[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jan 20 2004, 12:20 AM\'] According to Alex McNeil's book "Total Television," "Choose Up Sides" began in 1953 as a local show in NYC with Dean Miller. "There's One In Every Family" was a CBS network daytime show hosted first by John Reed King and succeeded by Dean Miller. The show ran from 9/29/52 to 6/13/53. If I'm not mistaken, the show shared a time slot with "The Bill Cullen Show." [/quote]
OK, now you've got me involved. And tonight of all nights, I'm really confused.
In my write-up of
The Bill Cullen Show, I described
There's One In Every Family as a daytime serial. That's clearly wrong. Wesley Hyatt's book The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television describes the show. Here's the description:
Billed as a showcase for "outstandingly different family members", There's One In Every Family employed such contestants as a boy who wanted to fly to the moon and a woman who had served as "big sister" to several homesick servicemen. These people competed in generating the most studio audience support via applause and by winning money for their dreams by a question-and-answer session.
John Reed King hosted it originally (9/29/52). A Saturday version started on 11/15/52 hosted by Mike Wallace (yes, THAT Mike Wallace). Starting either 2/9/53 or 3/9/53, the show originated from Los Angeles, and that's when Dean Miller hosted it until it was cancelled on 6/12/53.
And the weird part: On Thursdays, from 2/12/53 to 5/14/53, the show shrank from thirty minutes to fifteen, and the last quarter-hour was taken up by
The Bill Cullen Show. At least that's my best guess. Cullen's show was definitely 15 minutes long, but Wesley Hyatt's information is contradictory. It's possible that some other show aired for the first fifteen minutes on Thursday and
Family didn't air at all.
And now you're as confused as I. A surprising omission from the EOTVGS since it does appear to have included a Q&A segment and it was a network (CBS) show.
