If the past several years have taught entertainment observers anything, it’s that Hollywood loves reusing existing franchises. From myriad “Fast and Furious” remakes to live-action versions of Disney animated classics to the umpteenth “Star Wars” production, studios much prefer selling new adventures with known entities than relying on fickle fans to take to a new cast of characters.
In the case of The CW, relying on known properties has taken on a twist. The network premiered two game shows based on board games — “Scrabble” and “Trivial Pursuit” — that have remained mainstays of American living rooms for decades, both of which had prior television adaptations.
Linguistic Strategy
The original television version of “Scrabble,” hosted by Chuck Woolery, largely featured crossword-like puzzles, in which contestants tried to guess a word while filling in the word’s letters one at a time. This 1980s version featured wordplay but few characteristics unique to “Scrabble,” along with several features (e.g., the dreaded “stopper” — a letter not in the word) absent from the board game.
The current version, hosted by Raven-Symone, starts out similarly to the 1980s show, albeit without the “stoppers.” In the first segment, two players guess scrambled words based on a one-word clue. Even in this crossword-like portion of the game, Scrabble scoring conventions still apply, with rarer letters (e.g., “Q,” “Z,” etc.) earning contestants more points.
The last two rounds of the current “Scrabble” show closely resemble the board game. The second segment features contestants competing head-to-head to assemble words,
