The Plot Thickens (1963 TV Special) User Reviews

Groucho hijacks pilot.

[westernone · 5/10 · 7 October 2015]

The real problem with this unsold pilot is not so much it's premise, but it's got a personality problem. It might be a bit flat, but it might work well enough except for Groucho's appearance on the panel.

I state here that I'm a longtime fan of Mr. Marx, but he is too much for this program's brittle format.

The tepid little murder mystery had a chance, but only if one takes it seriously, made even harder when the performers who acted in the film musts sustain their persona's with enough intensity to answer unscripted questions AS the fairly cipherous characters assigned to them.It requires focused attention and concentration to work.

Groucho takes nothing seriously. He asks fresh questions of the girl, talks about the prize money, imagines himself in some plot elements, etc. And more or less tells everyone how silly and undeserving of your attention it all is. and so he utterly torpedoes the show.

How could they ever think that this would have made a good TV series?!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 2 June 2018]

I really enjoy seeing TV pilot episodes. Most of them never actually did become a television series--and seeing what might have been is pretty interesting. In the case of "The Plot Thickens", you can clearly see why the program never became a regular show...its concept was poor and it really was a rather dumb show.

The show consisted of a "What's My Line" sort of panel consisting of some detective, some ordinary guy, Jan Sterling (the actress) and, of all people, Groucho Marx. The four watch a re-enactment on the television about a crime and then the four panelists interview four folks from the re-enactment to try to deduce WHO the murderer is.

There were two huge problems with the program. First, the show was incredibly static and lacked energy and fun. As a result, it was awfully dull. Second, some of the acting in the re-enactment was simply god-awful....embarrassingly bad even. These, combined with a dumb game show idea made for a VERY difficult show to even finish...it was THAT bad!