The Joker's Wild

The Joker's Wild was a popular American game show of the 1970s and early 1980s, billed as the game "where knowledge is king and lady luck is queen".

Gameplay

Note: The gameplay described below represents the best-remembered format of the 1977-86 syndicated series. Any differences in alternative versions will be discussed in the appropriate section.

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Main Game

Two contestants, one a returning champion, played. The challenger began the game by pulling a lever, which set three slot machine-style wheels in motion. The wheels contained five different categories and Jokers. When the wheels stopped, the player chose one of the displayed categories and had to answer a question from that category.

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The value of each question was determined by how many times that category appeared on the wheels. If three different categories appeared, a question in any of the categories were worth $50. If a two of a kind and a single appeared, a question on the pair is worth $100, and a question on the single is worth $50. If a natural triple (three of a kind) is spun, the question is worth $200 and a bonus prize is awarded to anyone who spinned a natural triple. Natural pairs and triples cannot be split and have to be taken for $100 or $200 respectively.

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Jokers were wild, hence the title, and can be used to match any category (thus increasing the value of the question to $100 or $200, depending on the spin) or to subsitute any category not displayed on the wheels (which is referred to going "off the board") for a $50 question with one joker or $100 with two jokers.

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A question is asked to the spinner, and if answered correctly, the amount of the question is added to his/her score. If answered incorrectly, his/her opponent had a chance to answer.

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If three jokers are spinned, that player won the game automatically with a correct answer to one question from any of the five categories in play. An incorrect answer continued the game.

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The first player to reach $500 or more won the game, however, players were given an equal amount of turns; meaning if the challenger who spin and reached $500 or more first, the champion is given one final spin in an attempt to either tie or win the game (example, if the champion was trailing by $100, he/she must spin at least a double to tie or a triple or three jokers to win; if trailing by more than $200, the only way to win is to spin three jokers).

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If both players reached $500 or more, then extra rounds were played until someone is ahead after each completed round, or if three jokers were spun and a question was correctly answered thus ending the game.

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Any contestant who won five consecutive games received a new car as a bonus. Players continued on the show until defeated; and some of which won more than $25,000 in cash and prizes. One contestant, Joe Dunn, was the highest-money winner (non-Tournament of Champions winnings) in Joker's Wild history, earning more than $66,000 in cash and prizes (surpassing Eileen Jason, who won over $50,000 four years earlier) during a long winning streak in 1983 before electing to retire undefeated when he went over the then-maximum limit of $50,000. Other winners, most notably Frank Dillon and Hal Sheer went on to win well over $30,000 during its run. Dillon won the $50,000 and $100,000 Tournament of Champions specials in 1977 and 1978 respectively, with Jason capturing the $250,000 ToC thanks in part to bad spins by Dillon (losing on a spin of three different categories, needing at least a double to stay in the game when Jason, the challenger, reached $500 first). Although invited to participate in the $1,000,000 Tournament of Champions in 1980, Dillon elected not to do so.

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Endgame ("Face the Devil")

The wheels now contained various amounts of money ($25, $50, $75, $100, $150 and $200 cards) and Devils. The object was to take spins and accumulate $1,000 or more on the wheels, which won a bonus prize package. However, if the Devil came up at any time, the game was over and the player lost whatever money he or she had built up. The player always had the option to stop after every "safe" spin and keep the money earned to that point.

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This was played in the last year of the CBS run and during the entire syndicated series. In the syndicated run, a natural triple in the bonus round (three identical dollar amounts) resulted in an automatic win.

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In later years, when a player stopped to take the money, host Jack Barry would encourage the player to spin to see what would have happen if he/she continued on. On one occasion, a contestant stopped, predicting that the devil would appear on the next spin, and on the "what would have happened" spin, the devil appeared.

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The devil card is a drawing of a devil that resembles host Jack Barry.

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