More than a few times over the course of the run of Scrabble, some funny or unexpected things would happen that would wind up on the air. Here are some of the more memorable things that happened.
On this first Christmas episode, Chuck Woolery made the assumption that everyone is a Christian. When he asked a contestant if he got what he wanted for Christmas, the reply was, "No, considering I'm Jewish." Then after asking what he got for Hanukah, he was told that it hasn't happened yet. What a double whammy!
From a 1985 episode...
Reg Grundy Productions decided to give the show a new challenge as it were, by having the contestants spell the answers instead of just saying them. (Kind of like how one would challenge a misspelled word when playing the home board game.) Turns out that the idea wasn't good. In fact, these two contestants tried so hard to spell the word "Mosquitos" that it became so ridiculously humorous.
Poor Sang. Don't ask how he did it, or how it could possibly happen, but it did. It took Sang a whole 87 seconds to get through the Scrabble Sprint round. But he didn't seem to care that much. He looked like he was having a blast of a time trying! (But, he could have tried harder.)
What can I say? This is just as bad as the "JACKMEOFF" gag on the UK show Countdown, except this really happened. The clue to this word was, "It's a taxing job", and as Chuck put it, "I'm getting out of here." (I guess he didn't want to make an ass of himself or something.)
Okay, Chuck had been doing the show for about 3 years now. The poor thing just could NOT get the speedword rules right! huck had been doing the show for about 3 years now. The poor thing just could NOT get the speedword rules right! could NOT get the speedword rules right!
The finale week had the most memories because they were having more fun with the show. But on this episode, the poor contestants had issues with the Stopper. It's bad enough that they got three stoppers in a row, but to have it happen to them two times on the same episode...
Also from the final week, Chuck made another one of his infamous slip ups. After getting sidetracked after a surprising answer to a subjective clue, he inadvertantly blurts out the new answer by saying that the contestants were building on it already. Oh well! NEXT!
The finale episode of the first run has the ultimate moment. After Chuck gets fustrated too many times and makes one too many errors, he says, "Get another host and the show will be a hit. I mean,
look what happened to Wheel!" (Of course, he is refering to Wheel Of Fortune).
Not nearly as bad as Sang was in 1986, but just as bad if you ask me. It took the poor player a whole 69.3 seconds to get through the Scrabble Sprint round. Just goes to show that while the show format didn't change, neither did the contestants way of playing, either.
The finale episode of the second run has another strange moment. Chuck released the fact that a player could pass a stopper if they knew it was one by simply guessing the word. Funny that he mentioned this piece of information on the last episode of any Scrabble incarnation, ever.
From the December 25, 1984 episode...
From a circa 1986 episode...
From a circa 1986 episode...
From the June 12, 1987 episode...
From the March 19, 1990 episode...
From the March 21, 1990 episode...
From the March 23, 1990 episode...
From the 1993 revival...
From the June 11, 1993 episode...