American game show
The $64,000 Question
|
---|
Genre
| Game show
|
---|
Written by
| Joseph Nathan Kane
|
---|
Directed by
| Seymour Robbie
|
---|
Presented by
| Hal March
|
---|
Country of origin
| United States
|
---|
Original language
| English
|
---|
No.
of seasons
| 4
|
---|
|
Executive producer
| Steve Carlin
|
---|
Producers
| |
---|
Production locations
| New York City, New York, U.S.
|
---|
Camera setup
| Multi-camera
|
---|
Running time
| 22?24 minutes
|
---|
|
Network
| CBS
|
---|
Release
| June 7, 1955
(
1955-06-07
)
?
November 2, 1958
(
1958-11-02
)
|
---|
The $64,000 Question
|
---|
Genre
| Game show
|
---|
Presented by
| Sonny Fox
|
---|
Country of origin
| United States
|
---|
Original language
| English
|
---|
No.
of seasons
| 2
|
---|
|
Running time
| 22?24 minutes
|
---|
|
Network
| CBS
|
---|
Release
| April 8, 1956
(
1956-04-08
)
?
September 7, 1958
(
1958-09-07
)
|
---|
Hal March and
Barbara Britton
(Revlon spokeswoman) on the show's set (1955)
The $64,000 Question
was an American
game show
broadcast in primetime on CBS-TV from 1955 to 1958, which became embroiled in the
1950s quiz show scandals
. Contestants answered general knowledge questions, earning money which doubled as the questions became more difficult. The final question had a top prize of $64,000 (equivalent to $730,000 in 2023), hence the "$64,000 Question" in the show's title.
The $64,000 Challenge
(1956?1958) was its
spin-off
show, where contestants played against winners of at least $8,000 on
The $64,000 Question
.
Origins
[
edit
]
The $64,000 Question
was largely inspired by the earlier CBS and NBC radio program
Take It or Leave It
, which ran on CBS radio from 1940 to 1947, and then on NBC radio from 1947 to 1952. After 1950, the radio show was renamed
The $64 Question
. The format of the show remained largely the same through its 12-year run; a contestant was asked a series of progressively more difficult questions which began at $1 and ended at a top prize of $64.
Show creation
[
edit
]
The $64,000 Question
was created by
Louis G. Cowan
, formerly known for radio's
Quiz Kids
and the television series
Stop the Music
and
Down You Go
. Cowan drew the inspiration for the name from
Take It or Leave It
, and its $64 top prize offering. He decided to expand the figure to $64,000 for the new television program.
[1]
Finally, Cowan convinced
Revlon
. The key: Revlon founder and chieftain
Charles Revson
knew top competitor
Hazel Bishop
had fattened its sales through sponsoring the popular
This Is Your Life
, and he wanted a piece of that action if he could have it. Revlon first signed a deal to sponsor Cowan's brainchild for 13 weeks with the right to withdraw when they expired.
[2]
The $64,000 Question
premiered June 7, 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 54
).
To increase the show's drama and suspense, and because radio host Phil Baker had bombed earlier in the decade with his lone television effort
Who's Whose
,
[3]
it was decided to use an actor rather than a broadcaster as the host. Television and film actor
Hal March
, familiar to TV viewers as a supporting regular on
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
and
My Friend Irma
, found instant fame as the quiz show's host, and Lynn Dollar stood nearby as his assistant. Author and TV panelist
Dr. Bergen Evans
was the show's expert authority, and actress
Wendy Barrie
did the "Living Lipstick" commercials. To capitalize on the initial television success, the show was also simulcast for two months on
CBS Radio
where it was heard from October 4, 1955, to November 29, 1955.
[4]
Gameplay
[
edit
]
Contestants first chose a subject category (such as "Boxing", "Lincoln", "Jazz" or "Football") from the Category Board. Although this board was a large part of the set, it was seen only briefly, evidently to conceal the fact that categories were sometimes hastily added to match a new contestant's subject.
[5]
The contestant was then asked questions only in the chosen category, earning money which doubled ($64, $128, $256, $512; then $1,000, $2,000, $4,000, $8,000, $16,000, $32,000, and finally $64,000) as the questions became more difficult. At the $4,000 level, a contestant returned each week for only one question per week. The contestant could quit at any time and retire with their money, but until they won $512, they lost all winnings for answering a question incorrectly. Missing a $1,000, $2,000, or $4,000 question left the contestant with $512. If a contestant missed a question after winning $4,000 they received a
consolation prize
of a new
Cadillac
. Starting with the $8,000 question, the contestant was placed in the
Revlon
"
isolation booth
", where they could hear nothing but the host's words. As long as the contestant kept answering correctly, they stayed on the show until they had won $64,000.
Public reception
[
edit
]
Almost immediately,
The $64,000 Question
beat every other program on Tuesday nights in ratings. Broadcast historian Robert Metz, in
CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye
, claimed U.S. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
himself did not want to be disturbed while the show was on and that the nation's crime rate, movie theater, and restaurant patronage dropped dramatically when the show aired. It earned the #1
rating spot
for the 1955?56 season, holding the distinction of being the only television show to knock
I Love Lucy
out of the #1 spot, and finished at #4 in the 1956?57 season and #20 in 1957?58.
[6]
Among its imitators or inspirations were
The Big Surprise
,
Tic-Tac-Dough
, and
Twenty-One
.
The $64,000 Challenge
[
edit
]
Not only did Charles Revson not exercise his withdrawal right, but he wanted another way to take advantage of
Question'
s swollen audience. April 8, 1956 saw the debut of
The $64,000 Challenge
(initially co-sponsored by
Revlon
and
Lorillard Tobacco Company
's
Kent
cigarettes), hosted through August 26 by future children's television star
Sonny Fox
and then, for the remainder of the show's life,
Ralph Story
.
It pitted contestants against winners of at least $8,000 on
The $64,000 Question
in a new, continuing game where they could win another $64,000. The contestants took turns answering questions from the same category starting at the $1,000 level. If they each answered a question correctly, they advanced to the $2,000 level. Starting at the $4,000 level, both contestants answered the same question while each standing in their own isolation booth. If, at any given level, a contestant answered correctly with the other contestant missing a question, the winning contestant either kept the money and faced a new player, or continued playing against the same opponent at the next money level.
In time, the sister show came to include various celebrities, including bandleader
Xavier Cugat
and child star
Patty Duke
, as well as former
Question
champions.
The J. Fred & Leslie W. MacDonald Collection of the
Library of Congress
contains one kinescoped episode featuring Capt. Richard McCutchen as a contestant, broadcast July 1, 1956.
Everyday celebrities
[
edit
]
Joyce Myron, 18-year-old show winner who won $32,000 answering questions about
atomic energy
, pictured with
William G. Pollard
and Sam Sapirie at
Oak Ridge
(1957)
Question
contestants sometimes became celebrities themselves for a short while, including 11-year-old Robert Strom (who won $192,000, worth $2.2 million today) and Teddy Nadler ($252,000 across both shows, worth $2.9 million today), the two biggest winners in the show's history. Other such newly made celebrities included Italian-born Bronx shoemaker Gino Prato, who won $32,000 ($363,100 today) for his encyclopedic knowledge of
opera
. The longest enduring of these newly made celebrities was psychologist
Joyce Brothers
. Answering questions about
boxing
, she became, after McCutchen, the second top winner, and went on to a career providing psychological advice in newspaper columns and TV shows for the next four decades. Another winner, Pennsylvania typist Catherine Kreitzer, read
Shakespeare
on
The Ed Sullivan Show
.
TV Guide
kept a running tally of the money won on the show, which hit $1 million by the end of November 1956 ($11.2 million today).
The
American Experience
(PBS) episode probing the scandal noted:
"All the big winners became instant celebrities and household names. For the first time, America's heroes were intellectuals or experts?jockey Billy Pearson on art, Marine Captain McCutchen on cooking?every subject from the Bible to baseball. Not only had the contestants become rich overnight, but they were also treated to a whirlwind of publicity tours, awards, endorsements and meetings with dignitaries. Cobbler Gino Prato, whose category was opera, was brought to Italy for a special performance at la Scala and honored by an audience with the Pope. After winning $64,000, spelling whiz Gloria Lockerman, an
African American
, became a guest speaker at the
1956 Democratic National Convention
... Eleven-year-old stock market expert
Lenny Ross
was asked to open up the New York Stock Exchange".
[7]
Merchandising and parodies
[
edit
]
One category on the Revlon Category Board was "Jazz", and within months of the premiere Columbia Records issued a 1955 album of various jazz artists under the tie-in title
$64,000 Jazz
(CL 777, also EP B-777), with the following tracks: "The Shrike" (Pete Rugolo), "Perdido" (J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding), "Laura" (Erroll Garner), "
Honeysuckle Rose
" (Benny Goodman), "Tawny" (Woody Herman), "One O'Clock Jump" (Harry James), "How Hi the Fi" (Buck Clayton), "I'm Comin', Virginia" (Eddie Condon), "A Fine Romance" (Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond), "I Let A Song Go Out of My Heart" (Duke Ellington), and "Ain't Misbehavin'" (Louis Armstrong).
Other musical tie-ins included the 1955 song "The $64,000 Question (Do You Love Me)", recorded by Bobby Tuggle (Checker 823), Jackie Brooks (Decca 29684), and the Burton Sisters (RCA Victor 47-6265). "Love Is the $64,000 Question" (1956), which used the show's theme music by Norman F. Leyden with added
Fred Ebb
lyrics, was recorded by Hal March (Columbia 40684), Karen Chandler (Decca 29881), Jim Lowe (Dot 15456), and Tony Travis (RCA Victor 47-6476).
When the show was revived in 1976 as
The $128,000 Question
, its theme music and cues were performed (albeit with a new disco-style arrangement for the theme) by
Charles Randolph Grean
, who released a three-and-a-half-minute single, "The $128,000 Question" (the show's music and cues as an instrumental), with the B-side ("Sentimentale") on the Ranwood label (45rpm release R-1064). For the show's second season, Grean's music package was re-recorded by Guido Basso.
There were numerous parodies of the program, including in the
Foghorn Leghorn
cartoon "
Fox-Terror
",
Bob and Ray
's
The 64-Cent Question
.
The Jack Benny Program
featured Hal March as a contestant in an October 20, 1957 spoof
[8]
with Benny asking the questions. As a gag, Benny actually appeared as a contestant on
The $64,000 Question
on October 8, 1957, but insisted on walking away with $64 after answering the first question. Hal March finally gave him $64 out of his own pocket.
At the height of its popularity,
The $64,000 Question
was referenced in the scripts of other CBS shows, usually but not exclusively through punch lines that included references to "the isolation booth" or "reaching the first plateau". Typical of these was spoken by
The Honeymooners
'
Ed Norton (
Art Carney
), who identified three times in a man's life when he wants to be alone, with the third being "when he's in the isolation booth of
The $64,000 Question
". At least three other
Honeymooners
episodes referenced
Question
: In
A Woman's Work Is Never Done
Ralph proposes to Alice that he go on the show because he's an expert in the "Aggravation" category. In
Hello, Mom
Norton tells Ralph that his mother-in-law's category on the show would be "Nasty". In
The Worry Wart
, Ralph advises Alice to become a contestant because she's an expert in the "Everything" category.
Another episode of
The Honeymooners
, delivered one of the best known
Question
references ? a parody of the show itself, in one of the so-called "Original 39" episodes of the timeless situation comedy. In that episode, blustery bus driver Ralph Kramden becomes a contestant on the fictitious
$99,000 Answer
. Regarded as one of the
Golden Age of Television
's best quiz show parodies, the
Honeymooners
episode depicted Kramden spending a week intensively studying popular songs, only to blow the first question on the subject when he returned to play on the show. The host of the fictitious
$99,000 Answer
was one Herb Norris, played by former
Twenty Questions
emcee and future
Tic-Tac-Dough
host
Jay Jackson
.
The show has been referenced on other game shows. On the U.S. version of
Deal or No Deal
, an episode aired January 15, 2007, in which the banker's offer was $64,000. Host
Howie Mandel
said, "This is the $64,000 question".
In many money trees of most variations of the television series
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
, the amount of $64,000 is often included as the prize money awarded for correctly answering the 11th question.
Scandal and cancellation
[
edit
]
In mid-August 1958, while both
Question
and
Challenge
had already been announced as part of CBS's
fall lineup
, the network's quiz show
Dotto
was cancelled without explanation. A federal investigation was launched by the end of August on the allegation that a
Dotto
contestant had been given answers in advance.
[9]
The probe soon included
NBC's
Twenty-One
,
[9]
and was expected to expand further.
In the first week of September, a contestant of
Challenge
, Rev. Charles Jackson, came forward to say he had been given answers in advance.
[10]
On September 13,
Lorillard Tobacco Company
pulled its sponsorship of the show;
[10]
this made the previous airing on September 7 the last for
Challenge
.
The $64,000 Challenge
was replaced on CBS with "a special news program" on September 14.
[11]
The $64,000 Question
, which had not yet begun airing for the new season, assumed
Challenge
's Sunday time slot on September 21. After the federal probe of quiz shows surfaced, quiz shows suffered badly in the Fall 1958 Nielsen ratings. In late October, strong rumors had surfaced that
Question
was slated for movement to a less desirable time slot, or cancellation.
[12]
Cancellation was made official after
Question
's November 2 airing.
[13]
The game show ceased operations for good on November 21, 1958.
Scandal
[
edit
]
The $64,000 Question
was closely monitored by its sponsor's CEO,
Revlon
's
Charles Revson
, who often interfered with production, especially attempting to bump contestants he himself disliked, regardless of audience reaction. Revson's brother, Martin, was assigned to oversee production, including heavy discussions of feedback the show received.
According to
Question
producer Joe Cates, an IBM sorting machine was used to present lower dollar value questions, to give the illusion that the questions were randomly selected ? in fact, all of the cards were identical.
[14]
Nadler's victory was called into question when he failed a civil service exam in 1960 applying a job for the
United States Census Bureau
.
[15]
Producers eventually acknowledged he had been shown questions beforehand but not answers, noting that he already knew the answers beforehand; he was exonerated of wrongdoing.
[16]
The most prominent victim may have been the man who initially launched the franchise. Louis Cowan, made CBS Television president as a result of
Question'
s fast success, was forced out of the network as the quiz scandal ramped up, even though it was
NBC
's quiz shows bearing most of the brunt of the scandal ? and even though CBS itself, with a little help from sponsor
Colgate-Palmolive
, had moved fast in cancelling the popular
Dotto
at almost the moment it was confirmed that that show had been rigged. Cowan had never been suspected of taking part in any attempt to rig either
Question
or
Challenge
; later CBS historians suggested his reputation as an administrative bottleneck may have had as much to do with his firing as his tie to the tainted shows. Cowan may have been a textbook sacrificial lamb, in a bid to preempt any further scandal while the network scrambled to recover, and while president
Frank Stanton
accepted complete responsibility for any wrongdoing committed under his watch.
Aftermath
[
edit
]
By the end of 1959, all first generation big-money quizzes were gone, with single-sponsorship television following and a federal law against fixing television game shows (an amendment to the 1960 Communications Act) coming. Over the course of the early 1960s, the networks wound down their five-figure jackpot game shows;
Jackpot Bowling
(1959?1961) and
Make That Spare
(1960?1964), a period on
Beat the Clock
(1960) when its Bonus Stunt grew in $100 increments past the $10,000 mark until finally being won for $20,100 on September 23,
You Bet Your Life
(ended 1961) and the more lavish prize offerings on
The Nighttime Price Is Right
(1957?1964) were the few remaining shows offering large prizes. Only one traditional big-money quiz show, the short-lived
ABC
quiz
100 Grand
(1963), was attempted in the subsequent years; the networks stayed away from awarding five-figure cash jackpots until the premiere of
The $10,000 Pyramid
and
Match Game
73
in 1973. The disappearance of the quiz shows gave rise to television's next big phenomenon?
Westerns
.
The scandals also resulted in a shift of the balance of power between networks and sponsors. The networks used the scandals to justify taking control of their programs away from sponsors, thereby eliminating any potential future manipulation in prime-time broadcasting, and giving the networks full autonomy over program content.
[17]
None of the people directly involved in rigging any of the quiz shows faced any penalty more severe than suspended sentences for perjury before the federal grand jury that probed the scandal, even if many hosts and producers found themselves frozen out of television for many years. One
Question
contestant, Doll Goostree, sued both CBS and the producers in a bid to recoup $4,000 she said she might have won if her match of
Question
hadn't been rigged. Neither Goostree nor any other quiz contestant who similarly sued won their cases.
- Louis Cowan
? In addition to
Quiz Kids
(1949?1951) and
Stop the Music
(1949?52, 1954?56), Cowan also created
Down You Go
(1951?1956) and the short-lived
Ask Me Another
(1952). Cowan briefly served as
CBS
Television Network president before leaving in the wake of the quiz show scandals. He later joined the faculty of the
Columbia University
school of journalism. He and his wife Polly were killed in an apartment fire in New York City in 1976. Lou Cowan's son Geoffrey later produced brief revivals of
Quiz Kids
in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and is currently dean of the
University of Southern California
Annenberg School for Communication.
- Hal March
? The former comic actor who became an overnight star on
Question
continued to appear as an actor in television and movies throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Shortly after he signed on as host of
It's Your Bet
in 1969, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in 1970, four months short of his 50th birthday.
- Irwin "Sonny" Fox
? The first
Challenge
host was also known at the time for co-hosting the CBS children's travelogue
Let's Take a Trip
(Fox described it as "Taking two children on sort of an electronic field trip every week?live, remote location, no audience, no sponsors"), but his fame rests predominantly on his eight-year (1959?1967) tour as the suave, congenial and dryly witty fourth host of New York's Sunday morning children's learn-and-laugh marathon,
Wonderama
. Fox hosted
Way Out Games
(1976?1977), a Saturday-morning series for CBS, then later spent a year (1977?1978) running children's programming for NBC and eventually became a chairman of the board for Population Communications International, a nonprofit dedicated to "technical assistance, research and training consultation to governments, NGOs and foundations on a wide range of social marketing and communications initiatives." Fox had also been a board chairman for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He died in 2021.
- Patty Duke
? A child star (thanks to her
Broadway
portrayal of
Helen Keller
) when she appeared on
Challenge
, she eventually testified to Congressional investigators ? and broke to tears when she admitted she'd been coached to speak falsely, an incident Sonny Fox described when interviewed for the PBS program reviewing the quiz scandals. Duke survived to become a television star (
The Patty Duke Show
) in the early-to-mid-'60s, before moving on to more film and television work (including a memorable role in
Valley of the Dolls
), becoming an activist in the
Screen Actors Guild
, writing two memoirs (
Call Me Anna
and
A Brilliant Madness
) describing her troubled child acting career and her lifelong battle with
manic depression
, and becoming an advocate for better protection and benefits for child actors. She died on March 29, 2016, from Sepsis, resulting from a ruptured Intestine.
- Charles Revson
? Inspired by cosmetics competitor
Hazel Bishop
(whose sponsoring of
This Is Your Life
provided big sales to Bishop) to think about television sponsorship in the first place, Revson was never investigated in his own right for his role in the quiz show scandals despite testifying (as did his brother, Martin) before Congress when the scandals broke in earnest. The cosmetics empire he founded, however, continued its success ? and continued to sponsor television programming ? for many years after the scandals faded away. Known as a hard-driving, hard-driven perfectionist whose overbearing manner usually alienated even his closest business partners, Revson's success left him a billionaire when he died in 1975. His charitable foundation has since given over $145 million in grants to schools, hospitals, and service organizations in various Jewish communities.
- Dr.
Joyce Brothers
? Only the second contestant to win the show's big prize (after expertly thwarting numerous attempts to bump her from the show because Martin Revson was said to have disliked her and doubted her credibility as a boxing expert), Brothers has enjoyed the most enduring fame and media success among anyone who rose to prominence by way of
Question
. Her championship as a boxing expert led to an invitation to become a commentator for CBS' telecast of a championship boxing match between
Sugar Ray Robinson
and
Carmen Basilio
. In August 1958, shortly after she earned her license to practice psychology in New York, Brothers was given her own television program, first locally in New York and then in national syndication. Making numerous television and radio appearances as a psychologist, not to mention numerous television comedy roles, Brothers has also written a long-running syndicated advice column in newspapers and magazines, which was used as a source for some questions on the 1998?2004 revival of
Hollywood Squares
. She is still considered, arguably, the first media psychologist. She died from respiratory failure on May 13, 2013, at age 85.
- Ralph Story
? He became the much-loved host of
Ralph Story's Los Angeles
(1964?1970), still considered the highest-rated, best-loved local show in Los Angeles television history. Story has also hosted
A.M. Los Angeles
and was the narrator for the
ABC
series
Alias Smith and Jones
in 1972?1973. He died on September 26, 2006, at the age of 86.
Revivals
[
edit
]
Selected PBS outlets showed surviving kinescopes of the original
Question
in Summer 1976, as a run-up to a new version of the show called
The $128,000 Question
, which ran for two years. The first season was hosted by Mike Darrow and produced at the
Ed Sullivan Theater
in New York City, while the second was produced at
Global Television Network
in
Toronto, Ontario
, Canada and hosted by
Alex Trebek
.
In 1999, television producer
Michael Davies
attempted to revive
Question
as
The $640,000 Question
for
ABC
, before abandoning that project in favor of producing an American version of the British game show
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
.
Millionaire
has a very similar format to
The $64,000 Question
? 15 questions in which the contestant's money roughly doubles with each correct question until reaching the top prize. However, the questions in
Millionaire
are of a broader variety than
Question'
s one-category line of questioning and have a different category for each question, all questions are
multiple choice
, contestants are allowed to leave the game with their money after a question is revealed but before it is answered, and
Millionaire
offers three chances for help (called "lifelines"), which were not present in
Question
.
In 2000, responding to the success of
Millionaire
,
CBS
bought the rights to the property in a reported effort to produce another revival attempt,
The $64,000 Question
(with a top prize of $1,024,000), to be hosted by
sportscaster
Greg Gumbel
. Because of format issues similar to those encountered by Davies for
ABC
, this version was never broadcast.
United States broadcast history
[
edit
]
- The $64,000 Question
? CBS television; June 7, 1955
? June 24, 1958 (Tuesday 10:00
p.m.); September 14
? November 9, 1958 (Sunday 10:00
p.m.). Simulcast on CBS Radio from October 4 to November 29, 1955.
- The $64,000 Challenge
? CBS television; April 8, 1956
? September 14, 1958; Sunday 10:00
p.m.
- The $128,000 Question
? syndicated weekly television, September 18, 1976
? September 1978.
International versions
[
edit
]
Australia
[
edit
]
A similar version of
The $64,000 Question
was successful in Australia from 1960 to 1971 on
Seven Network
. Initially called
Coles £3000 Question
, the show changed its name to
Coles $6000 Question
on February 14, 1966 (the date Australia converted to decimal currency) and was sponsored for most of its run by
Coles Stores
. In July 1971, Coles dropped its sponsorship and the show became
The $7000 Question
. It was hosted by Malcolm Searle (1960?1963) and Roland Strong (1963?1971).
Denmark
[
edit
]
A Danish version of the show called
Kvit eller dobbelt
was made in
Denmark
. The show originally aired from 1957 to 1959, with a top prize of 10,000
Danish crowns
.
[19]
It was revived in 1984,
[20]
then again in 1990
[21]
and again in 1999. The latest revival in 2013 was aimed at kids and also included kids as participants.
[22]
Italy
[
edit
]
The Italian version of this quiz was
Lascia o raddoppia?
(1955?1959). The prize money doubled from 2,560,000 lire to 5,120,000 lire.
Mexico
[
edit
]
The Mexican version,
El Gran Premio de los 64,000 pesos
lasted from 1956 to 1994 with some interruptions, changes of name to compensate peso devaluation, and changes of TV network. Most of the time it was hosted by Pedro Ferriz. A movie was made in which Ferriz asks questions to a character played by Sara Garcia, known then as "Mexican Cinema's Granny".
Poland
[
edit
]
The Polish version of this quiz was
Wielka gra
("The Great Game," 1962?2006). Initially the rules and the studio set-up matched the original's, but in 1975 both were changed by Wojciech Pijanowski, creator, producer, writer, and/or host of many quiz shows in Poland in the late 20th century, as the isolation booth was abandoned and a large turntable was added in the center of the studio floor, displaying the prize amount for each round, upon which the envelopes containing the questions were placed. The categories became more specific (e.g., Mozart?life and compositions, Muslim conquests in the 7th?8th centuries), were limited to art, history (most categories), geography, and zoology, and were now chosen by players during the elimination rounds.
After 1975, the game had the following rounds:
- The first round was a duel between two players; it consisted of up to 20 questions and lasted until one player had gotten two questions wrong. Players wore headphones playing loud music in order not to hear during each other's turns.
- The second round was an "exam," in which the player who had won the duel now had to answer three questions from each of three experts in a category. The player could make up to two mistakes. If successful, the player then received a prize.
- In the third, fourth, and final rounds, the player drew envelopes with questions from the big turntable, with the prize doubling each round. The grand prize changed over the years: primarily it was 25,000
zlotys
(about equal to the average annual wage); later it was 40,000 zlotys (ca. $12,000).
The hosts were
Ryszard Serafinowicz
(1962?1969),
Joanna Rostocka
(1969?1973, previously Serafinowicz's co-host),
Janusz Budzy?ski
(1973?1975) and
Stanisława Ryster
(1975?2006).
Although the show was cancelled due to low viewership, the cancellation was controversial because of how highly regarded it was by many people, especially those who were still watching it, and because some games that were planned or already in progress were not completed.
There were plans to revive the show in 2016 as
Wi?ksza gra
("The Greater Game") in an altered format, but eventually those plans were cancelled.
Sweden
[
edit
]
The Swedish version of this quiz was
Kvitt eller dubbelt
(1957?1994).
United Kingdom
[
edit
]
There were three derived versions in the UK: earlier,
The 64,000 Question
,
Double Your Money
(see above) and later,
The $64,000 Question
.
Connections
[
edit
]
Spoofed in
[
edit
]
- The Honeymooners
: "The $99,000 Answer" (first aired January 28, 1956); Ralph becomes a contestant on a quiz show, but nervously answers his first question incorrectly.
- The Phil Silvers Show
: "It's for the Birds". Bilko discovers one of his platoon is an expert on birds. He signs Pvt. Honnegan (played by
Fred Gwynne
) up for
The $64,000 Question
TV show. First broadcast on September 25, 1956.
- Fox-Terror
[23]
(Looney Tunes short, 1957)
- The Jack Benny Program
: Hal March Show (#8.3) (1957). Host
Hal March
appears in Jack Benny's version of the game show.
In Popular Culture
[
edit
]
The phrase
the $64,000 question
is an
idiom
and is routinely used
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
as a way of saying
the most important question
. It is derived from the fact that the ultimate question on the show was indeed, the $64,000 question.
[28]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"The $64,000 Question | American Experience | PBS"
.
www.pbs.org
. Retrieved
May 31,
2020
.
- ^
Tobias, Andrew (January 14, 2015).
"Fire and Ice"
.
www.andrewtobias.com
. Archived from
the original
on January 14, 2015
. Retrieved
October 18,
2020
.
- ^
"
'Who's' Was"
.
Weekly Variety
. Variety Publishing Company. July 4, 1951. p. 32
. Retrieved
July 10,
2018
.
- ^
Dunning, John
(1998).
On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio
(Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 619.
ISBN
978-0-19-507678-3
. Retrieved
October 8,
2023
.
- ^
"Potrzebie: Charles Van Doren and the Rip in the Fabric of Reality"
. Retrieved
October 18,
2020
.
- ^
"ClassicTVguide.com: TV Ratings"
. Retrieved
April 20,
2015
.
- ^
"The American Experience ? Quiz Show Scandal ? Program Transcript"
.
PBS
. Retrieved
April 20,
2015
.
- ^
The Jack Benny Program episode guide
- ^
a
b
"DA Widens Quiz Probe"
.
The Ithaca Journal
. August 28, 1958. p. 1
. Retrieved
October 17,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
"$64,000 Challenge TV Quiz Dropped"
.
Record-Journal
. September 13, 1958. p. 3
. Retrieved
October 17,
2020
.
- ^
"Charged With Fix, $64,000 Challenge Taken From Air"
.
The Lima Citizen
. September 14, 1958. p. 40
. Retrieved
October 17,
2020
.
- ^
"$64,000 Quiz May Lose Spot and Sponsors"
.
The Austin Daily Herald
. October 25, 1958. p. 15
. Retrieved
October 18,
2020
.
- ^
"$64,000 Question, First Big-Money Quiz, Ended"
.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
. November 5, 1958. p. 27
. Retrieved
October 17,
2020
.
- ^
"The American Experience | Quiz Show Scandal | Program Transcript"
.
www.shoppbs.pbs.org
. Retrieved
October 17,
2020
.
- ^
"Off the Map"
.
Time Magazine
.
Time Inc.
March 28, 1960. Archived from
the original
on September 30, 2007
. Retrieved
September 1,
2007
.
- ^
Singer, Dale (September 6, 1970).
"Remember Teddy Nadler? Quiz Show Phenomenon Remembers When . . "
.
Independent Press-Telegram
. p. 75
. Retrieved
October 12,
2020
.
- ^
"$64,000 Question"
.
Television Academy Interviews
. October 22, 2017
. Retrieved
May 31,
2020
.
- ^
Kvit eller dobbelt
(Game-Show), Danmarks Radio (DR), March 4, 2013
, retrieved
March 6,
2022
- ^
"Kvit eller dobbelt | lex.dk"
.
Den Store Danske
(in Danish). January 30, 2020
. Retrieved
March 6,
2022
.
- ^
"Bonanza | Quiz | 1980erne: Kvit eller dobbelt"
.
Bonanza | Quiz | 1980erne: Kvit eller dobbelt.
(in Danish)
. Retrieved
March 6,
2022
.
- ^
"Bonanza | Quiz | 1990erne: Kvit eller Dobbelt"
.
Bonanza | Quiz | 1990erne: Kvit eller Dobbelt
(in Danish)
. Retrieved
March 6,
2022
.
- ^
"
'Kvit eller dobbelt' i børnehøjde"
.
DR
(in Danish). August 29, 2012
. Retrieved
March 6,
2022
.
- ^
"Fox-Terror"
.
IMDB
. May 11, 1957
. Retrieved
December 6,
2016
.
- ^
"Bill Belichick embraces the "$64,000 question" of opening day"
.
MSN
.
- ^
"The $64,000 Question: What was Donald Trump hiding in his safe?"
. August 11, 2022.
- ^
"Weather Blog: Tracking a cold front! How much cooler? Any rain?"
. August 13, 2022.
- ^
"Rare mauve stinger jellyfish found at the Jersey Shore. Its sting is 'intense,' scientists warn"
. August 31, 2022.
- ^
"How to Use the $64,000 question Correctly"
. July 6, 2011.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Shows
| | |
---|
Producers
| |
---|
Contestants
| |
---|
Pop culture and advertisers
| |
---|
Other key figures
| |
---|
Officials
| |
---|
|
|
---|
1950s
| |
---|
1960s
| |
---|
1970s
|
- 70?71
:
Marcus Welby, M.D.
- 71?72
,
72?73
,
73?74
,
74?75
,
75?76
:
All in the Family
(
S2
,
S3
,
S4
,
S5
,
S6
)
- 76?77
:
Happy Days
(S4)
- 77?78
,
78?79
:
Laverne & Shirley
(
S3
,
S4
)
- 79?80
:
60 Minutes
|
---|
1980s
| |
---|
1990s
| |
---|
2000s
|
- 00?01
:
Survivor
(S2-AO)
- 01?02
:
Friends
(S8)
- 02?03
,
03?04
,
04?05
,:
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
(
S3
,
S4
,
S5
)
- 05?06
,
06?07
,
07?08
,
08?09
,
09?10
:
American Idol
(
S5
,
S6
,
S7
,
S8
,
S9
)
|
---|
2010s
| |
---|
2020s
| |
---|