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Front Game Rules | ||
| Two players competed. Host Trebek posed a question to the studio audience with four choices (i.e., "If a man wanted to look really stylish, how many buttons would he leave open on his jacket - None, One, Two, or Three?" The audience voted with keypads next to chairs, and the results were instantly tabulated. The contestants then tried to pick the answer that was most popular by the audience. The player that chose the most popular answer won a point. The first player to score five points, or the player with the most points after five minutes of play, won the game. The first, third, and fifth points also earned the player a "Pit Pass" for use in the bonus round. | 
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End Game Rules | ||
| The bonus round began with the contestant facing a bridge with eight sections. The lights would dim, and the sections would light up, cluing the player in on which three sections had "Pitfalls". Sections that were safe lit up only once, while the Pitfalls flashed twice. The contestant then picked as many Pit Passes as they had earned in the front game, to carry him/her safely over that portion of the bridge. | |
| The player then had 100 seconds to answer a series of general knowledge questions, a right answer advancing the player one step across the bridge and earning the player $100. When using a Pit Pass, a contestant had to offer it to Trebek; he wouldn't take it unless you gave it to him. If a player stood on a Pitfall, it would drop to the bottom of the stage, where the player remained until a right answer brought the section back up, stopping the clock in the process (it still ran during the descent). Getting across all eight sections of the bridge won the contestant a prize package worth around $5000 (Canadian). | 
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Pitfall was taped in Vancouver, Canada.
Certainly one of the more underrated concepts I've seen. Granted, the front game is nothing to scream about, but the endgame is very fun to watch. The element of the home audience trying to decipher the light show along with the contestant was quite intriguing, and the presentation gave the show a nice, spacey atmosphere. Alex Trebek was OK as host of this show; my only gripe with him is that he seemed a little talkative in the bonus round. I'm curious as to whether this show would have continued on, had not the produciton company have gone bankrupt.
Gameplay: 2 pts.
Host: 2 pts.
Presentation: 2 pts.
Execution: 2 pts.
Total Score: 8 pts.
