You Bet Your Life
 They called it a game show, but nobody really watched You
Bet Your Life to see people win fabulous prizes. There were
bigger quiz shows for that. No, the real reason people tuned in to
NBC on Thursday nights was a glasses-wearing, cigar-smoking,
sharp-tongued man called Groucho.
The fast-talking Marx Brother was the man asking the questions,
but more importantly, he was the one grilling the contestants
before the quiz began, delivering his famed one-liners and keeping
the audience in stitches.
Before the quiz itself, Groucho had a little chat with the
pairs of contestants (everyone played as part of a twosome) there
to compete for the prize money.
The host asked them about their
hometowns, their occupations, their most embarrassing moments -
anything that might set up a good barb or double entendre. The
show's staff tried to find oddballs, but no matter how 'normal'
the contestants seemed, Groucho always managed to get off a few
zingers.
After an extended interview segment, Groucho started the pair
on the path to fortune and glory. The contestants were allowed to
pick the subject of the questions themselves, and they decided how
much of their initial money to bet.
As questions were answered correctly, the players could
increase their bets, trying to outdo the other contestant pairs.
No team knew how much the others had earned, and only the team
with the highest total went on to the final round, a single
question worth at least $1000 (the actual amount increased over
the show's run).
Even for the losing contestants, there was still cash to be
had. At the start of the show, announcer George Fenneman delivered
the secret word of the day, held by a toy duck. If the lucky
contestants said the word at any point, the duck dropped, everyone
cheered, and the contestants split an extra $100.
In the show's
final season (during which it was re-titled The Groucho Show),
the duck was replaced by novelty acts, including frequent 'secret
word girl' Marilyn Burtis and one unforgettable surprise
appearance by Groucho's brother Harpo.
Regular folk were the usual (or unusual) contestants, but
Groucho also invited the occasional celebrity- Jack Benny,
Liberace, Edgar Bergen (with young daughter Candice) and Ray
Bradbury among them.
A then-unknown author William Peter Blatty
won a nice cash prize as a contestant, using the proceeds to focus
on writing The Exorcist. But no matter who stepped on the
stage, the star was unquestionably Groucho.
You Bet Your Life began its run as a radio program in
1947, recorded live as an hour-long program but edited down to
half an hour for radio broadcast - a technique used to cut out
both the dull parts and the most off-colour Groucho lines.
The
same technique was used for the television broadcasts, which ran
simultaneously with the radio program for several years.
The televised You Bet Your Life went the way of most
prime time game shows in 1961, the victim of quiz scandals and
dwindling audience interest in the game show format.
But since every episode of You Bet Your Life was filmed,
the show has survived in syndication and in packaged video
compilations.
Two brief revivals were mounted in 1980 and 1992 - starring
Buddy Hackett and Bill Cosby respectively - but the show still
belongs to Groucho.
More than 100 'lost' episodes were discovered
in July 2000, ready to introduce a new generation of fans to the
quick-witted comedy of the funniest game show (and game show host)
of television's golden age.
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