Bumper Stumpers
Bumper Stumpers was a Canadian game show in which two teams of two players attempted to decipher vanity license plates in an attempt to win money. The show was a joint production of Canada's Global Television Network and the United States' USA Network, the two networks that aired the series in first run, in association with Barry & Enright Productions and Wink Martindale Enterprises. This was one of three original series that USA and Global co-produced in the 1980s, with a 1985 revival of Jackpot and 1986's The New Chain Reaction preceding it.
| Bumper Stumpers | |
|---|---|
 Bumper Stumpers title card | |
| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Wink Martindale |
| Developed by | Mark Maxwell-Smith |
| Directed by | William G. Elliott |
| Presented by | Al Dubois |
| Narrated by | Ken Ryan |
| Composer | Ed Lojeski |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Dan Enright Wink Martindale |
| Producer | Doug Gahm |
| Production locations | Global Television Studios Toronto, Ontario |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Production companies | Global Television Network Barry & Enright Productions Wink Martindale Enterprises USA Network |
| Distributor | Sony Pictures Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | Global Television Network USA Network |
| Original release | June 29, 1987 – December 28, 1990 |
Bumper Stumpers premiered on June 29, 1987 and aired concurrently on Global and USA until December 28, 1990. It was created by Wink Martindale, the second creation of his to make air (Headline Chasers, which Martindale launched in syndication in 1985 in the United States with himself as host, was the first) and developed by Mark Maxwell-Smith. Al Dubois, who at the time was a weather forecaster for Global, hosted the show with Ken Ryan serving as the announcer. The show was taped at the Global Television Studios in Toronto, Ontario.
Reruns of the series were seen on Global in Canada from 1990 to 1995 and on Game Show Network in the United States in 1994–95 and 2000. Bumper Stumpers later aired on the Canadian specialty channel GameTV from October 1, 2012 until 2017, from January 8 to February 25, 2018 and again from February 4, 2019 to March 1, 2019.
Two YouTube video reviews were uploaded to the "Game Show Gumbo" channel, the first for their The Games of '90 series, which was published on May 13, 2019, and a second for their Games O' Canada series, which was published on January 4, 2021.
Main game
Bumper Stumpers featured two teams, one usually a returning champion pair. The teams' goal was to correctly solve the Super Stumper, a puzzle designed to resemble a vanity license plate that consisted of seven spaces. At the beginning of each game, host Dubois would tell the teams whom or what the plate belonged to, and the first space was revealed.
In order to begin filling in the spaces in the Super Stumper, the teams played a series of jump-in questions. Bumper Stumpers used a game board consisting of seven monitors, and each jump-in question used the top row of two monitors. The teams would be shown two plates, one of which belonged to someone or something, and had to guess which of the two was the correct plate. For instance, a plate belonging to swashbucklers would read "PYR88" with the solution being "pirates" while one belonging to Bill Cosby would read "IIPI" with the solution being the title of his television series I Spy; consecutive letters or numbers in a plate were usually treated as plurals, so the two numbers at the end of the first plate would read as "eights" and not "eighty-eight" while the first two letters in the second would not be pronounced "eye-eye". In another example, a plate belonging to a saboteur would read "VTHKOLM" but be pronounced "fifth column", with the V serving its purpose as the Roman numeral five, while a plate with "H2O" in it would belong to something having to do with water due to it being the chemical symbol.
Contestants could not buzz in until the jump-in was read or (later) a green indicator light was lit atop the game board. Once a contestant buzzed in, he/she had to choose a plate and if correct, his/her teammate was given ten seconds to decipher it. If the other member of the team could not decipher the plate, the opposing team received ten seconds to guess themselves. If the first teammate buzzed in and picked the wrong plate, the opponents received first guess. Originally, the player who buzzed in and correctly identified the plate to solve could decide to either let his/her partner play or challenge their opponents to solve the plate. That rule was dropped after far more contestants opted to play rather than pass.
The winners of the jump-in chose one of the remaining blank spaces to fill in on the Super Stumper, then were given five seconds to try to come up with the solution. Coming up with the solution won the game. If a team could not solve the Super Stumper after all seven spaces were revealed, the opposing team had one final chance to solve it. Whichever team solved two out of three Super Stumpers became champion and won CA$1,000 with a chance to win more in the bonus round.
Originally, solving a Super Stumper won the team that did so CA$500 and the right to play the bonus round. If a Super Stumper went unsolved, a new one was played for CA$500 more and play continued until one of the teams solved one. The rules were later changed to have the bonus round played after a team won two games, and if the teams could not solve a Super Stumper, a shortened round was played. The teams chose spaces one at a time, starting with the team that won the previous jump-in, and did so until one solved the Super Stumper.
Bonus round
This show had three bonus rounds throughout the run.
Bonus round #1
The first bonus round featured two separate rounds. The first half saw the players trying to identify up to seven plates within 30 seconds. Getting seven won CA$2,000 and ended the round immediately. As long as the team identified at least one plate, they moved on to the second half of the round dubbed the Final Stumper.
The Final Stumper was played with all seven of the game board's monitors, with the letters S-T-U-M-P-E-R displayed in them. The object was to bank a set amount of money without finding a stop sign, at which point the round ended. The Final Stumper was played two different ways.
Format #1
Hidden behind the seven monitors were various dollar amounts and stop signs. For each plate the team solved, a money amount was added to the board. The first amount added was CA$500, and depending on how many plates were solved up to five additional amounts would be added. CA$100 was added to the board first, CA$200 second, CA$300 third, CA$400 fourth, and an additional CA$500 space was added last.
The team could keep choosing as long as they kept revealing dollar amounts and could stop at any point. Revealing a stop sign ended the round and froze the team's winnings. If they managed to find at least $500, the money was doubled. A team could win a maximum of $1,800 in this portion of the round (CA$100, CA$300, CA$500 = CA$900, multiplied by two), if not all seven license plates were solved.
However, if a team should correctly solve all seven license plates, the team will win CA$2,000 automatically.
Format #2
In the second format, each solve placed a different set of spaces on the board. The first placed on the board was marked "WIN", and the next five were the money amounts mentioned above. Accumulating $1,000 or more or finding the "WIN" space augmented the team's total to $2,000. This time, finding a stop sign bankrupted the team and ended the round.
Bonus round #2
In the second bonus round, the team was given 30 seconds and up to five plates to solve. Solving four of the five was worth CA$200.
For the second half of the round, the team was given up to three additional plates to solve and could stop at any time with the money earned. If the team decided to play on, they were given seven seconds to study the plate. Coming up with a right answer doubled the money each time, with a team winning CA$1,600 if they solved all three. Failing to come up with a correct answer ended the round and cost the team their bank, and the round also ended if the team failed to get four plates in the first half of the round.
Bonus round #3
The third Bumper Stumpers bonus round consisted of a series of five plates connected to a subject, with each plate serving as a clue to the subject's identity.
This time, only one player from the winning team played the first half of the round. That player was given 30 seconds to decipher the plates, with CA$100 given for each. Unlike the previous bonus round formats, Dubois did not give out clues to the plates. After the time was up, the player was given a choice: either stop with whatever money he/she had accumulated, or risk it to see if the other player, isolated backstage, could come up with the owner of the plates. If the team took the risk and the second player was able to identify the subject using the solved plates, the team's winnings would be tripled. Thus, the maximum amount a team could win was CA$1,500 .
Winning teams could stay on the show until defeated or winning five matches.
Tournament of Champions
Near the end of the show's run, airing on USA in September 1990 and repeated in December 1990, a "Tournament of Champions" was held, with 16 undefeated teams returning to compete. The winning team received an additional $10,000, while $5,000 was awarded to the runners-up.