Truth or Consequences, an American
quiz showA game show is a type of television program in which members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving problems usually for money and/or prizes. On some shows contestants compete against other players or another team while...
, was originally hosted on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
by
Ralph EdwardsRalph Livingstone Edwards was an American radio and television host and television producer.-Early career:...
(1940-57) and later on television by Edwards (1950-54),
Jack BaileyJack Bailey was an American actor and daytime game show host. He was born in Hampton, Iowa and died in Santa Monica, California....
(1954-55),
Bob BarkerRobert William "Bob" Barker is an American former television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS' The Price Is Right from 1972-2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history...
(1956-75),
Bob HiltonRobert "Bob" Wesley Hilton is an American television game show personality. Although known mainly for his role as announcer, he has hosted game shows as well, including The Guinness Game, Truth or Consequences and the 1990 revival of Let's Make a Deal for NBC.Hilton has announced several game...
(1975-78) and
Larry AndersonLarry Anderson is an American actor, magician, and original face of Knight Rider protagonist Michael Long before his character was disfigured and restructured, after which the character was known as Michael Knight and portrayed by David Hasselhoff...
(1987-88). The television show ran on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
,
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
and also in
syndicationIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in countries where television is scheduled by networks with local affiliates, particularly in the United States...
. The premise of the show was to mix the original quiz element of game shows with wacky stunts.
The daily syndicated show was produced by Ralph Edwards Productions (later Ralph Edwards/Stu Billett Productions), in associated with and distributed by
Metromedia TelevisionMetromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986.- Overview :...
(1966-78) and
Lorimar-TelepicturesLorimar-Telepictures was a production and television syndication firm established in 1986 with the merger of Lorimar and Telepictures until both TV divisions became separate in 1988...
(1987-88).
Ralph Edwards would say later that he got the idea for a new radio program after playing the parlor game Forfeits.
Truth or Consequences, an American
quiz showA game show is a type of television program in which members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving problems usually for money and/or prizes. On some shows contestants compete against other players or another team while...
, was originally hosted on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
by
Ralph EdwardsRalph Livingstone Edwards was an American radio and television host and television producer.-Early career:...
(1940-57) and later on television by Edwards (1950-54),
Jack BaileyJack Bailey was an American actor and daytime game show host. He was born in Hampton, Iowa and died in Santa Monica, California....
(1954-55),
Bob BarkerRobert William "Bob" Barker is an American former television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS' The Price Is Right from 1972-2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history...
(1956-75),
Bob HiltonRobert "Bob" Wesley Hilton is an American television game show personality. Although known mainly for his role as announcer, he has hosted game shows as well, including The Guinness Game, Truth or Consequences and the 1990 revival of Let's Make a Deal for NBC.Hilton has announced several game...
(1975-78) and
Larry AndersonLarry Anderson is an American actor, magician, and original face of Knight Rider protagonist Michael Long before his character was disfigured and restructured, after which the character was known as Michael Knight and portrayed by David Hasselhoff...
(1987-88). The television show ran on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
,
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
and also in
syndicationIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in countries where television is scheduled by networks with local affiliates, particularly in the United States...
. The premise of the show was to mix the original quiz element of game shows with wacky stunts.
The daily syndicated show was produced by Ralph Edwards Productions (later Ralph Edwards/Stu Billett Productions), in associated with and distributed by
Metromedia TelevisionMetromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986.- Overview :...
(1966-78) and
Lorimar-TelepicturesLorimar-Telepictures was a production and television syndication firm established in 1986 with the merger of Lorimar and Telepictures until both TV divisions became separate in 1988...
(1987-88).
Radio
Ralph Edwards would say later that he got the idea for a new radio program after playing the parlor game Forfeits. The show premiered on NBC radio in March, 1940 and was an instant hit with listeners.
On the show, people had to answer a trivia question correctly (usually an off-the-wall question that no one would be able to answer correctly, or a bad joke) and had about two seconds to do so before "Beulah the Buzzer" was sounded (in the rare occasion that the contestant answered the question correctly before Beulah was heard, another question was asked).
If the contestant could not complete the "Truth" portion, there would be "Consequences," usually a zany and embarrassing stunt. From the start, most contestants preferred to answer the question wrong in order to perform the stunt. Said Edwards, "Most of the American people are darned good sports." During Barker's run as host, "Barker's Box" was played. Barker's Box was a box with four drawers in it. A contestant able to pick the drawer with money in it won a bonus prize.
In
Action ComicsAction Comics is an American comic book series which introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
#127 (December 1948),
SupermanSuperman is a fictional character, a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective Comics, Inc...
was a contestant on
Truth or Consequences (
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/97/400/97_4_0000127.jpg). The town of Hot Springs,
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
was renamed
Truth or ConsequencesTruth or Consequences is a spa city in and the county seat of Sierra County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 7,289. It is commonly known within New Mexico as T or C....
after the game show in 1950, when Ralph Edwards announced that he would do the program from the first town so renamed. Edwards himself continued to make appearances at the town's annual fiesta every May until his death.
A 1950
Looney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros...
cartoonAn animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
called
The DuckstersThe Ducksters is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short animated in 1949 and released in 1950. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese...
featured
Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
as the host of a radio game show called
Truth or AAAAAHHHH!, with
Porky PigPorky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
as the contestant.
In many broadcasts, the stunts on
Truth or Consequences included a popular, but emotional, heart-rending surprise for a contestant, that being the reunion with a long-lost relative or with an enlisted son or daughter returning from military duty overseas, particularly Vietnam. Sometimes, if that military person was based in California, his or her spouse or parents were flown in for that reunion.
Television
The syndicated
Truth or Consequences became the first successful first-run daily game show (as opposed to reruns) to not air on a network, having ended its NBC run in 1965.
Truth or Consequences was the first game show to air on commercially-licensed television, airing on the first day of
WNBTWNBC is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City and owned and operated by NBC Universal. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
's program schedule in 1941. This was a one-time experiment;
Truth or Consequences did not appear on TV again until 1950, when the medium had caught on commercially.
On
Truth or Consequences, Barker's signoff ended with the phrase, "Hoping all your consequences are happy ones."
Cultural references
Donald DuckDonald Duck is an American cartoon character from The Walt Disney Company. Donald is a white anthropomorphic duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt, cap, and a red or black bow tie, but no trousers...
competes with
Huey, Dewey and LouieHuey, Dewey, and Louie Duck are a trio of fictional ducks who appear in animated cartoons and comic books published by the Walt Disney Company. Identical triplets, the three are Donald Duck's nephews. Huey, Dewey, and Louie were created by Ted Osborne and Al Taliaferro, and first appeared in a...
in a television show that resembles
Truth or Consequences in a comic book. He prepares himself by reading
tomeA tome is a large book, especially one volume of a multi-volume scholarly work.It may also refer to:-Places:* Tome, Miyagi, city in Japan * Tome-Adelino, New Mexico, city in New Mexico-People:...
s of trivia and ends up humiliating himself on air.
On January 22, 1957, the show, which was produced in Hollywood, became the first program to be broadcast in all time zones from a prerecorded
videotapeVideotape is a means of recording images and sound on to magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
; this technology, which had only been introduced the previous year, had been used only for time-delayed broadcasts to the West Coast.
On
George CarlinGeorge Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian. He was also an actor and author, and he won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
's 1969 debut album,
Take-Offs and Put-Ons, the character Congolia Breckinridge appears on a similar show called
Truth or Penalties (although at one point Carlin says the original show's name). Because she has too little time to buzz in, when she is invited to pull back the curtain, an empty stage is revealed. The host then announces, "We were going to reunite you with your sister, whom you haven't seen in 27 years, but you blew the question, so we sent your sister back to Maine."
External links