The original Twenty-One

[carlisle96]

It's always been said that the contestants on the debut of Twenty-One missed question after question while the audience roared, prompting Barry and Enright to immediately start the rigging. But I've seen several reviews of the first episode in old newspapers and there was no mention of the debacle. Could that disaster have been the second or third show instead?

[Adam Nedeff]

I've had a chance to screen some things that others haven't, and while I've never seen the premiere episode, in the past year I've had a chance to view the second episode. I'll tell you for certain, the disaster isn't the second episode, although a few things jumped out to me as odd about the second episode...

It opens with a champion who has $10,500 (indicating a 21-0 win) declaring that he was "lucky" last week and announcing that he was retiring without facing another opponent. This feels a LITTLE bit like a show trying to make a fresh start on night two. Also, there are definitely a few signs of lessons from the Dan Enright School of Acting ("Let me see....I think I'll risk, uh...let's see....ten. Yes, ten points" followed by a lot of rubber-faced thinking out loud once the question is asked).

Here's the problem I'm having though. The episode of The American Experience dealing with the quiz show scandals shows a clip of a disastrous game of Twenty One that is framed in the narrative as if we're seeing episode #1. The champion who walks onstage at the start of episode #2 is NOT either of the people seen in that clip. The contestants at the END of episode #2 aren't the people in that clip either, so there's a chance that's not episode #3 either.

But then it gets even trickier. It has to do with the set of the show in that American Experience clip. It's the familiar version of the Twenty One set that we've all seen. Episode #2 has a weird, weird set. The isolation booths are enormous (a wide shot reveals that there's a camera operator physically inside each booth) and Jack has the scoreboards mounted on his lectern. It's possible, though unlikely, that they'd start the series with one version of the set, try a completely different version of the set, and then go back to the version of the set they started with.

But ALSO, we have the pilot for the show that was shot in March of 1956. The set they used for the March pilot, though not identical, is closer to the familiar version of the set than the weird giant-booth version of the set seen in episode #2. So, my two theories...

#1. They actually did switch out one set and then switched back to it early in the run, and the premiere was the disastrous game.
#2. If none of the newspaper accounts are mentioning that the game was a disaster, I think there's a real possibility that the bad game was a pilot/"shakedown show." We know that NBC shot a not-for-air episode of The Price is Right with a week to go before the premiere to work out the bugs. There also exists a Tic Tac Dough pilot that's apparently the same deal, the show had already sold and they shot a pilot right before the premiere to see how it looked. Maybe they shot a Twenty One pilot a week out from the premiere, it went badly, Geritol said "This sucks, rig it," and they decided to go ahead and try a different set once the show went on the air, hated it, and went back to the pilot set after two weeks because they hadn't junked it yet.

The thought has also crossed my mind that the clip in American Experience was a clip from the END of the run, some time in the fall of 1958. Maybe they tried to salvage things when things were looking bleak and they wanted to prove to themselves "We can do this without rigging it." I've never heard it said that they attempted that with Twenty One, but it wouldn't surprise me. I'd be fascinated to see the last month's episodes of the rigged shows to see what they looked like while drowning in bad press and office turmoil.

[carlisle96]

Then the idea that this was a pilot / not for air test episode seems like the best explanation. Surely there would be a mention in the reviews if the first show was such a mess.

[thomas_meighan]

Here’s a link to the Variety review, 9-19-1956, page 46 (weekly edition):
https://archive.org/details/variety204-1956-09/page/n173/mode/2up

Sounds like the debut actually went pretty well; “Herm” said it “got away strong.”

[Bob Zager]

I've always been curious as to whether any of the episodes hosted by Monty Hall survived.  IIRC, it was at least three weeks worth, and may have been the show's last episodes .

[DoorNumberFour]

Pic of the aforementioned huge Twenty-One set

[carlisle96]

Here's one clue of when the "miss every question" show may have aired. The first contestant to be rigged outright was Richard Jackman who was on the October 3 broadcast, which was the fourth show. Up until then, Twenty-One was apparently played straight, but Enright thought the show was dull. Maybe the disastrous episode was the third show.

As far as Monty Hall hosting, he was supposed to take over the show for the summer while Jack Barry toured with a nightclub act. But Barry hurried back to New York and resumed his hosting when he you know what started hitting the fan. I don't know how many episodes Monty Hall hosted, but Barry was definitely hosting when the show went off the air.

[Adam Nedeff]

Here's one clue of when the "miss every question" show may have aired. The first contestant to be rigged outright was Richard Jackman who was on the October 3 broadcast, which was the fourth show. Up until then, Twenty-One was apparently played straight, but Enright thought the show was dull. Maybe the disastrous episode was the third show.

As far as Monty Hall hosting, he was supposed to take over the show for the summer while Jack Barry toured with a nightclub act. But Barry hurried back to New York and resumed his hosting when he you know what started hitting the fan. I don't know how many episodes Monty Hall hosted, but Barry was definitely hosting when the show went off the air.

Barry did indeed host the final episode, and the photo taken of him after the studio cleared out is a perfect example of "a picture's worth a thousand words."

[Bob Zager]

This YouTube link shows a Donahue program from 1995, with GS hosts and the late Fred Wostbrock:



Around the 21 minute, an audience member asks about the movie Quiz Show and Monty Hall (via satellite) says he "replaced," Jack Barry for FOUR weeks.

[carlisle96]

Here's one clue of when the "miss every question" show may have aired. The first contestant to be rigged outright was Richard Jackman who was on the October 3 broadcast, which was the fourth show. Up until then, Twenty-One was apparently played straight, but Enright thought the show was dull. Maybe the disastrous episode was the third show.

As far as Monty Hall hosting, he was supposed to take over the show for the summer while Jack Barry toured with a nightclub act. But Barry hurried back to New York and resumed his hosting when he you know what started hitting the fan. I don't know how many episodes Monty Hall hosted, but Barry was definitely hosting when the show went off the air.

Barry did indeed host the final episode, and the photo taken of him after the studio cleared out is a perfect example of "a picture's worth a thousand words."

The show was cancelled after this episode aired, so there was no formal on-air announcement...but Barry likely knew that this was it. It was replaced by Concentration for another four weeks.

[chris319]

I can't find the Twenty One pilot done for CBS, but it is distinguishable in having the word "SPONSOR" where the word "GERITOL" later appears on the upstage set wall.

If memory serves, it is very similar to the set ultimately used on NBC that we've all seen in kinescopes. The question is, why would they have built the set with the giant picture windows on the isolation booths and the score readouts hanging off of Jack Barry's podium when they could have repurposed the set built for the CBS pilot? Is there a kinescope of the giant set? Was it even used on air? One little clue is that the "giant" set, above, has the word "GERITOL" on it, so they clearly had a sponsor and possibly a network.

Does there exist an episode guide for Twenty One?

Also, in the picture of the "giant" set above, what are the little gizmos sitting on top of the enclosures that house the score readouts?

[TimK2003]

Also, in the picture of the "giant" set above, what are the little gizmos sitting on top of the enclosures that house the score readouts?

Since there is no signage by the scoreboards that signify which booth(s) have live mics on, my guess is they were simple lights that signified the booth(s) that had their audio on for the contestant(s)...Unless the little overhangs just below the upper GERITOL sign were the ON AIR signs for each booth.

[Bob Zager]

I can't find the Twenty One pilot done for CBS, but it is distinguishable in having the word "SPONSOR" where the word "GERITOL" later appears on the upstage set wall.

If memory serves, it is very similar to the set ultimately used on NBC that we've all seen in kinescopes. The question is, why would they have built the set with the giant picture windows on the isolation booths and the score readouts hanging off of Jack Barry's podium when they could have repurposed the set built for the CBS pilot? Is there a kinescope of the giant set? Was it even used on air? One little clue is that the "giant" set, above, has the word "GERITOL" on it, so they clearly had a sponsor and possibly a network.

Does there exist an episode guide for Twenty One?

Also, in the picture of the "giant" set above, what are the little gizmos sitting on top of the enclosures that house the score readouts?

IIRC, A&E aired an episode of American Justice about the scandal, and it showed a picture of Jack Barry at his lectern, with the sponsor being "Aqua Velva." 

[DoorNumberFour]

Also, in the picture of the "giant" set above, what are the little gizmos sitting on top of the enclosures that house the score readouts?

I wonder if it's not the "ON THE AIR" indicator that would light up when Jack would turn the booth on. Looks like a dark-colored light bulb with a white backing to make it visible when lit.

EDIT: Whoops, Tim got it already.

[clemon79]

Unless the little overhangs just below the upper GERITOL sign were the ON AIR signs for each booth.

From what can recall from other photos in the past, they were.