It's more than Password, it's !!!

After a word is placed on the board, the team's guesser for the round guesses the answer to the "Password Puzzle," a well-known person, place, or thing. There is total of five passwords/clues for each puzzle. If the guesser can't give a correct answer with all five answers revealed, his/her partner has a chance to answer. If neither one gets it right, the puzzle is thrown out.
The first two rounds are worth $100, every round after is worth $200, with $300 winning the game and a chance at $5,000 in the "Alphabetics" round.

10 successive letters of the alphabet (A-J, F-O, etc.) are shown, representing the first letter of each password. The clue-giver and guesser alternated between giving a clue and giving a guess. $100 is awarded for each password guessed, with $5,000 for all ten. If an illegal clue (opposite, two words, a hyphenated word) is given, $1,000 is taken out of the jackpot.
 

In Mid-1981, the format was slightly tweaked. It now took $500 to win the game (payoffs for each round remained the same, with the exception that the third puzzle was worth only $100), and the Alphabetics jackpot increased by $5,000 each time it was not won, and an illegal clue subtracted $2,500. Very late in the show's run, Alphabetics was tweaked AGAIN so that the penalty for an illegal clue was no longer the same flat figure. Each illegal clue deducted 20% of the jackpot, no matter so it was (i.e., the penalty for a $5,000 jackpot was $1,000, but on the $20,000 level, the penalty would be $4,000).

Tom's performance is, to abuse a cliche, making lemons out of lemonade, as he carries on a happy, cheerful mannor despite becoming emcee through incredibly sad circumstances. He was brought in under the guise of being "substitute host" for Allen Ludden, although it was obvious to everyone who knew him that Allen was losing his battle to stomach cancer. Tom was now the permanent host, and Allen passed away in 1981.

On the final episode of "Password Plus" in 1982, Tom paid tribute to his predecessor in the final moments of the show:

"This is the last in our series of Password Plus, and even though our dear friend Allen Ludden isn't with us at this particular moment, as you well know, he hosted this show as only he could do for something like eighteen years...and so, I was very proud to have the last year and a half at the helm."

To Tom's credit though, he avoided the mistake of trying to "be" Allen, and simply hosted the show as if it was his domain and hosted the show with his own style and nobody else's. The result was a year and a half that Allen would have been proud of, as Tom showed himself to be competent and able in the role he was suddenly thrust into, and keeping the show as cheerful as possible despite the sadness backstage.

Trying to replace an irreplacable emcee. (3.1 MB)