Everything Old is New Again - Game Shows - Part 1

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Capri pants were introduced in 1948 and have come back many times as capris, clam diggers, pedal pushers, toreador pants and more. The same goes for game shows which have come and gone out of favor since 1938. Everything old is new again. 1938-1959 The first TV game show was the "Spelling Bee"; and the first radio game show was "Information Please". Both of these shows premiered in 1938. In the 1950s game shows became a regular feature of daytime TV. "What's My Line" hosted by John Charles Daly ran from 1950-1967, first in black-and-white and then in color. The earlier episodes were filmed in kinescope on 16mm tape. The panelists asked questions to guess the guest's occupation. One celebrity guest appeared on each show; and the panelists were blindfolded for this segment. "Beat the Clock", hosted by Bud Collyer, ran from 1950-1961 and had several reboots after that. Contestants were given physical stunts to complete within a time limit to win cash. It originally started as a radio show, "Time's A-Wastin'" in 1948, then "Beat the Time" in 1949. It moved to television in 1950. Lower stakes shows were kept in the daytime slots to attract housewives; the higher stakes game shows were put in prime-time slots. The "$64,000 Question" and "Twenty-One" were trivia-based quiz shows which ran in the middle to late 1950s. Contestants could win large sums of money for their correct answers. Unfortunately it was discovered that "Twenty-One was rigged...The producers were giving answers to contestants to increase interest in the show. In 1959 many quiz shows were cancelled once the scandal was exposed and ratings declined. Some of the other shows in this era were "You Bet Your Life" hosted by Groucho Marx, "Truth or Consequences", "I've Got a Secret", "To Tell the Truth", "Tic Tac Dough" and "Concentration". To be continued... Photo Credit: Pixabay