‘Tic Tac Dough’…NBC Studio 6B

‘Tic Tac Dough’…NBC Studio 6B

Below is host Jay Jackson with contestants on the primetime version of the show that ran from September ’57 till September ’58. The daytime version came from the Ziegfeld Theater. At the link is a clip from the show with Jackson as host, just before the Quiz Show scandals hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB6NmrgY48s&list=PL350DBC9C4C7F64B7&index=3&ab_channel=dentelTV1

Tic-Tac-Dough had a long, checkered history. Produced and originally hosted by Jack Barry, it debuted on NBC daytime on July 30, 1956. Barry was busy with his company’s prime-time hit ‘Twenty One’, and he eventually handed hosting chores off to Gene Rayburn. Announcing Legend Bill Wendell was the announcer and when Rayburn moved on in 1958, Wendell took over as host, continuing until this run of the show did its final broadcast on October 23, 1959. A prime-time version, hosted by Jay Jackson and later by Win Elliot, ran from September 12, 1957 until December 29, 1958.

What killed ‘Tic Tac Dough’ was the news that Barry and his line producer, Dan Enright, were rigging their shows. Most of the outrage was over their other prime-time series, ‘Twenty-One’, but there was plenty of evidence that the outcome of many a game of ‘Tic Tac Dough’ was prearranged. In particular, a ‘Tic Tac Dough’ contestant named Kirsten Falke was subpoenaed by a government investigation and she admitted that one of the show’s producers, Howard Felsher, coached her on how to win and gave her answers in advance. The prime-time version was yanked off the air but NBC attempted to keep the daytime version around for a time, swearing that it had been cleaned up and was now on the level. It may have been but audiences stopped watching.

How did one play ‘Tic Tac Dough’? Simple. Two contestants competed, one designated as “X” and one designated as “O,” just as in tic-tac-toe. Each of the nine boxes on a tic-tac-toe grid had a category assigned to it and a player could “win” that box by correctly answering a question in that category. Get three in a row and you win. Thanks to David Schwartz for the photo.

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