Word: dotto
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1958-1958
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...person who had been hanging around the show for days, the only real surprise was the stand-by's shock at his discovery. "Every single one of us was briefed beforehand," one Dotto winner told TIME last week. "But it was all done so subtly, you could never say positively that you'd been given any specific answer. One day I finally went up to one of the producers and said: 'How on earth can you get away with it?' He looked me right in the eye and said, 'I don't know what...
...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...