Television game shows begin

Television programs in which contestants competed for money and prizes—typically by answering questions or performing unusual tasks

Patterned after the radio quiz shows of the 1940’s, television game shows became one of the most popular television program formats during the 1950’s. The big-money television game shows of the decade were both damned and praised for their materialistic appeal. Critics condemned them for their cultivation and display of greed, while supporters argued that they only reflected society’s competitive acquisition of dollars.

The 1950’s televised game shows, viewed by many as a new and easy road to riches, were a combination of education and entertainment, similar to a spelling bee but on a more grandiose scale. The game show craze began in June of 1955, with the CBS premiere of The $64,000 Question, in which contestants answered a series of questions to double their winnings until they reached the jackpot. The $64,000 Question was loosely based on the early radio game show Take It or Leave It. Within a month, The $64,000 Question ranked as the most popular program on television. During its first two years on the air, it gave away more than twelve million dollars in prizes—an average of slightly less than fourteen thousand dollars per show. It also produced a mass media event rivaled only by the radio show Amos and Andy of the early 1930’s in terms of audience addiction. The show’s participants, both onscreen and off, were publicized in newspapers, magazines, and radio before a highly interested public. To compete with The $64,000 Question, NBC introduced its own big-money game show, The $100,000 Big Surprise. CBS then countered with The $64,000 Challenge in which winners on The $64,000 Question would compete for even larger prizes. One $64,000 Challenge contestant won $264,000.

By 1957, game shows dominated television programming, accounting for thirty-seven hours of network programming each week and challenging the popularity of Western-genre programs. Game show sponsors made money by giving it away—the bigger the jackpot, the bigger the audience. Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the sponsor of NBC’s Twenty-One, gave away one of the biggest prizes ever: $129,000 to champion Charles Van Doren. Not to be outdone, CBS raised its jackpot on The $64,000 Question to $256,000. Game show producers also sought out unusual personalities for their programs. Randolph Churchill, the son of Sir Winston Churchill , tried his luck on The $64,000 Question but came away penniless. A ten-year-old prodigy won $64,000 on The $64,000 Question and an eleven-year-old won $100,000 on NBC’s The Big Surprise and $64,000 on The $64,000 Challenge. Despite the popularity and success of the game shows, however, allegations of fraud and ensuing investigations resulted in the abrupt cancellation of nearly all of television’s game shows by 1959.

Game Shows

Most of the early television game shows had their beginnings on radio. Truth or Consequences moved from radio to television in 1950. Contestants were asked a pointless question that they could not possibly answer and, when the buzzer (nicknamed Beulah) signaled that their time was up, they had to pay the consequences—performing a silly stunt either inside or outside the studio. The game show was so popular that a town in New Mexico renamed itself “Truth or Consequences,” and in 1950, Truth or Consequences became the first game show to win an Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. NBC’s You Bet Your Life also started on radio before moving to television and featured host Groucho Marx with his trademark long cigar and wit poking fun at contestants as they answered questions and hoped to utter the “secret word” for an extra prize.

Programs and Scandals

In 1950, CBS premiered What’s My Line?, which later became the longest-running game show in nighttime network television. On it, well-known panelists grilled guests to determine what they did for a living. In Beat the Clock, contestants performed unusual stunts for prizes and cash, while on Do You Trust Your Wife?, hosted by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen with the aid of his dummy cohorts, husband-wife teams competed for the top prize of $100 a week for a year. To Tell the Truth featured three contestants who all claimed to be the same person and challenged a celebrity panel to decide which one told the truth. Other game shows included NBC’s Concentration, in which contestants matched pairs of items to guess a hidden puzzle, and the music game show Name That Tune, as well as ABC’s Treasure Hunt and ESP, hosted by horror film star Vincent Price. Two of the most successful game shows were NBC’s Twenty-One, in which contestants competed for cash by answering questions from within soundproof glass isolation booths, and CBS’s Dotto, which was based on the children’s game of connecting dots. Two contestants, selected from the studio audience, competed for cash and prizes by answering questions to connect dots that revealed the composite of a famous face. The success of Dotto and Twenty-One was short-lived after they became the center of the game show fraud scandals during the late 1950’s.

Disgruntled contestants accused producers of rigging the game shows by giving other competitors answers in advance. In 1958, a New Yorkgrand jury began an investigation and Congress convened its own special committee hearings into the game show fraud allegations. Long-time Twenty-One champion Charles Van Doren, a young university professor who had achieved celebrity status through his game show appearances, admitted that all fourteen of his appearances had been rigged. Van Doren also testified that in addition to being given the answers in advance, he was coached on how to answer questions by pausing before certain parts of his answers, skipping certain parts and returning to them, and hesitating to build up suspense. Testimony also revealed that Twenty-One producer Albert Freedman, who would later be indicted on two counts of perjury, even gave Van Doren a script to memorize. Other testimony revealed that The $64,000 Question and the The $64,000 Challenge were also rigged.

Impact

Soon after the start of the investigations, more than twenty game shows were canceled, and by the end of 1959, television game shows had all but disappeared, including the show that sparked the craze, The $64,000 Question. Despite the scandals, the public still remained attracted to the audience-participation format, and by the late 1960’s, game shows were again growing and prospering as daytime fare alongside the equally popular soap operas.

Bibliography

Anderson, Kent. Television Fraud: The History and Implications of the Quiz Show Scandals. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992. Detailed history of the 1950’s telvision quiz show craze, including discussion of The $64,000 Question and Dotto.

DeLong, Thomas A. Quiz Craze: America’s Infatuation with Game Shows. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1991. Chronicles the history of games shows from the craze of the 1950’s and 1960’s through the popularity of game shows such as The Price Is Right during the 1990’s.

The First Fifty Years of Broadcasting: The Running Story of the Fifth Estate. Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting, 1982. A detailed history of the first fifty years of broadcasting as told through more than two thousand issues of Broadcasting magazine.

Gould, Lewis L., ed. Watching Television Come of Age: The “New York Times” Reviews by Jack Gould. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. Reprints of television critic Jack Gould’s reviews published in The New York Times, including reviews on the game show scandals.

Marling, Karal Ann. As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950’s. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996. This book provides a social commentary on the early days of television and its influence on the decade’s popular culture.