J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
Forty-five years ago yesterday (January 20th, 1961), besides being the day President Kennedy was inaugurated (with live coverage throughout the daytime hours on all three networks), was also an infamous date in the history of television entertainment programming.
It was that evening at 9:30 Eastern that "You're In The Picture" premiered on CBS. The premise of this half-hour game show, hosted by Jackie Gleason, was that celebrities poked heads out of holes in pictures, and by asking questions of Gleason, would try to guess what the picture was that the panel had poked their heads through.
The show seemed to have a lot going for it: It's timeslot had the potential to be a pretty good one; sandwiched following the new drama "Route 66" (fast-growing in popularity) and the established hit "Twilight Zone". It was produced by Steve Carlin, who already had successful game shows to his credit. Gleason would add a considerable helping of comedy not to mention star power. How could it miss??
But it did. The show simply wasn't funny, and it left the air after just one episode. Until "Turn-On" got axed after a single broadcast in 1969, "You're In The Picture" was the most notorious flop in television history.
Steve Beverly, one of America's leading authorities on television game shows has written an article on his website about this fiasco of monumental proportions. Even if you think you know everything about the show, you should read this article. For one thing, you'll learn that a young Johnny Carson (then hosting "Who Do You Trust?") was scheduled to be one of the celebrities on the show that week, but after visiting the set, decided he didn't want to do the show.
And this page on TV Party.com (registration may be required) has more on the show, including two short video segments from the first (and only) broadcast of "You're In The Picture". It also includes an audio excerpt from Gleason's "apology" the next week.
The next week, instead of "You're In The Picture", Gleason made an apology in a hilarious speech to the nation's TV viewers. He said that while he had had his share of "bombs" in his show-business career, "You're In The Picture" made the H-Bomb look like a puny firecracker. For a few weeks after that, he did an interview show to fill the timeslot.
In 1962, Gleason resumed hosting a variety show (which he had done from 1952 through 1957 and again in the 1958/59 season). It was his longest-running series, lasting eight years and getting solid ratings throughout, especially after September of 1966, when "The Honeymooners" were revived on a regular basis.
It was that evening at 9:30 Eastern that "You're In The Picture" premiered on CBS. The premise of this half-hour game show, hosted by Jackie Gleason, was that celebrities poked heads out of holes in pictures, and by asking questions of Gleason, would try to guess what the picture was that the panel had poked their heads through.
The show seemed to have a lot going for it: It's timeslot had the potential to be a pretty good one; sandwiched following the new drama "Route 66" (fast-growing in popularity) and the established hit "Twilight Zone". It was produced by Steve Carlin, who already had successful game shows to his credit. Gleason would add a considerable helping of comedy not to mention star power. How could it miss??
But it did. The show simply wasn't funny, and it left the air after just one episode. Until "Turn-On" got axed after a single broadcast in 1969, "You're In The Picture" was the most notorious flop in television history.
Steve Beverly, one of America's leading authorities on television game shows has written an article on his website about this fiasco of monumental proportions. Even if you think you know everything about the show, you should read this article. For one thing, you'll learn that a young Johnny Carson (then hosting "Who Do You Trust?") was scheduled to be one of the celebrities on the show that week, but after visiting the set, decided he didn't want to do the show.
And this page on TV Party.com (registration may be required) has more on the show, including two short video segments from the first (and only) broadcast of "You're In The Picture". It also includes an audio excerpt from Gleason's "apology" the next week.
The next week, instead of "You're In The Picture", Gleason made an apology in a hilarious speech to the nation's TV viewers. He said that while he had had his share of "bombs" in his show-business career, "You're In The Picture" made the H-Bomb look like a puny firecracker. For a few weeks after that, he did an interview show to fill the timeslot.
In 1962, Gleason resumed hosting a variety show (which he had done from 1952 through 1957 and again in the 1958/59 season). It was his longest-running series, lasting eight years and getting solid ratings throughout, especially after September of 1966, when "The Honeymooners" were revived on a regular basis.