This was the perfect type of game show for the person coming home from work at the end of a long day. While it was a challenging game for the contestants, the viewer could just sit & watch & be mind numb when necessary.
Dick Clark made his first move from being America's teenager into being Americas game show host with this show. Actually he is pretty good at it as he would always keep things moving along at a brisk pace.
Each program would have two contestants & two celebrities teamed against each other & competing for the right to get into the winners circle. The team that got to the winners circle (after winning some cash for winning the game) would have a chance to climb a 6 subject pyramid in 60 seconds & win $10,000 (later 20, 25, 50 & then 100). The rules were more stringent on the pyramid than during the regular game.
Certain celebrities were excellent at playing the game. Some were not, which in a way was telling as the celebrities were exactly the same as the contestants. To me, it was always exciting watching a team win the 60 second round. Think the best ever done was around 25 seconds which was amazing.
This game was word association, & actually took the concept from a previous game, Password, only put it into hyper speed by trying to do everything in 30 second or 60 second bites. It worked really well considering it ran non-stop pretty much for 19 seasons & recently has been revived with new syndicated versions again & again.