User:TheMisterFree/Hollywood Squares 1998 Video Archive

Syndication: 9/14/1998 - 6/4/2004 (??? episodes, taped at CBS Television City, Studio 33)

The Tom Bergeron-hosted run of Hollywood Squares is one of my favorite game shows- lots of cash and prizes, a really nice set, catchy, upbeat theme music, a great host, cool celebs, and hilarious moments abound. Just about the only bad stuff was the Season 4 bonus game (we'll get to that later), and the lack of returning champions in season 1. But even despite those roadblocks, it's honestly the best incarnation of the franchise ever.

Reruns of the show were aired on GSN at various times throughout the 2000s (I don't have any concrete dates), but some episodes were not aired on GSN due to celebrity clearance issues, and both the 2000-01 season and the 2003-04 season were missing for some reason.

LEGAL NOTICE: I don't own the rights to this show, and I did not upload any of these videos, which I'm linking here solely for the public interest. Footage belongs to CBS Television Distribution and Sony Pictures Television.

WARNING: This page is under construction until further notice.

Prehistory
Though King World acquired the format rights when Orion went bankrupt in 1991, it took a while for the show to get on the air. One proposed plan around 1995 was Planet Hollywood Squares- no, really. Roseanne Barr was tapped to produce and serve as center square and the whole show would've been themed around the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain. Initial plans had it paired up with a Sony-produced revival of The Gong Show (which apparently had a pilot taped), but Sony decided to delay both projects to see how their revivals of The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game panned out; by 1996 Gong had apparently been shelved, and Planet Hollywood was in serious financial trouble (the result of overexpansion and all sorts of spinoff projects); Roseanne presumably left the project at that point (she would show up as an occasional celeb during the Whoopi era).

Per the Television City website, a pilot for this version was taped in 1997, but I have no idea of who hosted, if Whoopi or Moffit-Lee was on board yet, etc.

When the series did land in the fall of 1998, it was frequently paired up with Entertainment Tonight, especially on the CBS O&O stations (replacing Hard Copy).

Season 1 (1998-99)
The first season was a little weird, again mainly due to to the lack of returning champions, and there were all sorts of early elements that were changed. The bonus round was one of the biggest- at first it was the same as the endgame from the Marshall era, simply picking a star and winning a prize. At some point this was modified to having the contestant answer one final Secret Square-style question to claim the prize (if they failed, they’d get $2500). This time around, the prizes included nice vacations, merchandise like a home entertainment center, $10,000, and a car (typically a Lexus or a Chrysler). Speaking of the Secret Square, much like the syndicated Marshall era, if it wasn’t picked it would be moved to another star, as opposed to being placed in a rolling jackpot.

Some graphics were also different (the logo-bug seen in the left corner was smaller originally, and lacked the red square behind it), and sound effects weren’t always consistent either.

As for the closing logos, the Moffit-Lee logo had very quiet wind-up toy noises, the One Ho logo was silent, and the 1990 King World logo (silent and with a copyright notice) was used.

Due to the frequent changes and the out-of-order style of airing, episodes will be placed as best they can. Original main-game payouts
 * September 1998 ("Meet Me At The Square" promo, taped from WFAA; "Premieres Monday at 3:30")
 * (Given this song's usage in the above and the below promos, I kinda get the feeling that "Meet Me At The Square" was supposed to be the theme song, but was replaced by "I Love Hollywood". Can't say for sure, though.
 * October? 1998 (Promo for this week's shows, taped from WRTV)
 * (Uploader says this aired about a month into the run.)
 * November 1998 (Promo for this week's shows, featuring the Baldwin brothers, and a teaser fo the Comic Relief week; taped from WCBS)
 * December 1998 (Promo for this week's shows; taped from WFSB, low audio)
 * 1998 (Contestant Plug)

For the first few months or so, the main game payouts were the same as the Davidson run ($500 for the first two games, $1,000 for game 3, $2,000 for game 4 & any after, and $250 for any captured squares at the time’s-up signal); these were doubled to rates of $1000, $2000, $4000 and $500 respectively, which stayed for the rest of the run.
 * December 1998 (Laraine Newman, Brian Austin Green, Richard Jeni, Bruce Vilanch, Whoopi, Jeff Cesario, Jeffrey Tambor, Traci Bingham, Caroline Rhea, Joe vs. Cheryl; taped from KCBS, low audio, no intro, ends during credits, plus a holiday message from Tom, Whoopi and the crew)
 * (Celebs listing in order of seating, given that there's no intro. Apparently the first two weeks aired in December of 1998- this one being from the 21st to the 25th. The second week had Carlos Alazraqui as a celeb- at the time he was mainly known for being the voice of Rocko on Rocko's Modern Life and the voice of Spyro the Dragon, so I'm on the lookout for one of his eps.)

Doubled main-game payouts

Bonus round modified

Season 2 (1999-00)
Re-introduced returning champions (sticking with the daytime Marshall era's limit of five matches or defeat), added the Secret Square Stash (now the Secret Square was an accumulating jackpot again- at one point climbing to a record $50,700!), shortened the intro, but otherwise stayed the same.

And of course, the infamous "YOU FOOL!" incident happened during this season. That's all I really need to say about that.

With this season, the new King World "thunderclap" logo was introduced, the Moffit-Lee logo gained a new set of mechanical noises, and the One Ho logo got a four-note tune.