I'd give almost everything I have to go back and be able to watch those shows in the early 1950s again. A simple and beautiful time -- cigar smoke and tobacco culture notwithstanding! The people were simple, sincere, humble and wonderful!
Groucho was that good on the pilot, huh. Everything was going nuts around him, sweaty producers everywhere, and he was never rattled. Amazing performance, amazing format, they really got it right.
Groucho is a one man TV show. Never at a loss in any situation. No wonder this show] lasted 14 years. The man was an ad-lib mad man and a comic savant.
It's quite obvious that Groucho Marx was a genius with his quick wit. No one wrote his jokes for him. He did a lot of ad libbing. He was so clever and quick with his ad libbing, that quite often he caught the contestant off guard! Lol. 😅😅😅. That's one reason why this show was so funny!
This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
THAT,S FOR SURE THERE,S SO MUCH MONEY IN SPORTS THEIR BUYING TIME ON AM RADIO AND BORING US WITH SPORTS TALK WHERE ONCE WAS MUSIC OR GOOD TALK SHOW SUBJECTS !....////
@@alanrodgers4223 nor will you... This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
@@michaelsalisbury1477, TV has always been about money. But today it seems to be more about brainwashing instead of content. 95% or more of the programming is horrible!
Cigarettes were given out to servicemen during world war two as part of C rations. Companies knew they were highly addictive from the very beginning. Cigarette companies made fortunes. Many mothers and women smoked in the 40's 50's and 60's. Both parents as smokers was the norm. All cars had cigarette lighters and ashtrays. TWA and all airplanes had a smoking section in the back 20 rows; ash trays in the arm rests. They continue to kill people for profit.
You're joking, right? This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
I think that Groucho said "Do Persian kittens really come from Persia?" That's why the timing was perfect when the sheik said "No, they come from Persian cats." That was funny though. What makes the show "You Bet Your Life" so funny was that none of Groucho's jokes were scripted. Anyone who thinks that they were is a moron and that person is extremely unobservant.
Loved all of the behind the scenes action which was never meant to get on camera for the show. Also loved the end where everybody was kissing and he kissed that bellhop girl a couple of time and she kissed him and when they left the stage, Groucho looks down but into the camera as he blows a kiss to someone and you bet your life that was his wife.
I love how unprepared parts of the show was. That commercial with the announcer where everyone just stood around. Seems more like a radio show where they just decided to film it. That stand for GM instead of a podium. The microphones from radio instead of a boom mic, etc.
You're joking, right? This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
That's why CBS was counting on Groucho to be one of their "big TV stars" by 1950, when more TV sets were bought (and more stations signed on to provide programming). They lost him to NBC [who filmed his radio show, and presented him on both TV and radio through 1959, and TV through 1961]. But CBS DID "convert" several of their radio stars to television within the next two years: Jack Benny, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Arthur Godfrey, and Steve Allen.
True. I think Milton Berle was solely responsible for millions of TV sets being sold. When they saw him, his brother sold his, his sister sold her's, his uncle sold his.... (one of Uncle MIlty's standard jokes). He was a genius.
My parents had the second TV in The San Fernando Valley, part of Los Angeles. My dad spent a lot of time dragging the very tall antenna around their half acre yard to get the signal of experimental channel 5. It was Easter Sunday of 1946...
My Father had a Wit just like Groucho!! Ironically this pilot was done the year my Brother was born. There was So Many Hysterical Shows of You Bet Your Life!! Can you imagine 300,000 plus views of a show that done 74 years ago?? Shows the Greatness of this Show!! I Love It!!
1949 would have been a wonderful time 🌈 to have been my age ( 57 ) now ! Post war USA 🌎💖. All the beautiful stories my wonderful Grandparents would tell me 🥰🌬.
You don't just "walk off the stage" because you're through. How rude to the audience would that be? This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
I find it really interesting just to watch & listen people from years ago. Here, it's 66 yrs ago & I try to pick up linguistic differences or changes in vernacular. Our behaviour. Clothing. Style. Etiquette.
This humble show, with it's array of guests over the years, is a sociologist's dream. Americans wishing to know something about themselves today, need only watch Americans appearing on this show between the years 1949 to 1961, to see where they came from and understand, perhaps, why and who they are in the present day.
Crazy how I thought What's My Line was the oldest game show on RU-vid, but it's rare to find anything filmed before 1950, let alone a game show from the 1940's!
The oldest continuous one is in DC, Its Academic, according to TV Guide, started in 1960, Mac McGarry hosted for 50 years and Hillary Howard who works for all new WTOP, took over when he got sic.
This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
Good point...and, incidentally, this point is often ignored in...e.g., old westerns. I've heard that a run-of-the mill horse was around $20....in today's money something like a GRAND.
Why should he have to? This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
20:48 brilliant couple sorry there not a couple BUT the guy is so funny with his answers I'm still laughing ..glad they won the main prize they were brilliant
I loved watching Grouch back in the years, it was pure entertainment. These days there is too much sex and foul language. Hope someday they would bring entertainment back to the small screen, instead of the garbage we are now watching.
People seem innocent on TV in '49. There's a lack of media savvy to the contestants. People today are so used to being recorded, it shows. These people come off as uninitiated. A little nervous, but less self conscious.
Howard Scala is not listed on Pro Football Reference and Howard is not listed on Green Bay Packers from any roster in the 40's or 50's. Scala must have been signed but never made the team.
@@rickrick5041 This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
@@rickrick5041 YES! It's quite obvious that Groucho Marx did ad lib quite often. Ignore the morons who claim that it was scripted. If it was scripted then Groucho would not have gotten the spontaneous laughs from the contestants and the audience.
Groucho seems much more upbeat and having fun here in this pilot compared to the run of the show. The brow beating of Fenneman hadn't started quite yet. Interesting how they ultimately streamlined the show's format and music. Good stuff.
This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
@@ThreePhaseHigh THAT WAS DEFINITELY NOT BILL CULLEN!!!! I have watched Bill Cullen on the reruns of "The Price is Right" from the 1950s and 1960s and I watched him on "I've Got A Secret" from the early 1950s through the 1960s. You're obviously extremely unobservant and you're wrong. Also Bill Cullen's voice is completely different than George Fenneman's voice.
Found Adrian "Jess" Swope earned a degree in physical education; a Trojans lineman and asst coach, as well as shot putter alongside "Parry" O'Brien, 10-time Olympic gold winner and shot put technique pioneer. Guess Jess didn't make the Olympics, but became recognized at the national and world class shot put levels. Career as stage/TV director; five children, died 2001 diabetes.
Omg... This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
Ignore the other comment 😒 It's been posted verbatum in other comments. Thanks for letting us know. Saves me the time of looking it up. A fulfilling life!
I wonder what happened to all those contestants and the lives they went on to live. Amazing TV, so lucky to be able to watch and enjoy this 74 years later!!
YES! Elgin-American pulled out at the end of 1949 because the show became "too expensive" to sustain. On ABC (1947-'49), they had a decent budget for advertising because that network was smaller {compared to CBS and NBC}, and they charged less for ad rates. When Groucho moved to CBS in October 1949, the Elgin executives found out they were making less money because they had to pay MORE for his time period. When they ended their sponsorship, Chrysler's DeSoto-Plymouth division- which was a more affluent advertiser- began sustaining Groucho on January 4, 1950.
From what I have seen here, CBS Television Network did not make a "good-faith" effort to provide any sets to put on a more professional look to the show. Groucho Marx did not put in a "good-faith" effort to look presentable, per se. He was basically in street clothes, but his hair and mustache were still dyed black, most likely for the final Marx Brothers film, "Love Happy" (starring a young Marilyn Monroe), which was filmed in 1949, when this pilot episode was kinescoped during a "You Bet Your Life" radio show simulcast. When NBC made an offer to pick up "You Bet Your Life" for television in 1950, Groucho most likely took the offer because they made a better offer for a better set, and better audio and video equipment (the CBS staffers had to constantly adjust their microphones for the contestants, and they even had to replace one microphone when Groucho's microphone broke down. A cardinal sin for a talent like Groucho Marx.).
This whole thing is scripted... there is only the semblance of ad lib. And, no, that was not an 80+ year old man that fell UP the stairs of af1. Wake up, People. It was the fucking flu! lol
Yes Groucho was a great ad-libber but contrary to what everyone here seems to think, the contestants were pre interviewed and there were gag writers who gave Groucho suggested questions and jokes.
Early television was sort of like a radio show that happened to be telecast. The fact that a camera was present was just happenstance. Things kind of went downhill when concerns of the visual took precedence over everything else.
