| Host | |
| Ron Hoon | |
| Announcer | |
| James Bradley | |
| Taped | |
 | |
| Packager | |
| Merv Griffin Enterprises | |
"Let's play BUZZWORD! From the NBC Studios in Hollywood, it's time for BUZZWORD, the exciting new game everybody wants to play. Here come the players and $100,000 in cash and prizes is just waiting to be won. And now, here's the host of Buzzword, Ron Hoon!"
Buzzword was an unsold game show pilot about anagrams.
Gameplay[]
Three contestants competed in a game of scrambled words which are arranged in a weird shapely way.
On display are prizes totaling over $100,000. Each one would be at stake on each Buzzword (puzzle).
On each Buzzword to start, blue circles representing its letters were displayed. The player would take turns revealing letters until one player buzzes in hopefully with the right answer. On a player's turn, a yellow dot would bounce around the board until the player in control yelled "STOP!" At which point, the letter on the landed circle would be revealed, and then play would pass to the next player. In addition, one of the circles was an "Extra" space, which if landed on by the player in control would give a chance to win a bonus prize after solving the word. Also at some point, a player would land on a "Trigger" letter which was a circled letter; that letter was either the first or last letter in the word. As soon as a player knew the word, he/she must hit a buzzer (aka The Buzzword Bar) and state his/her answer. If his/her answer was correct, he/she won the round.
Also during play, a light would dance around the prizes on display and available; all of which were announced by announcer Jim Bradley at the beginning of each round. When a player buzzed in to solve the word, the spotlight would stop on a prize and that would be the prize won if the word was solved. And should that player win the round with the Extra, he/she may decide to either unscramble and solve a five letter bonus Buzzword for an extra prize in addition to the prize won at the risk of losing them both if he/she failed, or pass it by and keep the first prize. And later on in the game, there was also the opportunity to takeaway a prize from one of the two opponents.
Four Buzzwords would be played and then the game would end with a final puzzle called "The Big Buzzword" with all the letters revealed. The first player to identify that word would take a prize from one of the two opponents. The player with the most money in prizes kept their winnings and would return tomorrow to face two new challengers and play again.
Music[]
"Buzzword" by Merv Griffin - Later used as a prize cue on Wheel of Fortune and (in remixed form) the theme of Merv Griffin's Crosswords.
Inventor[]
Merv Griffin
Gallery[]
Commercial Inserter
NOTE: This is one of Merv's three pilots that have use the "Place Commercial Here" inserter, the other two were Strike a Match in 1987 and Winfall in 1988.
Logo[]
.jpg "Buzzword (1).jpg (152 KB)")
.jpg "Buzzword (2).jpg (173 KB)")
