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March 29, 2022 4:03 AM

To Tell The Truth is a American panel TV show which has been around since 1956, in which three contestants, two of which are impostors of the third, attempt to convince a panel of judges of their identity. The archives of the show from 1956 to 1967 are available on YouTube, and provide a interesting and entertaining glimpse into what television game shows were like in the mid-50s.
posted by wesleyac (33 comments total)

I recently got to talk to an older gentleman who'd never met his father but started researching who it might be. The first time he ever heard his father's voice was on a YouTube episode of To Tell The Truth. I can't stop thinking about how powerful the internet is.
posted by knile at 4:16 AM on March 29, 2022 [7 favorites]

They memorably reenacted an episode at the start of Spielberg's "Catch Me if You Can".
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:40 AM on March 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

How cool that these are available online. I vaguely remember this from childhood (I was born in 1965 so I must have watched it as reruns.) I don't think I would have been super interested in watching it at the time, but that was back in the day when there was one TV and if you wanted to be inside the house and around mom, you had to be quiet and watch whatever she was watching. If you complained she'd send you back outdoors where, in the opinion of most mothers of the 60s-70s, children belonged.

Seems so odd now that the show was sponsored by Salem cigarettes, and the contestants received a free carton on the way out.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 4:55 AM on March 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

I recently watched a segment that someone had posted on Facebook, because their mom was a contestant on the show. It's actually pretty interesting to see how the other contestants did at making stuff up -- I assume they were somewhat coached on things, but the amount of poise they showed in improvisational lying was impressive as hell.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:25 AM on March 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I watched this as a child and learned the word "flautist" from it. (A professional classical musician was asked what you call a person who plays the flute.)

A similar type of show was "What's My Line," where panelists had to guess a person's occupation. Jimmy Carter was famously a contestant in 1973 (occupation was governor of Georgia).
posted by FencingGal at 5:36 AM on March 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

So this is the inverse of the bit in 'Would I Lie To You?' where 2/3 of the the panelists lie about a connection to an individual?

This comment brought to you by Salem Cigarettes.
posted by pompomtom at 5:58 AM on March 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

This sounds great! I'm looking forward to seeing them.

I think I've now seen all the preserved episodes of What's My Line, not just because I have a celebrity crush on Dorothy Kilgallen. They sometimes disappoint, but it's pretty surprising how often they don't. Someday I'll attend a costume party and perform a devastatingly accurate impression of John Charles Daly that nobody living will recognize.
posted by eotvos at 5:59 AM on March 29, 2022 [10 favorites]

Speaking of What's My Line, a similar treasure trove of episodes from it's debut in 1950 until the end of its original run in 1967 is also on YouTube. They also have a number of the episodes from it's revival in the early 1970s (including the Jimmy Carter episode mentioned above). A couple of years ago, I watched my way through every single one. These shows aren't just a look at game shows, they are an amazing slice of American social history at its pinnacle.
posted by briank at 5:59 AM on March 29, 2022 [6 favorites]

One of the earliest shows I remember watching with my parents. One of those concepts it would be difficult to pull off now.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:00 AM on March 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

How cool that these are available online. I vaguely remember this from childhood (I was born in 1965 so I must have watched it as reruns.)

It ran in first run syndication until 1978, so you could have seen it that way. I was born in 1966, and that's how I watched it growing up.
posted by Spike Glee at 6:06 AM on March 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Once I was flipping through the channels with my father and accidentally hesitated on a Game Show Network rebroadcast of To Tell the Truth. He immediately recognized the exact episode as one he saw during it's original broadcast and could not only recall details about it but also remembered exactly he was doing that evening in the 50s. It was a little scary to be sitting there with him with this direct connection to a specific moment so many decades in the past.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:23 AM on March 29, 2022 [6 favorites]

One of those concepts it would be difficult to pull off now.

I remembered watching some modern version of To Tell the Truth last year while visiting my game show-loving mom. Just looked it up and yep, there's a revival.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:24 AM on March 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

computech_apolloniajames: ...One of those concepts it would be difficult to pull off now.

Good news -- they've been making new episodes for six years now!

Edit: Jinx, May Kasahara!
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:24 AM on March 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

I remember watching this in syndication as a kid and wondering who the hell these so-called celebrities were. There were a few shows like that where people who had been somewhat famous long before I was born were riding out the long tail of their celebrity and could just reach out and brush fingertips with someone who would vaguely remember them for decades to come, albeit without really understanding why.

Kitty Carlisle?? Jaye P. Morgan?? Orson Bean?? Peggy Cass?? Nipsey Russell?? Presumably they were on these shows to begin with because they were known to the audience, but I know them only from the game shows.
posted by Naberius at 6:26 AM on March 29, 2022 [5 favorites]

I’m more of a What’s My Line girl. It’s just so damn civilized. You know they’re having Pimm’s cup and bridge mix during the commercial breaks.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:44 AM on March 29, 2022 [5 favorites]

I've always preferred What's My Line and I've Got a Secret.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:56 AM on March 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

Presumably they were on these shows to begin with because they were known to the audience, but I know them only from the game shows.

There's a whole new generation of semi-celebrities getting facetime as guest judges on Netflix shows because they are vaguely plausibly famous, so your grandkids will also be able to have this experience.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:09 AM on March 29, 2022 [7 favorites]

Kitty Carlisle??

She was the wife of playright Moss Hart. She was also an actress, perhaps most notably as the female costar in the Marx Bros. A Night at the Opera. She also sang opera. A quick read of her bio shows her to have lived a quite interesting life.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:16 AM on March 29, 2022 [5 favorites]

Presumably they were on these shows to begin with because they were known to the audience, but I know them only from the game shows.

It's probably a sign of getting old when you recognize the celebrities on game shows. I think my first was Paul Lynde, whom I knew from Bewitched.
posted by FencingGal at 8:47 AM on March 29, 2022 [4 favorites]

Yes indeed; watching Love Boat reruns is fascinating for this reason. But seeing Ed Begley Jr. and Wallace Shawn on Young Sheldon is vaguely disturbing.
posted by Melismata at 8:54 AM on March 29, 2022

I remember watching the early ‘90s run a few times. I specifically remember Angelo Badalamenti being on one.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 9:03 AM on March 29, 2022

I remember watching this in syndication as a kid and wondering who the hell these so-called celebrities were.

I'm not sure that I realized that they were supposed to be celebrities outside of the show--I thought that they were celebrities because of the show. Even with Hollywood Squares, although some of the panelists were recognizable from other things (e.g. William Shatner), others, particularly Paul Lynde, were known mostly for being on it; I guess that he was a semi-regular on Bewitched, but I don't remember seeing him there.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:24 PM on March 29, 2022

Because To Tell the Truth and What's My Line were filmed in New York, many of the celebs were Broadway actors or radio performers. Bennet Cerf, IIRC, was an editor of the New Yorker.
posted by Billiken at 1:20 PM on March 29, 2022

Since I first saw this post, the memories of two videos have been bouncing around in my head, so I had to go out and find them:

1. SCTV's parody of What's My Line?
2. The appearance of Caroll Spinney (the original Big Bird) on To Tell the Truth

IIRC, regular What's My Line? panelist, publisher and writer Bennett Cerf, was the father of Christopher Cerf, who wore many hats both behind and in front of the camera at Sesame Street. One of his more well-known contributions is as co-writer of the classic song "Put Down the Duckie" (among many others). Two of the performers in the "Put Down the Duckie" sequence on Sesame Street were SCTV stars in character: Andrea Martin as Edith Prickley and John Candy as Yosh Shmenge. Everything full circle, just like delicious chocolate chip cookie.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:15 PM on March 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Bennet Cerf, IIRC, was an editor of the New Yorker.

He was the owner of Random House Publishing. He was also Ginger Rogers' brother-in-law.
posted by briank at 7:23 PM on March 29, 2022

Aaaand YouTube's algorithm let me know too late for inclusion in my verbose comment above, that Big Bird once appeared as a mystery guest on the 1970's reboot of What's My Line?

Either all or most episodes of To Tell the Truth, What's My Line?, You Bet Your Life, and Match Game are available on YouTube, along with a number of episodes of Stump the Stars, a weird but enjoyable celebrity Charades game. I found all these vintage game shows very entertaining but not too mentally taxing, while I was recovering from a concussion and the nurses' advice was "Stay in bed and don't try to think too hard about anything." And as others above have mentioned, they're a great time capsule.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:28 PM on March 29, 2022

While I'm on a roll, I may as well bring up the death of reporter Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf's regular What's My Line? co-panelist. She died under what some people believe to be msterious circumstances while researching a story on the JFK assassination (she publicly disbelieved that Oswald acted alone).
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:37 PM on March 29, 2022

I just finished Chuck Klosterman’s newest book, The Nineties, and he mentions in passing Ken Burns averring that fame and widespread recognition tend to endure passably well for about forty years, then shows a drop-off toward fifty years, and then a sharper one between fifty and sixty years on. Klosterman then points out that, “There will be a time, in the not-so-distant future, when almost no one will remember that Robert Redford was the biggest box office star of 1975, or that 1975 saw the release of Born to Run.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:06 PM on March 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Jaye P. Morgan??

Jaye P. Morgan!!
posted by flabdablet at 12:00 AM on March 30, 2022

Of course, Paul Lynde is best known as Templeton the Rat.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:32 AM on March 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

Speaking of the short shelf life of celebrities, SNL did a sketch in 2013 parodying Match Game and only a few people in the comments section understands who and what was being parodied. Not sure if a lot of the live audience did, either, to be honest. I'm very surprised that anyone who was actually born in the late 1970s, like Bill Hader was, even recalls the existence of the show.

I've never seen more than a second or two of To Tell the Truth. Then again, in the 70s (when I was a small child), anything on TV shown in black and white was old and corny to me, and I'd flip the dial right past it.
posted by droplet at 10:19 AM on March 30, 2022

This appears to be needed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHLbxXhoARc
posted by Goofyy at 12:04 PM on March 30, 2022

I had never seen that SNL skit; that was hilarious.

No discusstion of the Match Game can be complete without Crow T. Robot's one-man show about Gene Rayburn.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:56 PM on March 30, 2022