Goodson's Pride

[The Pyramids]

Its safe to assume that Hall/Hatos were the most proud of 'LMAD', while Bob Stewart had the 'Pyramid'. Any thoughts, however, to what show Mark Goodson took the most pride in? I'm thinking maybe 'To Tell the Truth'.

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'PaulD\' post=\'249651\' date=\'Oct 23 2010, 05:24 PM\']Its safe to assume that Hall/Hatos were the most proud of 'LMAD', while Bob Stewart had the 'Pyramid'. Any thoughts, however, to what show Mark Goodson took the most pride in? I'm thinking maybe 'To Tell the Truth'.[/quote]
Actually Bob Stewart preferred "Personality" of all his creations.  You are correct that Goodson liked TTTT best.

[Ian Wallis]

Goodson stated his favorite was To Tell the Truth.  Stewart talked about Personality a fair bit on the Game TV episode from 1997, and goes into how the tapes for the show were wiped.  He also talked about the early tapings for $10,000 Pyramid.  If you have that particular episode, it's worth revisiting.

I wonder which show Jack Barry was most proud of - I'd guess The Joker's Wild.  I don't remember ever hearing him mention it.  You'd think Heatter-Quigley would probably be most proud of Hollywood Squares(?)

[Vahan_Nisanian]

I'd imagine Jack Barry is indeed proud of TJW the most. During the original version's finale, he said that the three years he was with the show were the best years of his life.

I mean this was his chance to be forgiven after the most horrifying moment of his life, the Quiz Show Scandals had occurred, and to say the least, he succeeded, and the rest was history.

[whewfan]

I think it's safe to say that HQ was most proud of HS, but High Rollers also had a decent run and was very popular. I would imagine if it weren't for Letterman, High Rollers and possibly HS would've had a longer run. I wonder if High Rollers and HS could've done well if NBC decided to put them back on the air instead of Las Vegas Gambit, which used the High Rollers bonus game towards the end of the run.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'PaulD\' post=\'249651\' date=\'Oct 23 2010, 02:24 PM\']Its safe to assume that Hall/Hatos were the most proud of 'LMAD', while Bob Stewart had the 'Pyramid'. Any thoughts, however, to what show Mark Goodson took the most pride in? I'm thinking maybe 'To Tell the Truth'.[/quote]
From the book (not so) subtlely promoted in the sig below:

(Bob) Stewart remembered being met with skepticism in 1956, when he suggested
that he could present three persons all claiming to be the same individual, and
that the imposters could stand up through a no-holds-barred inquiry, leaving the
identity of the real person a mystery. He recounted, “I presented Mark [Goodson]
an idea called Three of a Kind…I brought in three people. One of them had been
in the infantry in World War II and was then managing a grocery store. Mark
brought some of his producers and they questioned these people for fifteen minutes.
Then they had to vote separately. I said, ‘Before you vote, if anybody is positive
about who the real person is, raise your hand.’ Nobody did. The show went on that
December.”

In a series of office run-throughs, the Goodson-Todman staffers were unable to
consistently identify the true individuals from the pairs of imposters after rigorously
questioning all three. Mark Goodson recalled one format test in which he and his
collection of creative collaborators walked into the office to find three people seated
side-by-side. “They all said their name was Jerry Something, that they used to sing
with Frank Sinatra, and that they were expert gardeners and painters. ‘Boy,’ I said,
‘this is going to be a cinch.’ We cross-examined them for twenty minutes. Then, all
of us picked the wrong one.” Thinking it was a freak occurrence, the guru of games
had Stewart deliver another trio the following day. Goodson remembered, “One of
them had won a photography contest, received his award from Ike and worked for
the fire department. We all picked wrong once again. Within a matter of five months
the show was on the air.”

... In retrospect, Goodson referred to To Tell The Truth as “the most golden game
show idea of all.”

Randy
tvrandywest.com