Child's Play

Overview

Child's Play is an American television game show in which adult contestants tried to guess words based on definitions given by children. The Mark Goodson-produced series debuted on CBS from September 20, 1982 at 10:30 am Eastern/9:30 am Central. That time slot was held by Alice for a little over two years. Child's Play was never able to make ratings headway against either Wheel of Fortune or Sale of the Century, two hit game shows that NBC aired opposite it; CBS ended the series on September 16, 1983 and replaced it with Press Your Luck, which performed much better for CBS. Perhaps the first inklings of the format appeared on a 1967 episode of Goodson-Todman's earlier series I've Got a Secret, on which guest Woody Allen read children's definitions of words for the panel to guess. Child's Play host Bill Cullen was a member of that series's panel.