Battlestars

"(insert celebrities). Those are the Battlestars./All on The New Battlestars. And here's the manager man, Alex Trebek.

Battlestars was an American game show that aired for two separate runs on NBC during the early 1980s. The show's first run aired from October 26, 1981 to April 23, 1982. An updated version titled The New Battlestars ran for 13 weeks, from April 4 to July 1, 1983.

Battlestars was similar to Hollywood Squares (another Heatter-Quigley Productions game show) in its gameplay and use of multiple celebrities (leading some fans to dub it "The Hollywood Triangles"). The show was produced by Merrill Heatter Productions, one of Heatter's first shows produced without Bob Quigley.

The host was Alex Trebek and the announcers were Rod Roddy (1981-1982) and Charlie Tuna (1983).

Main game
Two contestants (one a returning champion) competed. The champion sat at the blue podium and the challenger at the red podium. They faced a six-member celebrity panel, who sat in a large space-like set made up of triangles. Each triangle had three numbers (1-10) attached to their points; hence, they were called "Points of Light" (1-4-5, 2-5-6, 3-6-7, 4-5-8, 5-6-9, and 6-7-10).

The contestant in control pushed a plunger on their podium to stop a flashing randomizer, and the number it stopped on determined which celebrity would be asked a question. The questions were asked in the style of The Hollywood Squares, except that a celebrity was given two possible answers and had to choose between one or the other. Once the celebrity chose an answer, the contestant was asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the celebrity. A correct response meant that the contestant kept control. If the contestant was wrong, control passed to their opponent. Regardless of how the contestant in control answered, the Point of Light was lit and it was then taken out of play. However, similar to Hollywood Squares, if a miss would result in the capture of a celebrity to an opponent by default, the Point would remain in play.

When landing on a number on the top or bottom row, the contestant must play with the celebrity whose triangle touched that number; but when landing on a center row number since they were attached to two or more triangles, the contestant chose which celebrity to play with, although the choice defaulted if it meant a star could be captured (unless of course more than one star can be captured).

If the player in control lit the last Point of Light around a celebrity, even if their opponent was responsible for the other two lights, the player "captured" that star. The first contestant to capture three stars won the game, $500 and played the bonus round. Also, if a contestant managed to capture all six celebrities (a rare feat), they won a bonus prize on the original version and $1,000 on the 1983 revival.

1983 changes
The rules were identical except for these minor changes:
 * The object was to extinguish the points of light rather than to light them. This was merely a cosmetic change and had no bearing on the rules.
 * The points of light were now extinguished regardless of whether or not the contestant's decision was correct.
 * The randomizer was only used when control passed between contestants. Upon getting a correct answer, the contestant in control simply chose a number verbally.
 * Finally (and this also had no bearing on the rules), not only the stars saw the displaying of the two answer choices, but the home and studio audience saw them too. The players in studio did not see them, however until the bonus game which will be explained later.

1981-1982: Battlestars Two
A famous celebrity face was completely hidden under 16 numbered blocks. The winner of the game chose three cards which Trebek would put in a scanner on his podium. After the three blocks were removed, the contestant picked one more square that would help them most. On some episodes, the contestant's choice was made prior to drawing the three cards. If a card drawn matched the number of the square the contestant already chose to reveal, the contestant would draw another card. The contestant then had a chance to identify the celebrity for $5,000.

However, if they gave a wrong guess or couldn't answer, the contestant drew up to three additional cards (one at a time) and could solicit help from the celebrities. The prize value dropped to $3,000 for the first card, then $2,000 and $1,000. If the contestant failed to identify the face after four attempts the contestant won nothing.

1983: The Main Event/Battlestars Bonanza
The winner and the three captured Battlestars (or three of the contestant's choice if more were captured) played a three-question bonus round. Each multiple-choice question had three possible answers which were now displayed to everybody. After the celebrity in play offered his/her choice, the contestant was asked whether they agreed or disagreed. If the contestant was correct in disagreeing, they had to choose the correct answer from the two remaining choices to win any cash.

The first two questions were played for $500 each. If the contestant answered all three questions correctly they won the "Battlestars Bonanza", a jackpot that started with $5,000 cash and a prize package (generally a combined value of $10,000 or more), with another prize added every time it was not won.

Scheduling/Ratings
NBC scheduled the first version of Battlestars at 11:30 a.m./10:30 Central, replacing Card Sharks and switching places with Password Plus. However, it became yet another in a long line of victims of CBS' The Price is Right, and NBC pulled it after a six-month run. With the cancellation of Blockbusters on the same day, Wheel of Fortune was left as the sole game on NBC's daytime schedule until January 3, 1983 when Hit Man, Just Men! and a revival of Sale of the Century debuted.

After a retooling, the game returned one year later, at Noon/11 Central. Like practically all shows since Jackpot in 1975, though, Battlestars proved no match at all for CBS' The Young and the Restless and ABC's Family Feud, nor was it widely cleared by local stations, which opted to show local news instead.

Trivia
Jerry Seinfeld appeared as a panelist in 1982. At the time he was a relatively unknown comic working the stand-up circuit.

Alex Trebek became the second person (after Jim Perry) to concurrently host a Canadian and an American game show, as Trebek was hosting Pitfall in Vancouver.

On the 1983 premiere of The New Battlestars, after providing several incorrect answers, panelist Debbie Reynolds jokingly ran out of the studio, screaming and crying at the same time. When the show returned from the commercial break, Trebek quipped that security officers caught Debbie in the hallway, brought her back to the studio and put her back in her seat.

Music
Mort Garson

External links (deadlinks)

 * Archived David Livingston's Battlestars Page
 * Download a "Battlestars" MC game from BASICGames