Junior Partner Pyramid

A version of Pyramid for children and their friends & family.

Main Game
The game is played with two teams of two contestants (one child and an adult relative) in a game of word communication. Each game starts with the introduction of six categories arranged in a pyramid.

Each team in turn chose a category, and then a subject under that category was given. The team had 35 seconds to guess the seven words/phrases/names that fit into the category. One player described each item while the other player tried to guess what the words are. Each correct word was worth one point. When a word was passed, it cannot be returned to, but if the guesser can the word already passed, the team still scored. If at anytime the clue giver gave away any part of the answer or conveyed the essence of the answer, a cuckoo sounded and the word was thrown out.

Each team had three turns with the celebrities/adult partner giving first in round one, the contestants giving in round two, and in round three they decided amongst themselves on who's giving and who's receiving.

Bonus 7
The teams chose their own Bonus 7 in either the first or second game; and getting all seven won $500.

Tiebreaker
If the game ended in a tie, the game shifted into a tie-breaker situation while continuing to build on their scores. The team that caused the tie had a choice between two letters leaving the other for the other team. Both teams had 35 seconds to get as many of the seven items beginning with their letter(s) as they can. The team that got the most out of seven won the game.

The team with the most points won the game and went over to the Winner's Circle for a grand cash prize. The contestant on the winning team even had choice as to who would give and who would receive. Any team who achieved a perfect score of 21 points won $500.

Winner's Circle
The giver of the winning team faced a larger pyramid board of six subjects with the guesser having his/her back to the board. The winning team had 60 seconds to climb up to the top of the pyramid by getting all six. On each subject, the giver gave a list of items that fit the subject while the guesser tried to guess what they all have in common. As soon as the guesser gets the right subject or passed, they moved on to the next subject to the right. Upon a pass, the team can come back to it if there's time leftover though the guesser can still get the subject without going back to it. If at any time the giver gave an illegal clue (giving away part of the answer, conveying the essence of the answer, descriptions of the category or a synonym) a buzzer would sound, and the team would have to surrender their chance at the big money. Not only that, the giver was discouraged from using his/her hands which is why they were strapped into the chair. Even though their chances of winning the big cash was shot, the team can still go for the other subjects, because when time ran out, the contestant still won money attached to the subjects guessed; and of course getting all six in 60 seconds without illegal clues won the grand cash prize.

Payoffs
Here are the amounts for each subject:

The first trip was worth $2,500, and the second was worth $5,000.

Game/Championship Formats
This was played much like the eventual 1982-91 era at Television City, each episode was made self-contained for it had the teams play two games every show. The team with the most money from the Pyramid and all $500 bonuses or won both games returned to play the next show. As with that era, if the show ended in a tie both contestants returned to play the next show. As in The $20,000 Pyramid, players who made it to the top retired from the show.

Music
"Tuning Up" by Ken Aldin