High Finance
High Finance is a quiz show created and hosted by Dennis James which aired on CBS from July 7th to December 15th, 1956. It followed Gunsmoke on the CBS schedule. High Finance aired at 10:30 p.m. Saturdays opposite NBC’s Your Hit Parade. On the program, contestants answered questions about current events. The player would be asked five questions based on three newspapers which he or she studied before […]
The Big Surprise
The Big Surprise is a television quiz game show broadcast in the United States by NBC from October 8th, 1955 to June 9th, 1956 and from September 18th, 1956 to April 2nd, 1957. It was hastily created by NBC in response to the overwhelming ratings success of The $64,000 Question, which had premiered on CBS in Summer 1955 and almost instantly became a smash hit. The Big Surprise […]
The $64,000 Question
The $64,000 Question is an American game show broadcast from 1955–1958, which became embroiled in the scandals involving TV quiz shows of the day. The $64,000 Challenge (1956–1958) was its popular spin-off show. The $64,000 Question premiered June 7th, 1955 on CBS-TV, sponsored by cosmetics maker Revlon and originating from the start live from CBS-TV Studio 52 in New York (later the disco-theater Studio […]
People are Funny
People Are Funny is an American radio and television game show, created by John Guedel that remained popular throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The program ran from 1942 to 1960. The program’s stunts and audience participation were calculated to reveal the humorous side of human nature. After contestants were sent from the studio to perform […]
Dollar a Second
Dollar a Second is an American comedy game show hosted by Jan Murray which originally aired from September 20th, 1953 to June 14th, 1954 on the DuMont Television Network. One pair of contestants (or a solo player) were selected to perform a certain task, which could be anything. They earn one dollar for every second […]
Name That Tune
Name That Tune is an American television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife Roberta. Name That Tune ran from 1953 to 1959 on NBC and CBS in prime time. The first hosts were Red Benson […]
Two For the Money
Two for the Money is an American game show television program which ran from 1952 to 1957. The show ran for one season on NBC, and four seasons on CBS. It was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production, and was initially sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes. Humorist Herb Shriner was the host for most of the […]
Masquerade Party
Masquerade Party is an American television game show. During its original run from 1952–1960, the show appeared at various times on all three major networks except DuMont (ABC, NBC, and CBS). A syndicated revival was produced for one season in 1974-75. A panel of celebrities met with another celebrity that was in heavy make-up and/or costume; this disguise would always […]
I’ve Got a Secret
I’ve Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman’s own panel show What’s My Line?. Instead of celebrity panelists trying to determine a contestant’s occupation, the panel tries to determine a contestant’s “secret”: something that is unusual, amazing, embarrassing, or humorous about that person. The […]
Down You Go
Down You Go is an American television game show originally broadcast on the DuMont Television Network. The Emmy Award-nominated series ran from 1951–1956 as a prime time series primarily hosted by Dr. Bergen Evans. Down You Go was similar to “Hangman”, with a group of four celebrity panelists who were asked to guess a word […]
You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life is an American quiz show that aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio in October 1947, then moved to CBS Radio in September 1949 before making the transition to NBC-TV in October 1950. Because of its simple format, it was […]
Truth or Consequences
Truth or Consequences is an American television game show originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards (1940–1957) and later on television by Edwards (1950–1954), Jack Bailey (1954–1955), and Bob Barker (1956–1975). The television show ran on CBS, NBC and also in syndication. The premise of the show was to mix the original quiz element […]
Beat the Clock
Beat the Clock is a Goodson-Todman game show that aired on American television in several versions since 1950. The original show, hosted by Bud Collyer, ran on CBS from 1950 to 1958 and ABC from 1958 to 1961. The show was revived in syndication as The New Beat the Clock from 1969 to 1974, with Jack Narz as host until 1972, when he was replaced by the show’s […]
What’s My Line
What’s My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasks celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations. It is the longest-running U.S. primetime network television game-show. […]
Stop the Music
Stop the Music was a prime time television game show that aired for an hour on Thursday evenings on ABC from May 5th, 1949 to April 24th, 1952, and again for a half-hour from September 7th, 1954 to June 14th, 1956. The show had also been broadcast on radio from 1948 to 1949. http://archive.org/download/stopTheMusic-Misc1955Episode/StopTheMusic1955.mp4 The program aired at 9 pm ET on Thursdays for […]
Break the Bank
Break the Bank is an American quiz show which aired variously on Mutual Radio and ABC, CBS and NBC television from 1945 to 1957. From October 1956 to January 1957, NBC Television aired a short-lived prime-time version called Break the $250,000 Bank. Sponsored by Vicks, the series began on radio October 20, 1945, heard Saturdays on Mutual until April 13th, 1946. Initially, it featured different hosts each week, including John […]
