Bill Cullen: Chain Reaction

First episode: January 14, 1980
Last episode: June 20, 1980
Seen weekday mornings 12:00-12:30 on NBC

Two teams of three players (two celebrities and a contestant) score points by identifying words connected thematically in a chain. In the bonus round, the celebrities construct questions adding a word at a time, and the contestant tries to come up with the answer to the frequently awkward query. The bonus round went through no less than three different scoring variations in the six months the series was seen.

Despite cheap production values, this was a fun game with a bonus round so good it was later spun off into its own game (the similarly short-lived GO). A noon time slot hurt, since a great many local stations in the Eastern Time Zone were airing their own newscasts at that hour. For the two weeks of shows that aired April 7-18, Geoff Edwards replaced Bill as host. Bill was filling in for an ailing Allen Ludden on Password Plus. See our Guest Appearances page for details about Bill's visit to the Password Plus podium.

The NBC publicity machine didn't exactly work overtime in coming up with promotional material for this series. Here's the best they could do for a press release: "Bill Cullen has such a love for words, he is frequently a celebrity guest on other word related shows."

The pilot for this series was recorded on October 28, 1979, and it had several minor differences to the show which eventually aired. In the pilot, teams consisted of a celebrity (Joyce Bulifant and Nipsey Russell) teamed with a husband & wife pair. Either the husband or the wife played alongside the celebrity partner for each game board, so only four of the six players were active at any one time. The bonus round scoring was different than ANY of the variations seen on the air. In the pilot, the winning team started with a penny, and added a zero to their total for each correct answer. Seven correct answers in sixty seconds would have been worth a then staggering $100,000. It's not surprising that this bonus version was never used. As game play improved, the top prize would have been hit far too often.

Here's an odd little news item found in a 3/17/80 issue of People Magazine: LOX STEP When Barry Manilow closed the set of his upcoming ABC-TV special to anyone not wearing a Bagel button (a security badge he devised, named for his dog, Bagel), the crew members on Bill Cullen's neighboring Chain Reaction game show retaliated. Since they couldn't watch Manilow at work during their breaks, they made up their own security stickers with the words "Cream Cheese" and banned the Bagel brigade from catching THEIR act.

EPISODE GUIDE

PILOT (Oct 28, 1979)	Joyce Bulifant	Nipsey Russell
January 14-18	Joyce Bulifant	Nipsey Russell	Patty Duke Astin	Fred Grandy
January 21-25	Joyce Bulifant	Robert Mandan	Didi Conn	Jay Johnson
Jan 28-Feb 1	Elaine Joyce	Nipsey Russell	Vicki Lawrence	Richard Paul
February 4-8	Jo Anne Worley	Michael McKean	Joanna Gleason	Richard Paul
February 11-15	Peggy Cass	Robert Mandan	Shelley Smith	Fred Grandy
February 18-22	Debralee Scott	Soupy Sales	Lois Nettleton	Jay Johnson
February 25-29	Anita Gillette	Soupy Sales	Lois Nettleton	Bart Braverman
March 3-7	Debralee Scott	Robert Mandan	Joanna Gleason	Robert Walden
March 10-14	Anita Gillette	Allen Ludden	Betty White	Brian Patrick Clarke
March 17-21	Anita Gillette	Nipsey Russell	Gina Hecht	Fred Grandy
March 24-28	Patty Duke Astin	Nipsey Russell	Joanna Gleason	Brian Patrick Clarke
Mar 31-Apr 4	Joyce Bulifant	Robert Pine	Judy Norton-Taylor	Jay Johnson
April 7-11*	Vicki Lawrence	Jack Carter	Gina Hecht	Wesley Eure
April 14-18*	Jo Anne Worley	Robert Walden	Constance McCashin	Richard Paul
April 21-25	Elaine Joyce	Robert Mandan	Didi Conn	Ken Kercheval
Apr 28-May 2	Susan Richardson	Daryl Anderson	Betty White	Jay Johnson
May 5-9	Jo Anne Worley	Steve Kanaly	Sharon Spelman	Sal Viscuso
May 12-16	Anita Gillette	Ken Kercheval	Judy Norton-Taylor	Brian Patrick Clarke
May 19-23	Anita Gillette	Ron Silver	Vicki Lawrence	Wesley Eure
May 26-30	Laurie Walters	Nipsey Russell	Sharon Spelman	Brian Patrick Clarke
June 2-6	Alison Arngrim	Nipsey Russell	Gina Hecht	Daryl Anderson
June 9-13	Vicki Lawrence	Robert Mandan	Judy Norton-Taylor	Richard Paul
June 16-20	Joyce Bulifant	Ron Silver	Betty White	Jay Johnson
*Geoff Edwards hosts

For those of you curious enough to ask but not curious enough to count, Nipsey Russell appeared during six weeks (not including the pilot), more than any other celebrity. Anita Gillette, Robert Mandan and Jay Johnson each made five appearances. Richard Paul, Joyce Bulifant, Brian Patrick Clarke and Vicki Lawrence appeared four times each.

Read the original Variety review from January 23, 1980

VIDEO
All episodes appear to have survived. Most (but not all) of the episodes have been seen on GSN: The Network for Games.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Screen grabs and more specifics at Adam Nedeff's Bill Cullen's World
The Chain Reaction page on Wikipedia