CBS Television Quiz

Last updated
CBS Television Quiz
Genre Game show
Created by Gil Fates
Developed by Gil Fates
Presented by Gil Fates
with Frances Buss
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes107
Production
Executive producer Gil Fates
Producers Gil Fates
Worthington Miner
Production location New York City, New York
Running time60 minutes (1941)
55 minutes (January/April–May 1942)
50 minutes (February–March/June 1942-January 1943)
Original release
Network WCBW (CBS)
ReleaseJuly 2, 1941 (1941-07-02) –
January 7, 1943 (1943-01-07)

CBS Television Quiz is a televised game show, running from July 2, 1941, to January 7, 1943, on the CBS television station in New York, WCBW Channel 2 (the forerunner of WCBS-TV). [1] It was the first game show to be broadcast regularly on television. It was an in-house production and broadcast in black and white. The host was Gil Fates, with Frances Buss as scorekeeper.

Contents

Game play

The CBS Television Quiz followed an answer-and-question format: contestants were given a clue and were asked to provide a question that the clue would answer. Beyond this, little is known about the show's mechanics. [2]

The game show Jeopardy! would later use a similar answer-and-question conceit. Jeopardy! is known to differ from the CBS Television Quiz in its use of lockout buzzers, which had not yet been invented in 1941 (the first game show to use them was 1946's Winner Take All ). [3] Whether Julann Wright Griffin, whom Merv Griffin credited with creating the concept, knew of the CBS Television Quiz remains an open question. [4] [5]

Broadcast history

Televised game shows prior to the debut of CBS Television Quiz were "test episodes" for experimental purposes; one of these was Truth or Consequences (NBC Radio, July 1, 1941), while a show called Spelling Bee was broadcast (BBC, 1938). Quiz was the first regularly scheduled quiz program, but not the first to be sponsored, and aired on Wednesdays at 8:30 PM EST.

On October 2 the series moved to Thursdays, and on January 8 the show was reduced to 55 minutes for the network to present a five-minute news summary at 9:25 PM. Quiz moved to Mondays on February 2 and was now preceded by a civilian-defense program (later an American Red Cross program), which along with the news summary required the show itself to decrease to 50 minutes. The Red Cross program ended on March 30, allowing Quiz to re-expand to 55 minutes. After WCBW scaled back their programing at the end of May 1942 following a mandate several weeks earlier by the War Production Board to cease building television stations, Quiz moved to Thursdays and Fridays and was again reduced to 50 minutes.

The series ended on January 7, 1943, the day before WCBW temporarily shut down its studios and reverted to broadcasting only filmed material on an irregular basis until May 1944. [6]

Fates would later produce and/or direct many Goodson-Todman game shows on the network (most notably What's My Line? ), while Buss (later Frances Buss Buch) became CBS' first female director.

Episode status

CBS Television Quiz was aired live, prior to the adoption of kinescopes for recording programs and long before videotape. The show does not have any extant audio recordings or photographs, making it one of the few game shows to be completely lost.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game show</span> Type of television or radio program where contestants compete for prizes

A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a host, who explains the rules of the game as well as commentating and narrating where necessary. The history of the game shows dates back to the late 1930s when both radio and television game shows were broadcast. The genre became popular in the United States in the 1950s, becoming a regular feature of daytime television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quiz bowl</span> Academic quiz-based competition

Quiz bowl is a family of quiz-based competitions that test players on a wide variety of academic subjects. Standardized quiz bowl formats are played by lower school, middle school, high school, and university students throughout North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and Africa.

The year 1941 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1950s quiz show scandals</span> Revelations that contestants on TV quiz shows were secretly assisted by producers

The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearrange the shows' outcomes while still attempting to deceive the public into believing that these shows were objective and fair competitions. Producers fixed the shows sometimes with the free consent of contestants and out of various motives: improving ratings, greed, and the lack of regulations prohibiting such conspiracy in game show productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merv Griffin</span> American talk show host (1925–2007)

Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show. Griffin also created the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune through his own production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment.

The Merv Griffin Show is an American television talk show starring Merv Griffin. The series ran on NBC from 1962 to 1963; in first-run syndication from 1965 to 1969 and again from 1972 to 1986; and on CBS from 1969 to 1972.

Monopoly is an American television game show based on the board game of the same name. The format was created by Merv Griffin and produced by his production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises.

Information Please is an American radio quiz show, created by Dan Golenpaul, which aired on NBC from May 17, 1938, to April 22, 1951. The title was the contemporary phrase used to request from telephone operators what was then called "information" and later called "directory assistance".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Fleming</span> American actor and television host (1924–1995)

Arthur Fleming Fazzin was an American actor and television host. He hosted the first version of the television game show Jeopardy!, which aired on NBC from 1964 until 1975 and again from 1978 to 1979.

Missus Goes A-Shopping was one of the earliest game shows to be broadcast on live television. The show first aired on CBS Radio from February 17, 1941 to December 21, 1951. The daytime TV version began November 19, 1947. It was "CBS's first commercial daytime series." The show was "set very simply in a store", with John Reed King as master of ceremonies. It was televised locally on WCBW in New York City as early as December 1944. That same month, Jimmy Durante made an unannounced appearance on the program.

<i>Headline Chasers</i> American TV series or program

Headline Chasers is an American game show that ran daily in syndication from September 9, 1985, to May 23, 1986, with reruns airing until September 5. The series was hosted by Wink Martindale, who also created the series and was its executive producer, with Johnny Gilbert serving as announcer. It was produced by Wink Martindale Enterprises and Merv Griffin Enterprises with King World Productions, Griffin's partner for his other syndicated game show offerings, as distributor. Headline Chasers was recorded at TAV Celebrity Theater in Hollywood, the same studio which housed The Merv Griffin Show.

Rock & Roll Jeopardy! is an American television game show, created by Scott Sternberg, and adapted from the quiz show Jeopardy!, created by Merv Griffin. The show debuted on VH1 on August 8, 1998 and ran for four seasons, ending in December 2001. The series also aired in Canada on MuchMoreMusic with reruns airing until 2004. Hosted by Jeff Probst, this version featured largely identical play to the parent program, but highlighted post-1950s popular music trivia rather than focusing on general knowledge. Loretta Fox was the show's original announcer, with Stew Herrera later replacing her.

The Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR) was an American television broadcasting regulation enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from September 13, 1971, to August 30, 1996. It was instituted under concerns that television networks controlled too much of their affiliates' programming, and that there was not enough competition in program production and distribution. Under the regulation, commercial television networks were prohibited from airing programming in the 7:30 p.m. ET/PT half-hour on weekdays and Saturdays, and the 7:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. ET/PT half-hours on Sundays, on stations in the top 50 media markets. Despite only applying in the largest markets, the PTAR was practiced nationwide.

Jeopardy! is an American television quiz show created by Merv Griffin, in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in the form of a question. Throughout its run, the show has regularly offered auditions for potential contestants, taking place in the Los Angeles area and occasionally in other locations throughout the United States. Unlike those of many other game shows, Jeopardy!'s audition process involves passing a test of knowledge on a diversity of subjects, approximating the breadth of material encountered by contestants on the show. Since 2006, an online screener test is conducted annually.

Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, in which contestants are presented with trivia clues in the form of answers and must phrase their responses in the form of a question. The show has experienced a long life in several incarnations over the course of nearly a half-century, spending more than 12 years as a daytime network program and having currently run in syndication for 39 seasons. It has also gained a worldwide following with a multitude of international adaptations.

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.

<i>Wheel of Fortune</i> (American game show) American television game show

Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show has aired continuously since January 1975. It features a competition in which contestants solve word puzzles, similar to those in hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a giant carnival wheel. The current version of the series, which airs in nightly syndication, premiered on September 19, 1983. It stars Pat Sajak and Vanna White as hosts, who have hosted the nighttime version since its inception. The original version of Wheel was a network daytime series that ran on NBC from January 6, 1975, to June 30, 1989, and subsequently aired on CBS from July 17, 1989, to January 11, 1991; it returned to NBC on January 14, 1991, and was cancelled that year, ending on September 20, 1991.

Frances Buss Buch was the first female television director in the United States.

Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given general knowledge clues in the form of answers and they must identify the person, place, thing, or idea that the clue describes, phrasing each response in the form of a question.

Jeopardy! is an American media franchise that began with a television quiz show created by Merv Griffin, in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in the form of a question. Over the years, the show has expanded its brand beyond television and been licensed into products of various formats.

References

  1. ↑ "Television Obscurities - Television Programs in 1941". Television Obscurities. 22 December 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  2. ↑ Abelman, Robert (1998). Reaching a Critical Mass: A Critical Analysis of Television Entertainment. L. Erlbaum Associates. pp.  270. ISBN   978-0-8058-2199-4.
  3. ↑ Newcomb, Horace (2014). Encyclopedia of Television. Routledge. p. 1013. ISBN   9781135194796 . Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Lowry, Cynthia (March 29, 1963). "Merv Griffin: Question and Answer Man". Independent Star-News . Associated Press.
  5. ↑ Lidz, Franz (May 1, 1989). "What Is Jeopardy!'?". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on April 23, 2016. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  6. ↑ "January and February 1943". OLD TV HISTORY. 2021-11-20. Retrieved 2022-07-25.

Bibliography

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.