Win Ben Stein's Money

Three contestants compete in a Q & A game against each other and eventually Ben Stein in an attempt to win $5,000 of his money.

The First Two Rounds
In the first two rounds, the players involved faced a game board of five categories inside five picture frames (in the first season they appeared as cards, but in season two and beyond, the cards were replaced with monitors). Each category was a pun hinting at the question's content, similar to Pyramid or the JD Roberto era of Shop 'Til You Drop. A player in control picked a category, then a dollar amount was revealed behind it after which a question was read (the questions were just heard in the first season, but in the rest of the series, the questions were also seen on the monitor the chosen category appeared after the amount was revealed). The first player to buzz-in with a correct answer scored the hidden dollar amount, plus that amount was taken away from Ben's total. After each question, a new category replaced the one chosen. The rounds were played in an unmentioned time limit, and time was called when a cuckoo sounded. The player with the lowest amount at the end of each round was eliminated from the game, and all the money he/she took was returned to Ben & added back to his total. Also, if at any point a player answered in the form of a question (as on Jeopardy!); Stein, in mock anger, would place a dunce cap onto the offending player's head and he/she was forced to wear it for the rest of the round.

Round 1
In round one, the three contestants faced-off against each other, and Ben read all the questions. The questions were worth either $50, $100 or $150. Each time a player answered the first question correctly for the amount showing, that player had a chance to answer a $50 follow-up question; should all three players miss the first question, the follow-up became a toss-up for all three players. If there's a tie for second place after this round, a tiebreaker question is asked, and if the player answers the question correctly, the player moves on, however, if the player answers the question incorrectly, the opponent moves on to Round 2.

Round 2
In round two, the survivors of the first round played not only against each other, but against Ben as well as he became a common contestant trying to defend his money; because of that, the co-host read all the questions, with the disclaimer that "from this point on, Ben has no advance knowledge of any of the questions to be asked." Ben always stands at the third podium for the second round. If the contestant got eliminated from the third podium, Ben simply takes over that spot. If the contestant got eliminated from the second player, one contestant moved one spot closer to make way for Ben entering the third podium. And if the contestant got eliminated from the first podium, both contestants move one spot over or the contestant from the third podium moves to the first podium to make way for Ben entering the third podium. This time the question values increased to the range of $200-$500 in $100 increments to the contestants should they get them right; but if Ben got a question right each time, his remaining total stayed the same. To accommodate this, the scoring display on his podium showed a dollar sign. Ben made the first selection in this round, and there were no follow-up questions this round. The player with the most money at the end of this round got to keep it and went on to take on Ben Stein for the rest of his money. If there's a tie, a tiebreaker question is asked (without Stein answering), if the player answers the question correctly, the player moves to the Bonus Round, and if the player answers the question incorrectly, the opponent automatically went to the Bonus Round.

Best of 10 Test of Knowledge
The bonus round was called the Best of 10 Test of Knowledge because both the winning contestant & Ben were both asked the same ten questions, but they played individually/one at a time. To start, the winning player had a choice to go first or second, then they sat in their own isolation booths (the winning contestant sat in a dirty plain wrap booth, while Ben sat in a beautifully decorated one). Whoever played second wore headphones so they could not hear the other's answers. Each player had 60 seconds (one minute) to answer as many of those 10 questions as they can, and the player who answered the most out of ten won. Missed or passed questions could not be returned to, but the co-host went over any and all of them after the first player finished. If Ben won, then the contestant took home just the money he/she won from the game; if both players were tied, the winning contestant won a $1,000 bonus in addition to the main game cash; and finally if the winning contestant managed to beat Ben Stein and win, he/she won all $5,000 of Ben Stein's money (his/her main game score was augmented to the grand prize amount).

"Ben Stein's Cup" episode
At the end of the fourth season, three of the best players of the season (who had already won $5,000) returned for a special "Ben Stein's Cup" episode, for a chance to win five times the amount or $25,000. The question values in the main game were multiplied by four; so in Round 1, the question values were $200, $400, and $600; with follow-up questions worth $200, and in Round 2, the questions were worth $800-$2,000 in increments of $400. The winner attempted to beat Ben Stein for the entire $25,000.

Music
Ben Stein's Intro - "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" by Johann Sebastian Bach

Open/2nd Commercial Outro/Win - "Ode to Joy" by Ludwig Von Beethoven

Close - "Ride of the Valkyries " by Richard Wagner (this was also played in the contestants' headphones in the isolation booth, to prevent them from hearing the other contestant's answers)

1st Commercial Intro - "Water Music" by George Frederic Handel

1st Commercial Outro - "Spring" by Antonio Vivaldi

2nd Commercial Intro - "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

3rd Commercial Intro - "Trepak" by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

3rd Commercial Outro - "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

Trivia
At one time during the third season, Ben & Jimmy traded jobs for one episode up to the Best of 10 Test of Knowledge.

A second season episode was one of the most talked about, for on that show, Ben was forced to strip. At first during the second round, Ben took off his shoes, but the Best of 10 Test of Knowledge was where the unthinkable happened; for when the winning contestant (whose name is Bob) won that round, Ben was forced to take off his pants (except he did it briefly). Upon Ben's brief stripping, Jimmy completely took his pants off, and then the winning contestant did a brief stripping himself. Also what makes this show memorable was that Bob was the first to get all ten questions right (Ben answered nine).

Ben & Jimmy (as well as the contestants) would participate in special themed episodes, including a flashback to the sixties.

WBSM Interactive
GSN's website once had a live interactive game where you can play along with the show.

International Versions
An unsuccessful Australian version called Win Roy & H.G.'s Money hosted by "Rampaging" Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson ran on the Seven Network for a brief period in 2000. The grand prize for this version was also $5,000.

A short-lived United Kingdom version called Win Beadle's Money hosted by the late Jeremy Beadle ran on Channel 5 for a brief period in 1999. The grand prize for this version was a thousand pounds.

Additional Pages
Win Ben Stein's Money/Quotes & Catchphrases

Win Ben Stein's Money/Video Gallery

Links
Episode Guide

Win Ben Stein's Money @ Salute to Game Shows

How one contestant managed to Win Ben Stein's Money