If you want to see a somewhat interesting look at the radio quiz shows of pre-TV days, Fox Movie Channel is showing
The Jackpot at 10:30 AM ET on June 4 (that's tomorrow as I write this).
Stewart stars as a middle-level manager in a department store in a small town in Indiana. One day he gets home from work, and gets a call from a radio network in New York asking if he listens to their program
Name the Mystery Husband, implying that they might call him that night and ask him to "name the mystery husband" and win the program's progressive jackpot, which is up to $24,000.
Who wouldn't like a chance to win $24,000? So, Stewart asks around for help, getting his newspaperman friend (
James Gleason) to call a friend in New York who might have some information about the show. (The fact that this is blatant cheating is completely overlooked by the scriptwriters.) Anyhow, there wouldn't be much of a story is Stewart didn't get the call and have the winning answer, so you know that eventually, they will call him.
Unfortunately for him and his family, however, the jackpot is $24,000 worth of schlock, some of it worse than ceramic dalmatians or flokati rugs. Worse, it's only
after getting all the prizes that the producers or anybody else inform him that he's going to have to pay taxes on this crap. Unlike
Richard Hatch, Stewart's character really wasn't told about it, and when he complained that the producer hadn't told him about it, the response was, "If people knew, there wouldn't be a show". Perhaps the funniest of the prizes is an "extreme" home makeover courtesy of interior designer
Alan Mowbray, who hates everything in the house, as well as all of the furniture merchandise Stewart won.
Also unlike Richard Hatch, Stewart's character intends to pay off the tax burden, and the best way to do this is to try to sell off the merchandise he doesn't want. (Of course, there's a reason people don't want this stuff.) The prizes eventually become more of a curse than a blessing, leading to marital squabbling and a possible breakup -- although this being a light comedy you know the husband and wife will get back together in the end.
The Jackpot is by no means James Stewart's best work, but it's pleasant enough, and clean enough for the entire family. In addition to Stewart, there's Barbara Hale as his wife, and kids played by a young
Natalie Wood and future
Lassie star
Tommy Rettig. For those of you who think GSN comes up with lousy originals, watch this and realize that there were lots of dire radio quiz shows back in the day, too.
