To Say the Least

The short-lived word game where the lesser the information, the harder the chance to solve a puzzle.

Broadcast
NBC - October 3, 1977- April 21, 1978

Packager
Merrill Heatter/Bob Quigley Productions

Host
Tom Kennedy

Announcer
Kenny Williams

Gameplay
Two teams of three players (consisting of two celebrities & one civilian contestant) compete in a battle of the sexes (men vs. women) word game which asks the question, "How little information do you need to help your partners?"

To start, two contestants (with the celebrity partners isolated) were shown a sentence which talks about a specific subject, followed by the subject itself. Now the two players took turns removing words from the sentence until either player challenges the partners of the other player to play or until there was one word left, causing the partners of the player who eliminated that next to last word to play. The isolated partners were then released from isolation and saw what was left of the sentence, but only the challenged partners can solve the puzzle. If the challenged partners can do that, they win the game, but if not, the game went to the opposing team. Each game was worth $100 and a prize package and the first team to win two out of three games wins the match, and goes on to play the All-Star Game.

The All-Star Game
In the All-Star bonus game, the four celebrities stood behind four numbered doors. Their positions were determined by a random draw backstage. The winning contestant was shown one more sentence and the subject, and then eliminated words, leaving only three left. After that, the celebrity behind door #1 came out to see what was leftover and then take a guess. A correct guess won the contestant $100. Then the champion took out another word (with or without conferring with celebrity #1) afterwhich celebrity #2 came out from door #2 to take a guess. A right answer from the second celebrity won the champion an additional $200. Next, the winning contestant took out one more word leaving only one left, and the final two celebrities one at a time took a chance. If either one of the remaining stars solved the puzzle, the winning contestant won a jackpot which started at $2,000 and grew by $1,000 for every bonus it's not won.

Players stay on the show until they lost two matches, or won seven matches. Any player who won three (later four) matches won a brand new car.

Trivia
The triple beep sound used on this show was later used in a later NBC game show, Scrabble.

Tom hosted three short-lived game shows in a span of two years. To Say the Least was the last one; the other two were 50 Grand Slam, and the daytime version of Name That Tune.

Music
Stan Worth

Links
Information on To Say the Least @ The Game Show Site Information on To Say the Least @ Game Show Utopia

YouTube Videos
Pilot Intro

A Full Episode from 1978

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3