Card Sharks

From RulesWiki

This rulesheet needs more screencaps. If you can produce screenshots for this show's rulesheet, please upload them and incorporate them into the rulesheet.

Card Sharks
The opening titles to the 1978-1981 and 1986-1989 versions of Card Sharks.
Airdates:	NBC April 1978 October 23, 1981, CBS January 1986 - March 1989, Syn. September 1986 - September 1987, Syn. September 17, 2001 - December 2001 (Syndicated)
Hosts:	Jim Perry, Bob Eubanks, Bill Rafferty, Pat Bullard
Dealers:	Janice Baker, Lois Areno, Lacey Pemberton, Suzanna Williams, Tami Anderson
Announcers:	Gene Wood, Gary Kroeger
Producers:	Mark Gooson-Bill Todman Productions (1978-1981), Mark Goodson Productions (1986-1989), Pearson Television (2001)

Contents 1 Gameplay format 1.1 1978-1981 version 1.2 1986-1989 version 1.2.1 Network format (1986-1989) 1.2.2 Syndicated format (1986-1987) 1.3 2001 version 2 Notes

Gameplay format

1978-1981 version

Two contestants competed in a game of guessing "higher or lower." Host Perry would pose a survey question asked of 100 people (sometimes a particular group, such as prison inmates, business executives, or newlyweds) and would ask the player in control to guess how many of those 100 people surveyed agreed with the question asked. (An example, "Do you think a CEO who loots his company for millions of dollars is worse than a thug who steals a few hundred dollars from a 7-Eleven? How many said the CEO is worse?") The player would then give their guess from 0-99, and the opponent would then say whether he thought the actual number was higher or lower than the first guess. A correct guess would win control for the player, whether through an exact survey prediction, or a correct "higher or lower" assessment.

Starting in the fall of 1980 an exact guess won a $500 bonus for the contestant.

After the the "base card", was revealed, the winner of the question had the option of either playing that card or exchanging it with the top card from the deck. The contestant then had to guess whether the next card was higher or lower than the base card. A correct guess allowed the player to continue moving down the row of five cards in order to win the game. If both cards were the same value, it was ruled wrong (since it's neither higher or lower). A wrong guess lost all of the progress made on that turn, and as a penalty, the opponent was then allowed to guess their next card (but was not allowed to change their first card; that was only afforded to the winner of a question).

Contestants also had the option to "freeze" their progress on the board. Freezing had three benefits; first, it kept the opponent from being able to play their cards. Second, that position served as their base card should they make a mistake at a later turn. Finally, if the freezing player won a question later, he could then try to exchange that card for a better one. The first player to get to the end of their row by correctly guessing all four outcomes won the game and $100.(In the final months of the NBC run, a $500 bonus was awarded for anyone who guessed correctly on all the cards without freezing.)

In order to prevent games from taking too long, each one was limited to four questions; the fourth being sudden death. For sudden death, a wrong guess while calling cards meant the round was over and the opponent won right then. For this reason, the winner of the sudden-death question had the option of passing control of the cards to his opponent if he felt that the other player had a less optimal board. If a third game was needed, it had only three questions and each player had only three cards per row.

The player who won two games (and $200) won the championship and the right to play the bonus round, the "Money Cards." In that round, the contestant was given $200 seed money, and seven cards with which to increase the stake. With a minimum of $50 bets, the player would gamble some of the stake money on each guess. Upon finishing the first row of cards, another $200 was added. On the seventh card, dubbed the "big bet," the contestant had to wager at least half of the stake on the last outcome. A player could win $28,800 by betting the entire stake on every turn, and being right seven times. Originally, the player was only given the chance to change the base card; later on the player was given the chance to change the first card on each row (first, fourth and seventh cards).

Champions could win up to seven times, at which point they would retire from the show.

1986-1989 version

Network format (1986-1989)

The second version of Card Sharks was mostly similar to the original, although some new features were added, mainly in the forms of questions given to the players. Along with the survey questions, at least two questions per episode were based on the answers of ten studio audience members who shared a common thread (bachelors, teachers, etc.). Also, some questions were educated guess questions, such as "how much did a 30 second commercial cost during the last Super Bowl?" or "In miles per hour, how fast is the world's fastest snail?"

The play of the cards remained the same, and the player who won two games went on to the Money Cards as before. In the Money Cards, players had three "change cards" dealt out at the outset, and those cards could be used to get rid of one unwanted card per row. The bonus for reaching the second line was increased to $400, so a perfect round would be worth $32,000. Contestants could stay on this version for five games, or until reaching the network winnings limit at the time.

Soon into the network run, champions were given the chance to win a new car after completing their Money Cards round. Originally, the player took a joker and tried to guess where a "car" card was hidden in a group of seven face down cards. (Three jokers were also shuffled into the Money Cards deck; and if one came up, it would be given to the player as a bonus chance to find the car.) Finding the car card won the car. Later on, players tried to predict the outcome of an audience survey like during the main game. An exact guess won the car, being one away would win $500 cash.

Syndicated format (1986-1987)

This version was almost identical to the version running on CBS at the same time. The one change made to the game were the "prize cards" that were shuffled into the main game deck. A player who turned over a prize or cash amount during their play of the cards would have that prize added to their stash, and the winner of a match would collect all of those prizes and cash by winning the match; there was no $100 prize for winning a game like on the other versions. The car game also premiered on this version, and here players retired after winning three, later two, cars.

2001 version

Four players competed, in two semi-final heats. Each round is a best-of-three match like before. The game is played on a single line of seven cards, but the object was still to call the cards "higher or lower" just like before. A correct prediction kept that player in control, but an incorrect guess gave the opponent the right to make the next call. Calling the seventh card correctly won the game, missing that call meant the opponent won the game.

Each player was given two "chip clips" that had to last through out the entire show. A player would cash in a chip in an effort to change the most recently revealed card. A video clip was shown, and the contestant had to predict the outcome. A correct prediction meant that the card would be changed, a wrong prediction meant the chip was lost and the card stayed the same.

Each round was worth $500, and if the match went to a third game, it was played with three cards and chip clips were set aside.

The final round was played by the semi-final winners, and the winner of the one round (dubbed the "big deal") would win an additional $1,100 and the right to play the Money Cards.

The Money Cards was played just like before, except a triangle of six cards was dealt out. The player's winnings were distributed among the three rows on the board, with $700 added to the player's stake at the start of each new row. The player could change also the base card on each row. A perfect round here was worth $51,800, though the top amount won was just over $22,000.

Unlike the other versions, each show was one complete cycle of semi-finals, big deal and Money Cards, and the winner was not given the chance to come back and play again.

Notes

• The NBC version's top prize of $28,800 was won one time by Norma Brown.
• After the first few months of the NBC run, home viewers were invited to submit "opening poems" that announcer Gene Wood would read over the opening sequence. Jim Perry would acknowledge the author, as well as the author's home town, and the NBC affiliate on which Card Sharks was airing at that time.
• This show was featured as a semi-final round on the CBS summer series Gameshow Marathon in 2006, hosted by former actress and talk show hostess Ricki Lake. Celebrities Brande Roderick and Paige Davis served as the contestants, and while the set and music were those used on the NBC run, they did include questions asked to 10 studio audience members. The car game played at the end was a simple hi-lo question with the winner attempting to guess whether the number of the 10 polled audience members who answered the final question was higher or lower than 5.