''Cash and Carry'' is an American television game show hosted by
Dennis James
Dennis James (born Demie James Sposa, August 24, 1917 – June 3, 1997) was an American television personality, philanthropist, and commercial spokesman. Until 1976, he had appeared on TV more times and for a longer period than any other televi ...
that ran on the then-both affiliates of the
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
from June 20, 1946, to July 1, 1947. This made it not only the sole program aired on Thursday nights by the network (although it moved to Tuesday nights in April), but also the first "network" television
game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...
(all previous television games and quizzes were aired on only one station).
This series was sponsored by
Libby's
Libby's (Libby, McNeill & Libby) was an American company that produced canned food and beverages. The firm was established in 1869 in Chicago, Illinois. The Libby's trademark is currently owned by Libby's Brand Holding based in Geneva, Switzerlan ...
Foods, and produced by Art Stark, later producer of ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...
'' from 1962 to 1969. The show was set in a supermarket, with contestants taking cans, which had questions for them to answer, off the shelves.
Format
In his book, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'', David Weinstein described ''Cash and Carry'' as an "early television adaptation of ''Truth or Consequences''". James asked contestants questions attached to cans of the sponsor's products, with correct answers worth $5, $10, or $15. Other tasks were stunts, such as a husband and wife having to work together for a common goal (such as the wife, blindfolded, having to feed her husband).
Home viewers could call in during the show to guess what was hidden under a barrel.
Episode status
No episodes are known to exist, as almost all television broadcasts from the first year of United States network television are
lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
* Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
*Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
due to a lack of means to preserve such content. The known exceptions are a few episodes of ''
Kraft Television Theatre
''Kraft Television Theatre'' is an American anthology drama television series running from 1947 to 1958. It began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Imperial Chees ...
'' from early 1947 which were made to test the
kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 194 ...
process which allowed television series to be preserved.
Even after the kinescope process was created, many shows were still not regularly preserved until the late 1960s.
See also
*
List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network
This is a list of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network, which operated in the United States from 1942 to 1956. All regularly scheduled programs which were aired on the DuMont network are listed below, regardless of whether they origi ...
*
List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts
*
1946-47 United States network television schedule
* ''
Supermarket Sweep
''Supermarket Sweep'' is an American television game show. The format combines an ordinary team-based quiz show with the novel concept of a live, timed race through a supermarket. In the timed race, cameras follow the teams with shopping carts t ...
''
* ''
Shop 'til You Drop
''Shop 'til You Drop'' is an American game show that was on the air intermittently between 1991 and 2005. Four different series were produced during that time, with the first premiering on Lifetime on July 8, 1991, and the fourth series airing its ...
''
Bibliography
* David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia:
Temple University Press
Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...
, 2004)
* Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains p ...]
, 1964)
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 0129670, Cash and Carry
DuMont historical website
DuMont Television Network original programming
1940s American game shows
1946 American television series debuts
1947 American television series endings
Black-and-white American television shows
English-language television shows
Lost television shows