Posted on 07/22/2008 1:13:44 PM PDT by nickcarraway
THE brainy English teacher who became the central figure in the quiz-show scandals of the late 1950s has broken his silence.
Charles Van Doren, 82, is finally telling his side of the story in a first-person account published in this week's New Yorker magazine, which came out yesterday.
Van Doren - who lives in Connecticut with his wife of 50 years and still teaches college-level English (most recently at the University of Connecticut in Torrington) - said he decided to go public with his version of the "Twenty-One" quiz-show story for the sake of his grandchildren.
The New Yorker story is excerpted from Van Doren's unpublished memoirs.
"After all these years, I wanted to tell my grandchildren the story of my life," he told The Post yesterday. "I wanted them to know about it from me.
"My oldest grandchild, he's now 15, and this happened, oh, five or six years ago. He said, 'Grandpa, was anybody in our family ever famous?' So I wrote the book."
In the New Yorker story, Van Doren explains how he was recruited in 1956 by a producer for "Twenty-One" to appear on the NBC quiz show.
He reveals that he knew from the very beginning that the show's producers intended to feed him answers to questions with the goal of driving the current champion, Herb Stempel, off the show because, they said, viewers no longer liked Stempel and ratings were declining.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
One of my favorite movies.
I saw the movie. Not bad.
I’d like to see one of the participants in the 2008 election primary “debates” speak out about THOSE rigged question and answer events. Hopefully before 50 years pass.
You mean we can’t believe everything we see on TV?! I’m shocked, I tell ya’, utterly SHOCKED.
This wasn’t the only gameshow that was rigged. Didn’t Lenny Bruce write about how one of his aunts was a plant for an episode of Queen For A Day?
His answers were fake, but accurate.
I believe that Dr. Joyce Brothers was one of the cheaters on $64,000 Question.
The story I heard was that she didn’t cheat. That the producers wanted her off and fed her competitor the answers, but she was so good she won anyway.
I am willing to be corrected if that is not right.
At the time a lot of us did believe what we saw on TV. The revelations about the “$64,000 Question” were a shock to many. No matter how Mr. VanDoren chooses to spin the matter, a single fact remains: He was a CHEAT! Period, end of story!
Don’t know anything about “plants” on Queen For A Day, but I knew one of the winners personally, and if anyone was ever deserving, it was she.
I also heard that Joyce Brothers did not cheat. She was allowed to select the topic of her questions and she selected boxing. She was able to develop an encyclopedic knowledge of boxing by focused study and her own incredible memory.
It looks like you guys are right! I’d spent all of these years lookin’ at her like she was a crook! (SHAME ON ME!):
“If TV game show Twenty-One was fixed, then the $64,000 Question was “controlled.” If they liked a contestant and thought he/she was good for ratings, then they picked questions which played to the strength of the contestant’s expertise. And if they didn’t like you, they fielded you a hard ball.
“Such is the case with Dr. Joyce Brothers, the only person to win both the $64,000 Question and the $64,000 Challenge. But that was far from the plan. The producers wanted to dump her early. Didn’t think she had star power.
“Partly influenced by Martin and Charles Revson, of Revlon, the show’s sponsors, producers attempted to stump Dr. Brothers. The loved contradictions. The mechanic who knew opera. In her case, the psychologist who knew boxing. Once she got to a certain level and they wanted rid of her, they threw her a question about referees, which they thought to be beyond her grasp.
“But the enterprising Dr. Brothers had been studying in between weekly shows, and surprised them all by answering correctly. What could they do but let her run on?
“Later she was on the sister show for winners, the $64,000 Challenge where she was challenged by a team of boxers, and yup, again she won the big prize.”
bump
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