Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical mystery-drama film directed and produced by Robert Redford. Dramatizing the Twenty-One quiz show scandals of the 1950s, the screenplay by Paul Attanasio adapts the memoirs of Richard N. Goodwin, a U.S. Congressional lawyer who investigated the accusations of game-fixing by show producers. The film chronicles the rise and fall of popular contestant Charles Van Doren after the fixed loss of Herb Stempel and Goodwin's subsequent probe.
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson was an English entertainer and television presenter whose career spanned more than 75 years.
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.
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.
The Generation Game is a British game show produced by the BBC in which four teams of two people from the same family, but different generations, compete to win prizes.
The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows, The Mighty Boosh, Arctic Boosh (1999) and Autoboosh (2000) as well as a six-episode radio series, it has since spanned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three which aired from 2004 to 2007, and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the United States. The first television series is set in a zoo operated by Bob Fossil, the second in a flat and the third in a secondhand shop in Dalston called Nabootique.
Charles William Ingram is an English fraudster and a former Major in the British Army who gained fame for his appearance on the ITV television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In episodes recorded in September 2001, Ingram correctly answered fifteen questions to win the show's maximum prize of £1 million, becoming the third recorded contestant ever to do so. However, he was denied the winnings due to suspicion of cheating.
James Joseph Tarbuck is an English comedian, singer, actor, entertainer and game show host.
Herbert Milton Stempel was an American television game show contestant and subsequent whistleblower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the 1950s quiz show scandals. His rigged six-week appearance as a winning contestant on the 1950s show Twenty-One ended in an equally rigged defeat by Columbia University teacher and literary scion Charles Van Doren.
Reeves and Mortimer, colloquially known as Vic and Bob, are a British double act consisting of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. They have written and starred in several comedy programmes on British television since 1990, with Reeves having made his first TV appearance in 1986. They have often been referred to as a modern-day Morecambe and Wise.
Light entertainment encompasses a broad range of television and radio programming that includes comedies, variety shows, game shows, quiz shows and the like.
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year is an approximately annual British television programme broadcast in the last or first week of the year on Channel 4. The show is a comedy panel game in the style of a pub quiz. Three teams of two celebrities, mostly comedians, are asked questions about the year gone by in various categories, writing answers on an electronic board in front of them. At the end of each round the answers are displayed and points awarded.
Noel Fielding is an English comedian and actor. He was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside Julian Barratt in the 2000s, and has been a co-presenter of The Great British Bake Off since 2017. He is known for his dark and surreal comedic style.
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).
Norman Edward Vaughan was an English comedian who led a long and successful career in the television and theatre, appearing occasionally in films.
Jonathan Watson is a Scottish actor best known for his comedy sketch show Only an Excuse?, which parodied people and events from the world of Scottish football, as well as roles in the BBC comedies Bob Servant Independent in which he appears with Brian Cox, and as Colin in the acclaimed Two Doors Down (2013–2023). In the 1980s he was also a regular cast member of the Scottish sitcom City Lights and the sketch show Naked Video.
Robert Neal Dyer OBE was a Gold Logie-award-winning American-born vaudeville entertainer and singer, radio and television personality, and radio and television quiz show host who made his name in Australia. Dyer is best known for the long-running radio and then television quiz show, Pick a Box.
Neil Forsyth is a Scottish author, television writer and journalist. He has written and created a number of British television shows including The Gold, Guilt, and Bob Servant Independent, and has won numerous television awards.
Bob Servant Independent, renamed Bob Servant, is a British television sitcom written and created by Neil Forsyth. The first series of six episodes was broadcast in 2013 on BBC4 and repeated on BBC2 Scotland, starring Brian Cox in the title role and Jonathan Watson in the role of Frank. The show is set in Broughty Ferry, a suburb of Dundee. The second series, renamed Bob Servant, was broadcast in 2014 on BBC1 Scotland and in 2015 on BBC4.
Catalena Productions was a Canadian television production company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It produced several notable television programs in the late 1970s and early 1980s before being forced into receivership in 1981.
