The New Battlestars (April 4, 1983) series premiere! Debbie vs Scott

Let's wrap up my salute to short-run game shows with the show that aired right after yesterday's show, Dream House. This is the premiere of the "New" Battlestars from April 1983!

Basically, this was a scaled-down version of another Merrill Heatter game, Hollywood Squares, as contestants tried to capture three of the six stars to play the Main Event for the big prizes. Unlike the original Battlestars, which lasted six months, this lasted a mere 13 weeks due mainly to being in the 12 noon "death" time slot.

Let's see how our contestants fare in this fun episode. No copyright infringement is intended. Commercials are included.

Panel: Erik Estrada, Debbie Reynolds, Jim J. Bullock, Tom Wopat, Glenn Scarpelli, and Vicki Lawrence.

• Category

  Gaming

[Tubewings]

Unless I'm mistaken, this was the first game show that Charlie Tuna announced.

[gamelover1949]

It probably was.

[newstarcadefan]

I'm not sure, but this might be when they showed the answers to the folks at home as well.

[donald paluga]

at least he got paid to do Battlestars, unlike Pitfall

[O Chenault]

i gotten used to Super Password on GSN

[O Chenault]

WDIV didn't air this either due to them airing news at 12 noon

[Robert Lopresti]

This was NEVER aired in KYW-3 Philadelphia. Scheduling conflicts.

[yabbaguy]

Also hilarious how Trebek has gone from hosting shows with Debbie and Jimmy having fun in a triangle to... that much more predictable show he's on now.

[yabbaguy]

The sounds are interesting. One I never knew the separate triangles had a different pitch when they beeped indicating a capture possibility (rightmost column and lower row was higher), and as those numbers get lit up by the randomizer, do they make literally the same tones as if you had dialed that exact number on a keypad, with the 10 making 0's tone?

[Andre Brown]

do you have the tpir episode from april fools day of 1983?

[bluebear1985]

Maybe he saw that this show had pretty much gone to the dogs, lol.

[D Heine]

Battlestars was later taken over by:

The Facts of Life reruns

Go

Hot Potato

Different Strokes reruns

and then, for a 5 year run: Super Password