You Don't Say!

70s Intro:

"Today, (insert celebrities' names) are here with us today on YOU DON'T SAY! Now here's your host, TOM KENNEDY/JIM PECK!"

A game show where celebrities help contestants guess famous names.

Premise
Celebrities gave incomplete sentences to the contestants (so-called because they cannot finish them). The missing end words were supposed to sound like part of a famous name; it cannot be the correct name or even part of it. All the contestants have to do is to say the right name by sounding the missing end words out.

For example, if the name were George Burns, one such simple clue would be: "The Grand Canyon is Arizona's biggest __________." The clue word would be "gorge".

1963-69 Version
Two teams of two players (consisting of one celebrity & one contestant) competed in this version. Celebrity partners took turns giving incomplete sentences to their contestant partners in order to get them to say the famous name. Each celebrity can give no more than three clues (six in total). After each sentence, the player in control had ten seconds to say the right word & right name, during that time the celebrity cannot speak out but can gesture if he/she needs to. If the name was not guessed after the sixth clue, the name was given & thrown out. Each correct answer scored the team a point. The first team to score three points won the game, $100 to the winning contestant, and a chance to face the Bonus Board.

Bonus Board
At the Bonus Board, there were three hidden clues (top, middle & bottom) to one more name. Each clue had a blank space with a number on it, indicating what part of the name the end word sounded like. The winning team selected which clue to reveal and then took a guess. Anytime the team guessed the name the winning contestant won some money. Guessing on the first clue was worth $300, guessing the second was worth $200, and the third was worth $100. In addition, if the team won the game in a "Blitz" (3-0 score) and guessed the Bonus Board name in one clue, the winning contestant not only won $400 total, but also a new car.

All Bonus Board puzzles were sent in by home viewers, who won a prize just by having it revealed on the show. At one point, the home viewers won a bigger prize should they be solved in a "Blitz" game.

Players stayed on the show until they won seven games or lost twice during the daytime shows. In the nighttime version, two players competed for the entire show; the player with the most money at the end of the evening also won a trip.

1975 Version
This version debuted to compete with the new version of Goodson-Todman's Match Game on CBS.

In this version two contestants faced a panel of four celebrities. Just like the original, the celebrities were shown a famous name of a person, place or thing. The contestants took turns picking off panelists after which the ones who were chosen gave incomplete sentences to get the contestant in control to say the ending word which will hopefully lead that contestant to the correct name. The contestant in control had five seconds to guess the word and hopefully the name, but if that contestant couldn't come up with the right name, the opposing contestant took a turn picking another panelist with the same rules applying. Each celebrity must play once before a contestant is allowed to pick a celebrity again. Each correct answer was now worth money instead of points to the contestants. The first clue was worth $200, and decreased by $50 for each new clue to the same name. The first player to reach $500 or more won the game and the right to play the new bonus round.

The New Bonus Board
In the new bonus round, the process was reversed. Now it is the winning contestant giving the sentences to the celebrities and the celebrities trying to guess the names. The winning contestant can give no more than six clues (originally five) to up to four names and each time a celebrity gave the right name, the contestant won some money. The first correct name was worth $500, doubling for the next two clues, and all four was worth $5,000. If the winning contestant can get the panel to say all four names using the first four clues, the jackpot was doubled to $10,000. If a panelist failed to say the name on the final clue, the money the contestant won was lost, which was why s/he had the option to stop and keep the cash.

Like the original daytime version, players stayed on the show until losing twice, but this time championship players retired undefeated if they won more than $20,000.

1978 Version
Three years after the cancellation of the ABC version with Tom Kennedy, still a new version came around with new host Jim Peck. The format was mostly the same as the ABC version, except that two sets of two new contestants played the game during one week. The first two played Monday & Tuesday, and the other two played Wednesday & Thursday. The two highest scores from the first four days returned to play Friday. The scoring format reverted back to points for this version. Each correct answer (no matter how many clues were given) was worth one point, and the first player to score five points or the player with the most points when time was called won the game. If the game ended in a tie, the player who guessed names in the fewest number of clues was declared the winner.

For the first four days, each correct answer was worth $100; on Friday shows the amount was doubled to $200. The money payoffs did not reflect the final scores. As always, the winner of the game played the Bonus Board.

Syndicated Bonus Board
The Bonus Board was played the same way as the ABC version, with the same payoffs for each of the first three correct answers, but the maximum number of clues was reduced back to five. The difference here is that getting the panel to say all four names no matter how many clues it took them was worth a flat $5,000 on the first four shows of the week. For Friday shows each week, Bonus Board winners won $10,000 in prizes.

Merchandise
A board game based on the original 1963-1969 version was manufactured by Milton Bradley in 1963.

Music

 * 1975/1978-79 - "Downwind Theme", by Stan Worth.

Trivia
In all versions most of the time and like in most word communication games, the home audience was shown the name the contestants/celebrities were going for. On some names, however, the home audience would not be shown the name, prompting them to play along with those who were trying to guess the name. Those type of names were called "Guess Who?"

Goodson-Todman Productions tried to sue Andrews-Yagemann Productions, because the original was all too similar to the G-T's Password. Goodson-Todman Productions didn't win, but a tiny modification was made by the start of 1964 to prevent this from happening again: namely, that Tom's podium was moved to the left end of the playing table.

Both "You Don't Say!" and Rhyme and Reason aired on ABC on July 7, 1975. On that same day, The Magnificent Marble Machine aired on NBC.

Tagline
"Remember, it's not what you say that counts. It's what you don't say!" - Tom Kennedy/Jim Peck

Links
Rules for all three versions of You Don't Say!

Pages about the Tom Kennedy versions are included here

The 1975 You Don't Say! at Game Shows '75