The Buck Stops Here

The question & answer game that's also a race for & against time.

Broadcast
1985

Packagers
Simon Laughlin Johnson Productions/Procter & Gamble Productions/Taft Entertainment Television

Host
Jim Peck

Announcer
Gene Wood

Gameplay
Two teams of two compete in this show. To start, $50 was put into the bank and a category was given. Host Jim Peck read a toss-up question to both teams and the first team to buzz-in with a correct answer added $50 more to the bank and earned control of the questions. Each time had a base time of 60 seconds. The team in control used their time to answer a series of rapid-fire questions under the same category and adding more money into the bank. Teammates alternated turns throughout. If a teammate does not know the answer to a question, he/she can pass the question to his/her partner who must answer that question; each team was equipped with five passes. As soon as they miss a question, their clock stopped & the team must stop answering; and then the opposing had a chance to steal control by buzzing in and answering the same question. Categories change after each team played the same category. The object of the round was to simply run out of time; and when a team loses control with under 10 seconds left, their clock was bumped up to 10 seconds. The first team to do that won the round and a choice of three prizes.

The game was played in two rounds and in the second round, the value of all the questions were doubled to $100, plus the number of passes for each team was shortened to three. At the beginning of the round, the winners of round one can decide to lose 10 seconds of their time by giving back the chosen prize they won in the first round. The first team to run out of time in this round won the game and all the money in the bank, plus a chance to play the Big Bucks Bonanza for an increasing jackpot which grew by $2,500 for each unsuccessful attempt. In the pilot, the jackpot was worth $15,000.

Big Bucks Bonanza
In the Big Bucks Bonanza, host Peck read a series of questions with six possible answers but two of them are correct. One player from the winning team must then try to choose the two answer that are correct. He/she can pass the question to his/her partner who must answer or ask for a new question. Winning teammates alternated turns as always. If they can get six questions right in 60 seconds or less, they win the jackpot.

Trivia
This was the only attempt for soap opera & household product company Procter & Gamble to produce a game show or any other type of TV show.

Links
The Buck Stops Here @ usgameshows.net Jay's The Buck Stops Here Page

YouTube Videos
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3