Dotto
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| Dotto | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Al Schwartz & "Snag" Werris |
| Presented by | Jack Narz |
| Narrated by | Ralph Paul |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 Minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS (daytime) NBC (primetime) |
| Original release | January 6 – August 15, 1958 |
| External links | |
| [{{#property:P856}} Website] | |
Dotto is an American television game show that was a combination of a general knowledge quiz and the children's game connect the dots. Jack Narz served as the program's host, with Colgate-Palmolive as its presenting sponsor.
Dotto premiered on January 6, 1958 as part of CBS' daytime lineup. The show grew in popularity rapidly and added a weekly primetime edition on NBC on Tuesday nights beginning July 1, 1958. Both series proved to be hits but Dotto met its demise after a contestant was found to have been given answers to her questions before the show. An investigation revealed that Dotto had been rigged for nearly its entire run, leading to the entire franchise's cancellation in August 1958 and an investigation into rigging practices on other quizzers of the time.
Contents
Gameplay
Two contestants, one a returning champion, competed in each game.
The object of the game was to identify the subject of a portrait. The portrait, however, was incomplete and in order to finish the portrait the players had to connect a series of fifty dots drawn into the picture. Each player saw the same portrait, but had their own set of dots to connect and both players were seated in a manner where they could not see each other or the other player's progress.
In order to connect the dots, both players were asked a series of questions. Each question had a value of dots attached, with the players able to choose five, eight, or ten dots. A specific category was in play for both players in a round of questioning, and play always started with the challenger.[1] If the contestant answered correctly, the corresponding amount of dots was connected one at a time on his/her portrait. Answering incorrectly or running out of time meant the opposing player got to have the dots connected on their portrait. Once a player had twenty-five of the dots connected, a clue was given as to the subject's identity. Another clue required ten additional dots to be connected, and ten more after that unlocked a final clue.
Once a player thought there was enough information to identify the subject, he/she would press a signaling device to indicate so. The player then moved over to an overhead projector called a "Dottograph" and wrote an answer on it. If the answer was wrong, the player automatically lost the game. If the answer was correct, Narz would say so and give the other player, who was seated far enough away that he/she could not see the opponent's answer, a chance to stay in the game by attempting to guess the subject. If that player did so, the game ended in a tie and a new game was started.
Play continued until one player was eliminated from the game. Once this happened, the surviving player became champion and won money for each dot that was left unconnected. The starting value for this was $10 on the daytime series and $100 on the nighttime series. A tie increased these values to $20 and $200, and a second tie increased them to $40 and $300.
After a game was completed, usually during the middle of each episode, a "Home Viewer Dotto" game was played, in which a person selected by postcard drawing was called by telephone live on the air for a chance to guess the person being drawn. If correct, the home viewer won a new car or other valuable prizes, and if incorrect, the viewer received a consolation prize (the daytime version gave away a supply of products advertised by the show's sponsor, Colgate-Palmolive, while the nighttime version gave away a trip). At the end of each episode, additional dots were connected and a clue was displayed for the next episode's "Home Viewer Dotto" game.[2]
Broadcast history
Dotto debuted on January 6, 1958 at 11:30 AM, replacing the long-running (and controversial) Warren Hull game Strike It Rich. Facing Bob Barker's popular Truth or Consequences on NBC and local programming on ABC (who had not programmed at 11:30 in three years), within six months Dotto became the highest-rated quiz program of the year and Narz achieved a popularity equal to that of Hal March on The $64,000 Question.
The show became so popular that on July 1 a weekly nighttime version began on NBC with the same format. One of the nighttime contestants, a young actress and model named Connie Hines, later became famous as Carol Post on the popular comedy Mister Ed.
Scandal and cancellation
Dotto's downfall began, almost by accident, in May 1958. A notebook belonging to contestant (and later journalist) Marie Winn was found by another contestant, Ed Hilgemeier, who discovered that the notebook included questions and answers to be used during Winn's appearances, one of which was against a woman named Yaffe Kimball. Executives at CBS and the show's sponsor, Colgate-Palmolive, later confirmed the suspicion about the country's new highest-rated quiz show. CBS executive vice president Thomas Fisher tested kinescopes of the show against Winn's notebook and concluded that the show looked fixed. CBS and Colgate executives also learned that the show's producers had paid Winn, Hilgemeier, and Kimball (who latter married and became Yaffe Kimball-Slatin) to keep quiet about the notebook and the fixing of the show. In August 1958, with the nighttime Dotto looking like a surefire hit, executives from both networks carrying the series met with its creator, Frank Cooper, concerning the potential rigging of the show. Cooper admitted that the show was indeed fixed. With this now out in the open, both CBS, NBC, and the sponsor decided to cancel Dotto immediately. The final NBC nighttime episode aired on August 12, 1958 and the CBS daytime series came to an end three days later.
In interviews, host Jack Narz stated that he was not notified of the cancellation until some point after the final episodes had been recorded. Narz was later subpoenaed and took a polygraph test, the results indicating that he was not connected to the fraud.[3]
Narz moved to a new show the following Monday, Top Dollar, which ran until October 23, 1959.
Aftermath
The Dotto revelations prompted the New York Journal-American, at last, to take seriously the previously-presented accusations by deposed Twenty One champion Herb Stempel that the popular nighttime quiz had been rigged, and the quiz show scandals were on in earnest.
Jack Narz continued to work in television, hosting not only Top Dollar but also Video Village (1960), Seven Keys (1960-1965), I'll Bet (1965), Beat the Clock (1969-1972), Concentration (1973-1978), and Now You See It (1974-1975). His last hosting appearance was on the March 5, 1982, episode of Password Plus.
Frank Cooper would never do another game show after Dotto, which was his longest-running game and his only one for CBS. His previous gaming efforts did not fare as well – his first game, an NBC show called Guess What Happened? (dropping the "Guess" after the first show), bombed after three episodes in 1952. Droodles, starring Roger Price, ran for three months in 1954 while ABC's Keep It in the Family ran for four months from 1957-1958.
Connie Hines was revealed to have been coached for her Dotto appearance but not given questions and answers in advance. She enjoyed a five-year run as Carol Post on Mister Ed and, after a few subsequent television guest roles, retired from acting entirely.
Marie Winn eventually became a journalist whose books include The Plug-In Drug, a scathing critique on television's influence over children. The book became somewhat controversial for its author having been circumspect about her role in one of the medium's greatest scandals.
Ed Hilgemeier and Yaffe Kimball-Slatin effectively disappeared into obscurity.
Revival
It was only in 2013 that RTBF revived the game in digitized form.
In 2014, it was announced that a revival of Dotto for French Television is in the works (entitled Fizzio).[4]
Foreign versions
Dotto was also hugely successful in the United Kingdom, where it ran on ITV from September 13, 1958 to June 23, 1960. This version was first hosted by Robert Gladwell, followed by Jimmy Hanley and then Shaw Taylor.[5]
Episode status
Although the series was presumably intact in 1958 (see above), the series is believed to have been destroyed sometime afterward as per network practices (and possibly by Colgate's insistence).
Two episodes are known to exist – a daytime episode from May 20 featuring Marie Winn's victory over Yaffe Kimball-Slatin (which was subject to the rigging controversy, see above), and the third-to-last nighttime episode from July 29 featuring Connie Hines.
References
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ Hevesi, Dennis. "Jack Narz, 85, Genial Host of Television Game Shows, Dies", The New York Times, October 16, 2008. Accessed October 17, 2008.
- ↑ Global, Hubert rework Dotto
- ↑ UK Game Shows: Dotto
- Joseph Stone with Tim Yohn, Prime Time and Misdemeanors (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press)
- Robert Metz, CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye (Chicago: Playboy Press, 1975)
