The MediaLog MediaFix: "Twenty-One" and "The $64,000 Question" (1950s game shows)

In my posts on Game Show Network's "The 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time" I have been complaining about how the network has not been showing episodes of (or much respect for) the pioneering game shows of the 1950s. I thought I would do something about it, and offer a couple of clips from these shows as a double-shot MediaLog MediaFix.


"Twenty-One"



This is the opening from "Twenty-One," the legendary big-money game show that instigated the late-1950s quiz show scandal through the cheating and fixing that took place on it. Host Jack Barry introduces honest contestant Herbert Stempel and cheater Charles Van Doren; Stempel's ratting out of Van Doren was the impetus that started the scandal and ultimately resulted in the informal banishment of game shows from the network schedules for several years.

(46 secs.; source: YouTube)


"The $64,000 Question"



"The $64,000 Question" was the other of the legendary big-money late-1950s game shows. This was the show that launched the big-money game genre, and it rocketed to the #1 rating in America in its first season in 1955-56. Hosted by Hal March, "$64,000" was not fixed, but nonetheless was swept out with all the rest of the quiz shows when their popularity tanked in the wake of the scandal.

(1 min. 18 secs.; source: YouTube)