Classic Concentration

This is chronicling the 1980s version of ***Concentration*** called ***Classic Concentration***.

## Game format

### Main Game

Two contestants faced a computer animated game board consisting of 25 numbered squares. Behind those numbers were matching pairs of prizes, such as jewelry, cash, appliances and trips. The hidden prizes cover up a rebus puzzle which the contestants try to solve. To start the game, two puzzle pieces were revealed at the start. Later shows gave no head starts. On a player's turn he/she picked off two numbers at a time. If the numbers he/she picked uncovered a match, he/she won the prize and revealed pieces of a puzzle. If he/she doesn't match, control of the board goes to the opponent.

Later shows involved a second game. Some shows gave a two-piece head start, but if the first game ran long, *four* pieces were opened up to start the second game.

#### Special Squares

Also hidden on the board were special squares that affected game play.

* **Wild Card** - This was a very special square which if uncovered, caused an automatic match. When one was uncovered, another number on the board revealed the natural match; so therefore three or more pieces were revealed instead of two. When the show started, there were three on the board and if two were found in the same turn, the contestant won a $500 cash bonus; if all three were found in the same turn, the contestant won a $1,000 cash bonus. Certain games in later shows had just one wild card on the board; so the $500/$1,000 cash bonuses did not apply.
* **Take!** - When matched, that gave the contestant in control the right to steal one of his/her opponents' prizes if he/she had any or save the "Take!" for a later time. It was absent for the first few months but then after November 11, 1987, the Take One Gift squares now called simply "Take!" returned. At first only the green cards were on the board, but later shows also featured red Take! cards. The Takes had to be matched by color; i.e. Red and Red or Green and Green, as Red and Green was *not* considered a match. In addition, should a player end up with *both* Takes, only one could be used at a time, and should both players have a "Take!", they could *not* be used to take the other player's Take.
* **Cashpot** - This premiered in 1989. When matched, this allowed contestants to win a mini cash jackpot which started at $500 and grew $100 for every day it's not won.
* **5 Bonus Car Seconds** - Only shown in the second game, when if matched, the contestant had a chance to add five additional seconds to the clock in the bonus game.

The first player to solve the puzzle kept all the prizes & bonus cash and went on to play the bonus game for a new car.

Should time run out in the middle of the second game, all remaining unclaimed prizes, wild cards (if any), and take cards (if any, unclaimed and/or unused) were taken out of play, and the puzzle was revealed one square at a time in numerical order, and the first player to buzz-in with the correct solution was declared the winner. If the buzz-in player missed, the remainder of the puzzle was revealed and the opponent got a free guess.

### Bonus Game

In the bonus round instead of 25 numbered squares, the winning contestant was faced with 15 numbered squares. Behind the numbers were eight brand new cars. Seven of them will match each other while one car will not match; this acted as a decoy to distract the contestant. The winning contestant's objective was to match as many cars as they can within the time limit; the time was 35 seconds plus 5 for every bonus round loss. If he/she can match all seven cars before time ran out, the winning contestant kept the last car matched.

### Returning champions

In the beginning of the run, the player who solved the rebus went to the Winner's Circle while the loser was eliminated (except in cases of an interrupted game, when the losing player would return to play in the next match as the "challenger"). On July 4, 1988, the format was changed into a best-of-three match, with the first player to solve two rebuses winning the match and playing the bonus game; this format remained in place until June 29, 1990. Unlike most game shows that tend to straddle when playing a best-of-three format, Classic Concentration had each match and bonus game fit into one complete show. The first game was split over the first two segments, with the second (and possibly) third game taking up the third segment. The bonus round was played during the fourth segment of the show.

From the series premiere until December 29, 1987, a contestant could play the bonus round five times before being retired as an undefeated champion. Starting on December 30, 1987 and continuing through the end of this series, champions were immediately retired after winning a car.

From July 2, 1990 until the end of the run, contestants played the bonus game after solving a puzzle, and would be eliminated from competition either after losing two games or after winning a car. Whenever a contestant lost a game, they received a strike (a gold square (red in the spring of 1988) with a black "X" on their podium in the contestant area where the main game is played); if they got two strikes, they were eliminated from the game completely, but they still got to keep whatever cash and/or prizes they won up to that point, if any. This was first done as an initial trial-run from March 28-July 1, 1988.

### Tournament of Champions

During its four-and-a-half year run on NBC, *Classic Concentration* held an annual Tournament of Champions for two consecutive years, first in 1989 and again in November 1990. Ten contestants who had won the bonus round in the shortest length of time over the last calendar year were invited back to compete in a week-long tournament for not only additional prizes on top of what they already won in their original appearances, but also for a second new car (ranging anywhere from at least $15,000 to $20,000 in price) and a cash bonus ($25,000 in the 1989 tournament and $10,000 in the 1990 tournament).

Because there were ten contestants competing over the course of five days (Monday through Friday), that meant that two different contestants competed each day for the entire half-hour. The main portion of the game was still played the same, but the bonus round was not. This is how the bonus round worked for the tournament:

In the 1989 tournament, since the game was played in a best two-out-of-three match at the time, the winner of each show played the bonus round with the clock counting upwards from zero and continuing until the seven paired cars on the board were successfully matched; should a contestant clear the board within 45 seconds they would win a car outright. However long it took him/her to complete it was considered the benchmark time, the time in which all the other contestants in the tournament that week would be measured. Whichever contestant completed the bonus round in the shortest length of time that week won an additional $25,000. Should two or more contestants tie in terms of time, the *first* player to set the benchmark would still be in the running, while the other was eliminated from the tournament but still kept all the prizes he/she accumulated.

In the 1990 tournament, the bonus round was played twice each show thanks to the new two-strike format (the strikes did not count during tournament week), with the same two contestants playing both games. On Monday of tournament week, the winner of the first game played the bonus round with the clock counting upwards from zero; however long it took him/her to complete it was considered the benchmark time, the time in which all the other contestants in the tournament that week would be measured. From the second bonus round on Monday until the second bonus round on Friday, the clock counted downwards to zero from the benchmark time, regardless of which contestant set it. Whichever contestant completed the bonus round in the shortest length of time that week won the car he/she matched last and $10,000.

In both tournaments, all ten contestants still got to keep whatever cash and/or prizes they won in the main portion of the game, regardless of who won the tournament.

### Other special weeks

Other special weeks included weeks for couples and college students, as well as holiday themed weeks.

One such week involved kids and their relatives. In the main game, the kids made the matches (as they would in *Memory*), but the adults solved the puzzles. The adults also played the Winner's Circle game for 50 seconds each time. One such episode is seen here, and a episode *clip* can be seen here.

## Broadcast History

*Classic Concentration* premiered on May 4, 1987 replacing the short-lived revival of *Blockbusters* with Bill Rafferty.

The show ended on September 20, 1991. Reruns of the show aired briefly in 1993 before finally leaving the NBC schedule for good on New Year's Eve that same year.

*Classic Concentration* had not been rerun since 1993, but beginning October 1, 2018, *Classic Concentration* began being shown on Buzzr.

## References

1. ↑ Solve this puzzle and you'll learn some exciting #BUZZR news! 10.1.18

## Links

* James Vipond's *Concentration* Site
* Concentration... Through the Decades
* Jay's 1985 Concentration Pilot Page
* Joe Madigan's First Classic Concentration Page
* Joe Madigan's Classic Concentration Page
* A blog about "Classic Concentration"
* David's Concentration Page
* TGSCC article "The Lost Episodes"
* Official Pearson site for "Concentration" (via Internet Archive)
* Flash game for Dream Car Game
* Flash game for Fantasy Car Game
* Flash game for Regular Car Game