The Hollywood Squares is a American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money and prizes. The "board" for the game is actually a 3 X 3 = 9 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a star seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions and the contestants judge the veracity of their answers in order to win the game.

Although The Hollywood Squares is a legitimate game show at its best the game is simply the background for the show's comedy. The show is scripted in the sense that the panel of celebrities know the questions in advance and are provided with answers and suggestions for bluffs and jokes are known as Zingers. Typically, a star's first answer to a question is a humorous one (or at least an attempt at a humorous one). This is then followed by the true answer or bluff. It must be stressed that this does not mean the actual gameplay is scripted or predetermined as the onus is still on the contestant to determine whether or not the provided answer to a question is the correct one.

Basic rules

Although there have been variations over the years in the rules and the prize-winning aspects of the game, certain aspects of the game remained fairly consistent. 2 contestants, a woman playing Os (noughts) as "Miss Circle" and the man playing Xs (crosses) "Mister X", take turns picking a star and following the traditional tic-tac-toe strategies for which square to select. The star is asked a question and gives an answer. The contestant has the choice of agreeing with the celebrity or disagreeing if they think the star's bluffing aka Zingers. If the contestant is right, he or she gets the square; if wrong, the other contestant gets the square, unless that causes the opponent to get 3-in-a-row. In that case, the opponent has to win the square on his or her own. A player can also win by getting 5 of his or her symbols "X" or "O" on the gameboard (thus preventing "cat's games" or ties); this is called a "5-square win."

Peter Marshall's explanation of the rules was legendary: "Object for the players is to get 3 stars in a row; either across, up-and-down or diagonally. It is up to them to determine if a star is giving a correct answer or just making it up; that's how they get the square."


Original version
The show's greatest success was during its original run. In its heyday in the early 1970s, it was the most popular daytime show in the country and a platform for the stars to promote their work which seemed almost as popular as Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.

The show got its beginning as a black-and-white pilot episode filmed for CBS in 1965. That pilot was hosted by Bert Parks with the squares occupied by Cliff Arquette in his "Charley Weaver" comic persona, Wally Cox, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Abby Dalton, Jim Backus, Gisele MacKenzie, Robert Q. Lewis and Vera Miles. The first five of the initial panelists were to later appear on the first broadcast show (October 17, 1966) and become all 5 of its initial regulars on NBC-TV.

CBS shot a second pilot hosted by Sandy Baron, but choose not to follow-up with either host. A year later, NBC acquired the rights to the show and chose Peter Marshall as host, a job he held for fifteen years until 1981.

The show also ran at night, 1st on NBC as a 1968 mid-season replacement for the short-lived sitcom "Accidental Family," then as a nighttime syndicated entry running from November 1, 1971 to September 11, 1981. The latter version ran once a week at 1st, then twice a week and was a 5-day entry in its final season.

Paul Lynde, in addition to his recurring role as "Uncle Arthur (Winsome)" on Bewitched had his greatest fame as the coveted "center square" throughout most of the original show's run. But he was not (as is commonly believed) the first person to take that position; Ernest Borgnine held that honor. However, on January 12, 1968 after two years on the show, Lynde became the regular center square. Lynde was the only panelist on the show to win 2 daytime Emmy Awards in 1974 and 1978. Other regulars and semi-regulars over the years included Nanette Fabray, Kaye Ballard, John Davidson, Wally Cox, Cliff Arquette ("Charley Weaver"), Morey Amsterdam, Florence Henderson, Marty Allen, Wayland Flowers, George Gobel, Vincent Price, Jan Murray, Rose Marie, Charo, Sandy Duncan, Jonathan Winters, Karen Valentine, Roddy McDowall and Joan Rivers. Lynde left the series on August 27-31 1979, but returned when the series relocated to Las Vegas in the 1980-81 season.

The daytime series was played as a best 2-out-of-3 match between a returning champion and a challenger, with each individual game worth $200, the match worth $400 & all the 5 matches wins $2000 and a new car going to a 5-match winner. Early in the 1st season from October 17, 1966 to February 10, 1967 each game collected $100 with the winner of the match rewarding a $300 bonus for a total of $500. Beginning in 1976, an "endgame" of sorts was added here, the champion simply selected a star each of whom held an envelope to earn the prize concealed within. (The "real" prize here, however was a $5000 in cash award.) Both the syndicated and NBC primetime version featured the same two contestants playing for the entire half-hour with each completed game worth $300 (NBC primetime) or $250 (syndicated). If time ran out with a game still in progress (signaled by a very loud and annoying horn), each X or O on the board at that point was worth an additional $50 to the players. The player with the most money at the end of the show won a bonus prize which on the syndicated series was usually a new car.

The "Secret Square" round was played as the 1st or 2nd game on a given broadcast (or the first complete game if a show began with one already in progress) during the daytime series. In this game, 1 of the 9 stars was selected at random (and revealed to the home audience only) as the "Secret Square" and if that panelist was picked during this game, the contestant who picked him or her could win a bonus prize package for correctly agreeing or disagreeing with the star ("The Secret Square" started at from $1000 to $1500 in cash and-or prizes and added valued prizes & cash are placed after losing 1 game and so on for the 1966 to 1980 show). For the syndicated version, initially the 1st 2 and later the 1st 3 games were all "Secret Square" games ("The Secret Square" valued from $2000 to $7000 on the syndicated show from 1971 to 1981).

On June 20, 1980: THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES are cancelled on NBC and 3 days later... The daytime version of the show was replaced by NBC on June 23, 1980 along with Chain Reaction and High Rollers by a short-lived talk show hosted by David Letterman. The Stars for the 3536th and last NBC-TV broadcast consisted of Rose Marie (the only person other than Peter Marshall to appear on both the first and last network broadcasts), Tom Poston, Michelle Lee, Vincent Price, Leslie Uggams, George Gobel, Marty Allen, Charlie Callas and Wayland Flowers (with "Madame") in the Center Square. Squares ran for one more year in syndication (this last year of shows was taped at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada) before it was canceled for good.

Peter Marshall wrote about his experiences on the show in the 2002 book Backstage With The Original Hollywood Square [sic] (ISBN 1558539808).

The 1st theme song used from 1966 to 1969 is called "The Silly Song" by Jimmie Haskell. The 2nd and most famous theme song that used from 1969 to 1979 is called "Bob & Merrill's Theme" by William Loose (named after the show's original co-executive producers, Bob Quigley and Merrill Heatter). The 3rd theme that used from 1979 to 1981 of the Marshall network and syndicated versions was called "The Hollywood Bowl", a modern version of "Bob & Merrill's Theme", orchestrated by Stan Worth.


Revivals
There have been several revivals, each with variations in the prize-winning rules but still based on the core premise.


1983-1984
Main articles: Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, and [[]], and [[]], and [[]], and [[]] 
For nine months starting on October 31, 1983 & finishing on July 27, 1984, Jon “Bowzer” Bauman of Sha-Na-Na hosted a version packaged back-to-back with Match Game. The Match Game - Hollywood Squares Hour as it was called was jointly produced by Orion Television, which had purchased the rights to Squares upon acquiring the Filmways production company and Mark Goodson Productions. The show featured not only celebrities of the day (many of whom had appeared on Match Game or Hollywood Squares or both, in the past), but also up-and-coming new stars (such as comedian Bruce Baum, John de Lancie and Mary Page Keller) who would become famous years later. While the basic gameplay was similar to the versions before and after it, there were several major differences: Each square was worth $25 for the contestant in addition to the money that they earned for winning each game, there was no "Secret Square" round, the questions were true/false or multiple choice and contestants were able to win "by default" if an opponent made a mistake.


1986-89
John Davidson hosted a version called The New Hollywood Squares produced between September 15, 1986 and September 8, 1989 by Orion Television for Century Towers Productions. Shadoe Stevens was the announcer and from midway through the second season onward was also a regular panelist (he always occupied the bottom-center square). Most seasons featured Joan Rivers as the center square. Jim J. Bullock was another regular usually occupying the upper-left square and was a secondary host to Davidson. The lower left square would feature a "special guest star", usually a musical or comedy group or sometimes even a regular from the original Peter Marshall version.

The rules of the game reverted to the original rules prior to the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour era. Get three stars in a row, either across, up and down, or diagonally by determining if a star is giving a correct answer or is bluffing.

For the 1st season, each game was worth $500, with a $100/square bonus if time ran out in the middle of a game in progress (with a more pleasant horn than the earlier version). Beginning with the 2nd season, the 3rd and subsequent games were worth $1000 apiece, and the bonus also increased to $200/square. The second game on every show was a "Secret Square" game, usually worth a trip (instead of an accruing prize package as on the Marshall version). If a trip was won, Davidson would use the tag line "Pack Your Bags!"

The day's winner would choose one of five keys, which would start one of five cars (borrowed from an earlier 1970s game show, Split Second.) If the key selected started the car selected, he or she won it and retired; otherwise, he or she held on to the key and returned on the next show, with that car being eliminated from the choices should he or she retain the championship. If any champion won 5 days in a row, he/she won the car of his/her choice and retired undefeated. (Each week saw a different set of 5 cars in the event a champion crossed over to a new set of cars, he or she picked a new key with the lowest-value cars on offer already eliminated up to as many as that champion was already entitled to.) In the final season, each of the 9 squares held a key.

The Davidson version was one of the first game shows to go "on the road" and tape episodes from remote locations including Hollywood, Florida and Radio City Music Hall.

This version of Squares became noted for gimmickry a la I've Got A Secret, such as musical questions (with one or more panelists singing along), questions involving props in a panelist's square, questions presented as skits involving outside actors and "surprise" special guests and so on. On one occasion, when noted chef Wolfgang Puck was a guest, his square was outfitted with a complete kitchen. On another, the Solid Gold Dancers managed to squeeze into a special elongated square (lower left corner). Fitness guru Richard Simmons would sometimes lead the audience in exercise routines. TV alien puppet ALF, supposedly on a dare from host Davidson, actually guest hosted one episode. And on a memorable April Fool's Day episode in 1987, the two contestants were actually actors hired by the producers to play a joke on the host and panel. (The climax of this gag, featuring one "contestant" shoving the other off of the set's raised contestant dais, is a popular staple of game show blooper specials.) Although such gimmicks made the show a popular favorite early on, its momentum could not be maintained long term and it folded after just three years.


1998-2004
On September 14 to 18, 1998, King World bought the worldwide format rights to the show from MGM (successor-in-interest to Orion Pictures and Filmways, who produced the respective previous incarnations of the series) and relaunched the final version of the show to date, hosted by Tom Bergeron. It starred Whoopi Goldberg in the center square (she also co-produced it for its first four years). MGM and Sony Pictures Television however owns the domestic rights because of Orion.

For the first several weeks, the scoring format worked like this:

First and second games: $500 apiece. 
Third game: $1000. 
Fourth and subsequent games: $2000. 
$250 for each square if time ran out during a game. 
These figures were doubled in short order and would continue for most of the rest of the run.

First and second games: $1000 apiece. 
Third game: $2000. 
Fourth and subsequent games: $4000. 
$500 for each square if time ran out during a game. 
In the last season, each game was worth $1,000. The first player to win two games played the bonus round.

The first season also saw up to two "Secret Square" games. The first one was in its customary position as the second game played on each episode with its prize package carrying over to the third game if it wasn't won. From the second season onwards, the "Secret Square" reverted to essentially its old Marshall-era format: played as the second game on each show worth an accruing prize package. In the last season, the "Secret Square" was played in the second game of each match with a different prize offered each time.

The end game underwent numerous changes throughout the run of the Bergeron version. Originally, it was the same "pick a star, win a prize" format the Marshall version had used during its last few years on the air. Within several weeks, this had been slightly adjusted to where the day's winner had to correctly agree or disagree with a "Secret Square"-style question to win that prize. In November 2001, in the wake of shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire raising the bar in terms of prize money, Squares adopted an entirely new endgame; the champion selected one of the nine panelists, each of whom concealed a different dollar amount from $1000-$5000. The contestant was then asked a series of ten questions, each worth that much money, with sixty seconds to get through them all. At the end of time, if the player so desired, he or she could risk the total money earned on one final double-or-nothing question. In this fashion, this game could earn a player as much as $100,000. This round, however, was generally disliked by fans who felt it was needlessly complicated.

In its fifth season it underwent an update after Henry Winkler and Michael Levitt took over as executive producers, taking on the nickname H2 and switching to a rotating series of center square occupants. The set and theme were also upgraded at this time. Also effective with this season, the unpopular "ten questions" endgame was dropped and replaced with yet another bonus round, this one a variation of the "car keys" game from the '80s Squares. This time, the player selected from up to nine keys, only one of which would open or start a given grand prize. Before choosing a key, however, he or she would play a game to eliminate incorrect keys from the selection process; he or she had 30 seconds to answer as many true/false questions about celebrities on that week's panel as possible and with each correct answer one false key was taken off the board. Also in the fifth season, for each returning champion, an incorrect key was eliminated for every time the contestant failed to win the prize previously. If the contestant won the grand prize and repeated as champion the next day, he/she played for a new prize, starting again with nine keys. If not, he/she won $500 for each correct answer. Shortly thereafter, that was upped to $1,000. The prize structure is as follows:

1st: Car 2nd: $25,000 (In Safe) 3rd: Trip Around the World or Trip of a Lifetime (In Steamer Trunk) 4th: $50,000 (In Safe) 5th: $100,000 (In Safe)

No one got to the fifth grand prize that season, but it was rumored to have been $100,000 cash. In the final season, champions always had nine keys to work with each time they played the bonus round, and the amount for each correct answer went back to $500. The prize structure was also changed as follows:

1st: Trip (Steamer Trunk) 2nd: $10,000 (Safe) 3rd: Car 4th: $25,000 (Safe) 5th: Trip Around the World (Steamer Trunk)

Only one person got to the fifth prize in the final season, but did not win it.

The Winkler-Levitt era of Squares was notable for its reliance on "theme weeks." One of the most well-known among genre fans was a December 9-13, 2002 "Game Show Week" which featured as that week's guest Center Square, none other than Peter Marshall himself, marking the first time the "Master of The Hollywood Squares" had appeared on any version of the program since 1981 (although in 1993 and 1994 he appeared as host of a parody version in several episodes of the sketch comedy program In Living Color). On the Thursday show of that week, Marshall and Bergeron traded places with Bergeron in the center square and Marshall hosting. In regards to that Thursday broadcast, Marshall would later agree that the experience felt to him like being home again.

This most recent series ended on June 6, 2004. The Reruns from that season ended on September 2004.


Other versions
A UK version of the show, called Celebrity Squares and hosted by Bob Monkhouse, appeared on ITV from 1975 to 1979; it was revived with the same host from 1993 to 1995, the 1993 series named New Celebrity Squares.

Storybook Squares, a Saturday-morning children's version, was on for several months in 1969. It featured stars dressed as fairy tale and historical characters. It would later air occasionally in the 1970s during the run of the original Marshall version.

In Australia, the show has been known as Celebrity Squares, Personality Squares and All-Star Squares, and is scheduled to return in 2005, coming full circle by again using the Celebrity Squares title.

In Brazil the program is named ´´Jogo da Velha´´. It was hosted by Fausto Silva on Sunday mornings. The program ran from 1989 until 1993.

In Singapore, the show was called Celebrity Squares and ran on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 in 2001.