Number Please

Host
Bud Collyer
Hostesses
Reggie Dombeck (real name Penny Wright) Suzanne Storrs Nancy Kovack
Announcer
Ralph Paul
Broadcast
Unsold Pilot for CBS Primetime: Mid 1958 ABC Daytime: 1/31/1961 – 12/29/1961
Packager
Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions

'"N-U-M-B-E-R, P-L-E-A-S-E…Number Please! This portion of Number Please is brought to you by Johnson Shampoo, the no-tears shampoo that can't burn eyes. And now, here's your host on Number Please, Bud Collyer!"

Number Please was a Wheel of Fortune-like precursor word game show where letters were revealed by numbers.

Gameplay[]

Two contestants faced a game board of twenty blank spaces, each marked with a number from 1 to 20. Each player got their own row. To start, each contestant picked three numbers to reveal some letters, then they took turns picking off spaces by their corresponding numbers to reveal letters or space spaces. The solutions to those puzzles were prizes or descriptions of prizes. As soon as a player knows the answers, he/she must then buzz-in and solve both puzzles. A correct solution to both puzzles won the game and a prize package which included the described prizes.

Originally, each win by a contestant meant the championship, and playing against a new opponent. Five wins retired the player as undefeated champion. Eventually, this was amended to a best-two-out-of-three wins starting in May, resulting in a player being named champion and remaining to face a new challenger.