Monopoly

Main Theme Lyrics: "M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y, M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y, MONOPOLY, MONOPOLY, MONOPOLY, MONOPOLY, M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y. Roll the dice, it's paradise. But if you fail, you go to jail."

1987 Pilot Spiel: "It's time to play Monopoly, our players today is: Claire Hines, a secretary from Bisbee, Arizona; Lary Oslon, a bartender from Los Angeles, California; and our returning champion, a bank teller from New York City, Isie Pope. Today, one of our players can pass go and collect $50,000. And now, here's the host of the world's popular board game, Marc Summers!"

1989 Pilot Spiel: "It's Monopoly, the most famous game in the world. And now television's brightest new game show. With these very smart contestants, Rich Uncle Pennybags, and our handsome host, Peter Tomarken!"

Series Spiel: "Yes, Monopoly, the world's most popular board game is now Monopoly the TV game. Here come the players... The red player (insert name), the gold player (insert name), and the green player (insert name). Here comes our hostess (insert hostess' name), and here's the host of Monopoly, Mike Reilly!"

Monopoly was a game show that aired in ABC primetime from June 16, 1990 to September 1, 1990. Michael Reilly hosted the show, and Charlie O'Donnell announced. The show's hostesses included Kathy Davis, Michelle Nicholas, and Kathy Karges. Monopoly was a Merv Griffin Production.

Round 1
Three contestants, playing as red, gold , and green , competed to win monopolies on the monopoly board. Starting from "Go" and moving clockwise a property at a time, each colored property went up for grabs. To win the property and its price (as money), a player had to answer a question using a crossword puzzle-like clue beginning with a given letter provided by Reilly (the letter changed for each side of the board). Wrong answers deducted the property's price from the player's score. If no one answered a clue correctly, another question with another clue would be asked for the property, but the money that could be gained or lost on that question/clue was halved.

Playoffs
Each time the last property of a colored group was taken, control of the monopoly would then be up for grabs. If one player earned all the properties in a group, then that player earned the monopoly. However, since split/divided-ownerships were never allowed unlike the normal game, if two players had properties in the group, a series of playoff questions/clues between those two players came into effect. Each of the two contenders needed as many right answers as opposing properties in the group. No money changed hands on these clues. If a player answered a playoff question/clue incorrectly, the opponent automatically received credit for a correct answer. If all three players had one property each, Reilly would give a toss-up question/clue to all three. The player with the right answer would get to take one property (and thus, decided whom to play against [should any player miss, that player was disqualified & lost his/her property]). The two players with properties then had a separate playoff as above. After all this, whoever ended up with the monopoly earned the combined price of all the properties in that group.

After claiming all the monopolies, players then (during a commercial break) decided how to build houses and hotels on properties, using the cash won by answering questions/clues and making monopolies. Houses cost $50 each, and hotels cost $250.

Round 2 (Big Money Round/Make You or Break You Round)
After all development had finished, the three players would then have a chance to earn money as a flashing neon cursor moved around the board via the roll of the dice. The hostess rolled the dice, moving the cursor the corresponding number of spaces.

The Once Around the Board/Block Bonus Round
The champion then had a chance to win $25,000 or $50,000 by completing one trip around the board. Before starting the round, the champion selected one space on the second row, one space on the third row, and two spaces on the fourth row to be "Go to Jail" spaces (along with the one in the corner). The player then had up to five rolls of the dice to move the cursor, starting from "Go," once around the board without landing on any "Go to Jail" space. Rolling doubles gave the champion an extra roll. Each space traversed earned the champion $100. The champion could stop and take the winnings after any successful roll, as landing on "Go to Jail" or falling short of "Go" after the allotted rolls lost the bonus money. However, passing "Go" earned $25,000, and landing on "Go" exactly earned $50,000 (which never happened).

Round 1
Instead of going around the board, Monopolies were captured at random; but they were not revealed until after they were captured. Plus instead of answering a number of clues based on the number of properties involved, it takes two correct answers on all Monopolies to capture them as well as the total amount of each; also the letters change for each new Monopoly. Incorrect answers eliminated the player who gave one from the Monopoly.

Round 2
The second and final round is pretty much the same as in the series, except with these differences:
 * There was no hostess rolling the dice next to the host. The dice were rolled offstage by a stagehand.
 * Instead of just a neon light to mark the players' position, Patty Maloney, posing as Rich Uncle Pennybags, walked around the board. Maloney is best known for playing Darla Hood in Hanna-Barbera's animated version of the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedies, which King World co-produced for ABC.
 * Each player also owned a Community Chest space.
 * On a steal on individual properties, a successful steal on the clue just missed allowed the player to steal the Monopoly by getting one or two more clues right. Similar to the Railroad spaces.
 * Though played the same way, the Railroad spaces were replaced with "Takeover" spaces.
 * When a contestant stole a Monopoly from another player, not only was the Monopoly's value added to the stealing player's score, but it was deducted from the original owner's score.
 * Halfway into the round during a second break, the players can use the money to improve their properties.

The Once Around the Board/Block Bonus Round
The rules are the same except the payoffs are smaller; each passed space was worth $50 while making it around the board won $10,000. There was no bonus for landing exactly on GO.

Finally, there were returning champions.

1987 Runthrough Rules
NOTE: A runthrough is a crude mockup of how the game should be played. If it's accepted, the money is spent on an actual set for a full pilot.

Episode status
The series is intact, with the 1989 pilot and all episodes of the series in the trading circuit. Several episodes and portions of others are on YouTube as well as the 1987 pilot (which was uploaded by Wink Martindale) & the 1989 pilot.

International Version
A Welsh version of this show, hosted by Derec Brown, ran for a brief period on S4C in 1992.

Rating
TV-G

Inventor
Based on the board game of the same name by Charles B. Darrow & Parker Brothers (now Hasbro).

Music
Merv Griffin & Mort Lindsey

Theme Lyrics (Full)
(Chorus):

M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y! (2X)

Monopoly! (4x)

M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y!

Roll the dice, it's paradise!

But if you fail, you go to jail!

Rollin' on the boardwalk

(Chorus), I'm just a-visiting

(instrumental break)

Gonna pass GO now

(Chorus), Puttin up my hotels

M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y!

Monopoly!

Additional Page
Monopoly/Video Gallery

Links
1987 Monopoly Pilot @ The Game Show Pilot Light

Rules for Monopoly

Monopoly Rules @ Loogslair.net

James Vipond's Monopoly Page