Blockbusters (2001 Pilot)

"It's time for a game of strategy. It's Blockbusters! And now, meet the host, the star of Blockbusters, Wink Martindale!"

Blockbusters is a 2001 unsold pilot/revival of the 80s show hosted by Wink Martindale, announced by John Cramer, produced by Mark Goodson Productions and Pearson Television and it was taped for syndication on June 15, 2001 at Tribune Studios and it was set to pair up with the revival of Card Sharks (better known as "CASINO" which stand for "Card Sharks In Name Only" or "Card Guppies"), hosted by Pat Bullard. But however, it never came to fruiton past pilot stage.

Main Game
The game has four players. Two champions represented white while two challengers represented red. The questions, however, won the game on the hexagon that would cause either side to make the connection. Again, the game was best two-out-of-three, with the advantage alternating between players in the first two games. If a tie is achieved, a 4x4 tiebreaker board is used and either player could win in as few as four moves (white still went from left to right, and red still went top to bottom). Each game was worth $100,000 instead of $100 or $500.

Gold Run
The Gold Run plays the 1987 version, but when the player won, he/she received an accumulating jackpot that started at $100,000 and increased by that amount for each unsuccessful attempt. The jackpot resets to $25,000 each time two champions were crowned.

Trivia

 * Wink Martindale, however, called the 2001 Blockbusters pilot, "an awful piece of sh*t."
 * The theme music was later used as a cue for The Price is Right's "On the Spot" pricing game from 2003-05.
 * The Gold Run cue is the same cue that was better known as "Opening Vamp #6" from the 1994 version of Family Feud as well as the Showcase cue from The Price is Right.
 * The win cue is the short version of the 1976-85 Family Feud theme, which is heard on The Price is Right before "Grand Game" as well as on Trivia Trap when the Seniors or Juniors team got it right.
 * All the sounds on the pilot came from Trivia Trap.