The pilot show used David Reilly & John Devereaux's Hitting Home (which was released in 1985 on the Achievers album and was part of the KFM Music library). The series used an original composition from Level 22.
Wordplay was Peter Berlin & Rob Fiedler's first network game show to be sold, and the news that it had been successfully sold came on Halloween Day 1986. Berlin noted that it was his favorite Holiday, but also noted that it was once his least-favorite, because the pilots for their first two shows, Top to Bottom and Chance for Romance, did not get picked up.
Berlin & Fiedler had previously worked together on a Syndicated talk show, Berlin as a writer, and Fiedler as a field producer and director, with most of their production experience being in cable television. They had been working out of a small office above a liquor store in Sherman Oaks. When reflecting on the two failed pilots, they said that execution and especially timing were the keys to getting Wordplay picked up as a series. NBC happened to be looking for a celebrity game show and Syd Vinnedge Television, along with the Scotti Brothers, Anthony & Ben, talked to NBC about a similar idea. NBC recommended that these parties and Rick Ambrose collaborated.
The loud Scrabble buzzer is heard if a contestant chooses the wrong definition.
The "scoring" sound was used on Hot Potato when the second answer was displayed in the bonus round.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Hasn't been rerun regularly since it ended; though Buzzr had it as part of their "Pick & Play" contest in 2015 (to decide which show would be added to their schedule; this was made possible by Syd Vinnedge, who co-produced this show, currently working at Buzzr's owner, Fremantle Media), it lost; here's a video archive of all the episodes known to be online.
No Budget: The show that made it to air compared to what was shown in the pilot. Examples:
In the pilot, word values are $50-$150 in the first round, $100-300 in the second, and $150-$450 in the third. The finalized version's scoring is halved in each of the first two rounds, and reduced by one-third ($100-300) in Round 3.
In the pilot episode, both players got to keep their front game winnings. In the series proper, only the winning player kept the cash—and when a second-place contestant finishes with a score of a mere $75 and leaves with bupkis, you know the show's purse strings are tight.
Screwed by the Network: The show was put in the 12:30 PM timeslot, heavy on affiliate preemptions for years; when NBC picked up Win, Lose or Draw, they dumped this show and moved Scrabble to 12:30.
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