To Tell the Truth

Broadcast History: December 18, 1956 to May 22, 1967, CBS Prime Time; June 18, 1962 to September 6, 1968, 3:30 P.M. - 4:00 P.M., 3:00 P.M. - 3:30 P.M., CBS Daytime; September 8, 1969 to September 8, 1978, September 9, 1980 to September 4, 1981, Five-a-week Syndication; September 3, 1990 to May 31, 1991, 11:00 A.M. - 11:30 A.M., NBC Daytime; September 19, 2000 to September 2002, Five-a-week Syndication

Vidcaps from the original pilot under the title Nothing But the Truth

Vidcaps courtesy of rerunmedia

Main Game: Three people all claim to be the same person. But two of them are lying and one is telling the truth. The host and panel read the story of the contestant in question. Then, the panel has a fixed amount of time questioning each of the three contestans by questioning them as either "Number 1", "Number 2", or "Number 3". When the questioning is over, the panel has to vote without consultation.

Scoring: On the CBS Nighttime version, each incorrect vote was worth $250 and $1000 for a complete stump. On the CBS Daytime version, each incorrect vote was worth $100 and $500 for a complete stump (four panel votes plus the audience vote -- see below for audience vote). On the 1969-1978 syndicated version, $50 per wrong vote, $500 for a complete stump. In 1980-1981, it was $100 and $500. In 1990-1991, it was $500 with a guarantee of $1000 and a $3000 stump. In the 2000 version, each wrong vote is worth $1000 and a complete stump is worth $5000. (Again, see below for audience vote)

Audience Vote: On the CBS daytime version and the now-defunct syndicated version, the audience is involved in voting. To get a vote for one of the three imposters, it must be a majority of the audience vote. (Example: audience votes 25%-51%-24%. The 51% vote by the audience gives contestant number 2 the vote.)

The Moment of "Truth": And now, the moment of truth, will the real ??? please stand up? Revealing the real person determines the scoring.

"I Disqualify Myself": There are times when a panelist has to disqualify himself for various reasons. Doing so meant an automatic wrong vote. An unusual case of this occurred in 1972 when three of the four panelists claimed they had seen one of the three contestants, all saying that they saw him on the Today show -- leaving only one panelist to try to save the game, but to no avail. The threesome won $500.

One on One (1980-81): In the One on One segment, the four impostors from the previous two games returned to play this game. While a lot is known about the impostors, one piece of information is purposely withheld from the panel until now. After revealing that information, each of the panelists questioned the impostors directly across from them. After 20 seconds, the panelist is asked if that person did or did not do whatever information was revealed here. An incorrect vote was worth $100 and a full stump was worth $500.

One on One (1990-91): In the newer version of One on One, an audience member is randomly selected to play. A person enters the stage with two different stories. To help the audience member, the panel is awarded one question each for one, then the other story. The audience member has to decide which story is true. If he/she is correct, they get $500. If not, the challenger gets $1000.

The last 3 snaps are from game #2 of the Frank Abagnale episode from 1977. The central character in that game was Barbara Williams, who at the time was the skating coach for the New York Islanders.

INTERESTING FACTS AND TRIVIA

To Tell the Truth was the creation of Bob Stewart, who also created The Price is Right and Password for Goodson/Todman, and created more shows for his own production company such as Pyramid and Chain Reaction.

Home Games: One. Go to the Game Show Home Game Home Page for details.

Episode Existence: The first episode of TTTT in 1956 does not exist. But many other episodes do exist from the CBS version -- but not all. The daytime episodes from CBS are long gone except for a number of color episodes, and some black-and-white episodes from 1966 and 1967, and at least one B&W daytime episode from 1966 aired on GSN. (Update 7/7/04: After completing the nighttime run, GSN began airing almost all existing black-and-white episodes from the daytime version, starting with an episode from February 1963. A few episodes from 1965 also aired as well as most of the episodes from 1966.) One color episode from 1968 has also aired on GSN, as well as two CBS color episodes featuring sub-host Mark Goodson which aired on August 16, 2002. According to some sources, it was believed that these shows from 1966-68 would have been rerun in syndication, as Password did for two years. Virtually all of the syndicated episodes from the '70s and '80s exist as does the 1990-1991 NBC Daytime run. Currently the 1990-91 NBC version is running every weekday at 9:30 A.M. ET/PT on GSN. They ran a full week of To Tell the Truth (19 color episodes which included 2 CBS daytime episodes, 1 black-and-white episode) during the week of August 12, 2002 from 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. EDT. Also, GSN aired a 1965 CBS daytime episode which featured Buddy Hackett on July 5, 2003 at 5:30 A.M. EDT, which -- to me at least -- could open up the possibility that all of the CBS daytime episodes exist on videotape (at least, though some may still exist on film). The nighttime version is preserved on black-and-white film (kinescopes), except for the 4/24/67 episode, which was in color and on videotape, and is available on the trading circuit.

If anyone has more information on To Tell the Truth, e-mail me here.

To Tell the Truth is ©1956-1978, 1980-1981, 1990-1991, 2000-2002 Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Productions/Fremantle Media Television. No challenge to ownership is implied.