Seven Keys

A game show based on the board game Chutes and Ladders.

One contestant attempted to advance along a 70-square board by identifying the pictures on certain squares. The contestant hit a button to stop a spinning dial and moved the number of spaces shown, from 1 to 10.

The content of the boards varied. Some had pictures of celebrities and others had word puzzles. One board required the contestant to determine which celebrity in a pair was missing, while another dealt with the United States and their capitals.

Each stop took one turn, and contestants had 15 turns to get to the last square, kept track of by a counter on top of the board.

Reaching the final space earned one of the "Seven Keys", each of which corresponded to a particular lock that a prize was behind. Six of the keys unlocked various smaller prizes while one unlocked a large prize package that changed with each new contestant. Unlike Chutes & Ladders, contestants were not required to reach the final space by exact count.

Contestants could stop at any point and take any keys accumulated (and whatever prizes they opened, including the grand prize, if that key was collected). If the contestant failed to reach the final square within fifteen turns they lost all of their earned keys.

Broadcast
KTLA 5 1960-1961, 1964-1965

ABC 1961-1964

Host
Jack Narz