| Host | |
| Nipsey Russell | |
| Announcer | |
| Bob Hilton | |
| Broadcast | |
  | |
| Packager | |
| Mark Goodson Productions | |
"Ladies and gentlemen, NIPSEY RUSSELL…and STAR WORDS!"
Star Words was a proposed spiritual successor to Snap Judgment with a TattleTales-like setup.
Gameplay[]
Two teams of two (consisting of one celebrity & one contestant) competed in a different kind of word game.
Main Game[]
The game was played in three rounds as follows:
The First Two Rounds[]
One member of each team was backstage and shown on a two-way monitor, while the partner sat at an onstage playing desk. A board of five hidden words was shown (for example PRESIDENT, PROTECTION, SEXUAL, FOOD, PLACE, CELEBRITY). The words were revealed one at a time, and the first screen player to buzz-in picked two words from the board. That player then went away while the stage player had to come up with an answer he/she thought the screen player was thinking of; it had to be an association with the formed two-word phrase (i.e. CELEBRITY PROTECTION might lead to BODYGUARD). The screen player then reappeared and if his/her answer matched the stage player's, the team scored $50 and kept control of the board. They kept playing until they didn't match, giving control to the opponents. Once both teams didn't match, the round shifted to a "Final Shot", where both screen partners each created one more phrase. A successful match here was worth double or $100.
The game was evidently meant to be played for laughs, as with the above example there could be combinations like SEXUAL PROTECTION or SEXUAL PRESIDENT.
Any phrase could be used more than once, but associations couldn't be repeated.
Round 1[]
The celebrities sat at the desk while the contestants were backstage.
Round 2[]
The roles were reversed meaning that the contestants sat at the desk while the celebrities were backstage.
Round 3[]
The roles were back to the way they were in Round 1. This time, there was no need to buzz in as the words were revealed. The trailing team went first and, as usual, they kept going as long as they kept matching. Each match was worth $100 and if they passed the leading team's score before missing, the other team would play their half of the round in an attempt regain the lead. The team with the most money won the game and played for another $5,000.
Bonus Round: Super Star Words[]
In this bonus, the game reversed the process. Ten words were shown and Russell gave a series of associations. With each association, the team had to pick the words connected to it, saying both words (one person at a time) to score. Each match was worth $100 and if the team could make all ten matches within 60 seconds, the contestant won $5,000.
Trivia[]
The "ring-in" sound effect from the first two rounds was borrowed from Family Feud's "Face-Off" cue.
The win cue from round 3 was also used for the unsold 1980s pilot Puzzlers, the 1983 pilot of Body Language and the 1979-80 game show Mindreaders.
This show was one of the contenders to replace Child's Play, but lost in favor of Press Your Luck (Tomarken).
The full three pilots aired on Buzzr's "Lost & Found" week on September 7, 2015, on September 14, 2017 and again on January 20, 2023.
Rating[]
Gallery[]
Nipsey's Poems[]
Pilot #1
Each day we turn another page.
You know you're reachin' middle age
When your pimples and your rashes
Turn to wrinkles and hot flashes!
Pilot #2
If you owe too much on American Express,
And your Diners Club bill is too large,
Take a loan on your Visa
And pay it off with your Master Charge!
Pilot #3
50% of married women cheat on their husbands,
That's what the researcher claims.
Percentages don't mean a thing to me,
What I need to know are some names!
Music[]
Main - "Working Girl March" by Dave Grusin (also used in pilots for Body Language and On a Roll and Tootsie before that)
Inventor[]
Studio[]
CBS Television City, Hollywood, California