Concentration (game show)

Concentration is a venerable TV game show based on the children's memory game of the same name.

Rules of the game

Two contestants (one a returning champion) sat before a board of 30 squares, which concealed the rebus, names of prizes and special squares (see below).

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One at a time, the contestants called out two numbers. If the prizes or special action didn't match, the opponent took his/her turn, and so on.

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However, if the player did match, whatever prize was printed on the card was placed on a board behind the contestant; or, he/she could perform an action.

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More importantly, a match also revealed two pieces of the rebus, which identified a person, phrase, place, thing, etc. The player could try to solve the rebus or choose two more numbers, but even if he/she was wrong, he/she kept control. Usually, a player waited to solve the puzzle until they had exposed a good portion of the rebus through several matches.

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Special spaces

In addition to the prize cards, there were the following action cards:

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• WILD - Self-explanatory; provided an automatic match. Usually, the other half of the natural match was also given at that point, allowing three (or sometimes, more) pieces of the rebus to be revealed at once. Early on, players uncovering two WILD cards won a $500 bonus and chose two additional numbers; their natural matches were then revealed, the prizes went on that contestant's side and up to six pieces of the rebus were revealed.

Late in the run, getting two WILD cards in the same turn won the player a new car ? usually the Chevrolet Nova ? which he/she kept, regardless of the game's outcome.

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• Take One Gift - The contestant at that moment was allowed to take a prize his/her opponent might have in their possession and put it in his/her own rack. Usually, there were two sets of these per game.
• Forfeit One Gift - The player immediately had to give up one of the prizes he/she had in his possession to his/her opponent. Also two sets per game.

Also included were two or three joke prizes (such as a banana peel or torn teddy bear). These actually served as insurance markers against opponents' Take cards and the Forfeit cards he/she might stumble upon.

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Winning the game

A player who offered a correct guess won his/her gifts; he/she also earned $100 if there were no prizes in the rack. The loser forfeits all his/her gifts.

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During the early years of the run, there was no bonus game; the returning champion simply faced a new opponent. The bonus game - first played in 1960 - went thusly:

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• The Envelope and its Mysterious Contents - A contestant selected one out of several possibilities. The prize was either cash or a grand prize such as a car.
• The Cash Wheel - A player spun a carnival-type wheel, containing various dollar amounts. The top prize was $2,000.

Champions continued until either defeated or by winning 20 games. Reportely, this happened just once (in 1966 by Ruth Horowitz), although some sources document other 20-game champions.

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