Celebrity Time

Celebrity Time
Also known as Stop, Look, and Listen
Riddle Me This
(Goodrich) Celebrity Time
Genre Game show
Presented by Douglas Edwards (1948)
Paul Gallico (1948)
Conrad Nagel (1948-1952)
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
Production
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 22–24 minutes
Production company(s) World Video
Broadcast
Original channel CBS (1948-1949;1950-1952)
ABC (1949-1950)
Picture format Black-and-white
Audio format Monaural
Original run November 20, 1948 (1948-11-20) – September 21, 1952 (1952-09-21)

Celebrity Time (also known as The Eyes Have It) was an American game and audience participation television series which aired originally aired on CBS and ABC from November 1948 to September 1952. The original host was Douglas Edwards.

Contents

Rules

The show began as a battle of the sexes between teams made up of audience and celebrity panelists, who would be asked questions which involved such topics as guessing names from the news, to identifying film clips.

Eventually, the show segued into a more general variety and performance show. In its later years, it was strictly a celebrity variety show.

Broadcasting history

Celebrity Time began as The Eyes Have It on CBS primetime, airing every Saturday and Sunday from November 20, 1948 to March 13, 1949.

During this time, the show's title changed when the host did – to Stop, Look, and Listen when Paul Gallico took over as host on November 28, then to Riddle Me This when Conrad Nagel took over the show on December 12; while Nagel hosted through 1952, the title was left behind after March 1949.

On April 3, 1949 ABC took the show and ran it until March 26, 1950, after which CBS ran it again from April 2 to June 27 and from October 1, 1950 to September 21, 1952. During this long period the series was known as Goodrich Celebrity Time.

Panelists

Panelists included, at various times, Sir Thomas Beecham, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, John Daly, Ilka Chase, Peggy Ann Garner, Kitty Carlisle, Boris Karloff, Kyle MacDonnell, Herman Hickman, Martha Wright, Mary McCarty, and Jane Wilson.

Name changes

The show had the following names during its run.

NBC version

The Eyes Have It
Genre Game show
Presented by Ralph McNair
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
Production
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 22–24 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel WNBW (September–November 1948)
NBC (November 1948-June 1949)
Picture format Black-and-white
Audio format Monaural
Original run September 25, 1948 (1948-09-25) – June 19, 1949 (1949-06-19)

The Eyes Have It holds one footnote in television history – it is the only game show to debut as two unrelated programs with different formats, networks, producers, and hosts on the same day.

On November 20, 1948 another show with the same name began on NBC with Ralph McNair as host; NBC's Eyes had actually come first, having been a local show on Washington, D.C. affiliate WNBW since September 25. This version ran until January 27, 1949, with a Sunday-afternoon version running from March 13 (the same day CBS' version, now Riddle Me This, ended) to June 19.

Episode status

The series (including the unrelated NBC version) is believed to have been destroyed due to network practices. No episodes are known to exist under any of the program's five distinct names.

References

External links