Beat the Clock (1950–1961) User Reviews

"Next Time Might Be Your Time.............

[redryan64 · 6/10 · 19 November 2014]

...............To Beat The Clock!"

WEEKLY DOSE OF humorous situations created by obstructing otherwise simple tasks with silly complications. We don't know how else we could describe it!

HAVING VETERAN RADIO Actor Bud Collyer (he voiced the Man of Steel on THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN Radio Show) as the Host/MC, this mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production was a very popular series for over a decade; first ob CBS and later on ABC. There were no pretensions of its being High Art or PBS pseudo classy stuff. Fun of the participating contestants and the amusement of the viewers were paramount.

AFTER COMPLETING THE assigned task(s) within the allotted time limit, the in-studio folks chosen to compete would receive whatever prizes for which they were eligible. A typical stunt would be introduced by MC Mr. Collyer with something like this:

"Yes, Mr. Schultz, all you have to do is carry six eggs one at a

time up this ladder and put them in that bucket. You have 45

seconds to do. Ha, ha, ha, ha! But we didn't tell you that you

have to wear a pair of roller skates and be blindfolded!"

WELL, WE DO exaggerate, but you get the picture!

OVER THE YEARS we know that the show had many $ponsor$; but for some inexplicable reason we remember that Sylvania Light Bulbs was one of their early commercial advertisers.

IT IS TRULY strange how we can remember things like this, yet we cannot recall what our spouses told us this morning! Isn't tat right, Schultz?

Like a pleasant fellow who has never tried to stand out great

[patrickfilbeck · 7/10 · 17 December 2021]

This original version of the Beat the Clock franchise is also the best version at the same time. Simply charming and in a beautiful classic, contemporary style, sympathetically moderated and just wonderfully innocent. A beautiful show, which is not one of the best of its time, but has more or less co-invented a genre on which many great programs were based.

The Producers of Fear Factor and Dog Eat Dog Should Watch this Show

[Sargebri · 2 March 2005]

This is truly one of the classic game shows from the golden era of television. This show is definitely better than shows like "Fear Factor" and "Dog Eat Dog", which to me take the premise of "Beat the Clock" to a rather unwatchable extreme. At least the contestants of BTC didn't humiliate themselves or put themselves in great danger as they tried to win prizes every week. You really could tell that even if they lost on the show that they still had fun and really had a good time and it was for the whole family. The other two shows just seem like they take pride in trying to sicken as many people as they possibly can and they also seem to take great pride in humiliating people and putting them in all sorts of dangerous situations. Hopefully, a new generation can see why "Beat the Clock" was so beloved and then question why such garbage as the other two shows are still on the air.

I was a contestant in 1961

[lstolz-18869 · 10/10 · 4 May 2016]

I was a contestant in 1961and was picked out of the audience to do a trick by myself....I had to wear a jumpsuit which I put on backwards by mistake and was holding it closed in front...Bud asked me if I had butterflies I did not beat the clock so I got only a Polaroid camera,which I used for quite a few years...at the end of the show he asked my son who was 8 years old at the time and was in the audience with my husband to come on stage and asked him if he wanted to be a policeman like his father...he said no that they work too hard and he wanted to become a teacher...I wish I could get a copy of that episode it would be so nice seeing it again...bud was so nice to talk to...I do have a lovely 8X10 photo that was sent to me some time later,of Bud and me...I love it....

Beat the Clock- Remember the Cone Controversy?

[edwagreen · 5/10 · 11 November 2009]

Typical game show of the 1950s, where groups competed for prizes by engaging in stunts to be completed before the time stopped. It could become hilarious, but after a while, boredom could set in.

As far as Bud Collier, forget it.

Many people conveniently forget the controversy he was in that might have cost him his job.

A contestant appeared and Collier made sure to ask him his name, standard procedure on any game show. The problem was that Collier said to Mr. Cone: How do you spell it? C-o-n-e? He had to make sure that everyone had to know that people with the last name of Cohen never appeared on the program. Since when were contestants asked to spell their last names on any show? This was bigotry at its worst and Collier and the show executives were put on the spot by a barrage of nasty letters, telegrams, etc. to the network.

No wonder they had a black family on. They had to cut down on the prejudice.

Good show. Great host.

[marbleann · 4 February 2006]

I remember this show years ago. This along with To Tell the Truth, What's My Line, I've Got a Secret and the Old Price is Right were staples in my home. I agree with the person who said that shows like the Fear Factor should take a look at this show. It was very simplistic. A couple would attempt these seemingly impossible stunts. If they completed the first stunt they got a prize worth 100.00 , the second 200 and a bonus round in which the female has to figure out a famous quote from jumbled words. If they win that they usually will get nice TV and in later seasons a TV and a stereo. If they just won the 200.00 round they might get a washing machine or a fridge and 100.00 a radio. The stunts were not dangerous but just as suspenseful as they are in shows like Fear Factor. If the stunt involved something like whipped cream or water one of the models would come out and take a picture. What is amazing is a lot of the women are wearing high heel shoes and a dress while doing these stunts. I would say most of the time people are able to complete the bonus. But some of the shows the stunts seem very hard. Later they added these super bonus stunts, worth 1000's and the amount went up s long as no one got them. These tasks were next to impossible. If I described them one would think they weren't until they actually saw the stunt. One involved wearing a hat and getting the balls hanging from the rim to balance on the rim. One involved a toupee. I am now looking at the GSN and the stunt is up to 26,000!

What I think sets the shows of the 60's apart from the game shows of today was the hosts. Bud Collyer, Bill Cullen, Daly , and Garry Moore, were all class acts. And the lack of vulgarity. Beat the Clock showed that stunts can be exciting without being vulgar and exploitive. Bud Collyer was almost as involved in the stunts as the contestants. He treated everyone very nice and if the contestants showed up with their children he would take time to talk to them and give the girls a Roxanne doll(the hostess)and the boy a board game. Even if the kids weren't there he would send them something. I really miss hosts like him. Who seem to be having just as good a time as the contestants. They all seem so cynical now.

Mistake

[Paul-308 · 27 January 2006]

Roxanne Arlen was not on this show.It was Delores (Roxanne) Rosedale that was the co-star.In the early 50s she was a major league star...and among the most glamorous females on TV.Many people remember Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield,but the actress with real style,real quality and real honor was Roxanne Rosedale.Her run on Beat the Clock (1950-1955) made her a regular television attraction for untold how many guys.From what I read she left the show to get married and have a child.I guess after that she became a full time mom and wife and ducked the Hollywood scene.Roxanne even had a Roxanne doll back in her Beat the Clock days.It sorta didn't look a whole lot like her,but she handed them to girls that appeared on the show with their parents.The dolls had a camera with strap that went around the dolls neck,much like the real Roxanne did on the show when a contestant would get covered in some gloppy mess,she would dart out from offstage with camera at the ready to take a snap of the laughable scene.Of course using the Sylvania blue dot for sure shot flash bulb the sponsor was hawking.Wonder if there ever was any film in that camera....and if so,where are those shots today? There very much needs to be a DVD of seasons of Beat the Clock offered for sale,the 3-4 episodes (Kinescope versions)that are now commercially available are surely not enough for BTC and Roxanne fans everywhere. *******Update*********** Roxanne fans....we need to straighten the Roxanne tale out....Seemingly every site has Roxanne Arlen in the place of Dolores Rosedale.....We know she was married in 1954 to Tom Roddy from New York,and we know she had a daughter "Anne" in 1955 after her Beat the Clock stint was over.She was dismissed from Beat the Clock,supposibly asking for more money.She later blamed it on Bud Collyer for her dismissal,him being jealous of her and all (false).She was in a 15 second beach scene in "the Seven Year Itch",and was on many magazine covers.She wanted to be a serious actress and a wife more than anything else on earth.She got 50% of her wish by 1954.There's what we know people.....Keep the Roxanne Rosedale spirit alive.....lets set her career straight...and find out what happened to the biggest thing on TV in the 50s.....

Where's "Roxanne"?

[robertchamp2002 · 22 February 2006]

Whatever happened to Dolores Rosedale? Is she still alive? If so, she would in her late seventies. I've come across more than one site that identifies her with Roxanne Arlen--so the IMDb is not alone in this. I'm not certain how the confusion started, unless Ms. Arlen (who died today, Feb. 22) herself did some game shows. The two women are the same physical types (curvacious blondes), but it is quite obvious, from the pictures of the two at a Roxanne-dedicated website, that they are different people. It's curious that someone who was once so famous could slip so completely into oblivion. You'd think that some TV historian would be scrambling after her story.

Wonderful show

[bigboy1069 · 20 February 2006]

A truly wonderful 50's era show. In addition to Sylvania, this show was also sponsored by Fresh deodorant makers and also by Hazel Bishop, a cosmetics line manufacturer. When the husband/wife teams won the jackpot prize, Sylvania gave away TV sets as prizes while Fresh gave away a wide variety of things such as washer/dryers, refrigerators, or Air Conditionors. The stunts always had an element of humor to them and at times did seem rather difficult, but more often than not teams were able to complete them. There was also a super bonus round which was attempted after the $200 clock had been beaten. This involved a very difficult stunt. For every unsuccessful attempt, $1,000 was added to the prize bonus. The most difficult stunt that I saw had the husband wearing a football helmet with a small plate turned upside down attached to the top of the helmet. The husband then had to balance a wooden dowel attached to a fishing pole on top of the plate. This stunt reached the mid $60 thousands figure before it was successfully completed.

Did the inclusion of a Black Family force "Hazel Bishop Cosmetics "to pull their Sponsorship?

[mitchbear · 17 March 2007]

I began about a couple of years ago watching Kinescope repeats of Beat the Clock on "the Game Show Network". It brought back many memories from when I originally watched it live when I was a kid. One night, among the repeats, I notice the inclusion of an African American family as contestants. I was surprised, and I guess so were a lot of the viewers in the fifties. Because the only time you seen Black people on Television in the fifties, were ether-portraying servants, or Musical entertainers appearing on Variety shows. But I did thought it was interesting that "Beat the Clock" included an African American Family that I think on their next appearance on the show to continue with their stunts, they had no sponsor.... It was too bad, but understandable that "Hazel Bishop Cosmetics " pulled their sponsorship on the family's second appearance. But one has to remember that in fifties and into the early sixties, Television networks and their sponsors did not want to offend their racist Network affricates in the South. So any appearance of Black on Television then was nil.... But I have applause Bud Collier and the producers for being bold enough to take the risk to include a Black Family on the show at a time when Black were beginning to make progress in terms of respect and dignity in the media.