You Bet Your Life is an American comedy quiz series aired on radio and television. The original and most famous version was guided by Groucho Marx from Marx Brothers, with broadcaster and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on Radio ABC on October 27, 1947, then moved on to Radio CBS debuting October 5, 1949, before making the transition to NBC-TV and NBC Radio on October 4, 1950. Due to its simple format, it was possible to broadcast the event simultaneously on radio and television. The last episode in its radio format was aired on June 10, 1960. However, on television, the series continued for another year, debuting in its final season on September 22, 1960, and with a new title, Groucho Show .
Gameplay on every episode of You Bet Your Life is generally secondary to Groucho's comedic interactions with contestants and often with Fenneman. The program was relaunched in the 1970s and later in syndication as The Best of Groucho , making it the first gaming show to have repeated episodes entering the syndicated market.
Video You Bet Your Life
Histori
The mid-1940s were a quiet period in Groucho Marx's career. Her radio show Blue Ribbon Town, sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, had begun in March 1943 and failed to overcome it. Groucho left the program in June 1944, replaced by vocalist Kenny Baker until the event ended two months later. He also reluctantly appeared in two movies with Chico's sister and Harpo Marx, A Night in Casablanca and sluggish Love Happy .
During a radio show with Bob Hope in March 1947, Marx put up most of his performance after being forced to stand in the waiting room for 40 minutes before the live broadcast. John Guedel, the producer of Hope's program, formed the idea for a quiz show and approached Marx on the subject.
After Marx's initial aversion, Guedel was able to convince him to run the program as soon as Marx realized that the quiz would serve as the backdrop for contestant interviews and ad-libbing storms they would get. Guedel also convinced Marx to invest in 50% of the show, partly by saying that he was "untouchable" in ad-libbing, but did not follow the script.
When Marx and the contestants ad-libbing, he insisted that every show was filmed and edited before it was released to remove somewhat interesting or less interesting material. The show for studio audiences runs longer than the broadcast version. President of Film Craft Productions, who did the filming, cited it as the first television show to be filmed in front of a live audience as part of a long essay on production procedures.
Maps You Bet Your Life
Gameplay
The contestants team usually consists of one man and one woman, most selected from the studio audience. Sometimes, famous or interesting characters are invited to play (for example, a Korean-American contestant who is a veteran and has been a prisoner of war during the Korean War).
Each episode begins with an introduction to "And now, here it is: the one, which is just ..." by Fenneman, who will stop, evoking the audience to finish the sentence by shouting in unison "GROUCHO!" will then play part of the song "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", Marx's distinctive song. Groucho will then be introduced to the first two contestants and engage in a humorous conversation in which he will improvise with his response or use the ready line written by the author of the show using a pre-show interview. The total number of contestants in each episode varies depending on the length of Groucho's conversation and the time it takes to play in each segment. Generally, however, the 30 minute format of the broadcast event provides time for two or three teams of two to play in each episode.
Some show the tension surrounding whether a contestant will say "secret word", a common word revealed to the audience at the beginning of each episode. If one of the contestants said the word, the duck-like toy of Groucho - with glasses and mustaches - dropped from the ceiling to bring the $ 100 prize, which would then be split evenly between the two segment teams. A duck cartoon with a cigar is also used in the title sequence of the opening. The duck is sometimes replaced with other things, such as a wooden Indian figure, bringing the $ 100 needed to the lucky team. In one episode, Groucho's brother, Harpo, came instead of the duck, and in another female model wearing a tight corset and a very short skirt down in a birdcage with money. In his conversation with the contestants, Marx sometimes directs their exchange in ways to increase the likelihood that a person will use a secret word.
Format
Play game
After the contestant's introduction and interview, the actual game begins. Couples are allowed to select from a list of 20 categories available before the show; then they try to answer a series of questions in that category. From 1947 to 1956, the couple asked four questions.
- 1947-1953 - Each pair starts with $ 20, bets some or all of their money for each question.
- 1953-1954 - Each pair now starts with $ 0, but the selected value is from $ 10 to $ 100 (in increments of $ 10). The correct answer adds the question value to their bankroll, while the wrong answer does not do anything. According to co-director Robert Dwan in his book As Long As They Laughing , Guedel changed the rating format because too many couples bet, and lose, most or all of their money.
- 1954-1956 - The format was slightly changed to start each pair with $ 100. The wrong answer now cuts their money by half.
- 1956-1959 - Two pairs (minus three) answer the question until they give two consecutive wrong responses or answer four consecutive questions correctly for a $ 1,000 prize.
- 1959-1961 - During the last two seasons, couples choose four questions worth $ 100, $ 200, or $ 300 each, potentially winning up to $ 1,200. Winning at least $ 500 qualifies the team to get the jackpot question.
From 1947 to 1956, if couples end their quiz with $ 25 or less, Marx will ask a very easy question so they can receive entertainment money of $ 25 (then $ 100), which is not taken into account in the score. The question is often so obvious that there is almost no chance that the departing contestants will answer it wrongly. Some examples include the following: "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?", "When did the 1812 War begin?", "How long do you cook eggs three minutes?", And "What's the color orange?" The question of Grant's Tomb became the subject of the show that both Marx and Fenneman were surprised when a man answered the "wrong" question by answering "No one". As the contestant later pointed out, Grant's Tomb is a tomb on the ground.
Jackpot Question
In all formats, one of the two players on the team can save half their wins while the other stays half of it. In this case, all amounts played are divided in two.
1947-1956 - The pair with the highest score are given one last question for the jackpot, which starts at $ 1,000 and increases $ 500 each week to win. In a tie show, the tied couple writes their answers on paper and all the couples who answered correctly split the jackpot. The highest number ever won under this jackpot type is $ 6,319.88 by Cornelius & amp; Grace Smith (Episode 0233, radio broadcast May 14, 1952, secret word - Age), which consists of $ 319.88 in quizzes and $ 6,000 in jackpots.
1956-1957 - For a brief period after the format change, the pair who won the match ahead can bet half on another $ 2,000 question.
1957-1959 - The winning pair now faces the wheel with a 1-10 number, picking a single digit for $ 10,000. If the selected number rotates, the correct answer to the jackpot question adds to the team's total win for that sum; if not, the question is worth a total of $ 2,000.
1959-1961 - During the last two seasons, the format was slightly altered to eliminate risk and add a second number to $ 5,000.
Nielsen ranking
Nielsen's seasonal rating covers the period between October and April of the following year. The rating number indicates the percentage of homes set into the program.
Nielsen also measured the radio version on the tenth of the radio show in 1955.
While not involved with the quiz show scandal, the popularity of the show diminished and You Bet Your Life fell from the top 25. NBC ended the show in 1961.
Sponsor
The radio program was sponsored by Allen Gellman, president of Elgin American, maker of watch boxes and compacts, for the first two and a half seasons. Later, the season of the television show (as well as the radio show, after January 1950) was sponsored by Chrysler, with ads for DeSoto cars incorporated into the opening credits and performances themselves. Every show will end with Groucho poking his head through a hole in the DeSoto logo and saying, "Friends... go see DeSoto-Plymouth dealer tomorrow, and when you do, tell them Groucho sent you." Subsequent sponsors include The Toni Company (Prom Home Permanent, White Rain Shampoo) with ads featuring Harpo and Chico, Lever Brothers (Lux Liquid, Wisk Detergent), Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Geritol), and Lorillard Tobacco Co. (Old Gold Cigarette)).
Contestant
Interviews are sometimes so memorable that contestants become celebrities: health advocates of "natural boys" Robert Bootzin; Mexican-American Servant Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez; comedian Phyllis Diller; author Ray Bradbury; virtuoso cello Ennio Bolognini; blues singer and pianist Gladys Bentley; strong men Jack LaLanne and Paul Anderson; actors John Barbour and Ronnie Schell all emerge as contestants while working on the outskirts of the entertainment industry.
Harland Sanders, who talked about his "finger-lickin" recipe for the fried chicken he'd eaten into the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain, once emerged as a contestant. A guest who claims to be a wealthy Arab prince is a true writer of William Peter Blatty; Groucho looked through the guise, stating, "You are no longer a prince than me because I have an Arabian horse and I know what they are like." Blatty won $ 10,000 and used the money, having quit his job, to support himself as he focused on building a career as a writer. He then proceeded to write The Exorcist in 1971. No one in the audience knew the identity of contestant Daws Butler until he began speaking in the voice of the cartoon character Huckleberry Hound. She and her partner in this episode won the top prize of $ 10,000. Cajun politician Dudley J. LeBlanc, a Louisiana state senator and patent drug trafficker, demonstrated his winning style in delivering campaign speeches in French. General Omar Bradley worked with private armies, and Marx persuaded the private sector to tell Bradley everything that was wrong with the army. The professional wrestler Wild Red Berry admits that the outcome of the game is predetermined, but the injury is real; He revealed a long list of injuries he suffered.
Other celebrities, already famous, sometimes work with their families to win money for themselves or for charity. On February 6, 1958, silent film star Francis X. Bushman and his wife Iva Millicient Richardson appeared on the show and won $ 1,000 by successfully answering questions in a geography quiz. Arthur Godfrey's mother, Kathryn, was a contestant in another episode and embraced herself with Marx. Edgar Bergen and his 11-year-old daughter Candice also worked with Marx and his daughter Melinda to win $ 1,000 for Girl Scouts of the USA, with Fenneman taking the role of quizmaster for the segment. Other celebrity guests include Irwin Allen, Frankie Avalon, Lord Buckley, Sammy Cahn, Ray Corrigan, Sam Coslow, Don Drysdale, Hoot Gibson, physicist and host Exploring Albert Hibbs, Tor Johnson, Ernie Kovacs, Liberace , Joe Louis, Bob Mathias, Irish McCalla, Harry Ruby, Max Shulman, Fay Spain, John Charles Thomas, Edith Head, Pinky Tomlin, and Johnny Weissmuller. In 1961, Groucho's brother, Harpo, appeared to promote his newly published autobiography, Harpo Speaks .
Cigar incident
The best acts of the show were said to have occurred when Groucho interviewed Charlotte Story, who had given birth to 20 children (exact numbers vary in urban legend stories). When Marx asked why he chose to raise such a big family, Mrs. Story is said to have replied, "I love my husband"; which Marx opposes, "I love my cigar but I take it out of my mouth every now and then." The statement was considered too obscene to be aired, anecdotal, and edited before it was broadcast.
Marion and Charlotte Story are parents of 20 children and have emerged as contestants on the radio version of the show in 1950. Audio recordings from the interviews are there, and references to cigars are made ("With every new kid, do you go around handing out cigars?") , but there is no known line of evidence. Marx and Fenneman denied that the incident took place. "I get credit all the time for things I have never said," Marx told Roger Ebert, in 1972. "You know that line within You Bet Your Life? The person says he has seventeen children and I say, 'I smoke cigars, but sometimes I take them out of my mouth' I never say that. 'Marx's 1976 memoir describes episodes as facts, but co-writer Hector Arce relies mostly on sources - other than Marx himself - who was in his late eighties and mentally compromised - and perhaps unaware that Marx specifically refused to speak of line legend.
Legacy
Seven months after You Bet Your Life ended his 11-season run on NBC, Marx had another show on prime-time, Tell It to Groucho , broadcast on CBS during winter and spring 1962. The game involves each of the three celebrity photos displayed on the screen, each for a quarter of a second. The couple won $ 500 for each image they identified. If a couple can not identify any of the three images, they are shown one image and won $ 100 for the correct guess. As in You Bet Your Life , the focus of the event is on Marx's interview with the contestants before they play the game.
You Bet Your Life Parodied on April 1955 episode The Jack Benny Program , where Benny pretends to be someone else to appear on a quiz show (competing with female contestants played by Irene Tedrow), and constantly babbling in an attempt to utter a secret word. In a comedy drama, Benny can not answer the last question, which Groucho asks with a knowing laugh and the irony is about Benny himself, just because he asked his original age; Benny will never give his age voluntarily, even for something he values ​​with money. After Marx's death, the film appeared in an Unknown Marx Brothers documentary on DVD. A short clip of this episode also appeared on the special PBS 2009 Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America .
A Bugs Bunny cartoon titled Wabbit has a scene where Bugs Bunny mimicked Groucho to Elmer Fudd for the game You Beat Your Wife , taking off the name You .
An episode of Animaniacs has a segment called "You Risk Your Life," where if a secret word is said, Wakko will hit the contestant who says it in the head with a hammer. The contestants are Mrs Myra Puntridge and Aristotle. The secret word is "yes," and Aristotle says it three times.
Revivals
1980-1981
In 1980, Buddy Hackett held a new version produced by Hill-Eubanks Productions, and syndicated by the MCA. The role of the broadcaster/sidekick Fenneman was taken over by nightclub entertainer Ron Husmann.
The show will begin with Buddy doing a short standing routine followed by a short chat with Husmann. Three individual contestants appear in each episode, one by one. The contestants are interviewed by Hackett and then play the correct or wrong quiz of five questions in a particular category. The correct first answer to a question earns $ 25, and the amount doubles with each correct next answer. After the fifth question, contestants can choose to try to answer the sixth question correctly up to three times their winnings; However, if the contestant is not right, their income is cut in half. In addition, the secret word is still worth $ 100, but if anyone says, then each contestant on that episode wins $ 100.
Contestants with the most money returned at the end of the event to meet "Leonard", the prize duck (If there is a tie, they will be asked with numerical answers, which they write down, and anyone nearest without winning). The contestant then stops the rotating device, causing a broken plastic egg that hides the name of the bonus prize, one of which is the car.
Some episodes have celebrities, including George Fenneman, Phil Harris, and Greg Evigan, appearing as contestants; each played for members of the audience in the studio.
1988 pilot
Richard Dawson hosted the pilot for a potential revival in 1988, but NBC refused to take the show.
Two teams from two unrelated players came out one team at a time and asked three questions, either $ 100, $ 150 or $ 200. Then, the two teams came out and played four questions each with $ 200, $ 300 or $ 400 The team with the most money at the end of this round goes to the bonus game. The secret word remains, but it's worth $ 100 per team member.
In the bonus game, announcer/sidekick Steve Carlson reads the question with the right or wrong answer. The players are locked in their answer for 30 seconds. If the players match the five answers and their matching answers are correct, the team won $ 5,000. If they do not reach five, they get $ 200 per match that is true.
1992-1993
Other versions of Bill Cosby aired from September 7, 1992 through June 4, 1993 (with repeats airing until September 3 of that year) in syndication. Carsey-Werner syndication series, the first event they share themselves. Cosby joined the event by female broadcaster and best friend, Robbi Chong, who was called "Renfield". Organizer Shirley Scott donated jazzy theme music, and the program was recorded in Philadelphia, in the WHSY-TV PBS affiliate studio (where, among other things, Nickelodeon Double Dare recorded).
Three pairs competed, with each pair playing the game individually. After the couple was introduced, they spent time talking to Cosby. When the interview is over, the game begins. Each couple staked $ 750 and then asked three questions in the category presented at the beginning of the game. Before each question, the couple make a bet, which will be added to their winnings if they are correct or minus if they are wrong. The secret word in this version, worth $ 500, was sent by a black swan toy doll dressed in a T-shirt from Temple University, Cosby's alma mater; if one partner says it, a new word will be selected when the next pair is introduced.
Couples with the most money (regardless of secret word bonus) go to the bonus round, where they are asked one last question on any topic. The correct answer wins three envelope options, all of which are attached to the swan. Two envelopes show a goose face and will double the couple's money, while the third gets an extra $ 10,000.
As the 1992/93 season continued, many stations that took the show moved it to an overnight slot or dropped it entirely because of low ratings. Although the series was canceled at the end of the season, Cosby won the Kid's Choice Award for hosting it.
Episode status
Most of the episodes still exist, with episodes 1954-61 syndicated by NBC as The Best Of Groucho . Also there was an unpaired pilot episode (TV version), which was produced for CBS on December 5, 1949. A number of audio recordings from the radio show also existed since 1947, as well as a one-hour, uncut audio recording, edited to create a radio version , mostly from the spring of 1949 and fall 1953.
Unlike most pre-1973 NBC in-house productions, it is not part of the series package sold to National Telefilm Associates (later Republic Pictures Television, Worldvision Enterprises, Paramount Domestic Television, CBS Paramount Domestic Television, and finally CBS Television Distribution). After Best of Groucho reruns started the local broadcast again in 1974, producer John Guedel explained what caused NBC to destroy the movies in their warehouse: "They are slow and black and white and ancient. NBC sold the library to the NTA and out of the syndication business, the NTA is not interested in Groucho. "
With Guedel having "made a royalty deal with NBC to indicate" the old show itself, NBC still holds the additional rights of this version, so the distribution began with NBC Enterprises as a distribution unit from 2001 to 2004. Since September 2004, NBCUniversal Television Distribution handles syndicated rights to the version of Marx (not public domain) and Hackett.
In the United States, public domains and official releases are distributed on home videos by the following companies:
In addition, two official DVD compilations released by Shout! Factory and Sony Music Entertainment; the first is Your Betting Your Life: The Lost Episodes , released in 2003, containing 18 episodes cropped that have not been seen since the original broadcast, as well as many bonus features, including censored, behind the scene snippets, and rare audio clips. The Second Release, You Bet Your Life: Best Episode , followed in 2004 and includes a total of 18 original episodes, as well as three pilot game shows featuring Marx among its bonus features.
The Carsey-Werner company has a Cosby version, because it generates a revival with Cosby.
References and notes
External links
- A pictorial webpage depicting the changes in the episode of You Bet Your Life when they were adapted to the episode Best of Groucho and previous Additional pages; this page explains the relevance of changes to copyright status
- You Bet Your Life radio show on archive.org
- Episode of the TV show (Public Domain)
- You Bet Your Life (1950) on IMDb
- You Bet Your Life (1992) on IMDb
- Snopes.com page on "I like my cigar..." urban legend
- My grandfather's Day Groucho and I Kept You Bet Your Life
- You Bet Your Life in Outlaws Old Time Radio Corner
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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