You Bet Your Life - Groucho Marx

[Gregg]

I think You Bet Your Life is one of the funniest TV shows ever produced. I'm amazed that when TV Guide put together its all-time Top 50 TV Shows, YBYL was absent.

It ran on NBC in the 50s and early 60s, at times on both radio and TV. Growing up in the NYC area, Independant Channel 11 WPIX would run it five days a week at various times, after it left NBC, for many years. PBS Channel 21, Long Island was even running it once a week a few years ago on Sat. evenings, DeSoto commercials included!

For those who don't remember, Groucho was the host and a pair of contestants would vie for a few hundred dollars playing a quiz. But of course, it was Groucho's questioning them before the game that was the funniest part of the show. We now know that some of the questions and jokes were written for him but it seemed like he just tossed off those one-liners like no one else could.

Too bad GSN has never run YBYL but I guess only classic game shows produced by Goodman-Todson ever air on GSN. Both Buddy Hackett and Bill Cosby tried to revive YBYL as a syndicated game show but both failed. They couldn't do what Groucho did.

I read a blurb in TV Guide that a website gives you access to YBYL shows for free but I lost the address. Anyone know it?

Thanks








Gregg
[email protected]

 

[NeilRattigan]

Here's a link where you can get You Bet Your Life on DVD.
I have both volumes, "The Best Episodes" and "The Lost Episodes."

http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=239

 

[Braves2005]

There are some episodes of You Bet Your Life that are in public domain and many of those you can find at dollar stores and Wal-Mart. There are a collection of shows (around 20 episodes or more) that have been produced by Madacy and Platinum Video. Some of these have commercials, others have the syndicated "Best Of Groucho" episodes, and most of these shows have the Dodge and/or DeSoto sign blurred out from each episode.

 

[ShawnHill1]

I remember staying in Milwaukee during the summer of '88, WCGV used to run it weeknights at 11pm. I don't know how long the station carried it, it may have been just for that summer.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

I saw them for the first time on Pat Robertson's original Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN, later the Family Channel) where they ran late night on the weekends in the mid-80s with Ozzie and Harriett and the George Burns and Gracie Allen show.

As a kid, then, I don't know that I quite caught the show's humor or if I was just laughing along with the audience, but I have fond memories of watching it and would love to see it put out on DVD the right way.

 

[bpatrick]

TV Guide even ranked YBYL 24th on its list
of the 50 greatest game shows.

Perhaps GSN has the same attitude a lot
of broadcast stations had about the show
in the late '60s/early '70s: they're in black
and white and they're too slow. But in 1974
Groucho's producer/partner, John Guedel,
convinced KTLA g.m. John Reynolds to take
a chance; "Best Of Groucho" was scheduled
at 11 PM and often beat the late local news
on the affiliates. It just takes someone at GSN
with enough guts to try it (easier said than done).

 

[anotherguyTN]

In the last few years GSN has cut back their classic black & white shows to just an hour on late Sunday nights. I seriously doubt if they will ever pick up You Bet Your Life.

 

[bpatrick]

Unfortunately for all us Groucho fans, I'm afraid
you're right. Notice the last sentence in my posting.
And I very much miss "Sunday Night In Black And
White" that GSN used to run in primetime on Sundays.

 

[chuckydoll]

Or -- Why no B&W gameshows on TV today

"You Bet Your Life" (a/k/a "The Best of Groucho") may have been withdrawn from syndication.

Also, most black-and-white series have not aged well. "I Love Lucy" is the sole exception.

 

[bk77]

Re: Or -- Why no B&W gameshows on TV today

"You Bet Your Life" (a/k/a "The Best of Groucho") may have been withdrawn from syndication.

Also, most black-and-white series have not aged well. "I Love Lucy" is the sole exception.

dittos with Leave It to Beaver and perhaps Andy Griffith too.

About I Love Lucy, when is that show going to be taken out of syndication? I know CBS owns the rights now but a few years back I heard a story that Lucie Arnaz & Desi Arnaz Jr. were supposed to buy the rights of that show from CBS once that show's run ends on TV Land. At that point if I remember correctly Desilu Too ( Lucie & Desi Jr's company ) will take over I Love Lucy, withdraws the show from syndication and pretty much limit I Love Lucy to DVD sales which Lucie & Desi Jr. gets from CBS as well.

Right now Desilu Too owns the images of Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley and Gale Gordon ( the latter two only for Lucy related shows not My Three Sons, Denns the Menace or any of their other non-Lucy projects ). As much money Lucy & Desi's kids make off on just the image, I am very surprised they haven't already offered CBS money for the rights of I Love Lucy.

 

[hammondo]

Groucho fans, don't fret. There are lot's of available YBYL RADIO shows (they are either full length or 5 minute pieces). I have over 100 full length radio and about 300 5 minute shows. Not sure if YBYL was a simulcast for a time.

 

[Ultimajock]

Groucho fans, don't fret. There are lot's of available YBYL RADIO shows (they are either full length or 5 minute pieces). I have over 100 full length radio and about 300 5 minute shows. Not sure if YBYL was a simulcast for a time.

...not simulcast, but the source games were identical each week and differently edited for TV and radio. I wonder if the visual aspect helped the TV version of the Ernie Kovacs appearance I have the radio version of...

 

[bpatrick]

Whether a spot worked better on radio or television
had a lot to do with the contestant. For example,
Groucho once had a guy named Joe Interliggi; on
radio, the joke was that Groucho would mispronounce
his last name (probably intentionally) and Interliggi
would spell it out. On television, they showed Interliggi's
real talent: he ate wood. That's right. He would eat his
way through wooden furniture (I think they called him "The
Human Termite"). Interliggi made several appearances with
Steve Allen as well.

Groucho's daughter Melinda once appeared with Edgar
Bergen and his 11-year-old daughter Candice. Groucho
joined them for the quiz, with George Fenneman asking
the questions. SPOILER: They won $1000 for the Girl
Scouts. But what's missing from the radio track is the
two girls singing "Play A Simple Melody." They were
quite good.

So if you can find both the radio and television tracks
of a particular spot, you can draw your own conclusions.

BTW, for most of the television run, YBYL aired at 8 PM
Thursdays on NBC, with the radio show the previous night:
Wednesdays at 9. In the later years (1958-61) the television
show aired Thursdays at 10, while the radio show aired in
a variety of spots, including Saturdays at 1:30 PM, Sundays
at 7, and Mondays at 8 before being discontinued in 1959.
The late radio shows are unsponsored; they have PSAs or
promos for NBC shows instead.

 

[rwells2265]

BTW, for most of the television run, YBYL aired at 8 PM
Thursdays on NBC, with the radio show the previous night:
Wednesdays at 9. In the later years (1958-61) the television
show aired Thursdays at 10, while the radio show aired in
a variety of spots, including Saturdays at 1:30 PM, Sundays
at 7, and Mondays at 8 before being discontinued in 1959.
The late radio shows are unsponsored; they have PSAs or
promos for NBC shows instead.

Mostly PSAs, but a stray commercial finds its way into quite a few of 'em. Most of the 1957 and 1958 YBYLs I've heard have Pabst Beer as a single spot, with the other two being PSAs or promos. And some other ads appear in the late '58 and '59 shows .... Rambler comes to mind.

YBYL was also folded into two other NBC offerings. Many from the '58 cycle also have the theme and intro for the short-lived Nightline block program NBC had (don't know much else about it, except for the curious name) .... and it would eventually become embedded as a 25-minute section of Monitor by '59. A batch of eps I have from that period open with the beacon, an intro by Skitch Henderson, followed by Fenneman giving the secret word.

--Russell

 

[bpatrick]

I've heard a few with Pabst commercials, though
I've never heard any with Rambler (maybe
I just haven't run across any yet). I think the
period in which the radio version was part of
"Monitor" would be either the Saturday-afternoon
era (around 1956-57) or possibly early Sunday
evenings when it was paired with "People Are
Funny" (I believe 1957 or '58).

I do know that DeSoto dropped sponsorship at
the end of the 1957-58 season (that division
of Chrysler would shut down after the '61s came
out), and it was in the fall of 1958 that the TV
show moved from its longtime 8 PM slot on Thursdays
to 10 PM same night. According to Groucho's book
"The Secret Word Is GROUCHO," Toni Home Permanents
and Old Gold cigarettes were the new sponsors.

Bob Dwan, in his memoir of the show "As Long As They're
Laughing," says that Toni was prepared to move the
show to another night in the fall of 1961 but the only
time slot NBC had open was one where Toni was sponsoring
the CBS show at that time (I'm thinking probably Monday
at 8:30 and the show was Robert Young's short-lived
"Window On Main Street"--I base that on the fact that
Toni sponsored "The Lucy Show" at that time the next
year and several years thereafter). Besides, Groucho was
about ready to hang it up after fourteen years going back
to radio (yet he did the short-lived "Tell It To Groucho" on
CBS in the winter and spring of 1962).

 

[rwells2265]

I think the
period in which the radio version was part of
"Monitor" would be either the Saturday-afternoon
era (around 1956-57) or possibly early Sunday
evenings when it was paired with "People Are
Funny" (I believe 1957 or '58).

Hmmmm .... the shows I have with the Monitor intro appear to be from 1959. The ones within Monitor have a different program theme, too -- not Groucho's theme "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", but instead the 'generic' music which resembles that heard over the end credits on the Best of Groucho TV syndie prints.

I do know that DeSoto dropped sponsorship at
the end of the 1957-58 season

If this is so, then I suppose RADIO sponsorship was dropped before television. I've seen the programs in question (with Pabst/promo/PSA breaks) labeled as "1957" and "1958" on more than one distributor of cassettes over the years.

I think 1956-57 was the last season of radio for DeSoto, but I'll have to go back and make sure (I have a 2-CD set of YBYL programs spanning c.1953-59 which I got from an e-Bay seller some years back).

Bob Dwan, in his memoir of the show "As Long As They're
Laughing," says that Toni was prepared to move the
show to another night in the fall of 1961 but the only
time slot NBC had open was one where Toni was sponsoring
the CBS show at that time

Well, an argument for going ahead with it would be that Toni would have sponsorships on the two dominant networks. Talk about saturation to the point of little escape. Which network twin has the ..... oh, never mind.

--Russell

 

[bpatrick]

Very possible that the "Monitor" shows are from '59;
after all, I'm merely making a guesstimate here. I'm
also thinking that some of the Pabst-sponsored shows
may have aired as early as '56. Can you check that out?

BTW, the Kentucky thread for December 23, 1992, lists
the Cosby version of YBYL on WAVE, WLWT, and WTVQ.
I wonder if any of them had downgraded his show to
late, late night before it was canceled. I remember that
WRCB/3 Chattanooga downgraded it from 5 PM to 5 AM.

As far as I'm concerned, Groucho's YBYL, like Groucho
himself, is (as George Fenneman used to say), "the one,
the ONLY."