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Trivia / Scrabble

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For the original board game:

  • Follow the Leader:
    • Online, Words with Friends. Essentially the same game minus a few rule differences and placement of bonus tiles. So similar, in fact, that its developer was sued by Hasbro. In a bit of irony, Hasbro eventually bought it, and even released a board game version of it...which sells right next to Scrabble in stores.
    • In the 1950s and 1960s there was a licensed low-rent version called Skip-A-Cross, which was identical to regular Scrabble except that the board, tiles, and racks were made of cardboard.
    • Hasbro games-mate UpWords is basically Scrabble where you can stack the tiles.
    • Discord's Activities menu includes a Scrabble clone called Letter League, whose most notable differences are an unlimited board size and a buff to score multipliers. The individual letter values, meanwhile, are almost exactly identical.

For the game show:

  • Corpsing: It was not uncommon to see Chuck burst into laughter at some point while reading the writers' sillier and, oftentimes, more suggestive clues.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: The 1984-90 version has not been rerun since October 13, 1995 (the final day of USA Network's afternoon game show block). By all indication, USA never aired the first few months from '84, the Spelling-format shows from '85, or anything from September 1989-March 1990. Legal issues would be the likely culprit (see below), though the controversy over certain comments made by Woolery on Twitter isn't likely to help matters, either.
    • The 1993 revival hasn't been rerun since its cancellation.
  • Recursive Adaptation: The game show adaptation had its own Home Game, TV Scrabble. A board game based on a game show based on a board game.
  • Screwed by the Lawyers: Allegedly, the reason the show hasn't been rerun since the mid-'90s is due to legal hangups between Hasbro (successor to Selchow & Righter, the original company behind Scrabble) and Fremantle Media (successor to Reg Grundy Productions). Although Fremantle's Buzzr subchannel could potentially have an easier time getting repeat rights than GSN would...
  • Shoot the Money: The game board from the show's original run is indubitably the single most expensive prop in game show history. Its total construction cost? At least $1,000,000—yes, one million dollars—and that's in 1984 money!note 
  • Uncancelled: The 1993 revival.
  • What Could Have Been: The 1990 pilot, which was an attempt at a syndicated run (though Chuck was replaced by Steve Edwards, as he was already hosting Love Connection); due to the crowded 1990-91 syndication market and the subsequent failures of said seasons' games, plus USA acquiring reruns of the 1984-90 eps, it never got to series; the set and most of the music ended up being used for the 93 revival.
  • You Look Familiar: Dick Van Patten and Bernie Kopell played against each other in one tournament. In the mid-1970s, they played Friar Tuck and Alan-A-Dale in the cult classic One Season Wonder When Things Were Rotten.

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