''House Party'' is an American
radio
Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...
daytime
variety/
talk show
A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...
that aired on
CBS Radio and on
ABC Radio from January 15, 1945 to October 13, 1967.
[Dunning, John]
''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio''
(Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1998), p. 333. The show also had a long run on
CBS Television
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
as ''Art Linkletter's House Party'' and, in its final season, ''The Linkletter Show'',
[McNeil, Alex. ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present'', Fourth Edition (]Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English 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 ...
, 1996), p. 58 airing from September 1, 1952 to September 5, 1969.
The series was launched when producer
John Guedel learned that an ad agency wanted to do a new daytime audience participation show, and he pitched a series that would star
Art Linkletter. Asked to provide an outline, Guedel and Linkletter came up with a format that would give Linkletter great freedom and allow for spontaneity.
[Dunning, p. 334]
Broadcast history
Radio
Sponsored by
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston.
Over the year ...
, the 25-minute ''House Party'' originated from
Columbia Square in
Hollywood and premiered on
CBS Radio on January 15, 1945. During its first run it was heard weekdays at 4 p.m., three days a week, through January 10, 1947. Following a break, it then ran weekdays at 3:30 p.m. from December 1, 1947 to December 31, 1948. It continued to be sponsored by General Electric even as it switched to
ABC Radio, where it ran for 30 minutes in the same timeslot from January 3 to July 1, 1949. ABC then aired it as a 25-minute
sustaining program
A sustaining program is a radio or television program that, despite airing on a commercial broadcast station, does not have commercial sponsorship or advertising. This term, mostly used in the United States, was common in the early days of radio, b ...
, weekdays at noon from September 19 to December 30, 1949.
The show returned to CBS Radio only days later, making its longest continued run from January 2, 1950 to October 13, 1967 as a 30-minute show running weekdays at various times. Sponsors included
Pillsbury from 1950 to 1952, and
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and su ...
from 1952 to 1956.
During its first season, the soundtrack from the TV show was run immediately on radio following the telecast.
Television
Linkletter and Guedel first spun off the format to television with the prime-time
ABC show ''Life with Linkletter'', which ran October 6, 1950 to April 25, 1952.
[McNeil, pp. 480-481] Under the title ''Art Linkletter's House Party'', the show premiered on
CBS Television
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
on September 1, 1952,
and had become television's longest-running daytime variety show by the time it completed its run on September 5, 1969. The show ran first at 2:45 pm ET for only fifteen minutes, but by February 1953 it aired from 2:30 pm to 3:00 pm ET, remaining in that time slot for 15 years. From 1968 to 1969, the show aired as a
morning show
Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...
titled ''The Linkletter Show''. Linkletter had a similar but unrelated
prime-time TV series, ''The Art Linkletter Show'', on NBC television from February 18 to September 16, 1963.
The CBS program originated from
KNXT. Sponsors were
Pillsbury,
Green Giant canned vegetables,
Kellogg cereals, and
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and su ...
.
John Guedel was the producer, Marty Hill was the director, and Jack Slattery was the announcer.
[
Following CBS' cancellation of the daytime TV show, NBC Television revived the old ABC series ''Life With Linkletter'', this time co-hosted by Linkletter and his son ]Jack Linkletter
Arthur Jack Linkletter (November 20, 1937 – December 18, 2007) was an American game show and television host and entertainer. He was the son of Art Linkletter.
Early life
Linkletter was born Arthur Jack Linkletter in San Francisco. He was the ...
. This aired on weekday afternoons from December 29, 1969, to September 25, 1970.
A new, syndicated version of the show, called ''House Party with Steve Doocy'', ran during 1990.[McNeil, pp. 393-394]
Synopsis
Hosted by Linkletter, ''House Party'' featured everything from household hints to hunts for missing heirs. A humorous monologue by Linkletter could be followed by an audience participation quiz to win prizes, musical groups, informal celebrity interviews and guest speakers from assorted walks of life. One popular long running feature of the program was ''"Guess What's In The House"'', a game in which studio audience members would be given clues to the contents of a small model of a split level home placed on a center stage podium. A similar concept was later adapted for the ''"What's Inside The Box"'' segment on the game show ''Let's Make a Deal
''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is a television game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created and produced by Stefan Hatos and Mo ...
''. Ideas for the show were devised by producer John Guedel and his father, Walter, but Linkletter never used scripts or rehearsed.
The show's best-remembered segment was "Kids Say the Darndest Things", in which Linkletter interviewed schoolchildren between the ages of five and ten. During the segment's 27-year run, Linkletter interviewed an estimated 23,000 children. The popularity of the segment led to a TV series with the same title hosted by Bill Cosby
William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American retired comedian, actor, and media personality. Often cited as a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, Cosby was a film, television, and stand-up comedy ...
on CBS from January 1998 to June 2000, and a revival since 2019.
Books
The show's popularity led to the books ''Kids Say the Darndest Things'' (Prentice-Hall
Prentice Hall was a major American educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth century. In its last few years it ...
, 1957) with ''House Party'' mentioned in the front cover blurb. It was followed by ''Kids Still Say the Darndest Things!'' (Bernard Geis, 1961), both illustrated by ''Peanuts
''Peanuts'' (briefly subtitled ''featuring Good ol' Charlie Brown'') is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run ext ...
'' cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. The 1957 book was reissued in 2005 by Ten Speed Press (, )
References
External links
"Art Linkletter was first a radio guy"
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:House Party (Radio And Tv Show)
1952 American television series debuts
1970 American television series endings
1950s American variety television series
1960s American variety television series
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1950s American television talk shows
1960s American television talk shows
1970s American television talk shows
Black-and-white American television shows
CBS talk shows
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