AIRDATES

January 3-September 30, 1977

NETWORK(S)

NBC Daytime

ANNOUNCER(S)

Bob Clayton

PRODUCED BY

Bob Stewart

Two celebrity-contestant teams competed. Each team starts with $100 and alternates choosing one of 24 boxes on the gameboard. When a box is chosen, the team is shown the dollar value (between $100-$300, plus one box worth $500, or a special box such as "Double Your Score" or "Instant Car") and sees a nonsense phrase like "Ordinary/007."

One player on the team translates the part of the phrase before the line, the other translates the part after the line, with the hope of discerning a common phrase (in this example, "Common/Bond."). A correct guess wins the value of the box, and there is no penalty for a wrong guess.

Four of the boxes contain stars instead of dollar amounts. If a team finds one of the stars, they must place a wager for the value of the phrase, and unlike the others, there is a penalty for a wrong guess with a star, that being the wager placed by the contestant. The first team to win at least $1,500 wins exactly $1,500 (and nothing over that which they may have accumulated) and plays the bonus game.

To start the bonus game, the player stops a series of flipping boards to determine the number of correct answers, from 5 to 9, needed to win the jackpot.

The clue-giver is then shown a series of phrases with underlined words, such as "A Bird in the Hand" and rephrases it by replacing the underlined words. In this example, a good clue might be "An avian creature in the palm." The receiver then must guess the better-known phrase. The team can pass if they get stuck, but if they get the required number of correct answers in 60 seconds, the contestant wins a cash jackpot which starts at $1,000 and increases by $500 until won.

I can only guess that Jack Barry & Dan Enright were big fans of this show, because any contestant who won five games in a row received a brand new car---a rule Barry & Enright incorporated into almost every one of their shows after "Stars" went off the air.

A few footnotes: at least two pilots were shot under the title "Shoot the Works," referring to the fact that a contestant could do just that upon finding a star. I'm guessing somebody noticed it was a terrible title because it held way too much influence over what contestants might want to wager. It would be like doing "Let's Make a Deal" under the title "Always Go For What's in the Box." The only real differences between the pilots and the series were no special boxes, just cash, and the number of correct answers in the bonus game could be as high as ten.

This was the last NBC game show to tape in New York City. The theme music was used on "Jackpot!" when the show resurfaced in 1985 on USA Network with Mike Darrow, not Geoff, who was the original host, but became the host once again when "Jackpot!" went into syndication in 1989. And "Shoot for the Stars" was very briefly revived in 1986 as "Double Talk."

Slight points off for making the bonus game's base value less than the value of a main game win, which is just plain weird. But other than that, this was a tolerable show. It's Geoff's first celebrity game ("Hollywood's Talking" does NOT count) and he shows an immediate sense for having fun and being in charge. Gene Wood once noted that Ross Shafer floundered on "Match Game" because he was intimidated by stars and wouldn't persuade them to "accede to his wishes." Geoff doesn't have that problem and can add another notch to his emceeing belt. With this he proves he can do just-plain-game shows, comedy game shows, and celebrity game shows. Not easy for very many emcees, but not very many emcees are Geoff Edwards.

GEOFF REMEMBERS: I TURNED DOWN WHAT JOB? I had a call to come in and do an audition for "Family Feud." They offered me the pilot at that time. But I already had a deal pending with Bob Stewart (to do the pilot that became "Shoot for the Stars"). And I said "no" to them. What I got nervous about was that Regis Philbin had just done a show called "The Neighbors" that was not very good. I never saw it, but when somebody described it to me, it sounded like what they wanted to do with "Family Feud." So I said no.

Up one level to THE GAME SHOWS OF GEOFF EDWARDS

Up two levels to GEOFF EDWARDS' WORLD

Up three levels to GAME SHOW UTOPIA