The Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show, in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity (or "star") seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host, and the contestants judge the veracity of their answers in order to win the game. Although The Hollywood Squares was a legitimate game show, the game largely acted as the background for the show's comedy in the form of joke answers, often given by the stars prior to their "real" answer. The show's writers usually supplied the jokes. In addition, the stars were given question subjects and plausible incorrect ("bluff") answers prior to the show. The show was scripted in this sense, but the gameplay was not. In any case, as original host Peter Marshall would explain at the beginning of the Secret Square game, the celebrities were briefed prior to show to help them with bluff answers, but they otherwise heard the actual questions for the first time as they were asked on air. In 2013, TV Guide ranked it number 7 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.

Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation. Kevin initially relishes being home alone, but soon has to contend with two would-be burglars played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. The film also features Catherine O'Hara and John Heard as Kevin's parents. As of 2009, Home Alone was the highest-grossing comedy of all time. It spawned a successful franchise, with four sequels and three video games, with the main cast reprising their roles for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.