Million Dollar Password (2008–2009) User Reviews

Going to be a lot of $25K winners

[caa821 · 7/10 · 1 June 2008]

While they've made some adjustments and modernizations, perhaps the reason "Jeopardy," "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Price is Right" have remained popular and on-air for so long is that they have basically stayed pretty much the same over the years.

Other formerly popular programs which have been later reestablished don't seem to have fared so well. This could prove to be one of those.

The previous "Password" program (with the "...Plus" successor, not substantially different) combined celebrities with regular folk to provide a balance of a modicum of both cerebral challenge and humor.

Given that technology provides the basis for more glitz, noise and lights, this program may have gone a bit far, and audience noise during the proceedings is distracting. The set-up of the set and the lighting could be a bit more subdued. Everything need not be as subdued as the old version, but again, there's a bit much.

Now two contestants play quick rounds, with the winner needing to identify 5 clues correctly within 1-1/2 minutes to win $10K. This can be risked to win $25K, and if won this is the least he/she will depart with. From then forward, incrementally to the $1MM round, 5 correct answers must be given from fewer words available, and they become more difficult.

Both contestants here won the $25K, with the second one barely missing the $250K after having (temporarily) won $100K.

Regis Philbin hosts, and except for different shirt/tie ensemble, could have arrived from a "...Millionaire"-revival taping.

Rachael Ray and Neil Patrick Harris were the celebrities. Whenever there is a potential excess (here, e.g., fore-mentioned lights and noise), Rachael's presence also provides the risk of excess "perkiness." And one fact clearly revealed during the show was that Neil is apparently a little bit smarter than Rachael.

All-in-all a decent production, deserving benefit of the doubt as a new venture, and worth another viewing. Will be very surprised if anybody ever risks big bucks going for the million here - which would require getting 5-for-5, with the limit of three clues each, and reverting to $25K if unsuccessful.

Not Like The Password Many of Us Grew up With

[hfan77 · 6/10 · 15 December 2008]

I have seen the first run of Million Dollar Password and though it's great to finally see a revival of one of TV's best word games, it's not the familiar format that many people like me have grown up with in the 60s and 70s. It doesn't even look like the last two incarnations Password Plus and Super Password. What this version looks like is several Lightning Rounds strung together. It also looks too glitzy. The original version was your typical low budget 60s game show set and the early 70s revival's first set didn't have a lot of glitz until the format changed to Password All-Stars. Also, there were a number of celebrities who weren't around when Password was on the air in any form and they looked like they didn't know how to play the game well. On the other hand, it was great to see Betty White as a celebrity guest. IMHO she along with Carol Burnett are the best Password players ever.

On the brighter side of things, Regis Philbin was outstanding as host, stepping into a role that Allen Ludden made famous in the 60s and 70s and the increasing cash amounts brought a lot of drama to the proceedings.

Who Wants to be a Passowrdaire

[KUAlum26 · 31 May 2009]

Don't get me wrong: i"m not only glad that they've FINALLY brought back this show(it's most previous run,to the best of my knowledge,was the Bert Convy-hosted "Super Password",which closed shop in May of 1989),but I generally like this version. I suppose that in this era of jacked-up prize amounts and a need to sort of "jazz" the sets,the producers of this show(as with much of the Goodson-Todman game shows,it's Freemantle Media)felt they had to make this show look and feel more like a larger-scale,larger stakes show,particularly for network. I just have my reservations about this.

Namely,this feels like basically a sort of melding "Passowrd" with "Who Wants to be a Millionaire",hence the title. To me,I think it's a shame that something as classic as the forty-plus year old game show standard/classic SHOULDN'T have to have this sort of space age era light-and-sound show mixed with the now seemingly prerequisite $1,000,000 payoff. It feels like the producers--whether they mean to or not--don't trust this show's skill or competitive levels enough to allow it to have a normal competition construct and/or payoff.I dunno.Maybe if this were in syndication or on daytime(good luck trying to get networks to do daytime game shows again! Particularly if it isn't "the Price is Right")maybe they'd consider making this much more about the interplay and skill and somewhat less about merely winning the million,which I would feel MUCH better about.

Regis Philibin,as professional and classy as he can be,does seem to be in a bit of competition with celebs(just watch his morning show1),which seems to be in stark contrast to the affable banter and interplay from the late Allen Ludden or late Convy. overall,it's good to see ANY of the classic Goodman-Todman shows return,but it doesn't make me any less nostalgic for when this was more about the particulars and not the frill and glitz.

Awful

[gavinhastings · 1/10 · 1 January 2009]

So sad....Password was one of my all-time favorite shows and hey, I even own several versions of the "at home" games from Milton Bradley.

Why is everyone constantly screaming during this show? And where is the interaction between the celebrity and contestant?

The game itself has been hacked down to about 3 minutes, the rest is Lightning Round. In the original game, players had to come up with ten clues for one word. Unfortunately, I think todays' players are dealing with a much more limited vocabulary. In 1964-if the password was zipper, clues could have been: Talon,fastener,invisible,fly,closure etc. Todays population is just not equipped with a large volume of words.

Case in point-On last weeks show, the word was HORIZONTAL...the contestant clued: Vertical and Betty White answered Horizontal. Fine. But, just where would that contestant have gone had Miss White answered incorrectly?

I'll stick to repeats of Alan Ludden, Liz Montgomery and Peter Lawford, thanks.

Looks even worse in 2023

[torkelsenmagnus · 3/10 · 2 December 2023]

As someone who isn't from the US, this show is honestly one of the most American and most 2008 shows I have ever seen.

Password is a format which is light, humorous and comfortable, and doesn't need to be jazzed up into a million-dollar extravaganza. That is, sadly, what CBS got so wrong about this show. It's understandable why they wanted to do it, but it all felt like a failed experiment.

This version of the format got taken all over the world, complete with the darkened set, continuous boasting of the prize fund ("30 000 Euro Password"?) and was surprisingly successful. Putting aside the very American setup, that's why this version of Password was so much stronger: it's played for fun with lower stakes, and these versions lasted longer than the primetime spectaculars.

The brashness of Million Dollar Password might be good fun for Americans, but if it wanted to stand up outside of primetime or seem appealing internationally, it needed to tone the US trademarks down quite a lot.