SPLIT SECOND
Broadcast History: ABC daytime March 20, 1972-June 27, 1975
Host: Tom Kennedy
Announcer: Jack Clark
Packagers: Monty Hall/Stefan Hatos
Click here to hear a clean copy of the Split Second theme!
Split Second was a super-fast daytime game show produced by the team who had made Let's Make a Deal a cultural icon nearly a decade earlier: Monty Hall and Stefan Hatos. In the game, three contestants competed in a lightening-fast quiz game for a chance at a new car and a cash jackpot.
Host Tom Kennedy, in what many critics deem the best performance of his distinguished career, would instruct players to "look at the board", which contained three answers to a question he would read. Each contestant would have the opportunity to associate one of the answers with the question, for example: "Phonongraph, tape recorder, ballpoint pen. Was each of these invented in the 20th century?".
The advantage of ringing in first was that the contestant would be able to use one of the easier answers and leave the more difficult ones to his/her opponents. If all three contestants rang in with correct answers, then they received $5 a piece in round one, $10 in round two; if only two gave correct answers, they would receive $10 a piece in round one, $25 in round two; if only one contestant answered correctly they would receive $25 in round one and $50 in round two. Any contestant who was the first to have a "Singleton" by being the only one to ring in with a correct answer would win a special bonus prize.
After the first two rounds, all three players kept their money and went on to the countdown round. Rather than money amounts for correct answers, the player who had accumulated the most cash in the first two rounds would need three correct answers to win, the second place player would need four, the third place player would need five. In this round, rather than each player giving one answer, the first contestant to ring in could answer all three parts of any question.
The day's winning player then went on to the bonus round, in which they would select one of five cars. If the car started, the player won the car as well as a growing cash jackpot and retired. If not he returned the next day. Any contestant who won five days in a row automatically won the car along with the cash jackpot and retired.
With its fast pace, intelligent questions, and an absolutely superb job at hosting by Tom Kennedy, Split Second is among the great game shows of all time. Sadly, it is a lost classic, because just like most network daytime game shows of the 1970s on back, the tapes have longsince been destoryed or lost. Today only a handful of episodes are known to exist. Two of them, including the finale, are floating around among the game show traders on the Internet. A small batch of additional episodes exists in the UCLA Archives.
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Thanks to Mike Klauss for these vidsnaps.
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