Hollywood Squares (U.S. Syndicated Game Show)

The Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The board for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host, and the contestants judge the truth of their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.

Although The Hollywood Squares was a legitimate game show, the game largely acted as the background for the show's comedy in the form of joke answers, often given by the stars prior to their real answer. The show's writers usually supplied the jokes. In addition, the stars were given the questions' subjects and bluff (plausible but incorrect) answers prior to the show. The show was scripted in this sense, but the gameplay was not. In any case, as original host Peter Marshall would explain at the beginning of the Secret Square game, the celebrities were briefed prior to the show to help them with bluff answers, but they otherwise heard the actual questions for the first time as they were asked on air.

When the show was launched back in 1966, Peter Marshall was it's host, and would remain until 1981 when the series came to an end. When NBC combined Match Game and Hollywood Squares to become The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour, John Bauman was the host of the Hollywood Squares portion of the show. The series lasted for one season (1983-84 season). Two years later, Hollywood Squares returned (as The New Hollywood Squares) and John Davidson was brought on to be it's host. That series lasted from 1986-89. In 1998, Hollywood Squares with Tom Bergeron as it's host. That version lasted from 1998-2004.

In 2014, DuMont Productions (which was already producing Match Game) was looking for the perfect companion piece to go along with the series in some markets. Their answer was to bring back Hollywood Squares. Unable to get Bergeron (who was hosting ABC's Dancing With The Stars) DuMont decided to hire Alex Paras as the host of the show. The current version is produced by DuMont Productions, in association with CBS Television Distribution.

Basic Rules
Although there have been variations over the years in the rules of and the prizes in the game, certain aspects of the game have remained fairly consistent. Two contestants competed in every match, one playing X and the other O. With very rare exceptions, the matches were male vs. female with the man playing the X position and referred to informally as Mr. X, with the female playing the O position and referred to informally as Ms. Circle (the show referred to the O by its shape and not its alphabetical nature). One of the contestants was usually a returning champion.

Taking turns, each contestant selected a square. The star was asked a question and gave an answer. The contestants had the choice of agreeing with the star's answer or disagreeing if they thought the star was bluffing. On rare occasions, a star would not know the correct answer to a question, but would be unable to come up with a plausible bluff. In such instances, the contestant would be offered the chance to answer the question. Usually the contestants declined, in which case they incurred no penalty and the same star was asked another question.

The objective was to complete a line across, vertically, or diagonally or to score as many squares as possible, as contestants could also win by capturing five squares. Correctly agreeing or disagreeing with a star's answer captured the square. If the contestant did not, the square went to his/her opponent. An exception was made if the square would result in the opponent winning by default, which was not allowed; in that case, the square remained unclaimed and the opponent got a chance to earn it him/herself. The first and second games were worth $1,000 to the winner. The third game was worth $2,000, and every subsequent game until time ran out was worth $4,000. If a contestant did not win anything in the main game, $500 was given to them as a consolation prize.

Secret Square
In this game, a randomly selected Secret Square is shown only to the home audience by the shot of the Television Camera. A contestant who picked that panelist during the game won a bonus prize package if they correctly agreed or disagreed with the star. The prize did not increase in value from one show to the next if it was not collected.

The Keys
Implemented in the Bergeron version from 2002-04, Nine keys were used in the game, only one of which would win the day's prize. To eliminate the bad keys, contestants had 30 seconds to select celebrities and correctly agree or disagree with statements about the celebrities read by the host. The clock started after the contestant selected the first star.

For each correct response, one of the bad keys was eliminated from the pool of nine. If the champion had made multiple unsuccessful attempts to win the prize, one additional key was removed for each attempt. During themed weeks in which two new contestants played each day, one extra key was removed since the champion had only one chance to win the prize. After the bad keys were removed, the champion chose the one key they thought would win the prize. If unsuccessful, the champion received $1,000 for each correct answer they had given in the first half of the round.

The prize structure was as follows: To win the car, the chosen key had to start its engine. The cash prizes required the contestant to unlock a safe with the correct key, while a steamer trunk had to be unlocked in order to win the trip. If the champion answered eight or all nine statements correctly before time expired, the key that started the engine or opened the trunk/safe was automatically revealed to the contestant.
 * 1st win: Car
 * 2nd: $25,000
 * 3rd: Trip around the world or a trip of a lifetime (worth between $20,000–$30,000)
 * 4th: $50,000
 * 5th: $100,000

On occasion, the second prize was substituted for a gift certificate in that amount to an upscale store; these were often used as bonus prizes during special weeks or tournaments.