You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life was one of the most popular quiz shows in North America in the 1950s. Moderated the mission of Groucho Marx and his assistant George Fenneman, who played as a serious counterpart Groucho Stooges. She ran from 1947 to 1956 on the radio and in parallel from 1950 to 1961 on television. In 1960 her name was changed to "The Groucho Show". The show was nominated five times for an Emmy.
The concept
The show lived less of the actual knowledge quiz in which two candidates couples competed against each other, as. Groucho's of unique wordplay and his spontaneous, unplanned reactions often In the first part of the show Groucho asked his candidates about their lives and tried in the course of the conversation, the audience to elicit as many laughs. As a rule, were his candidates ordinary people from the street. Occasionally, but also a few more prominent contemporaries were present, often donated their profits to a charitable purpose. Among his prominent guests were, inter alia, Ray Bradbury, William Peter Blatty ( the to used his $ 10,000 profit, to write a novel The Exorcist ), Tallulah Bankhead and even his brothers Chico and Harpo and Groucho's daughter Miriam.
The show
Was opened the show always with the theme song Hooray for Captain Spaulding from the Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers. The producers of the show wanted Groucho appeared as in his films with painted mustache. However, after his departure from the film business in 1946, Groucho also wanted an image change and always wore since a real beard. Groucho never renounced during the show on his mandatory cigar.
In the actual quiz, participants had to answer questions from a particular field of knowledge and could increase with each correct answer their monetary gain. An additional gain brought the Secret Word ( secret word ). The secret word was always a traditional term used in everyday life such as " house" or "Auto". If one of the candidates happens to be the secret word during the conversation with Groucho said the team won an additional 50 dollars. Has been called the secret word, floated a fabric duck from the studio ceiling and brought the candidate their monetary gain. The duck was wearing glasses, mustache and had a cigar in his beak - Groucho's likeness.
In the first years of the TV show was sponsored by the car company Plymouth; Advertising for the brand DeSoto was incorporated into the show.
Successor formats
The planned follow-up show What Do You Want? did not come on the production of the pilot episode addition. 1962 went with Groucho Tell It to Groucho again with a similar format on the air. This show, however, survived this time only five months. In later years the show has been reissued several times, including with hosts Buddy Hackett (1980 ), Richard Dawson ( 1988) and Bill Cosby (1992).
Awards
- Peabody Award in 1948
- Emmy nomination in 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956
- Inclusion in the Radio Hall of Fame 1988
CD
The CD Groucho on radio contains a 30 - minute segment of the show on 30 November 1950 ( Label: Radiola / Radio Yesteryear ).