  scrabble is an american television game show that was based on the scrabble board game. the show was co-produced by exposure unlimited and reg grundy productions. it ran from july 2, 1984 to march 23, 1990, and again from january 18 to june 11, 1993, both runs on nbc. a total of 1,335 episodes were produced from both editions; chuck woolery hosted both versions of the series. jay stewart was the announcer for the first year and was replaced by charlie tuna in the summer of 1985, who announced for the remainder of the original version and the entirety of the 1993 revival. ==game play== ===crossword round=== the first round of every game was the crossword round, where two players competed to try to be the first to guess three words correctly based on clues given by woolery. originally there was only one crossword played per match, with the winner facing the champion in the scrabble sprint (see below). on september 29, 1986, as part of a broader format change, a second crossword round was added. the first crossword was played between the show's reigning champion and a challenger, and the second crossword was played between two different players. each crossword round began with a word building on a letter revealed on the center square of a computer-generated scrabble board, and depending on how many letters were in the word, a rack of numbered "tiles" were used corresponding to the letters. there were always three more tiles than there were letters in the word; these represented all the letters in the word except for the one already revealed, as well as three "stoppers" - letters that did not belong in the word. originally the winner of a backstage coin toss started the match, but when the second crossword game was added in 1986 the player challenging the reigning champion started (a coin toss would determine the first player in the second crossword at all times and would be used in the first game if there was no champion). the player in control was given a chance to guess the word immediately, but if he/she could not, that player took two tiles from the rack and placed them in a slot on thei
1980s_American_television_series 1984_American_television_series_debuts 1990_American_television_series_endings 1990s_American_television_series 1993_American_television_series_debuts 1993_American_television_series_endings American_game_shows English-language_television_programming NBC_network_shows Scrabble_on_television Television_programs_based_on_board_games Television_series_by_FremantleMedia Television_series_by_Reg_Grundy_Productions Television_series_revived_after_cancellation Works_based_on_Hasbro_toys