Hollywood Squares

The Hollywood Squares is a American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money and prizes. The "board" for the game is actually a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The celebrities are asked questions and the contestants judge the veracity of their answers in order to win the game.

Other celebrity panelists

Since the center square is the most strategic in tic-tac-toe, it is treated as the position of honor on the show. Besides Paul Lynde, center square occupants in later versions have included:

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• Joan Rivers, who was the primary occupant in the late-1980s version;
• Whoopi Goldberg, who was the center square in the second revival for its first four years; and
• Ellen DeGeneres and Martin Mull, who took over for Whoopi.

The following is a partial list of other notable celebrity panelists:

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• Carol Channing
• Dick Clark
• Phyllis Diller
• Bob Eubanks
• Gilbert Gottfried
• Tom Kennedy
• Rich Little
• Martin Mull
• Penn and Teller
• Tom Poston
• Charles Nelson Reilly
• Caroline Rhea
• Siegfried and Roy
• Bruce Vilanch
• Jimmie Walker
• Marcia Wallace
• Chuck Woolery - appeared in all four versions

Puppets have also appeared as panelists, including:

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• ALF_(television)
• Bear, from Bear in the Big Blue House
• Big Bird and Elmo, from Sesame Street
• Kermit, and Miss Piggy, from The Muppet Show
• Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, from Late Night with Conan O'Brien
• Madame, with and without late ventriloquist Wayland Flowers.