What's Going On?

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For other uses, see What's Going On (disambiguation)
What's Going On?
Format Game show
Created by Allan Sherman
Starring Lee Bowman
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of episodes 5
Production
Executive
producer(s)
Mark Goodson and Bill Todman
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run 28 November 1954 – December 1954
External links
IMDb profile

What's Going On? was a short-lived television game show that aired for five weeks beginning on 28 November 1954. The show aired on ABC and was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production. It was sponsored by Revlon and shot in New York City.

Lee Bowman served as host of the show. There were six celebrities involved in the game: Kitty Carlisle, Hy Gardner, Audrey Meadows, Cliff Norton, Gene Raymond, and Susan Oakland.

Each week, three of the celebrities would be sent to either record film of an activity or to participate in a live remote broadcast documenting or doing an activity. Examples include washing windows at the Empire State Building, eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant, or destroying money no longer suitable for circulation at the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. The remaining three celebrities would form the panel which would attempt to guess the activity. Each round, one activity would be introduced to the audience with part of the film or live remote, which would be shown behind the panel (they could only see it if they turned around). The activity was silently displayed (usually via written cards they would hold up in the film or remote) for the audience.

The panel would then take turns asking questions to determine the activity, limited by timer in a manner similar to I've Got a Secret. Depending on the presumed difficulty in guessing the activity, the panel could be given anywhere from three to ten "chimes" (guessing turns) between them, which would be revealed in advance. In some of the segments, an audience member would be recruited to engage in the activity with a panelist. In those cases, a relative of the audiece member joined the panel attempting to guess the activity. Correctly guessing the activity resulted in a $100 prize. In the segments played exclusively by the panelists, there were no prizes.

In 2005, GSN broadcast four surviving episodes (the final one is missing) as part of its late night Black & White Overnight programming block. On August 28, 2006, and again on April 30, 2007, they rebroadcast one of those surviving episodes.

[edit] External links