Customer Reviews

$64,000 Dollar Question [VHS]

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Everybody knows about "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," but the first era of big-money quiz shows began in the summer of 1955 when "The $64,000 Question" premiered on CBS. The Host was Hal March, Lynn Dollar was the Assistant and Dr. Bergen Evans was the Question Authority. The show was essentially a variation on the radio's "$64 Question" with contestants answering extremely complex questions about a subject of their choice (Dr. Joyce Brothers won the grand prize answering boxing questions, a subject she studied because she and her husband thought being a woman expert on boxing would get them on the show; they were right). In the preliminary rounds up to $4,000, each question was worth twice as much, starting at $64. When the contestant reached the $4,000 level they came back each week and answered one question a week until they either got it wrong or won the $64,000. The contestants could leave at any time with their winnings and if they missed a question after the $8,000 level they received a new Cadillac as a consolation prize. The show was sponsored by Revlon, which explains why the contestants were sequestered in the Revlon Isolation Booth.

How successful was this show? Well, it is first season it became the #1 show on television, knocking "I Love Lucy" out of the top spot for the first time. Other quiz shows soon followed, including "Twenty-One," "The Big Surprise" and "The $64,000 Challenge." The show's biggest winner was 11-year-old Robert Strom, who won $192,000 because three new level were added to the game to keep the audiences coming back each week. The problem with these shows turned out to be that sponsors were rigging the shows, feeding contestants answers to build the suspense and get the viewers coming back each week. Because of the infamous Quiz Show Scandal, shows would no longer be sponsored by individual companies; from that point out networks would put on the shows and sell advertising. This particular tape provides a pretty representative example of the "$64,000 Question" and will show that "Millionaire" is not exactly a brand new idea. It would be nice if there was an equally good copy of an episode of "Twenty-One" to show students when covering the history of television, but this will certainly fit the bill.

This was a pretty good video. It was fun watching someone try to win up to $64,000, but it wasn't as great as I expected, because not a lot of people won a whole lot of money.