''Celebrity Time'' (also known as ''The Eyes Have It'') is an American

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

and

audience participation An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

that was broadcast on ABC in 1949 - 1950 and on CBS in 1950 - 1952. The original host was

Douglas Edwards Douglas Edwards (July 14, 1917 – October 13, 1990) was an American radio and television newscaster and correspondent who worked for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) for more than four decades. After six years on CBS Radio in the 1940s ...

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. By June 1952, the program had become a typical musical variety show.

Jack Gould John Ludlow Gould (February 5, 1914 – May 24, 1993) was an American journalist and critic, who wrote commentary about television. Early life and education Gould was born in New York City into a socially prominent family and attended the Loomis ...

, media critic for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', wrote, "for the most part the change is for the better." He explained that the quiz format had been "somewhat labored", whereas the variety format "is produced with a high degree of skill and moves along quickly."

Broadcasting history

''Celebrity Time'' began as ''The Eyes Have It'' on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

primetime, airing every Saturday and Sunday from November 20, 1948 to March 13, 1949. The show's title changed to ''Stop, Look, and Listen'' when

Paul Gallico Paul William Gallico (July 26, 1897 – July 15, 1976) was an American novelist and short story and sports writer.Ivins, Molly,, ''The New York Times'', July 17, 1976. Retrieved Oct. 25, 2020. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictu ...

took over as host on November 28, then to ''Riddle Me This'' when

Conrad Nagel John Conrad Nagel (March 16, 1897 – February 24, 1970) was an American film, stage, television and radio actor. He was considered a famous matinée idol and leading man of the 1920s and 1930s. He was given an Academy Honorary Award in 1940 and ...

took over the show on December 12; while Nagel hosted through 1952, the title was left behind after March 1949. The show ran on ABC from April 3, 1949, until March 26, 1950, and on CBS from April 2, 1950, until September 21, 1952. The sponsor was

B. F. Goodrich The Goodrich Corporation, formerly the B.F. Goodrich Company, was an American manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1870 as Goodrich, Tew & Co. by Benjamin Goodrich, the company name was ch ...

. It was replaced by ''

The Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

''. Singer

Betty Ann Grove Betty Ann Grove (September 9, 1929 – November 13, 2015) was an American actress and singer. Early years Grove was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her mother was "an exhibition ballroom dancer" who performed with Ray Bolger and Jack Haley, ...

and dancer Jonathan Lucas were regulars on ''Celebrity Time''. The program was produced by Richard Levine and directed by

Rai Purdy Rai Purdy (born Horatio John Purdy; November 1910 – May 1990) was a Canadian television director and producer. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Early life Rai Purdy was born Horatio John Purdy in En ...

George Axelrod George Axelrod (June 9, 1922 – June 21, 2003) was an American screenwriter, producer, playwright and film director, best known for his play ''The Seven Year Itch'' (1952), which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Marilyn Mon ...

was the writer.

Panelists

Panelists included, at various times,

Shirley Booth Shirley Booth (born Marjory Ford; August 30, 1898October 16, 1992) was an American actress. One of only 24 performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, Booth was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awa ...

Gene Lockhart Edwin Eugene Lockhart (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957)"Gene Lockhart"
''The ...

Roland Young Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

Kyle MacDonnell Ruth Kyle MacDonnell (c. 1922 - September 28, 2004) was an American model, singer, and actress. She was featured as a "Television Ingenue" on the front page of ''Life'' magazine's May 31, 1948, issue. Early years The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Geor ...

Kitty Carlisle Kitty Carlisle Hart (born Catherine Conn; September 3, 1910 – April 17, 2007) was an American actress, singer, and spokeswoman for the arts. She was the leading lady of the Marx Brothers movie '' A Night at the Opera'' (1935) and was a regular ...

Ilka Chase Ilka Chase (April 8, 1905 – February 15, 1978) was an American actress, radio host, and novelist. Biography Born in New York City and educated at convent and boarding schools in the United States, England, and France, Chase was the only child ...

, Sir

Thomas Beecham Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Roya ...

Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom Max Everitt Rosenbloom (November 6, 1906 – March 6, 1976) was an American professional boxer, actor, and television personality. Nicknamed "Slapsie Maxie", he was inducted into '' The Ring's'' Boxing Hall of Fame in 1972, the International Je ...

, John Daly,

Peggy Ann Garner Peggy Ann Garner (February 3, 1932 – October 16, 1984) was an American child actress. As a child actress, Garner had her first film role in 1938. At the 18th Academy Awards, Garner won the Academy Juvenile Award, recognizing her body of c ...

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...

Bela Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...

Herman Hickman Herman Michael Hickman (October 1, 1911 – April 25, 1958) was an American football player and coach. He played college football at the University of Tennessee and professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Brooklyn Dodgers. ...

, Martha Wright, Mary McCarty, and Jane Wilson.

Name changes

The show had the following names during its run. * ''The Eyes Have It'' (November 20 – 27, 1948) * ''Stop, Look, and Listen'' (November 28 – December 11, 1948) * ''Riddle Me This'' (December 12, 1948 – March 13, 1949) * ''Goodrich Celebrity Time'' (April 3, 1949 – Unknown) * ''Celebrity Time'' (Unknown – September 21, 1952)

NBC version

''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 The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

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 Destroyed may refer to: * ''Destroyed'' (Sloppy Seconds album), a 1989 album by Sloppy Seconds * ''Destroyed'' (Moby album), a 2011 album by Moby See also * Destruction (disambiguation) Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a ...

due to network practices. No episodes are known to exist under any of the program's five distinct names. In 2016, a 16mm kinescope was discovered by a film archivist that contained lost footage from two live CBS television shows. In addition to a nearly complete broadcast of ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

'', the reel of film also featured the final six minutes of ''Celebrity Time''. Both shows were broadcast on October 1. 1950. Conrad Nagel and Kitty Carlisle were among the celebrities seen from the B F Goodrich sponsored program.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0041016 1948 American television series debuts 1952 American television series endings 1940s American game shows 1950s American game shows American Broadcasting Company original programming Black-and-white American television shows CBS original programming English-language television shows Lost television shows NBC original programming