Scattergories

(insert celebrity self-introductions) "Here to play the game that's the star of every party, Scattergories. And here's the man that keeps us all in line: Dick Clark.

The party game based on the board game where the answers fit under different categories and began with certain letters.

Main Game
Two teams of four in a battle of the sexes manner (four men vs. four women) played a game based on the board game. The game was played in two rounds, each with a different category.

For the first week, the first round started with a toss-up letter given by host Clark, with the team that buzzed in first & giving an acceptable word getting a point & control of the letter. After the toss-up winners played their half of the round, the other team took a turn. After that, the team who was behind went first. Later it was changed to having the challengers going first in round one, and the team that's behind still going first in round two.

Round One
The team in control was given a letter, then they had 15 seconds to come up with six words/phrases/names that fit into the category that start with that letter, with each word being worth one point. When giving answers, there were two rules: a player cannot answer twice in a row, no word can be used as part of an answer more than twice. When the list was finished or the time was up, the opposing team could challenge any word they think is unacceptable. When that happened, a five-member jury (consisting, on some episodes, of former contestants) will then vote yes or no, with the majority rule in place. If the majority said yes, the challenged team earned a bonus point; but if the majority said no, one point was deducted from the challenged team's score, and the word was taken off the list, plus the challengers can challenge another word if they wish.

Celebrity Board
After naming the items & having the words (possibly) challenged, the controlling team played for more points at the celebrity board. The celebrity board had five stars, each one gave answer in advance and was prerecorded. The controlling team chose four stars, one from each player; on each star, the star's tape was played back to reveal his/her answer. The idea was to pick stars who gave answers that were not given by the controlling team. Each new answer was worth one point, but each match lost a point.

Round Two
Round two was played the same way except that it was played with a new category, and the point values were now doubled to two points. Plus the teams went to the celebrity board after both teams had their 15 seconds of naming items & challenging their opponents.

The team with the most points won the game. If the game ended in a tie, host Clark gave one more category and one more letter; the first team to buzz-in with an acceptable word won the game.

The winning team won $500 and the right to play the bonus round for an increasing jackpot.

Bonus Round
In the bonus round, the winning team faced the celebrity board one last time, and was given one last category. Each star was given a different letter and gave one answer that fit into the category starting with that letter. The winning team now had 25 seconds (originally 20 seconds) to give 10 answers (two for each celebrity). When they were finished or when time ran out, the judge eliminated words that were deemed unacceptable, the celebrities with the offended words as well as celebrities that don't have the two given words were taken out of play. Afterwards, the tapes of the celebrities still in play were played back, and each time a celebrity's answer did not match either of the team's, the team captured that celebrity; and winning the bonus round won the jackpot.

For the first week & the pilot, the team had to capture a jackpot celebrity. In the pilot, that celebrity was randomly selected, while the first week of the series had the celebrity be selected by the winning team in a blind draw of five cards (with the names of one of the stars on each) in advance in an attempt to win the jackpot; with failure earning $200 for each captured celebrity. Shortly after that, the winning team needed to capture any three celebrities to win the jackpot; with failure earning $100 for each completed list.

The jackpot itself started at $4,000, plus $1,000 for every day it was not won.

Music
Pilot - Unknown

Series - Ray & Marc Ellis

Inventor
Based on the board game of the same name.

Links
Rules for Scattergories

YouTube Videos
1992 Pilot Show

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Full Pilot with Production Slate & Pitch Film

Premiere Show

Part 1

Part 2