User:Daniel Benfield/Whew! Video Archive

CBS Daytime: April 23, 1979 - May 30, 1980 (taped April, 1979 - May, 1980 at Television City)

Whew! is an underrated game that ran just 13 months, but deserved to run far longer.

LEGAL STUFF SO I DON'T GET SUED: I'm only linking to these videos, none of which were uploaded by me, for the purposes of research and as a public record. Footage ©1978-80 Jay Wolpert Productions/The Bud Austin Company/Burt Sugarman Inc. and associated entities.

Civilian Format (1979)
April 23 - November 2, 1979 (133 episodes, taped through October 5)

When the show debuted, champs could keep winning games until they beat the Gauntlet or were defeated by an opponent (or, presumably, if they somehow managed to stay long enough to pass CBS' $25,000 limit). In June or July, this was altered to limit champs to a maximum of five Gauntlet attempts.

Since doing my standard method of "list all player names when available" would tend to reveal whether a Gauntlet was won, I've opted to use "Begins with" here.


 * April 1979 (Debut promo, with clips of Pilot #3 {taped 12/4/78} {alternate copy, labeled as "fixed"})
 * [The pilots had a slightly different set, a few different graphics, and the Bloopers had no underlined portions denoting what needed to be corrected.]

Champs can continue playing until they win a Gauntlet
 * May 1979 (Gene vs. Carrie; Gauntlet portion only {alternate copy})


 * June 1, 1979 (Begins with Melissa {$1,580} vs. Tony; ends as copyright info scrolls onscreen {alternate copy, has a few bits of commercials but ends slightly earlier})
 * [Tony Smith is mentioned as being an ex-football player. Has a full credit roll.]


 * June 4, 1979 (Begins with Sharlene vs. HOWARD WILSON {Part 2})
 * June 6, 1979 (Begins with Howard at the Gauntlet {Part 2}; has one commercial and a Ticket Plug, ends late in credits)
 * [Tom plugs tomorrow's CBS Magazine, noting that Whew! will return on Friday. Has a full credit roll.]
 * June 8, 1979 (Begins with Howard vs. Alan {Part 2}; has a partial commercial)


 * June 11, 1979 (Begins with Howard vs. Donna, with Dennis James mentioned in a blooper!; has some bits of commercials)

Champs limited to a maximum of five Gauntlet attempts (began by 7/27/79)
 * July 27, 1979 (? vs. Jeannie, with ALAN EMRICK playing later; most of show missing {jumps from just after intro to start of Game 2}, ends during credits)
 * [By this point, Tom brings the players to the side of the board to go over any missed bloopers, with closeups of said boxes. Has a full credit roll.]

Gauntlet's numbers become speech bubbles similar to the logo (began by about late 9/79)
 * September 19, 1979 (Promo for this, The Price Is Right, and the debut of Beat the Clock)
 * [The Whew! clips include one from a 1978 pilot, but another definitely has the speech bubbles for the Gauntlet numbers.]

Credits change from yellow to white, logo trademark note added to copyright info (began by 10/31/79)

Celebrity Format (1979-80)
November 5, 1979 - May 30, 1980

Now has celebs teaming up with each contestant, and still has returning champs, but episodes no longer straddle. If a team wins the first two rounds of a game, Round 3 is played for extra money/Gauntlet seconds with the six Blocks (and secret Block in the event of a Longshot use) placed by the Villains.

Sometime in April or May, the production company spiel was altered one last time to credit Burt Sugarman instead of Bud Austin. As a result, the company mentioned under the copyright date was changed to Sugarman's.

Tom's hair becomes white and "puffy", production company spiel changes to "Whew! is a Jay Wolpert Presentation in association with The Bud Austin Company." (began by 4/8/80)

Production company spiel changes to "Whew! is a Jay Wolpert Presentation in association with Burt Sugarman, Inc." (began by 5/29/80)