History Series / Password

** Also, ''The Object Is,'' a short-lived 1963 ABC game show (the first hosted by Dick Clark) which was a curious hybird of ''Password'' and ''You Don't Say''.

** On another ''Super'' episode, Roz Ryan and her teammate got past the first nine words before giving the illegal clue, "Ha ha" for "Joke", on the tenth. After guessing the word, the pair began celebrating until the judge informed them that "Ha ha" is two words which meant they lost.

Interestingly, the show returned as a segment on ''Series/LateNight with Creator/JimmyFallon'' on January 18, 2011, hosted by Steve Higgins. The segment is, essentially, a simpler version of the later-era CBS style: the game now has words beginning at six points and no Lightning Round, and there's no stated prizes. Its first celebs were Fallon and ''Password'' stalwart Creator/BettyWhite. The game was also played during White's ''90th Birthday: A Tribute to America's Golden Girl'' on NBC in January 2012; that edition was hosted by [[Series/TheSoup Joel]] [[Series/{{Community}} [=McHale=]]]. An edition of ''Plus'' with Creator/TomBergeron hosting was a part of the 2015 Daytime Emmy Awards, to introduce Betty White's Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2021, NBC ordered a revival produced by Creator/JimmyFallon and hosted by Creator/KekePalmer, which premiered in August 2022. It is a modernized take on the original CBS version with some elements of ''Plus'' and ''Super'' (namely the bonus round, and a puzzle played as a toss-up in the event of a tie match). The first episode was dedicated to Betty White, who had died on December 31, 2021.

** "That is not the password." Keke Palmer said it the same way every time.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Guesses that include the password or are a variant of it are considered correct. Some examples include when a guess for "Cosmo" was "''Cosmo''politan", or when "Vibration" was accepted as a valid guess for "Vibrate"

*** ''NBC 2022'': The top prize is a flat $25,000. Each of the celebrity partners serves as receiver for 30 seconds (while the contestant gives clues); words lost to illegal clues by the first celebrity are replaced for the second. If the player does not get all 10 words in 60 seconds, they receive $1,000 per-word, and are allowed to play a "Redemption Word" with one clue for a chance to double their pot. The player would put on headphones while the two celebrities have 30 seconds to come up with one answer.

*** ''NBC 2022'': The top prize is a flat $25,000. Each of the celebrity partners serves as cluegiver for 30 seconds; words lost to illegal clues by the first celebrity are replaced for the second. If the contestant does not get all 10 words in 60 seconds, they receive $1,000 per-word, and are allowed to play a "Redemption Word" with one clue for a chance to double their pot.

*** ''NBC 2022'': The top prize is a flat $25,000. Each of the celebrity partners serves as cluegiver for 30 seconds; words lost to illegal clues by the first celebrity are replaced for the second. If the contestant does not get all 10 words in 60 seconds, they receive $1,000 per-word, and are allowed to play a bonus word with one clue for a chance to double their pot.

* HomeGame: About a billion- Creator/MiltonBradley released one annually from 1962 all the way to 1986; there were a few variants, including an ''Educational'' edition and a ''Fine'' edition, which had better quality materials and included materials for the Lightning Round (which began to be included in the normal version starting in 1982). ''Plus'' received three from 1979-81, and ''Super'' received a computer game from [=GameTek=] in 1988 (an adaptation with speech abilities was planned for release on the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] in 1990, but got cancelled along with the show); starting in 1997 and continuing to 2003 Endless Games released their own adaptation based on the classic MB version, along with an adaptation of ''Million-Dollar'' in 2008.

In 2021, NBC ordered a revival produced by Creator/JimmyFallon and hosted by Creator/KekePalmer, which premiered in August 2022. Fallon had hosted his own version of ''Password'' -- a shortened version of the later-era CBS style -- as a recurring segment on ''Series/LateNight with Jimmy Fallon'' (with its first edition featuring Fallon and ''Password'' stalwart Creator/BettyWhite as celebrities). It is a modernized take on the original CBS version with some elements of ''Plus'' and ''Super'' (namely the bonus round, and a puzzle played as a toss-up in the event of a tie match). The first episode was dedicated to Betty White, who had died on December 31, 2021.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Long before the Ca$word toaster (the device that shows the word to the celebrity player) on ''Super'', Allen Ludden called the chute the Lightning Round words pop up from a toaster.

* ProductPlacement: The NBC versions were quite fond of this in the BonusRound with Nabisco and Geritol showing up frequently. Q-Tip, Qantas and Xerox also showed up; justified since not too many words begin with Q, and especially X. Bert Convy got tripped up by Charmin, asking "What the heck is that?" when it came up.

* ProductPlacement: The NBC versions were quite fond of this in the BonusRound with Nabisco and Geritol showing up frequently. Q-Tip and Xerox also showed up; justified since not too many words begin with Q, and especially X.

* ProductPlacement: Of all the BonusRound words beginning with N, the NBC versions were quite fond of using Nabisco as a password. Q-Tip and Xerox also showed up; justified since not too many words begin with Q, and especially X. Geritol also showed up frequently in ''Plus''.

** For the '''Cashword''', giving an illegal clue or any part of the word itself immediately ended the in-game bonus round in a failure, even if the contestant still had guesses left. This happened at least twice.

** A contestant playing for $50,000 on a 1986 episode says a password a split second after his celebrity partner passes... and by the time they get back to it, it's too late. [[EarnYourHappyEnding However]], he more than made up for that on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' a few years later.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: For the first few weeks of ''Plus'', some elements of the set were different. Most notably, the Alphabetics board was suspended by wires, instead of hidden in a cabinet (they had to change it because people kept bumping their head on the board).

** Ludden credited long time ''Password'' player Carol Burnett with coming up with the narration "It's more than ''Password''... it's ''[[LuckyCharmsTitle Password Plus]]''!" After a while, "It's more than ''Password''" was dropped.

** The title character of the short-lived [[Creator/{{GSN}} Game Show Network]] ''Burt Ludden's Love Buffet'' was a ShoutOut to the hosts of 'Plus' and 'Super' (albeit spelled Burt instead of Bert).

In May 2016, news surfaced that ABC (which aired the 1971-75 edition) was interested in potentially reviving the series; this came on the heels of their summer lineup being populated by several game show reboots, including fellow Goodson-Todman properties ''Series/ToTellTheTruth'', ''Series/MatchGame'', the returning ''[[Series/FamilyFeud Celebrity Family Feud]]'', and a reboot of ''Password'''s close cousin, ''[[Series/{{Pyramid}} The $100,000 Pyramid]]''.

The ABC revival did not pan out, but in 2021, NBC ordered a revival produced by Jimmy Fallon and hosted by Creator/KekePalmer, which premiered in August 2022. It is a modernized take on the original CBS version with some elements of ''Plus'' and ''Super'' (namely the bonus round, and a puzzle played as a toss-up in the event of a tie match). The first episode was dedicated to Betty White, who had died on December 31, 2021.

*** ''NBC 2022'': The top prize is a flat $25,000. Each of the celebrity partners serves as cluegiver for 30 seconds; words lost to illegal clues by the first celebrity are replaced for the second. If the contestant does not get all 10 words in 60 seconds, they receive $1,000 per-word, and are allowed to play a bonus word for a chance to double their pot: the contestant can only give one clue, and the two celebrities confer on their guess.

*** ''NBC 2022'': The top prize is a flat $25,000. The contestant plays for 30 seconds with both of the celebrity partners; words lost to illegal clues in the first half are replaced for the second. If the contestant does not get all 10 words in 60 seconds, they receive $1,000 per-word, and are allowed to play a bonus word for a chance to double their pot: the contestant can only give one clue, and the two celebrities confer on their guess.

*** ''NBC 2022'': The top prize is a flat $25,000, with each word otherwise worth $1,000. The contestant plays for 30 seconds with each of the celebrity partners; words lost to illegal clues in the first half are replaced for the second. If the contestant does not get all 10 words in 60 seconds, they are allowed to play a bonus word for a chance to double their pot: the contestant can only give one clue, and the two celebrities confer on their guess.

*** ''NBC 2022'': The top prize is a flat $25,000, with each word otherwise worth $1,000. If the contestant does not get all 10 words in 60 seconds, they are allowed to play a bonus word for a chance to double their pot. The contestant plays for 30 seconds with each of the celebrity partners; words lost to illegal clues in the first half are replaced for the second.

The ABC revival did not pan out, but in 2021, NBC ordered a revival produced by Jimmy Fallon and hosted by Creator/KekePalmer, which premiered in August 2022. It is a modernized take on the original CBS version with some elements of ''Plus'' and ''Super''; namely, games are played as a best-of-three match, with the first two games played to 15 points, and a toss-up word (presented similarly to the puzzles of ''Plus''/''Super'') in the event of a tie. The first episode was dedicated to Betty White, who had died on December 31, 2021.

The ABC revival did not pan out, but in 2021, NBC ordered a revival produced by Jimmy Fallon and hosted by Creator/KekePalmer, which premiered in August 2022. It is a modernized take on the original CBS version with some elements of ''Plus'' and ''Super''; namely, games are played as a best-of-three match, with the first two games played to 15 points, and a ''Password'' Puzzle as the third round if necessary. The first episode was dedicated to Betty White, who had died on December 31, 2021.

* GameShowHost: Allen Ludden was the first and most popular, holding the position from 1961-80. Creator/BillCullen filled in for four weeks in 1980, and Tom Kennedy hosted from late 1980 to 1982. Bert Convy hosted ''Super'', and Regis Philbin hosted ''Million-Dollar''.

Two more daytime revivals appeared on Creator/{{NBC}} — ''Password Plus'' from 1979-82, and ''Super Password'' from 1984-89. Both used ''Password'' Puzzles, wherein each round consisted of five passwords that described another person, place, or thing; for instance, "Wiki", "Lampshade", "Hanging", "Topics", and "JustForFun/{{Egregious}}" might be used to describe Wiki/TVTropes. These versions also featured a BonusRound ("Alphabetics" on ''Plus'', "Super Password" on ''Super'') where the celebrity had to describe ten passwords, beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet, within 60 seconds for a bonus of at least $5,000.

-->''"Allen Ludden saying the Password for today is "Wiki/TVTropes". TV Tropes collects and expands on conventions and devices in creative works, such as '''Password''', and we think it's a pretty nice place. Think about it. See you next time, I hope."''

** December 23, 1980: It took nearly five minutes to get ''Plus'' back on track after Tom Kennedy [[{{Corpsing}} cracked up]] over [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MlOkZCms-w Dick Martin's reaction]] to giving "France" as a clue for "French". In 2008, Kennedy donated a copy of the unedited master tape to the Television Production Music Museum, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee2fFYGq7lY and]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDLZG9Wl_BQ it]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQa0W8TzxA quickly]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxauU04KM3Y spread]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzRnANsTiJ4 to]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8T3qstZ6ak YouTube.]]

* UpToEleven: The original intro to ''Plus'' went "It's more than ''Password'', it's ''Password Plus''!"