Can You Top This?

Last updated
Can You Top This?
Canyoutop2.jpg
Promotion advertisement for the program
GenrePanel game
Running time30 mins.
Country of originUnited States
Language(s)English
Home station WOR
TV adaptationsCan You Top This? (ABC)
Hosted by Peter Donald
StarringWard Wilson, Roger Bower and Dennis James
Created by"Senator" Edward Hastings Ford
Recording studioNew York
Original release1940 (1940) –
1954 (1954)
No. of episodes≈36

Can You Top This? was a radio panel game in which comedians told jokes and tried to top one another. The unrehearsed program, sponsored at one point by a papaya-flavored soft drink called Par and later by Colgate-Palmolive, [1] [2] was created by veteran vaudevillian "Senator" Edward Hastings Ford, who claimed he was taking part in a joke session at a New York theatrical club when he conceived the idea. However, the format was quite similar to a prior joke-telling radio series, Stop Me If You've Heard This One (1939–40), which featured Ford and cartoonist Harry Hershfield as panelists. Many jokes involved ethnic humor told in dialect.

Contents

Listeners were invited to send in jokes of their own, and an average of 3,000 were submitted per week. Host Peter Donald told the best of these jokes, each one centered on a different topic, while a "laugh meter" took note of the audience reaction on a scale of 0 to 1,000. The "Knights of the Clown Table" – Ford, Hershfield and Joe Laurie Jr. – attempted to outscore the listeners' jokes with some of their own, which sometimes presented an extra challenge as their jokes had to be pertinent to the topic. [3]

Initially, a listener whose joke was read on the program received a guaranteed $2, plus $5 more if the panelists failed to beat it. [1] The prize was later augmented to $11, which was "chopped" by $2 every time the joke was outscored. Those whose jokes were topped by all the panelists received a joke book as a consolation prize. [4] Eventually, audience participants received $10, plus a $5 bonus for each panelist who failed to outscore it with his own joke, for a potential maximum prize of $25. Any ties on the laugh meter between a listener and panelist were broken in the listener's favor. Any submitted joke that earned a perfect 1,000 on the laugh meter was thus guaranteed to win the full $25 for its submitter. Every listener whose joke was used received a phonograph recording of Donald telling it on the air. Those who topped the laugh meter were also sent a "1,000 Club certificate." [5] The panelists claimed that together they knew over 15,000 jokes.

Can You Top This? debuted on New York's WOR radio in 1940. NBC picked up the show in 1942, and it continued 12 more years. Hosts at one time or another included, Ward Wilson, Roger Bower and Dennis James, [6] Wilson took over from original host, Bower, in 1945. When Ford or Donald was unavailable, Wilson filled in on the panel or as the teller of listener jokes, so James acted as emcee. [7] [5]

Laurie died in 1954. In the show's later years, his place on the panel was filled by others, including former New Jersey Governor Harold Hoffman, [8] Fred Hillebrand, and Bert Lytell. [9] In 1954, Wilson once again told jokes on the panel, with Bower reprising his role as emcee. [10]

Television

Can You Top This? made its television debut on ABC on October 3, 1950, but only lasted until March 26, 1951. This version featured Ward Wilson as host and Ford, Hershfield, and Laurie as panelists.[ citation needed ]

The show was briefly revived in syndication by Four Star Television on January 26, 1970, with Wink Martindale as host and featured Morey Amsterdam as Executive Producer and a regular panelist, but this incarnation lasted just eight months. In this version, one celebrity (such as Dick Gautier, Louie Nye and Richard Dawson) read jokes submitted by viewers, while a group of panelists (such as Amsterdam, Red Buttons, Paul Winchell and Jack Carter) tried to top the viewer's jokes with their own version on the same subject. The viewer earned $25 for having the joke read by the guest, an additional $25 for each panelist who was unable to top the viewer's joke, and $100 and a prize (such as an Ampex audio cassette player) if they topped all three panelists. [11] The 1970 version was recorded at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California. Studios 31, 33, 41 and 43 were used at different times making it one of the few game shows to tape in all four studios at CBS. [12]

Episode status

At least 36 episodes exist of the radio show. [13] Nine episodes exist of the 1970 version; two are held by collectors, while the others are at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panel show</span> Radio and TV genre

A panel show or panel game is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participate. Celebrity panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by non-celebrity contestants, such as on Match Game and Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. The genre can be traced to 1938, when Information Please debuted on U.S. radio. The earliest known television panel show is Play the Game, a charades show in 1946. The modern trend of comedy panel shows can find early roots with Stop Me If You've Heard This One in 1939 and Can You Top This? in 1940. While panel shows were more popular in the past in the U.S., they are still very common in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Dawson</span> British-born American actor, comedian, game-show host and panelist (1932–2012)

Richard Dawson was a British-born American actor, comedian, game-show host, and panelist in the United States. Dawson was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk in Hogan's Heroes, as a regular panelist on Match Game (1973–1978), and as the original host of Family Feud.

<i>Wait Wait... Dont Tell Me!</i> American news panel radio game show

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly news radio panel show produced by WBEZ and National Public Radio (NPR) in Chicago, Illinois. On the program, panelists and contestants are quizzed in humorous ways about that week's news. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member stations. The show averages about six million weekly listeners on air and via podcast.

<i>Whats My Line?</i> American panel game show

What's My Line? is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS. The game show started in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists to question contestants in order to determine their occupation. The majority of the contestants were from the general public, but there was one weekly celebrity "mystery guest" for which the panelists were blindfolded. It is on the list of longest-running U.S. primetime network television game-shows. Originally moderated by John Charles Daly and most frequently with regular panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf, What's My Line? won three Emmy Awards for "Best Quiz or Audience Participation Show" in 1952, 1953, and 1958 and the Golden Globe Awards for Best TV Show in 1962.

<i>Gardeners Question Time</i> BBC radio programme

Gardeners' Question Time is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme in which amateur gardeners can put questions to a panel of experts.

<i>Ive Got a Secret</i> American game show

I've Got a Secret is an American panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson–Todman's own panel show, What's My Line?. Instead of celebrity panelists trying to determine a contestant's occupation, however, as in What's My Line, the panel tried to determine a contestant's secret: something that is unusual, amazing, embarrassing, or humorous about that person.

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".

<i>Fighting Talk</i> UK radio program

Fighting Talk is a topical sports show broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live during the English football season. The show is broadcast on Saturday mornings for an hour between 1100 and 1200 and is currently presented by Rick Edwards. This show is a similar format to the ESPN show Around the Horn.

<i>Stop Me If Youve Heard This One</i>

Stop Me If You've Heard This One was a comedy radio series, created by the actor-humorist Cal Tinney and sponsored by Quaker Oats. Hosted by Milton Berle, it aired Saturday evenings at 8:30pm on NBC beginning October 7, 1939.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Koy</span> American comedian (born 1971)

Joseph Glenn Herbert, known professionally as Jo Koy, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was a frequent panelist on E!'s late night show Chelsea Lately. He has since had a total of six comedy specials released by Comedy Central and Netflix. In 2024, Koy hosted the 81st Golden Globe Awards to negative reviews.

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.

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is an MSNBC television program hosted by David Shuster that ended in 2009. The show is a panel discussion of news and trends in American politics among the panelists and anchor. It is a continuation of the show Race for the White House, which was originally hosted by David Gregory and aired in the same time slot from March to November 2008. Shuster became the host of the show when Gregory became moderator of NBC's Meet the Press.

Joe Laurie Jr. was an American vaudeville monologist who later performed on radio and on Broadway. He was born in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurie Kilmartin</span> American comedian and writer (born 1965)

Laurie Kilmartin is an American comedian and writer best known for being a finalist on Last Comic Standing season 7. She was also a staff writer for Conan O'Brien's show Conan.

@midnight with Chris Hardwick is an American late night Internet-themed panel game show, hosted by Chris Hardwick, that aired Monday through Thursday nights between October 21, 2013, and August 4, 2017, on Comedy Central. It was syndicated internationally in Australia on SBS2 and The Comedy Channel, in the United Kingdom on Comedy Central Extra, and in Canada formerly on MuchMusic and later on The Comedy Network.

Tag the Gag is a very short-lived television series which aired in August 1951 on NBC. According to IMDb, it lasted two episodes. It was a panel game show, a popular genre at the time. However, Tag the Gag proved unsuccessful with viewers and critics. It was hosted by Hal Block, best known as a regular panelist on the popular and well-received series What's My Line?. Also featured were Morey Amsterdam, Harvey Stone, Herkle Stiles, and Jean Carroll. The archival status of the series is not known, and it is possible that it was wiped.

Edward Hastings Ford was a vaudeville comedian who created the radio show Can You Top This?, on which he appeared as the character Senator Ford.

Gutfeld!, known as The Greg Gutfeld Show from 2015 to 2021, is an American news and political satire talk show on Fox News Channel, created and presented by Greg Gutfeld. It airs at 10:00 P.M. ET on weeknights. In the event of breaking news, the show is preempted by an extra hour of Fox News @ Night. The show debuted on May 31, 2015, with Greg Gutfeld as host and Kat Timpf and Joanne Nosuchinsky as panelists. After Nosuchinsky left the show in 2016 to pursue an acting career, Tyrus joined as the other regular panelist. Gutfeld! has been taped in front of a live studio audience since early 2016, and features a combination of political satire, comedy, and discussion regarding current events.

<i>Hypothetical</i> (TV series) British TV series or programme

Hypothetical is a British television comedy panel show created by British comedian Josh Widdicombe, with Tom Craine and Matthew Crosby. Widdicombe hosts the show alongside fellow comedian James Acaster. The TV series features teams of celebrity guests, who are presented with a bizarre hypothetical situation by Widdicombe. The guests must explain how they would deal with the situation, following the rules given by Acaster, who then awards points based on how well he thinks they have done. The show ran for four series, from 6 February 2019 to 6 July 2022.

Can You Top This? is an American television comedy show that was broadcast on ABC from October 3, 1950, to March 26, 1951.

References

  1. 1 2 "CAN YOU TOP THIS? | 20 MAY 1941". canyoutopthis.neocities.org/. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  2. ↑ "CAN YOU TOP THIS? | 23 APRIL 1948". canyoutopthis.neocities.org/. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  3. ↑ Dunning, John (7 May 1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. p. 134. ISBN   978-0-19-984045-8 . Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  4. ↑ "CAN YOU TOP THIS? | 21 APRIL 1942". canyoutopthis.neocities.org/. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  5. 1 2 "CAN YOU TOP THIS | 26 JULY 1947". canyoutopthis.neocities.org. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  6. ↑ "Can You Top This?". National Radio Hall of Fame. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  7. ↑ "CAN YOU TOP THIS | 14 May 1948". canyoutopthis.neocities.org. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  8. ↑ "NBC Radio Schedule". NBC Trade News. New York, N.Y.: National Broadcasting Company: 520. 1 September 1953. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  9. ↑ "CAN YOU TOP THIS". canyoutopthis.neocities.org. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  10. ↑ "CAN YOU TOP THIS? | 14 MAY 1954". canyoutopthis.neocities.org. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  11. ↑ Schwartz, David. The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows, Third Edition, pp. 33–34. Checkmark Books, 1999. ISBN   0-8160-3847-3.
  12. ↑ "Shows–CBS Television City". Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  13. ↑ "RadioEchoes.com". www.radioechoes.com.
  14. ↑ "'Can You Top This?' at the UCLA Archive". Archived from the original on 2012-07-07.
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.