BUMPER STUMPERS (1987 - 1990)
Nostalgia for license plate puzzles (and mullets) lives on for classic Canadian TV game show ‘Bumper Stumpers’
“Welcome to Bumper Stumpers – the show that turns a highway hobby into challenging fun for you!”
That’s how host Al Dubois introduced the classic Canadian game show that had contestants unscrambling vanity license plates to win cash and prizes.
The show featured teams of two (champions and challengers) who would face off to try and solve a mystery plate called the “Super Stumper.”
With only one letter of the plate revealed at the beginning of the episode, teams would have to solve other license plate puzzles to reveal another letter. Teams would continue to play these “jump-in games” until the “Super Stumper” was solved.
A bonus round for the winners ensued, followed by another “Super Stumper” and various iterations of the “Final Stumper.”
Created by legendary game show host and producer, Wink Martindale, “Bumper Stumpers” was a joint production between Global Television and USA Network that aired in Canada from 1987 – 1990 and continued on south of the border until 1995.
Martindale was known to name his pets after some of his game shows and named his two dogs “Bumper” and “Miss Stumper.”
It’s been nearly 25 years since the last episode of “Bumper Stumpers” aired but the nostalgia is still going strong. The show’s iconic 80s look and feel (along with the big hair and mullets) lives on in Instagram feed bumperstumperslover.
As well as a game show host, Dubois was also a weather presenter for Global TV and The Weather Network.