To Tell the Truth
To Tell the Truth is an American television panel show. Four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants (the "team of challengers", each an individual or pair) and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual occupation or experience has been read aloud by the show's host. When the panelists question the contestants, the two impostors may lie whereas the "central character" must tell the truth. The setup adds the impostor element to the format of What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret.
This article is about the game show. For other uses, see To Tell the Truth (disambiguation).To Tell the Truth
- Bern Bennett
- Johnny Olson
- Bill Wendell
- Alan Kalter
- Burton Richardson
- David Scott
- Anthony Anderson
Score Productions
Gary Stockdale
United States
English
11 (1956–67)
9 (1969–78)
2 (2000–02)
6 (2016–22)
474 (CBS Primetime; 1956-67)
1,625 (CBS Daytime; 1962–68)
1,715 (Syndicated; 1969–78)
195 (Syndicated; 1980–81)
190 (NBC Daytime; 1990–91)
86 (ABC; 2016–22)
22–26 minutes (1956–2002)
42–46 minutes (2016–22)
Goodson-Todman Productions
(1956–81)
Mark Goodson Productions
(1990–2002)
Pearson Television
(2000–02)
Gaspin Media
(2016–22)
A2 Productions
(2016–22)
Fremantle North America
(2016–22)
CBS (1956–68)
NBC (1990–91)
Syndicated (1969–78, 1980–81, 2000–02)
ABC (2016–22)
December 18, 1956 –
April 26, 2022
The show was created by Bob Stewart and originally produced by Mark Goodson–Bill Todman Productions. It first aired on CBS from 1956 to 1968 with Bud Collyer as host. From 1969 to 1978, the show was revived in syndication, with Garry Moore as the first host. Former panelist and frequent guest host Joe Garagiola took over in 1977, following Moore's health issues. Garagiola hosted until the show's cancellation.
Robin Ward hosted a 1980–81 syndicated revival of the program, and a 1990–91 revival on NBC featured a succession of different hosts: Gordon Elliott, Lynn Swann and Alex Trebek. The show was revived again in syndication from 2000 to 2002 with John O'Hurley as host. The most recent version aired on ABC from 2016 to 2022 with Anthony Anderson as host.
Basic rules[edit]
Although there have been some variations in the rules over the years (including the addition of a secondary game in some versions), certain basic aspects have remained consistent throughout all versions of To Tell the Truth. Three challengers are introduced, all claiming to be the central character. The announcer typically asks the challengers, who stand side by side, "What is your name, please?" Each challenger then states, "My name is [central character's name]." The celebrity panelists then read along as the host reads aloud a signed affidavit about the central character.
The panelists are each given a period of time to question the challengers. Questions are directed to the challengers by number (designated "Number One," "Number Two" and "Number Three"), with the central character sworn to give truthful answers, and the impostors permitted to lie and pretend to be the central character.
After questioning is complete, each member of the panel votes on which of the challengers he or she believes to be the central character, either by writing the number on a card or holding up a card with the number of their choice, without consulting the other panelists. Any panelist who knows one of the challengers or has another unfair advantage is required to recuse or disqualify themselves, which, for scoring purposes, is counted as an incorrect vote. They would also sit out of the questioning.
Once the votes are in, the host asks, "Will the real [person's name] please stand up?" The central character then stands, often after some brief playful feinting and false starts among all three challengers. Occasionally, the central character would be asked to do something else related to his or her story instead of standing up. The two impostors then reveal their real names and their actual occupations. Prize money is awarded and divided among all three of the challengers, based on the number of incorrect votes received by the impostors.
History[edit]
1956–1968, CBS[edit]
To Tell the Truth was to have premiered on Tuesday, December 18, 1956, on CBS in primetime as Nothing But The Truth, but the program title was changed to To Tell the Truth the day before the show's debut. (There was one pilot episode titled "Nothing But The Truth"; both the planned and eventual titles derive from the standard English court oath "to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.")
The series was recorded in New York City, initially at CBS Studio 52 (the future Studio 54), before moving to the Ed Sullivan Theater late in its run. The existence of an audience ticket for a taping indicates that the show originated in color at the CBS Broadcast Center in late 1966.[1]
Bud Collyer was the show's host (Mike Wallace hosted the pilot); recurring panelists by the 1960s included Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, and Kitty Carlisle. (Cass and Carlisle stayed on as panelists for most subsequent editions.) Earlier regular panelists included Johnny Carson, Polly Bergen, Jayne Meadows, Don Ameche, Hy Gardner, Dick Van Dyke, Faye Emerson, Hildy Parks, John Cameron Swayze, Betty White, and Ralph Bellamy. Bern Bennett, Collyer's announcer on Beat the Clock, was the inaugural announcer of To Tell the Truth in the 1950s. Upon Bennett's transfer to CBS's Los Angeles studios, Johnny Olson, who in time became the best-known of all Goodson–Todman Productions announcers, joined the show in 1960 and remained with the show until 1972.
On the pilot and the primetime run, three games were played per episode. For the pilot, a wrong vote from each of the four-member panel and one wrong vote derived from the majority vote of the audience (a total of five votes) paid $300, the total prize money divided among the three challengers. The studio audience also voted, with the majority vote counting equally with that of one by a celebrity panelist; thus, the maximum of five incorrect votes resulted in $1,500 divided among the challengers. If there was a tie for the highest vote from the audience, and for each panelist who was disqualified, a wrong vote was counted. There was no consolation prize for no wrong votes.
For the majority of the primetime run there was no audience vote, thus each wrong vote from the four-member panel paid $250, divided among the three challengers, for a possible $1,000 for a complete stump of four wrong answers. A consolation prize of $150 was awarded and divided among the three challengers if there were no wrong votes. For each panelist who was disqualified, a wrong vote was counted. A design element in the set for this series was a platform situated directly above and behind the emcee's desk. The contestants stood on this platform during their introduction, allowing the camera to pan directly down to the host. They then traveled down a curved staircase to the main stage level to play the game. Some subsequent versions would use a variation of the original set design; others did not and had all the action at floor level.
On Monday, June 18, 1962, a daytime five-day-per-week edition was introduced, running at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The daytime show, also hosted by Collyer, featured a separate panel for its first three years, with actress Phyllis Newman as the only regular. The evening panel took over the afternoon show in 1965; in early 1968, Bert Convy replaced Poston in the first chair.
The daytime show was reduced to two games to accommodate a five-minute CBS news bulletin towards the half-hour mark. On the CBS daytime run, each wrong vote paid the three challengers $100 for a possible total of $400 divided among the three challengers for a "complete stump" of all four wrong votes. If all the votes were correct, the challengers split a consolation prize of $75. During the show's final year and a half, the studio audience also voted, with the majority vote counting equally with that of one of the celebrity panelists, thus a maximum of $500 divided among the challengers could be awarded for the maximum five incorrect votes. If there was a tie for the highest vote from the audience, and for each panelist who was disqualified, a wrong vote was counted. The audience vote was utilized on the nighttime show for its final six episodes (increasing the maximum possible payout to $1,250).
Merchandise[edit]
A board game was released by Lowell in 1957.
During the run of the 2000 version, a single-player online game was offered by the short-lived website Uproar.com, and promoted by host John O'Hurley at the end of each episode.
A video slot machine game, based on the 1969 version, was released to American casinos nationwide by Bally Gaming Systems in 2002.