Thursday, October 5, 1950: Groucho's
You Bet Your Life begins an 11-year run
on NBC.
You Bet Your Life was unique among what
were then called quiz shows because Groucho's
interviews overshadowed the quiz. The quiz
itself was rarely worth more than a few hundred
dollars until the big-money era. Groucho's
producer and partner, John Guedel, decided in
1956 that in order to keep up with the other
shows, they'd have to raise the top prize to
$10,000. Groucho didn't want to do it but
had to face reality: his ratings had dropped
a bit. (I could argue that the time spent
with the wheel that determined the value of the
big question--$2000, $5000, or $10,000--could
have been better spent on interviews.)
For those who might wonder how Groucho ever became
a game-show host in the first place: in 1947 he
had auditioned unsuccessfully to replace Phil Baker
on the radio quiz Take It Or Leave It (with its $64
question, a prize that would be multiplied by 1000
on television), losing to Eddie Cantor. With nothing
else in the offing, he agreed to appear in a skit with
Bob Hope on an all-star radio special; Hope would play
the manager of a radio station in the Sahara Desert, while
Groucho would be a traveling salesman. Came time for the
bit, and Groucho made his entrance:
HOPE (reading his lines): Groucho Marx! What are you
doing in the Sahara Desert?
GROUCHO (ad-libbing): Desert, hell! I've been standing
in a drafty corridor for forty-five minutes.
Hope laughed so hard he dropped his script; Groucho stepped
on it and then threw away his own. The two continued to ad-lib,
and some of the ad-libs had to be bleeped.
John Guedel, who had helped his other partner, Art Linkletter,
in a stunt from People Are Funny earlier in the show, was
watching from the audience. To make a long story short, he
approached Groucho after the show about doing a quiz show for him.
After some resistance, Groucho agreed. You Bet Your Life aired
on ABC radio (1947-49), then CBS (1949-50), and NBC radio and
television (1950-59 on radio, 1950-61 on television).
When it came time for the move to television, You Bet Your Life
was on CBS, and Groucho was willing to stay there...until William
Paley tried to use the fact that both of them were Jews as a
selling point. To Groucho, this was no way to do business, and
he decided right then and there to go to NBC.
I've already mentioned how a quick-thinking NBC employee rescued
the old films, which were rerun in the '70s.
BTW, Groucho's announcer, George Fenneman, was on two shows on
Thursday nights. He was the voice on Dragnet that said,
"The story you are about to see is true. The names have been
changed to protect the innocent."
If you haven't guessed, the secret word where I'm concerned
is "love." You Bet Your Life is probably my favorite game show
of all time. Forget that it's slow and static. The chance to
watch one of the world's greatest comedians doing what he did
best--needling other people--is worth the effort. And when
you buy a DVD of the show, tell 'em Groucho sent you.
You Bet Your Life begins an 11-year run
on NBC.
You Bet Your Life was unique among what
were then called quiz shows because Groucho's
interviews overshadowed the quiz. The quiz
itself was rarely worth more than a few hundred
dollars until the big-money era. Groucho's
producer and partner, John Guedel, decided in
1956 that in order to keep up with the other
shows, they'd have to raise the top prize to
$10,000. Groucho didn't want to do it but
had to face reality: his ratings had dropped
a bit. (I could argue that the time spent
with the wheel that determined the value of the
big question--$2000, $5000, or $10,000--could
have been better spent on interviews.)
For those who might wonder how Groucho ever became
a game-show host in the first place: in 1947 he
had auditioned unsuccessfully to replace Phil Baker
on the radio quiz Take It Or Leave It (with its $64
question, a prize that would be multiplied by 1000
on television), losing to Eddie Cantor. With nothing
else in the offing, he agreed to appear in a skit with
Bob Hope on an all-star radio special; Hope would play
the manager of a radio station in the Sahara Desert, while
Groucho would be a traveling salesman. Came time for the
bit, and Groucho made his entrance:
HOPE (reading his lines): Groucho Marx! What are you
doing in the Sahara Desert?
GROUCHO (ad-libbing): Desert, hell! I've been standing
in a drafty corridor for forty-five minutes.
Hope laughed so hard he dropped his script; Groucho stepped
on it and then threw away his own. The two continued to ad-lib,
and some of the ad-libs had to be bleeped.
John Guedel, who had helped his other partner, Art Linkletter,
in a stunt from People Are Funny earlier in the show, was
watching from the audience. To make a long story short, he
approached Groucho after the show about doing a quiz show for him.
After some resistance, Groucho agreed. You Bet Your Life aired
on ABC radio (1947-49), then CBS (1949-50), and NBC radio and
television (1950-59 on radio, 1950-61 on television).
When it came time for the move to television, You Bet Your Life
was on CBS, and Groucho was willing to stay there...until William
Paley tried to use the fact that both of them were Jews as a
selling point. To Groucho, this was no way to do business, and
he decided right then and there to go to NBC.
I've already mentioned how a quick-thinking NBC employee rescued
the old films, which were rerun in the '70s.
BTW, Groucho's announcer, George Fenneman, was on two shows on
Thursday nights. He was the voice on Dragnet that said,
"The story you are about to see is true. The names have been
changed to protect the innocent."
If you haven't guessed, the secret word where I'm concerned
is "love." You Bet Your Life is probably my favorite game show
of all time. Forget that it's slow and static. The chance to
watch one of the world's greatest comedians doing what he did
best--needling other people--is worth the effort. And when
you buy a DVD of the show, tell 'em Groucho sent you.