Bank on the Stars

Last updated
Bank on the Stars
Genre Game show
Presented by
Narrated by
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes23
Production
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time24–25 minutes
Original release
Network
ReleaseJune 20, 1953 (1953-06-20) –
August 21, 1954 (1954-08-21)

Bank on the Stars is an American game show that aired on CBS and NBC from 1953 to 1954. The series was hosted by Jack Paar, Bill Cullen, and Jimmy Nelson. Roger Price, [1] Olin Tice and Bill McCord were the announcers.

Contents

Broadcast history

CBS (1953)

Bank on the Stars premiered on June 20, 1953. The Saturday night game show was hosted by Jack Paar. The debut episode aired at 9:00 PM ET; subsequent airings were shown at 9:30 PM ET. [2] Its run on CBS ended on August 8, 1953.

NBC (1954)

Replacing The Spike Jones Show , [3] the series returned May 15, 1954, on NBC. It occupied the 8:00 PM ET time slot on Saturday nights. Bill Cullen was the host for the first several weeks until Jimmy Nelson took over in July. The final episode aired on August 21, 1954. [2] [4]

Gameplay

Bank on the Stars was a memory game in which contestants, competing in two-person teams, viewed scenes from recently released feature films and were quizzed on what they had just seen. [2] [5] Each correct response earns the winning team $50, [1] and the team with the most money at the end of the game advanced to the bonus round. There, the contestants were asked more difficult questions about a different movie but they could only hear, not see, the film clip. [2]

Critical response

A review of the program's premiere episode in The New York Times said that Paar's opening monologue "left one wishing for something more substantial" and indicated that he lacked "mature confidence". [6] The review also found fault with the show's format of quizzing contestants about film scenes that they had just viewed. It concluded, "If any effort was made to make the proceedings entertaining, such effort was not recognizable on the premiere." [6]

John Crosby described Paar's work as quizmaster as "a sort of weak mixture of Bob Hope and Arthur Godfrey — Telling jokes like the former and exuding charm like the latter". [7] Crosby wrote that none of the questions that he saw were "hard enough to tax the intellect of a six-year-old child, though they occasionally tax those of the contestants." [7] He also noted, "The female contestants seem to be selected for their looks rather than the nimbleness of their minds". [7]

An Associated Press review of the NBC version of the program commented, "Take Bill Cullen out of the latest version of a TV quiz, Bank on the Stars, and there would not be much left." [3]

The trade publication Variety commented that replacing Cullen with Nelson as host did not improve the program. "It's a basically bad session," the review said — rather than blaming the hosts. [8] The review added, "The question and answer periods lack complete interest." [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>Match Game</i> American television game show

Match Game is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank questions. Beginning with the CBS run of the 1970s, the questions are often formed as humorous double entendres.

<i>The $64,000 Question</i> American game show

The $64,000 Question was an American game show broadcast in primetime on CBS-TV from 1955 to 1958, which became embroiled in the 1950s quiz show scandals. Contestants answered general knowledge questions, earning money which doubled as the questions became more difficult. The final question had a top prize of $64,000, hence the "$64,000 Question" in the show's title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Cullen</span> American radio and television personality (1920–1990)

William Lawrence Cullen was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades. Known for appearing on game shows and later as a prolific game show host, he hosted 23 shows, earning the nickname "Dean of Game Show Hosts". Aside from his hosting duties, he appeared as a panelist/celebrity guest on many other game shows, including regular appearances on I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth.

<i>Truth or Consequences</i> American radio and television game show

Truth or Consequences is an American game show originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards (1940–1957) and later on television by Edwards (1950–1954), Jack Bailey (1954–1956), Bob Barker (1956–1975), Steve Dunne (1957–1958), Bob Hilton (1977–1978) and Larry Anderson (1987–1988). The television show ran on CBS, NBC and also in syndication. The premise of the show was to mix the original quiz element of game shows with wacky stunts.

<i>You Bet Your Life</i> American radio and television comedy quiz game show

You Bet Your Life is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radio and television. The original version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio on October 27, 1947, moved to CBS Radio debuting October 5, 1949, and went to NBC-TV and NBC Radio on October 4, 1950. Because of its simple format, it was possible to broadcast the show on both radio and television but not simultaneously. Many of the laughs on the television show were evoked by Groucho's facial reactions and other visual gimmicks; the two versions were slightly different. The last episode in a radio format aired on June 10, 1960. The series continued on television for another year, recording a season on September 22, 1960 with a new title, The Groucho Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Narz</span> American radio personality, television host, and singer (1922–2008)

John Lawrence Narz Jr. was an American radio personality, television host, and singer.

<i>Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour</i> Hybrid game show

The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour is an American television panel game show that combined two panel games of the 1960s and 1970s – Match Game and Hollywood Squares – into an hour-long format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Karloff filmography</span>

Boris Karloff (1887-1969) was an English actor. He became known for his role as Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 Frankenstein, leading to a long career in film, radio, and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis James</span> American television personality (1917–1997)

Dennis James was an American television personality, philanthropist, and commercial spokesman. Until 1976, he had appeared on TV more times and for a longer period than any other television star. Alternately referred to as "The Dean of Game Show Hosts" and the "Godfather of Gameshows", he was the host of television's first network game show, the DuMont Network's Cash and Carry (1946).

Dotto was a 1958 American television game show that was a combination of a general knowledge quiz and the children's game connect the dots. Jack Narz served as the program's host, with Colgate-Palmolive as its presenting sponsor. Dotto rose to become the highest-rated daytime program in television history, as of 1958.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Stewart (television producer)</span> American television producer (1920–2012)

Bob Stewart was an American television game show producer. He was active in the TV industry from 1956 until his retirement in 1991.

<i>The Price Is Right</i> (1956 American game show) American game show

The Price Is Right is an American game show produced by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, wherein contestants placed successive bids on merchandise prizes with the goal of bidding closest to each prize's actual retail price without surpassing it. The show was a precursor to the current and best-known version of the program, which premiered in 1972 on CBS's daytime schedule. It makes The Price Is Right one of only a few game show franchises to have aired in some form across all three of the Big Three television networks.

<i>Weakest Link</i> (American game show) American television game show

Weakest Link is an American television game show that made its debut in 2001. It is an adaptation of the British television series of the same name.

A game show is a type of radio, television, or internet program in which contestants, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering trivia questions or solving puzzles, usually for prizes. Game shows are usually distinguishable from reality television competition shows, in which the competition consumes an entire season of episodes; in a game show, prizes can typically be won in a single match. Beginning with the first five-figure and six-figure game show jackpots in the mid-1950s, a succession of contestants on various quiz shows of the era each set records. Teddy Nadler of The $64,000 Challenge, the highest-scoring contestant of the 1950s era, was not surpassed until 1980, when Thom McKee won $312,700 on Tic-Tac-Dough. Between 1999 and 2001, during a brief boom in high-stakes game shows, the record was broken six times. Both the 1955–1958 and 1999–2001 eras of rapidly set and broken records were driven primarily by one-upmanship between the networks each trying to secure bragging rights and ratings by inflating their prize offerings, rather than the merits of the contestants themselves. American daytime television has historically had smaller prize budgets for game shows that air in that daypart.

Down You Go is an American television game show originally broadcast on the DuMont Television Network. The Emmy Award-nominated series ran from 1951 to 1956 as a prime time series primarily hosted by Dr. Bergen Evans. The program aired in eleven different timeslots during its five-year run.

Break the Bank is an American quiz show which aired variously – and sometimes co-existed in separate radio and television forms – on Mutual Radio, ABC Radio and NBC Radio Network, as well ABC, CBS and NBC television, from 1945 to 1957. From October 1956 to January 1957, NBC aired a short-lived prime-time television version called Break the $250,000 Bank.

Americana is a weekly game show which ran on NBC from December 8, 1947, to July 4, 1949.

Take It or Leave It is a radio quiz show, which ran from April 21, 1940, to July 27, 1947, on CBS. It switched to NBC radio in 1947, and on September 10, 1950, the name of the program was changed to The $64 Question.

The Chase is an American television quiz show adapted from the British program of the same name. It premiered on August 6, 2013, on the Game Show Network (GSN). It was hosted by Brooke Burns and featured Mark Labbett as the "chaser". A revival of the show premiered on January 7, 2021, on ABC. It is hosted by Sara Haines and initially featured as the chasers Jeopardy! champions James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter. Labbett returned as a chaser in June 2021, before stepping down in 2022 along with Jennings. In their place are Buzzy Cohen, Brandon Blackwell, and Victoria Groce.

<i>Twenty Questions</i> (American game show) American TV series or program

Twenty Questions, based on the guessing game Twenty questions, started as a radio quiz show in 1946. The television series ran on NBC in 1949, on ABC from 1950 to 1951 and on the DuMont Television Network from 1951 to 1954.

References

  1. 1 2 Terrace, Vincent (January 10, 2014). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 73. ISBN   978-0-7864-8641-0 . Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (1995). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (6th ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. p.  75. ISBN   978-0345397362.
  3. 1 2 "That Peepers Wedding Is To Be Just A Stage Affair". The Paducah Sun. May 21, 1954. p. 14 B. Retrieved July 28, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ MacNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television (Revised ed.). New York: Penguin Books. p. 73. ISBN   978-0140249163.
  5. ↑ "In Review". Broadcasting & Cable . 46 (22): 14. May 31, 1954. ISSN   1068-6827.
  6. 1 2 Adams, Val (June 28, 1953). "Summer Television in Review: Eddie Albert Does a Fine Acting Job an 'Mirror Theatre' -Some Opinions on Various Musical Shows and Quizzes" . The New York Times. p. X 11. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 Crosby, John (July 20, 1953). "Radio and Television". Ledger-Star. Virginia, Norfolk. p. 17. Retrieved July 28, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 "Tele Follow-Up Comment". Variety. July 28, 1954. p. 35. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.