Scrabble was first started in pilot form in early March of 1984, just a few months before the show's premiere broadcast on July 2nd of that same year. While the show went through a few minor physical set changes before the first episode was taped, the gameplay is exactly the same as the series when it first started. (You can thus consider this a document on how the show was played initially before changes were made.)

The object of the pilot episode was to find out what the word was that host Chuck Woolery was giving you the clue for. To get letters to appear in the proper places in the word, the contestant would choose two tiles from a set that would appear in the center of the podium mechanics. These tiles were marked with stars in the pilot episode, instead of being numerically ordered in the actual show. Each correct letter placed was valued at $25 each. The player that guessed the word correctly won the pot of money that they both accumulated.

The player with the most money accumulated at the end of the game would go on to play the Scrabble Sprint round. The main difference with the Sprint round in the pilot was that instead of having the clock count upwards for the first player of the round and then downwards for the second player, the clock always went upwards, and after each word, the computer would compare the two times next to each other to see how well the second player was doing in comparison.

It's a well known fact that I personally don't like to really spoil pilot episodes by going into massive detail. It's because I think they are fun to watch. Thus, I'll just stop here. But feel free to look around the page at the pictures from the show.