Monday, April 4, 2022

C: The Cross-Wits

 

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter


The Cross-Wits 

I wanted to give game shows some love, too 😉  Two teams, each consisting of a contestant and two celebrities, competed to solve clues to a giant crossword puzzle. The words in the puzzle, in turn, were the clue to a master puzzle.  The show had two runs in syndication, first from 1975 to 1980, then in 1986-87.  I remember watching the the first one. I was excited to learn there would be a new version in 1986, but I only got to see that one once or twice. The local channel that aired it switched the time slot. As I recall, it was on in the afternoon, and before its run ended, it was on around 5 in the morning! Needless to say, I could not watch it then. I was still in high school and we did not have a VCR in my house at that time.

Jack Clark was host of the first run, with Jerri Fiala as the hostess who used a pointer to reveal each word once it was guessed correctly. David Sparks was host of the second version, titled The All-New Cross-Wits.

Would this idea work today? This came out the same time as the original daytime version of Wheel of Fortune, the famous letter game that still airs to this day. Wheel even has crosswords clues for some of its puzzles now. 

Here are some clips from Youtube, of both runs of the show (click here to see more):







11 comments:

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
OOooohhh, as a crossword fied I LOVE this show; it was never shown here, but I definitely think it would be worth it showing up again on our screens. I just wathched these all through and was shouting the answers at the screen! YAM xx
C=Connections

Tasha Duncan-Drake said...

I have never heard of this show, but it looks like its fun with words, which is always a good start.
Tasha
Tasha's Thinkings: YouTube - What They Don't Tell You (and free fiction)

nashvillecats2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ladyleemanila said...

great post, Jamie :)

Liam said...

So far you are correct: I don't remember any of these TV shows!

I'm writing about documentary movies for my A to Z. Here's my post for today: https://othemts.wordpress.com/2022/04/04/documentary-movie-review-crip-camp-a-disability-revolution-2020-bloggingatozchallenge/

Elephant's Child said...

Yet another I don't know and hadn't even heard of.

Deborah Weber said...

Sounds fun, although my first preference would always be to do a crossword myself rather than watch others do one on TV.

ghostmmnc said...

A new one for me. It does sound fun though, as I love crosswords! :)

Tinbugs said...

I have never seen Cross Wits but I do enjoy a good word game. When I have visited my aunt in London, we watch a game show called Countdown every night and I miss it when I return home.

Dyanne @ I Want Backsies said...

Even after watching the video, I don't remember this show, but I was in college when it was out, so something tells me I had better things to do than watch game shows on tv during that time!

Damyanti Biswas said...

Wow! Good Post!