Number Please

A word game where letters were revealed by numbers.

Broadcast
ABC - January 31, 1961-December 29, 1961

Packager
Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Productions

Host
Bud Collyer

Hostesses
Reggie Dombeck (real name Penny Wright)

Suzanne Storrs

Nancy Kovack

Announcer
Ralph Paul

Gameplay
Two contestants faced a game board of nineteen blank spaces, each marked with a number from 1-19. Each player got their own row. To start, each contestant picked three numbers to reveal some letters, then they alternated turns picking off spaces by their corresponding numbers to reveal letters or space spaces. The solutions to those puzzles were prizes or descriptions of prizes. As soon as a player knows the answers, he/she must then buzz-in and solve both puzzles. A correct solution to both puzzles won the game and the prizes.

Originally, each win by a contestant meant the championship, and playing against a new opponent. Five wins retired the player as undefeated champion. Eventually this was amended to a best-two-out-of-three wins, resulting in a player being named champion and remaining to face a new challenger.

Episode status
Only one episode is known to exist, dating from sometime in May. It has been shown on GSN, most recently on the morning of October 9, 2006.

Trivia
Some might say that this is an early version of Wheel of Fortune.

This show replaced Bud Collyer's best known show Beat the Clock after it finished it's run on ABC.

Links
The J-Man's Number Please page

Information about the Number Please home board game

YouTube Links
The only episode currently known to exist

Part 1 Part 2