| Host/Executive Producer | |
| Wink Martindale | |
| Announcer | |
| Johnny Gilbert | |
| Broadcast | |
 | |
| Packager | |
| Martindale/Gilden Productions | |
GILBERT: "It's (time to play) Top Secret! Here are the clues: 'I Can Get You Into Hot Water', 'My Ring Won't Fit Your Finger', 'Eventually, You're Bound to Pull My Plug', and 'I'm Your Rubber Ducky's Personal Pond'! The top secret answer is…" (GILBERT &) AUDIENCE: "(THE) BATHTUB!" GILBERT: "From Television City in Hollywood, you can win over $15,000 in cash if you can conceal your identity on.…" (AUDIENCE:) TOP SECRET! GILBERT: "...And here's the man with all the secrets, Wink Martindale!"
Top Secret was an unsold game show pilot where three players assume the "identities" of people, places and things, then try to conceal them from their opponents.
Gameplay[]
Main Game[]
At the start of the game, each contestant was given a "secret identity" of a famous person, place, or thing, as well as four clues referring to it. The clues ranged in value from $250 to $1,000 in increments of $250; the higher the value of a clue, the more directly it referred to the secret identity.
While the host read a toss-up question, values from $100 to $1,000 in multiples of $50 cycled on a row of six overhead monitors and a randomizer light flashed among them. Buzzing in caused the monitors and light to freeze, setting the value of the question. A correct answer added the value to the contestant's score, but a miss froze them out of the next question.
After answering a question correctly, the contestant had to buy one clue from any opponent if they had enough money to do so. The cost of the clue was deducted from their score, and the opponent read both that clue and any others that had been previously bought from them. The contestant in control had three seconds to guess the opponent's secret identity; successfully doing so awarded a $100 bonus and eliminated the opponent from the game.
A contestant could win the game in two ways:
- If both opponents were eliminated by having their secret identities guessed
- If no opponent guessed their secret identity after buying all four clues from them
The winner kept any remaining money and advanced to the Super Sleuth bonus round.
Super Sleuth (Bonus Round)[]
The winner had 60 seconds to guess up to six secret identities, receiving a maximum of three clues for each and offering one guess after each clue. If the winner failed to guess an identity after all three clues, it was thrown out and the host continued to the next one. The winner received $200 per correct guess, or a larger cash prize for solving six before time ran out.
The same three contestants played two complete games, with $5,000 at stake in the first Super Sleuth. If the same player won both games, they played the second Super Sleuth for $10,000 and would have returned as champion on the next episode. If two different players won one game each, the second Super Sleuth was played for $5,000 and the contestant with the higher bonus round winnings would have become champion.
_1.jpg "Top Secret - Super Sleuth (1) 1.jpg (247 KB)")
_2.jpg "Top Secret - Super Sleuth (1) 2.jpg (211 KB)")
_3.jpg "Top Secret - Super Sleuth (1) 3.jpg (252 KB)")
_4.jpg "Top Secret - Super Sleuth (1) 4.jpg (249 KB)")
_5.jpg "Top Secret - Super Sleuth (1) 5.jpg (261 KB)")
_6.jpg "Top Secret - Super Sleuth (1) 6.jpg (231 KB)")
_1.jpg "Top Secret - Super Sleuth (2) 1.jpg (234 KB)")
_2.jpg "Top Secret - Super Sleuth (2) 2.jpg (227 KB)")
Pics[]
More Screenshots[]
Here's the opening sample puzzle:
Merchandise[]
A board game adaptation based on the proposed show was released in 1988 by Parker Brothers, referred to on the back of the box as "TV's cleverest new game show". However, the game only had a brief shelf life; this was partly because CBS turned down the show, but also because rival company TSR already had a game called Top Secret on the market. As a result, the Top Secret board game is a very hard-to-find collectible. The second board game that was based on a failed game show pilot was Smartass released by University Games.[1][2]
Music[]
- Ed Lojeski
- Fred Lapides
Studio[]
CBS Television City, Hollywood, California
Inventors[]
Wink Martindale & Jerry Gilden
Trivia[]
Top Secret was one of the shows that was being considered to replace Blackout while the CBS version of Family Feud with the late Ray Combs was being developed. After complaints from viewers of the Dick Clark version of The $25,000 Pyramid, CBS opted to renew Pyramid for a final run of 65 episodes.
The theme of the pilot is used as the introductory theme for all videos on Wink Martindale's YouTube channel, more specifically called "Wink's Vault".
Rating[]
