Whew! (1979)

Two contestants played. One was a Charger, the other was a Blocker. The Blocker placed six strategic blocks on a 6-level game board. The first five levels each had five bloopers worth $10, $20, $30, $40, and $50, while the sixth level has three bloopers worth $200, $350, and $500. The Blocker could place his/her blocks anywhere on the board, with the only limits being that only one block could be placed on the sixth level and no more than three on any of the other five levels. The Charger had to charge his/her way from level one at the bottom of the board to level six on top in 60 seconds or less. The charger was shown a blooper that was seen and heard. It was their job to correct the underlined part of the blooper. For example, if the blooper read, "Sammo Hung starred in the hit TV series 'L.A. Law,'" and "L.A." was underlined, the correct answer would be "MARTIAL." The Charger had to allow the emcee to finish reading the blooper before they answered. If the Charger answered correctly, he/she may advance to the next level up. If the Charger answered incorrectly or didn't answer within two seconds, he/she had to choose another blooper on the same level. If the Charger picked a blocked space, he/she got a 5-second penalty that was counted down by the emcee and the audience. Once the penalty ended, the Charger had to choose another blooper on the same level. The charger could not advance to the next level until they gave a correct answer on their current level or after going through every blooper on that level with or without a right answer. If the Charger believed that time was running short while on either of the first five levels, he/she may yell, "Long shot!" which stopped the clock, automatically moved him/her to level six, and allowed the Blocker to place a secret block on level six (in this case, it was possible to have two blocks on level six). In the Long Shot, if the charger picked a block or gave an incorrect answer, the Blocker automatically won (the Blocker would be credited with money for any blocked spaces the Charger picked). If the Charger answered correctly in this case, he/she won the game and was credited with all the money from the spaces where he/she answered correctly. After round one, players switched the Charger/Blocker roles and played a second round. In the event of a tie, the player who did not have the option to charge or block in the first round (usually the champion) elected to be either the Charger or Blocker for the tie-breaker round. NOTE: The challenger usually had the option to charge or block for round one. If both players were new, the player with the option was determined by a coin toss backstage. The first contestant to win two games won the match and went on to the championship round, Gauntlet of Villians. NOTE: Later in the show's run, if a contestant won the first two rounds, he/she would play round three against the house for a chance at extra money and extra time in the Gauntlet. In the Gauntlet of Villians, there were 10 villains. In this round, the bloopers were heard but not seen. NOTE: The last word in a blooper while running the Gauntlet is always the word to be corrected. The contestant's time limit in the Gauntlet was 60 seconds plus one second for every $100 won in the main game (from both charging and blocking). Therefore, if the contestant won $1,190 in the main game, they would have 11 seconds added to the basic 60 seconds for a total of 71 seconds to beat the villains. Again, the contestant had to allow the emcee to finish reading the blooper before they answered. The contestant had to give a correct answer in order to beat one villain and advance to the next one in the line. If the contestant gave an incorrect answer or failed to answer within two seconds, the answer would show up on a TV monitor below the villain's face, and the contestant had to remain at the villain until it was defeated. Beating all 10 villains before time ran out earned the contestant $25,000 cash and, back then, contestants had to retire from CBS game shows when they won $25,000 or more. If the contestant failed to beat all 10 villains, they would receive $100 for each defeated villain. When the show first started, contestants were permitted unlimited tries to beat the villains, but after Howard Wilson's 7-day run where he eventually beat the villains and took home over $36,000, CBS instituted a new rule that said that contestants had to retire after five attempts at the Gauntlet of Villains. Halfway into the show's run, celebrities were added as partners for the civilian contestants and the show as renamed "Celebrity Whew!" In this version, the Gauntlet would have the contestant attempt to beat the first five villains, and the celebrity would go for the last five. This format lasted until August 1980, when poor ratings forced CBS to cancel the show. Betty White (a very good friend of emcee Tom Kennedy) and John Saxon were the final celebrity players. The late Randy Amasia was probably the best-known contestant on the show. He appeared on the show on August 28th and 29th, 1979, beat the villains on his first try, and took home $26,190. He then went on to be a contestant on "Jeopardy!" Sadly, Randy passed away in December 2001 from throat cancer.