He must have lied in the question about his favorite movie, another – to forge answers. 1950s game show scandals

Already in the 1950s game shows were very popular in the United States. At the end of the decade, however, it came to light that a large part of the programs were faked. Producers and participants worked together to mutual benefit. Not only discretion was necessary, but also acting – when recording specific sequences, daredevils had to pretend to be surprised or embarrassed. Innocent competitions eventually spawned some of the biggest scandals in the history of television.

Czech nature lover caught backstage

The first program in which a case of fraud was documented was the general knowledge game show “Dotto” – with each correct answer, the participants had the opportunity to connect subsequent title dots. Then they had to guess what the resulting portrait represents. In 1958, it was taken off the air without explanation, although it enjoyed the sympathy of the viewers. CBS informed the host, Jacek Narz, that irregularities had probably been detected and he was instructed not to reveal anything to the press. He later underwent a polygraph test which showed that he had allegedly not been involved in the scam.

The Reply Notes That Drowned Marie Winn YouTube, A&E

Dotto’s downfall was primarily due to Marie Winn, a champion whose streak seemed endless. It was interrupted by the moment another participant, Ed Hilgemeier, noticed him backstage going through notes with answers to questions that were yet to be asked. The participant from the Czech Republic has never spoken publicly about her participation in “Dotto”. She made a career as a nature writer and ornithologist.

The production offered cooperation

However, the cases of the participants of “Twenty One” are much more known. The first fraudster was 29-year-old student Herb Stempel. At first, he honestly sent his application, writing that he answered all questions without problems at home, so his wife persuaded him to try his hand at the program. Soon after, Daniel Enright knocked on his door, promising him $24,000 for his part in the scam. For five consecutive weeks, Enright provided Stempel with questions and answers before taping each episode, and instructed him on how to behave in front of the cameras so as not to arouse suspicion. When he has already won almost 50,000, it’s time for a change. The next set champion became Charles Van Doren. In the episode in which Stempel had to leave the program according to a pre-prepared script, he came across an extremely brutal case – a question about his favorite film, “Marty”. After deliberately giving the wrong answer, he heard the production say backstage:

Now we have a pure intellectual as a master instead of a freak with a memory like a sponge.

The new champion stayed on the show for 14 weeks, becoming a TV star and earning over $128,000. It also contributed to the increase in the viewership of the program – viewers wanted to know if its good streak would have its continuation. Twenty One repeatedly dismissed suggestions that it was rigged, claiming it was slander, but Van Doren himself ended the charade by admitting to a congressional investigator on November 2, 1959, that the producers had provided him with question papers before recording began. He resigned his professorship at Columbia and then worked as an editor at the Encyclopædia Britannica. However, he did not serve his prison sentence and died on April 10, 2019 at the age of 93. The scandal changed the rules of game shows and minimized cheating. It was also documented by Netflix in the Oscar-nominated Quiz Show.