Word: dotto
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...such an atmosphere, fixing was epidemic. On CBS, testified a network spokesman, Dotto went crooked. So did For Love or Money (whose "dancing decimal machine" was rigged to chisel down the contestants' possible winnings). After a contestant reported he had been fed an answer, CBS even began to investigate The $64,000 Challenge (which was owned by a packaging firm controlled by CBS-TV President Lou Cowan). The network chucked all three shows between August 1958 and last January. But it has continued to ride with Name That Tune, though it publicly admits that some contestants are asked...
...idea might be premature, but not by too much. The increasingly loud and indignant question among TV viewers this week is: Which of the quiz shows are rigged? From unquestionably crooked Dotto (TIME, Sept. 1), ruined by the revelations of a part-time butler, actor and near-professional quiz contestant named Edward Hilgemeier Jr., suspicion last week spread to the biggest of all, that hallowed battleground of Van Doren and Von Nardroff, NBC's Twenty...
...Dotto's note-grabbing stand-by was far from happy with his hush money. He brooded for days, finally took his information to the FCC. Within hours Colgate Palmolive had a copy of his affidavit, the networks were informed, and everyone was in a lather. Everyone was also in agreement-Dotto was blotto. CBS replaced the daytime show with another quiz, Top Dollar. NBC, reading the public reaction more accurately, tried a whole new category: filmed drama...
...time and talent that is scheduled for quizzes this fall was suddenly as suspect as a hound dog with feathers on its face. The air was full of rumors about other shows, involving the most spectacular brain athletes. The audience was just about ready to believe that a Dotto spokesman was talking for every quiz show on the air when he said: "Look, this may be a quiz business to the housewives of America, but to us, it's the entertainment business. There's no reason for the public to know what happens behind the scenes...
...Quiz shows that replace crooked quiz shows may be regarded as fair game for crooks: televiewers from New York, Massachusetts and Virginia have already used pen, paste pot and scissors in an effort to break the bank on Top Dollar, CBS replacement for Dotto (see above). Since the show promised up to $5,000 for dollar bills bearing certain serial numbers, the light-fingered operators altered other serial numbers in order to qualify. All they won was a Secret Service warning that repetition might bring them an alternate prize: up to 15 years in prison and a $5.000 fine...