Bumper Stumpers Game Show

Among the many long-forgotten game shows from the 1980s is Bumper Stumpers, a program that aired in the afternoon on USA Network.

Do you remember the Bumper Stumpers game show? Here's a brief description of the show's history and game play rules.

Bumper Stumpers game show: The facts

Bumper Stumpers was actually created by Wink Martindale, a popular host of numerous game shows including Trivial Pursuit and Tic-Tac-Dough. Martindale didn't host Bumper stumpers, though - that honor went to the lesser-known Al DuBois.

The show aired from 1987 to 1990, with nearly 1,000 episodes hitting the airwaves.

Bumper Stumpers game show: The premise and rules

The entire Bumper Stumpers show had a car theme, from the theme music featuring honking horns to the basic elements of game play. The premise was that contestants would receive clues and use them to try to decode the meaning of vanity license plates.

For instance, if contestants saw the license plate "SK8BDR," the correct answer was "skateboarder."

Generally two teams of two competed against each other. Like many USA game shows, the prize money wasn't big - in the $500 range at first and up to $1,500 later in the show's run.

The two teams competed to solve the "Super Stumper," and whichever team did so first got to play a bonus round. The bonus round changed a few times during the course of Bumper Stumpers' history.

One type of bonus round involved the team trying to guess as many stumpers as possible (up to seven) within 30 seconds. For as many correct answers as the contestants have within 30 seconds, they would get to choose that many letters from the bonus board, which contained the letters S-T-U-M-P-E-R.

Each letter had behind it either a cash amount or a stop sign. The team won the total of all cash amounts they uncovered.

Bumper Stumpers: Play along

Host DuBois called Bumper Stumpers "the television program that turns a highway hobby into challenging fun and ready cash for our contestants." The show was indeed one of the most fun game shows for viewers because they could easily play along and try to solve the vanity license plates along with the contestants.

Here are a few examples of licenses the contestants had to figure out while on the show. Can you decipher the clues?

This one belongs to a wigmaker: 2PAS4U

This one belongs to a domineering wife: IMDBOS

This one belongs to a British couple: 24TNT42

If you guessed "Toupees for you," "I am the boss," and "Two for tea and tea for two," you might have had a shot at being a Bumper Stumpers champion.

YouTube currently hosts a couple of Bumper Stumpers video clips. Check out a typical episode of the Bumper Stumpers game show here.

Bumper Stumpers game show: Sources

www.imdb.com/title/tt0198071/
www.tv.com/bumper-stumpers/show/33697/summary.html