Break the Bank (3)

Broadcast
Syndication - 9/16/85 - 6/13/86

Packagers
Kline & Friends/Blair Entertainment/Storer Communications/Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.

Hosts
Gene Rayburn 1985

Joe Farago 1985-1986

Hostesses
Kandace Kuehl (1st Week)

Julie Hayek

Premise
Two couples competed to answer questions and solve puzzles for the right to break the bank.

There were two formats to this series.

Format #1
In this format, couples competed for seconds to the bonus game.

Main Game
In the main game, two couples were asked up to six questions. On each question, when a couple knew the answer, they must press their buzzer. A correct answer earned the number of seconds offered for that question, but an incorrect answer gave the opposing couple a chance to answer. The seconds values went like this:
 * Question #1 - 5 seconds
 * Question #2 - 10 seconds
 * Question #3 - 20 seconds
 * Question #4 - 40 seconds
 * Question #5 - 80 seconds
 * Question #6 - 100 seconds

Each answer was a clue to a puzzle. A correct answer also gave the couple a chance to either solve the puzzle, or answer another question for more seconds. Solving the puzzle won the round, but an incorrect solve gave the opposing couple the right to answer the next question unopposed. If the puzzle wasn't after all six clues, one last question was played in which the answer to it was the puzzle's soulution. Answering that question correctly won the round.

The first couple to solve two puzzles won the game. If there was a tie at one puzzle apiece, one last puzzle was played but without questions. The clues were revealed one at a time, and the first team to buzz-in and solve the puzzle, won the game plus a bonus of 30 seconds.

Prize Vault
The winning couple then took their seconds to the bonus round area called the Prize Vault. The Prize Vault was loaded with skill/knowledge based events/games, the winning team used their earned time to play as many of those game as possible. Each event was worth a prize & a bank card, successfully completing an event won the prize, and selected one of 5-10 bank cards. During this bonus, one of the randomly selected events can be played for extra bank cards. Choosing that event had one member of the winning run to the "Number Jumbler" which jumbled numbers from 0-5. That player then pressed a button to stop the Number Jumbler, and determine how many bank cards they get for free. Play continued until time ran out.

The winning couple then took their earned bank cards to a giant neon bank vault (with the show's logo on top), for a chance to "break the bank". The bank in question was a growing jackpot which started at $20,000, and grew everyday by virtue of prizes and sometimes cash, until won. One at a time, the couple stuck each one into a slot, which revealed a numerical code in a digital readout. If that code was the one that cause the card to break the bank, the value of the bank was theirs. When the couple started to run out of bank cards, they had an option to trade them in for a cash and/or prize bailout, or continue trying to break the bank.

Format #2
Shortly after Farago took over as the new host, the format was altered.

Main Game
The main game was played the same except the couples now played for money instead of seconds.

Correct answers in round one were worth $100, and correct answers in the second round won $200. In addition, couples who solved the puzzle in the first two rounds won a prize. Round three & beyond, were played just like the tiebreaker in the first format. Each puzzle solved was worth $400, and the first couple to reach $2,000 or more won the game. Only the winners got the keep the cash.

Bonus Game
In the new bonus game, the winning couple was given one bank card to start, and tried to solve one more puzzle which was dubbed, the "Master Puzzle" for up to ten more. Each clue had an assigned number of bank cards (either 1, 2 or 3) via a randomizer, they tell how many it would cost the couple just by seeing the clue. Solving the puzzle won the remaining bank cards. Then it was time to go into the Prize Vault to win cash & prizes, and of course "break the bank".

Forty bank cards were displayed on a stand. Thirty-eight of the cards contained cash or prizes, one was the card that will break the bank, and another was the "Bankrupt" card. The couple selected the number of bank cards earned one-by-one, and whatever cash amounts and/or prizes came up, those prizes and the cash was theirs unless they picked the Bankrupt card, so-named because choosing that card lost all the cash & prizes earned up to that point. To prevent this from happening, the couple had the option to stop & take the cash & prizes or play on. And of course if the break the bank card was chosen, the winning couple of course broke the bank.

Champion's Limit
Originally champions stayed on the show till they won more than $75,000, any money exceeding it went to charity. Later championship couple retired from the show if they broke the bank.