During the summer of 1955, a new TV show kept people in front of their sets on hot Tuesday nights. “The $64,000 Question” was a big-money quiz show that made its contestants instant celebrities and the show even displaced “I Love Lucy” as the nation’s top TV program. What nobody realized at the time was that the show was planned, paced and cast like a drama, and a contestant’s success depended not on the questions he or she answered correctly, but on a sponsor who would drop you when you ceased to be useful.
The Hopalong Cassidy Magical Marketing Machine
The Unsinkable Betty White
The Stormy Success of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour"
Liz and Dick and Lucy and the Ring
Fade to Blacklist: Part 2
Fade to Blacklist: Part 1
The Rise and Fall of "Moonlighting"
The 1960s: How We Played
The 1960s: What We Watched
"The Andy Griffith Show" and How It Grew
James Cagney's Final Act(ing)
The Variety Show Skirmishes of 1963
1952: The 60-Second Election
The Jack Benny-Johnny Carson Connection
The Quiz Show Scandals: "Twenty-One"
Ed Sullivan, American Gatekeeper
In Godfrey We Trust
The Rise and Fall of Dragnet
When Maude Findlay Had an Abortion
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