TFTP On This Day: "Winner Takes All" from CBS (Apr. 17, 1951)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Game Shows n' Stuff'
Length - 28:46

It Was 67 Years Ago Today: "Winner Takes All" is a landmark program in broadcasting history, especially for game show history--it was the first game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. In addition, it was the first show hosted by game-show icon (and Goodson-Todman mainstay) Bill Cullen. "Winner Takes All" began on radio in 1946 and on TV in 1948; the episode above, which is from the program's brief daytime stint in 1951, first aired 67 years ago today.

Barry Gray is the host of the above episode, and he's not exactly the most endearing game-show host ever. He's a bit dismissive of the contestants and seems more interested in cracking wise than in facilitating the gameplay. The gameplay is pretty simple and consists of the host asking the contestants questions (many of them based on brief little skits that are presented) to which the contestants try to "buzz in" on. One contestant had an actual buzzer, the other a bell--with respective symbols for buzzer and bell displayed in front of them. (TV game shows were young. Viewers needed some help.)

The radio and TV versions of "Winner Takes All" combined had about six years on the air, from 1946 until 1952. In these earliest years of TV history, networks tended to keep bringing back programs again and again, and networks more often picked up existing programs that had been dropped by other networks. Both happened with "Winner Takes All": CBS kept the game going in a few different formats (including as a segment on the daytime variety program "Matinee in New York") for several years before cancelling it for good in 1951, when it was picked up by NBC, where it ran for an additional year.

TFTP's Monochrome Monday: Promo for Daytime Line-Up from NBC (1956)

Posted to YouTube by user 'MattTheSaiyan'
Length - 1:00

TFTP's Monochrome Monday brings you a classic black & white TV program or clip every Monday morning to kick off the week....

Network program promos don't get much more bare bones than this 1956 NBC daytime promo (unless they're strictly slides with announcer voiceover). The first half of this minute-long promo is a rather crude stationary drawing of two women with a voiceover of two women chatting with each other about TV. One of them is suggesting to the other viewing the morning line-up of shows on NBC. The voiceover conversation between the two continues into the second half of the promo as slides appear of the three shows under discussion, before ending with a slide that lists all three programs.

The three programs promoted are (1) "Home" with Arlene Francis, which had moved to a new timeslot; (2) game show "The Price is Right" with Bill Cullen ("that one with the bidding for prizes and all that" as described by one of the women); and (3) "Truth and Consequences" with Bob Barker.

TFTP On This Day: "The Price is Right" from NBC (Feb. 1, 1961)

Posted to YouTube by user 'What's My Line?'
Length - 24:17

It Was 57 Years Ago Today: "The Price is Right" is one of the longest lasting and most venerable of TV programs--its current daytime version has been on for 46 years! But the program goes back even earlier than that. From 1956 to 1965, the original version of the program, hosted by game-show mainstay Bill Cullen, aired in both daytime and prime-time first on NBC, then (for the last two years of that span) on ABC. (With the current daytime version on CBS, this makes "TPiR" the rare game show that played on all three of the major networks.)

This prime-time episode (recorded from a much later rerun on Game Show Network), which aired 57 years ago today on February 1, 1961, features guest-host Arlene Francis of "What's My Line?" panel fame. The game play in this original version of "TPiR" is vastly different than in the current daytime version. Contestants make repeated, escalating bids on an item, with the one who gets the familiar "closest without going over" price as the winner. There were no pricing games per se, although in this episode there is one short price guessing bonus that follows a bid. The same four contestants compete throughout an episode (no "come on down" moments here), anchored by a returning champ from the previous week.

Contestants in this episode bid on some rather unique and elaborate prizes. The episode kicks off with a bid on a personal submarine (!), before moving on to more mundane (but still big-ticket) items such as a car, a grand piano, and a home swimming pool. The final prize of the night--won by returning champion Mrs. Patrick--was a house in Florida.