PDQ and Baffle are American television game shows created by Heatter-Quigley Productions. Both shows' objective was for contestant/celebrity teams to guess a given word or phrase in the shortest amount of time with the fewest letters given as possible.
PDQ, syndicated by Four Star Television, aired from September 6, 1965, to September 26, 1969, primarily on NBC-owned-and-operated stations but syndicated in markets where NBC did not own a station. PDQ was named after its original sponsor, PDQ Chocolate, a flavored drink mix. The show and product shared logos, although on the show the initials stood for "Please Draw Quickly".
Baffle was a revival that aired on NBC from March 26, 1973, to March 29, 1974, without a specific sponsor.
PDQ (1965–1969)
Personnel
Dennis James was the original host, with Monty Hall filling in on at least one occasion in James' absence before Let's Make a Deal moved to ABC. Kenny Williams was the announcer, and Arlo Hults provided the music.
For many years, rumors circulated that Bill Cullen replaced James later in the show's run; however, only one source has ever stated this (Alex McNeill's Total Television) and the existence of an episode taped October 3, 1968, with James as host has effectively debunked the claim. Further, Cullen was at the time based in New York City, while PDQ was taped in Hollywood; Cullen did not relocate to California until 1978.
Game play
The contestants consisted of three celebrities and one civilian. Two celebrities were paired as the "Home Team"; the third celebrity and the civilian contestant made up the opposing team, which was known as "The Challengers".
These two teams played a word game in which a player seated in an isolation booth attempted to guess a famous name, title, or phrase posed by their teammate who displayed letters as clues (one at a time, starting with three letters, with one of them being the first letter in the subject) on their own individual game board. A musical tone every few seconds served as a signal to add another letter. If the guessing player guessed the name after the time signal sounded, the team was still charged for the letter that should have been used. Each team took a turn at the same puzzle, with the team using fewer letters winning the game. A tie was considered a win for the contestant and the challengers. Prizes were awarded to the contestant for every game won by the challengers. A prize "for just being on the show", in the words of Kenny Williams, was always included, so that even if the challengers lost every game, the contestant would not leave empty-handed.
Each show featured a three-game "PDQ Special" match, with special prizes awarded to the contestant if the challengers won two out of three games. Another format had the teams score points according to the difference between how many letters used by both teams (a tie was considered a draw and nobody scored) with the first team to reach 10 points winning the game. The civilian contestant won $100 multiplied by the difference between the winning and losing scores.
Bonus game
A bonus round was played by the contestant toward the end of the show in which they had to identify ten words. The contestant was shown only three letters for each word (for example, BTR for "betray"), and had only five seconds allotted for each word. Each correct guess was worth $25 or, if the challengers used fewer letters than the home team/score 10 points first, $50. If all ten words were guessed correctly in 60 seconds, in addition to winning $250/$500 the contestant also won a car; otherwise, the dollar amount won was redeemed for merchandise from the Spiegel Catalog.
Baffle (NBC, 1973–1974)
In 1973, the PDQ format (minus the original sponsor) was revived and altered somewhat, re-christened as Baffle, and broadcast weekday mornings on NBC. The format was altered again later in 1973, this time with all the players being celebrities, with a title change to All-Star Baffle. Dick Enberg was the host, Kenny Williams returned as announcer, and Mort Garson was musical director.