Junior Partner Pyramid


Aired
ABC Daytime, October 1, 1979 - November 8, 1979
Run time
30 Minutes
Host
Dick Clark
Announcer
Bob Clayton
Origination
ABC Studios New York, New York

This is chronicling the Junior Partner Pyramid where this version is only for children and their friends & family.

Game Format[]

Main Game[]

Two teams, each consisting of a child and adult relative, attempted to guess a series of items relating to different categories within a short time limit based on clues given by their partners. The show's title referred to its pyramid-shaped game boards, both in the main game and in the bonus round, featuring six categories arranged in a triangular fashion. As always in the main game, each category's title was cleverly written in order to give team members a vague idea of what it was about (ex: "Loosen Up" - things that are stiff; "Made Public" - things that are used by the public; "The Woodsman" - things that a carpenter uses). Some categories also involved famous people, which contestants and celebrities both dreaded. Each team played each category in alternating order (their choice), and for each category, one person on the team had 35 seconds to describe seven items relating to that category to their partner. Teams scored 1 point for each correct answer (for a maximum of 7 points); if they passed on a word, they could not come back to it, but if the receiver guessed it right after it was passed, the team still earned a point for it. The clue giver could use voice inflections and hand/body movements while describing a word, but they could not say the actual word or any other part of it or else they would lose out on that potential point score (accompanied by a "cuckoo" sound effect). For the first two categories, the celebrities gave the clues, then the contestants gave the clues for the next two, and then for the final two, teams decided among themselves who would give or receive clues (the team that was trailing usually got first pick between the last two categories). The team in the lead after the sixth category moved on to the Winner's Circle.

Bonuses[]

During the front game, two bonus opportunities would arise. The first is the "Bonus 7"; a team would designate one category, and getting all seven answers won the team $500. A team could also win $500 by achieving a perfect score of 21 points.

Tiebreaker[]

f the game ended in a tie, the game shifted into a tie-breaker situation. The team that caused the tie had a choice between two letters leaving the other for the other team. Both teams had 35 seconds to get as many of the seven items beginning with their letter(s) as they can. The teams continued building on their scores using the tie-breaker categories. This caused an achievement of very rare high scores. Extra ties kept the game going, and as soon as the tie was broken, the game was over. The team with the most points won the game.

Winner's Circle[]

The Winner's Circle essentially reversed the process: one member of the winning team had 60 seconds to describe six categories of increasing difficulty to their partner by listing items relating to each category. The team decided who'd give and who'd receive; for the receiver, there were strict rules involving the types of clues they could not give in the Winner's Circle (see below):

Clue givers could not use their hands (their chair had special straps attached to the arms to prevent them from doing so)
Clue givers could not give away any part of the category itself or the essence thereof
Clue givers had to use a short and concise list of clues; they could not use clues that were overly descriptive
Clue givers could not use synonyms or prepositional phrases
Clue givers' clues had to relate to the category itself

If the clue giver gave an illegal clue at any time, the category in play was thrown out, thus disqualifying the team from winning the grand prize. However, if this happened with time left on the clock and with unrevealed categories yet to be played, then the team was allowed to play the remainder of the Winner's Circle until time ran out or until the remaining categories were all correctly guessed. The first category was worth $100 and each subsequent category was worth $25 more, up to $250 for the sixth. If the team got all six right before the time expired, they won the grand prize.

The first trip to the Winner's Circle was worth $2,500. If that was lost, but the team made it back, the second was worth $5,000. Should a team win a Winner's Circle, all previous winnings would be augmented to the grand prize, and the team retired; otherwise they played in the next game against the same opponents.

If neither Winner's Circle was won, whichever team earned the most money, including bonuses, returned on the next show.