminating in a 90-second speed round in which all payoff points after the one already established would be worth $100 each. After the speed round, the two players with the highest scores advanced to the Final Showdown, with a tiebreaker question asked if necessary.

In the Final Showdown, the players were shown three new categories with point value from one to three. The player who led the previous round started with control, as the players attempted to score a payoff point of 7. The first player to do so won $250 and advanced to the bonus round.

In the bonus round, the player was given a special pair of dice, in which the sixes on each die had been replaced with the words "Show" and "Down". The contestant would roll those dice, and if he managed to roll "Showdown" on that roll, he automatically won $10,000. Otherwise, the point that was rolled ("Show" and "Down" counted for zero) was considered the player's point number. In that case, the player was given 30 seconds to roll as many pairs of dice as possible. If "Showdown" was rolled at any time, the player won $5000. Any time the point number was rolled, the player won $250 and got an extra five seconds to roll dice once the original 30 had expired. During the bonus time, the point number was taken out of play; only "Showdown" would earn any money. If the contestant failed to roll "Showdown" during the bonus round, he returned the next day, up to a maximum of five days.

Notes

• Although the odds of rolling "Showdown" on the first roll are 1 in 36, it was not until the show's 100th episode that someone managed that feat. It was done one other time during the show's run.
• The Big Showdown is best known for a blooper involving Jim Peck slipping on his way down the spiral staircase that he descended at the start of each episode. After receiving mock cheers from the audience and contestants for his gaffe, Peck went to his podium and responded, "Sure, you people would applaud a lynching!"