PDQ

The classic Heatter-Quigley game show where two celebrities go up against one celebrity, and one contestant.

Gameplay
Two teams of two competed in a game of deciphering words & phrases. One team was dubbed "The Home Team" (consisting of two celebrities), and the other was dubbed "The Challengers" (consisting of one celebrity & one contestant). One player from each team was locked in a soundproof booth, while the outside team members were each shown the same word or phrase. On host James' "go" signal, the player in control placed three letters on his/her respective board (one of them being the first), then the isolated partner took as many guesses as he/she wished as to what the word is. Each time a musical tone was heard, an additional letter must be added. As soon as the isolated partner guess the correct word/phrase, play went to the opposing team. The object of the game was to guess the word with as very few letters as they can. The team that used the fewest letters won the round.

There were two formats to PDQ.

Format #1
In this format, teams played for points. The team with the fewest letters showing earned points based on the difference between how many letter used between the teams. If both teams used the same number of letter, it was a draw and nobody scored. Both teams took an equal number of turns. The first team to reach 10 points or more wins the game; if the game was won by "The Challengers", the contestant won $100 a point according to the difference between the winning & losing scores.

Format #2
In this format, the team that won the puzzle with the fewest letters won the game right away, in case of a tie "The Challengers" and the contestant playing on that team won. Each PDQ show included a three game match called the "PDQ Special"; the team to win two games won the match. Contestants in this version played for prizes. A prize was awarded to the contestant just for participating win or lose. Each time "The Challengers" won a game, the contestant won a prize, and when playing the "PDQ Special", winning the match won the contestant from "The Challengers" special prizes.

Bonus Game
Near the end of the show, the contestant played a bonus round in which the contestant had 60 seconds to solve 10 single word puzzles. Each puzzle had just three letters (Ex: FRC - "FORCE") and the contestant had only five seconds on each word to solve them. Each correct answer won money according to how the contestant did; initially the contestant won $25 for each word making the maximum total for all ten $250, but if the contestant won the game/match, the value was upped to $50 a word for a maximum of $500. Either way in addition to the max cash, solving all ten words also won a car. If not, the bonus game money was redeemed for merchandise from the Spiegel catalog.

Trivia
The show was revived under the name Baffle.

Links
Information on the PDQ home game.

Rules for PDQ