Merrill Heatter (Creator)

Hip Hop Squares

Hip Hop Squares is an American television game show hosted by New York radio personality Peter Rosenberg, which debuted on MTV2 on May 22, 2012. The show's format is similar to Hollywood Squares, but with a more "urban" theme. The show is taped in Brooklyn, New York.

Release Date: 2012-05-22

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Hollywood Squares

On September 14, 1998, a Hollywood Squares revival debuted with Tom Bergeron as its host. In addition to her production duties, Whoopi Goldberg served as the permanent center square, with series head writer Bruce Vilanch, Gilbert Gottfried, Martin Mull, and Caroline Rhea as regular panelists and Brad Garrett, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jeffrey Tambor, George Wallace, Kathy Griffin and various others as semi-regular panelists. Shadoe Stevens returned to announce, although he was not given a square on the panel as he had been when John Davidson was host.

Release Date: 1998-09-14

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 4

Battlestars

Battlestars is an American game show that aired for two separate runs on NBC during the early 1980s. The show's first run aired from October 26, 1981 to April 23, 1982. An updated version–titled The New Battlestars–ran for 13 weeks, from April 4 to July 1, 1983. Battlestars was produced by Merrill Heatter Productions, Heatter's first show produced without Bob Quigley. The host was Alex Trebek and the announcers were Rod Roddy and Charlie Tuna.

Release Date: 1981-10-26

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Episode Count: 2

Hollywood Squares

Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show, in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host, or "Square-Master", and the contestants judge the veracity of their answers in order to win the game. Although Hollywood Squares was a legitimate game show, the game largely acted as the background for the show's comedy in the form of joke answers, often given by the stars prior to their "real" answer. The show's writers usually supplied the jokes. In addition, the stars were given question subjects and plausible incorrect answers prior to the show. The show was scripted in this sense, but the gameplay was not. In any case, as host Peter Marshall, the best-known "Square-Master" and the man in whose honor the show's first announcer, Kenny Williams, actually "coined" the term, would explain at the beginning of the Secret Square game, the celebrities were briefed prior to show to help them with bluff answers, but they otherwise heard the actual questions for the first time as they were asked on air.

Release Date: 1966-10-17

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Episode Count: 68

Vote Count: 8