A look inside all
five different box versions of the popular celebrity game
THE
HOLLYWOOD SQUARES
(Watkins-Strathmore
1967)
CONTENTS:
Four decks of
question cards, with 45 question cards in each deck (180 total questions).
Each deck comes in a small cardboard case with a generic character drawing
on it.
Five hard plastic
X's and five hard plastic O's
Twenty $100 play-money
bills
Large hard-plastic
game board that fits over a cardboard box.
GAME PLAY:
One deck of cards is dealt out, five questions in each of the nine squares.
On your turn, your opponent answers the question in the square you select,
and you agree or disagree with that answer to earn the square. (Neither
of you sees the correct answer beforehand.) Three games are played
at $200 a game.
WHO ARE THE CELEBRITIES?
Well, you decide that. To enhance your game playing experience, they
suggest you write celebrity names (or your own names) under each of the
squares.
DIFFERENCES TO TV SHOW:
Aside from the awkward game play described above and the absence of actual
celebrities? One card in each deck has a star on it. That's the Secret
Square question, meaning there are exactly four Secret Square questions
in the entire box game. When it turns up (in plain sight) the player
that gets it right earns an extra $100.
CHANGES IN SECOND EDITION:
BOX: Completely re-designed cover (see main page)
CONTENTS: All-new questions, and the small cardboard cases that hold each
deck of questions feature different characters. Otherwise identical.
COMMENTS:
Nice packaging, but HS is an impossible show to recreate at home, and this
effort is about as bad an approach as you could imagine. Better rules:
have your host hold on to all the questions, and show your opponent the
right answer so he can choose whether to bluff. The host can also
choose a Secret Square before the game starts.
THE
HOLLYWOOD SQUARES
(Ideal
1974)
CONTENTS:
Cardboard game
board with plastic stands
Five each of
plastic X's (yellow) and O's (orange)
Deck of 56 double-sided
question cards with nine questions on each side (1008 total questions)
Card holder
GAME PLAY:
Players ask for squares by number, and the host reads the corresponding
question from a card. Each card has a question for each celebrity
(numbered 1-9), a prepared celebrity "response" and an "A" or a "D" meaning
the player would be right to "Agree" or "Disagree" with the answer.
WHO ARE THE CELEBRITIES?
Peter Marshall appears on the cover, but this is the first of the adaptations
to featured supposedly humorous gag names for the celebrities, including
"Harry Holsum" and "Stella Starlit". None are supposed to represent actual
celebrities, but it can't be a coincidence that an elderly, overall-wearing
comic named "Hayseed" sits in the lower left corner, the TV home of the
elderly, overall-wearing hayseed comic Charley Weaver.
DIFFERENCES TO TV SHOW:
Mostly the complete absence of a Secret Square element. This family-friendly
Ideal version also makes no reference to money, you simply play two-out-of-three
matches. Still, this is a much more faithful adaptation than the
original box game described above.
COMMENTS:
Questions are very straightforward, with lots of yes-no and short answer
responses and absolutely no effort at humor. They're also poorly
constructed, and for the questions that have "bluff" answers, the correct
answers are not provided. That can be frustrating, especially with an occasional
trick question. Only four years later, Ideal would use many of the
elements of this game for their home version of that OTHER three-in-a-row
game show, Tic Tac Dough.
THE
HOLLYWOOD SQUARES
(Milton
Bradley 1980)
CONTENTS:
Cardboard game
board which fits into a cardboard platform
Sheet of vinyl-cling
X's and O's (seven of each)
Two question
books with a total of 450 questions (divided into fifty "games")
GAME PLAY:
Milton Bradley's first stab at the tic-tac-classic is in some ways a throwback
to the original 60s home version. A player picks a celebrity and
the host reads a question. All questions are true-false, yes-no or
multiple choice. The opponent (without seeing the correct answer)
answers the question, and the player agrees or disagrees with his opponent's
response.
WHO ARE THE CELEBRITIES?
Nine more corny, pun-filled names, like "Hugh Morous" and "C. Quinn Galore".
This time, the instructions include a short bio of each of these fictional
celebrities. You'll laugh 'til you stop.
DIFFERENCES TO TV SHOW:
This business of having your opponent answer the questions may make more
sense as a competitive exercise, but it's a serious departure from the
TV show. Once again, there's no reference to a Secret Square, and
not even any Milton Bradley Bucks.
COMMENTS:
The questions in this version are much more like the TV show, and could
very well have been taken directly from the show. This gives you the possibility
of having a little more TV-style fun by coming up with joke answers, especially
if you have extra people around to play the celebrities. Despite
cheap MB materials, the questions make this a very good adaptation.
HOLLYWOOD
SQUARES
(Milton
Bradley 1986)
CONTENTS:
Heavy game board
which fits into a cardboard platform
Twelve cardboard
"guest stars" (pictured unused)
Sheet of vinyl-cling
X's and O's (seven of each)
25 double-sided
question cards with 9 questions on each side (450 questions)
Card holder
GAME PLAY:
Similar to the original MB game above, but adapted for a two-player game.
Instead of question booklets, the questions are on cards that are place
in a holder so that each question can be revealed one at a time. That way,
players can take turns quizzing each other.
WHO ARE THE CELEBRITIES?
This time, there are twelve celebrities, again with the corny names ("Belle
E. Laugh", "Will R. Gue"). You pick nine to use, and put them in
any square you want. Why anyone thought this was a huge improvement
to your game-playing experience is beyond us.
DIFFERENCES TO TV SHOW:
Same as the others, no Secret Square and no reference to money.
COMMENTS:
Nicer packaging from MB this time, but most of it is those absurd "celebrity"
cut-outs The questions are a little more serious than in the 1980
version, but still lighter than your average trivia game. Again,
it's more fun if you've got some real celebrities hanging around.
HOLLYWOOD
SQUARES
(Parker Brothers 1999)
CONTENTS:
Cardboard game
board that stands inside plastic box (pictured flat)
Plastic X's and
O's (five of each)
Twelve cardboard
"celebrity" cutouts
252 two-sided
question cards (504 total questions)
Play money
Rules
GAME PLAY:
The questions are on individual cards, with one question on each side of
every card. A true answer and a bluff answer are provided for each
question. On your turn, you choose a celebrity and your opponent
draws the top card, reads the question and gives the true answer, the provided
bluff answer or a bluff answer of his own. You agree or disagree
correctly to win the square. You win $1000 for each game, plus $1000
for each Secret Square you get right. First to $5000 wins the game.
SECRET SQUARE?
According to the rules, some of the cards are marked as Secret Square cards,
and you can win an extra $1000 for answering that question correctly (limited
to the first Secret Square card that appears in each game). However,
somebody forgot to mark them! Later editions included a note which
read: "The rule sheet does not tell you which of the cards are the Secret
Square cards. Every card that has a number (in the lower right corner)
which ends with a 5 should be played according to the Secret Square rules."
An awkward solution, but it gets the job done if you pay attention.
COMMENTS:
The "celebrities" are twelve more fictional characters, again with punned
names. For the first time since the 1967 original, the game includes
play money. Also for the first time since 1967, somebody was at least
thinking about a Secret Square, even if the execution was a bit off.
The questions are much better than in previous editions. They're
clever and quirky, with good bluffs provided, but without the sexual innuendo
commonly featured on the TV show. Overall, short of having your own
celebrities on hand, this is just about as good a home version of Squares
as you could hope for.