Take a Good Look (TV series)
Take a Good Look | |
---|---|
Kovacs and wife Edie Adams in a promotional photo for the show, 1960 | |
Created by | Ernie Kovacs |
Directed by | Barry Shear Joey Behar |
Presented by | Ernie Kovacs |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 53 |
Production | |
Producers | Maury Cohen Milt Hoffman Peter Arnell |
Running time | 25 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | October 22, 1959 February 9, 1961 | –
Take a Good Look is an American television game show created by and starring Ernie Kovacs, which aired from 1959 to 1961 on ABC's Thursday-night block at 10:30 PM Eastern Time.
Season 1 consisted of 39 episodes, from October 22, 1959, to July 21, 1960. Season 2 was far shorter, airing just 14 episodes between October 27, 1960, and February 9, 1961.
Background
First appearing on television in 1951, Kovacs was an extremely prolific producer of television comedy throughout the 1950s. As a result of the critical success of his 1957 NBC special
As a result of this chance meeting, a business deal ensued in which Consolidated Cigar/Dutch Masters became the sole sponsor of Ernie's newest idea for a television series.[2] In the show itself, Ernie performed in many Dutch Masters commercials, usually presented as yet another type of "blackout gag" shown during the show and themselves unique due to being done completely in pantomime and directed by Kovacs himself.[5] The Congress of TV Editorial Writers was impressed enough with the silent commercials to award Kovacs with their Madison Avenue Award in 1960.[6]
Format
Take A Good Look was a parody of the
In early episodes, the clues were presented by way of props and short video clips that had no cast, but eventually the show switched to using films of short comedy blackout gags starring Kovacs and a regular cast of Peggy Connelly, Jolene Brand, and Bobby Lauher.[citation needed] The clips pertained only vaguely to the person about whom guesses were being made. For example, for a woman whose secret was that she was a harness track jockey, Kovacs would show a short skit about two competing chariot racers trying to sabotage each other during a race. Another example was for a champion bubble blower, Kovacs showed a skit regarding a model train set for a movie scene; the sole hint was the sound a train makes, "choo-choo", and the extreme vagueness of this clue suggests that the skits were meant to be recycled.
Some of the people who were the focus of the guessing game were ordinary people who had experienced an extraordinary event, recently been in the news, or enjoyed a distinction of some kind. A panelist would be awarded one point if they guessed the person's identity/secret. At the end of the show, prizes would be awarded to the home viewer represented by the panelist with the most points.[3]
Panelists
Appearing regularly throughout the run were Edie Adams, Cesar Romero, Hans Conried, and Ben Alexander. Carl Reiner only appeared regularly in Season 2.
Among the less frequent panelists of Season 1 were Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jane Wyatt, Mort Sahl, Jack Carson, Tony Randall, Janet Leigh, and Jim Backus. No infrequent panelists appeared in Season 2.[2]
References
- ISBN 0-345-45542-8, p. 1011
- ^ a b c "Take a Good Look". Unofficial Ernie Kovacs website.
- ^ ISBN 0-918432-61-8
- ^ "DVD Calendar Feature Articles - Metacritic".
- ^ "When in Doubt, Punt". Lakeland Ledger. 15 May 1960. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
- ^ Heffernan, Harold (5 February 1960). "Life of Riley Over for Bendix". Toledo Blade. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
External links
- Take a Good Look at IMDb