Bullseye is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 game show

Game show

A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...

 that aired in syndication

Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 from September 29, 1980 to September 24, 1982. Jim Lange

Jim Lange

Jim Lange is a former American game show host and disc jockey. He was particularly well known to listeners in the San Francisco and Los Angeles radio markets with stints at several stations in both markets, racking up over 45 years on the air...

 was the host, and the program was produced by Jack Barry and Dan Enright

Dan Enright

Daniel "Dan" Enright was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television...

. Jay Stewart

Jay Stewart

Jay Fix , known professionally as Jay Stewart, was an American television and radio announcer known primarily for his work on game shows. One of his longest-lasting roles was as the announcer on the game show Let's Make a Deal, which he announced throughout the 1960s and 1970s...

 was the announcer for the first season, and Charlie O'Donnell

Charlie O'Donnell

Charles John "Charlie" O'Donnell was an American radio and television announcer, primarily known for his work on game shows...

 announced for the second season. The series' executive producer was Ron Greenberg

Ron Greenberg

Ron Greenberg is an American television game show producer who worked on numerous successful network and syndicated programs of that genre from the 1960s through the 1990s...

.

Main Game

Two contestants, one a returning champion, competed. The game began with the champion stopping a star-shaped game board of three spinning windows by hitting a three-colored plunger in front of him. The first two windows contained eight different categories (four in each window) with dollar amounts ranging from $50 to $200 (representing the value of each question). The third window (below the two category windows) was the Contract window, and displayed numbers from one to five as well as a bullseye graphic.

When the windows stopped spinning, the player chose either of the displayed categories, and had to fulfill the contract by correctly answering the number of questions indicated in the Contract window. If the Contract window contained a bullseye, the contract was unlimited; the player could continue answering questions for as long as he wanted to. Each correct response added the value of the question to a pot. A missed question gave the opponent a chance to steal control of the contract with a right answer.

After the contract had been completed, the player who completed the contract could elect to either bank the money in the pot & pass control of the board to the opponent, or continue playing with a new contract; choosing the latter option would leave the accumulated money in the pot, up for grabs by either player.

The first player to bank $1,000 or more won the game. Beginning with a Nov. 1980 celebrity week, this was increased to $2,000, with question values increasing to $100–$400. Contestants kept any money banked during a game, regardless of the outcome, making Bullseye one of the few Barry & Enright shows to allow losing contestants to keep earnings from the game.

In the event of a champion winning the game without the challenger having an opportunity to play (for example, if the champion spun a bullseye in the contract window and answered several consecutive questions to win the game), the challenger would return in the next game to play again.

As is the case with most Barry & Enright game shows, a new automobile was awarded to any contestant who won five consecutive games.

Endgame—"Bonus Island"

The champion advanced to play the bonus round, referred to as "Bonus Island". Once again, the object for the player was to use their plunger to stop the spinning windows. However, this time the windows contained various dollar amounts ($100–$150–$200 originally, later $100–$200–$300). All three windows also contained bullseyes, and one also contained a lightning bolt.

The player's task was to spin three bullseyes, which resulted in an automatic win, or survive ten spins (later seven) without being "struck by lightning". With each spin, whatever money the contestant accumulated was added to their bank for the round. Bullseyes, when spun, were automatically frozen (a player originally had the option to freeze the window in which a bullseye appeared). A player could stop after any spin if they so chose, but if lightning came up in its assigned window (accompanied by a loud thunderclap) they automatically lost the round and whatever money they had won up to that point.

For winning the bonus round by spinning three bullseyes, the contestant's money bank was doubled, and they received that money as well as a prize package (a staple on Barry-Enright shows of this era), which usually was worth between $2,000 and $4,000. If a player spun three bullseyes in one spin, they won $10,000. Surviving the allotment of spins augmented a player's winnings to $5,000 unless they had accumulated more than that.

A player had no way of knowing whether or not the lightning was still in play until after the round ended and all the amounts in the windows were revealed.

Production information

The show featured a bombastic music package, including a main theme strongly reminiscent of the Santa Esmeralda

Santa Esmeralda

Santa Esmeralda is a U.S./French Disco group formed in the 1970s, which earned a #1 club hit in 1977 with a cover version of the song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood".-Mr. "Misunderstood":Leroy Gómez was born in Wareham, Massachusetts of Cape Verdean descent...

 disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 hit "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is a song written by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus for the singer/pianist Nina Simone, who first recorded it in 1964. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" has been recorded or performed by many artists, and is widely known by the 1965 blues rock hit...

," which had been used itself on the pilot.

Bullseye first originated from NBC Studios

NBC Studios

The NBC Studios in New York, New York is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and NBC's flagship station WNBC , as well as cable news channel MSNBC.When NBC Universal relocated,...

 in Burbank, California

Burbank, California

Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....

. In 1981, production of Bullseye moved to Studio 31 of CBS Television City

CBS Television City

CBS Television City is a television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of North Fairfax Avenue...

 in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. Later that same year, production of Bullseye was moved to Television City's Studio 33; some episodes returned to 31 in early 1982.

Celebrity Bullseye

On December 7, 1981, the show changed its name to Celebrity Bullseye and featured celebrity contestants playing for their favorite charities. The celebrities played a best two-out-of-three game. A $500 value was added to the main game, the categories were no longer announced by Lange before the game began and most questions were multiple-choice, containing three possible answers.

Celebrities who played included Harvey Korman

Harvey Korman

Harvey Herschel Korman was an American comedic actor who performed in television and movie productions beginning in 1960...

, Greg Morris

Greg Morris

Francis Gregory Alan "Greg" Morris was an American television and movie actor.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Morris began his acting career in the 1960s making guest appearances on many TV shows such as The Twilight Zone and Ben Casey...

, Doug Davidson

Doug Davidson

Douglas Donald "Doug" Davidson is an American television actor. He has portrayed private investigator Paul Williams on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless since May 1978, making him the series' senior male cast member.On September 12, 1994, he began hosting a five-night-a-week,...

, Roxie Roker

Roxie Roker

Roxie Albertha Roker was an American actress, best known for her groundbreaking role as Helen Willis on the sitcom The Jeffersons, half of the first interracial couple to be shown on regular prime time television...

, Rue McClanahan

Rue McClanahan

Rue McClanahan was an American actress, best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family, and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1987.-Early life:McClanahan was born Eddie Rue...

, Diane Ladd

Diane Ladd

Diane Ladd is an American actress, film director, producer and published author. She has appeared in over 120 roles, on television, and in miniseries and feature films, including Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore , Wild at Heart , Rambling Rose , Ghosts of Mississippi, Primary Colors, 28 Days , and...

, Richard Kline

Richard Kline

Richard Kline is an American actor and television director. He is best known for playing the sleazy neighbor and used car salesman, Larry Dallas, on the sitcom, Three's Company.-Early life:...

, Gloria Loring

Gloria Loring

Gloria Loring is an American singer and actress.- Career :Loring began her music career at age 14, singing with a folk group known as "Those Four". Gloria Loring released her first album in 1968. It was titled "Gloria Loring, Today" on MGM Records...

, Patrick Wayne

Patrick Wayne

Patrick John Morrison, better known by his stage name Patrick Wayne , is an American actor, the second son of movie star John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. He made over 40 films in his career, including nine with his father...

, Lynn Redgrave

Lynn Redgrave

Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...

, Jerry Mathers

Jerry Mathers

Gerald Patrick "Jerry" Mathers is an American television, film, and stage actor. Mathers is best known for his role in the television sitcom series Leave It to Beaver , in which he played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, the younger son of archetypal suburban couple June and Ward Cleaver , and the brother...

, Meredith Baxter-Birney, Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...

, and F. Lee Bailey.

Episode status

All episodes exist, with reruns airing on CBN Cable

ABC Family

ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...

 (1982–1983) and USA Network

USA Network

USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...

 (April 1, 1985–June 26, 1987) with GSN

Game Show Network

The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...

doing so in more recent years (as recent as November 2007 for a "Viewers' Choice" marathon).