To Tell the Truth 

Classic game show in which a person of some notoriety and two impostors try to match wits with a panel of four celebrities. The object of the game is to try to fool the celebrities into ... See full summary »

Stars:

Bud Collyer, Kitty Carlisle, Tom Poston

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Bud Collyer	...	Himself - Host / ... 451 episodes, 1956-1968
Kitty Carlisle	...	Herself - Panelist 383 episodes, 1957-1968
Tom Poston	...	Himself - Panelist 317 episodes, 1959-1967

Storyline

Classic game show in which a person of some notoriety and two impostors try to match wits with a panel of four celebrities. The object of the game is to try to fool the celebrities into voting for the two impostors. Each wrong vote would be worth $250 ($100 in the daytime version).

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Plot Keywords:

celebrity | panel | deception | guessing game | quiz | 

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Genres:

Family | Game-Show

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Certificate:

TV-G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1956 (USA)

Filming Locations:

CBS Television City - 7800 Beverly Boulevard, Fairfax, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, CBS Television Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min (1962-1968) 30 min (1956-1967)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (1956-1966) Color (1967-1968)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Olympic diving champion Pat McCormick once appeared on the show pretending to be a female bullfighter.

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Quotes

[last lines spoken each episode]
Host Bud Collyer: [says goodnight to the panel, then faces the camera] Bud Collyer saying goodnight from >>name of sponsor<< and
[points right index finger at camera]
Host Bud Collyer: reminding you to tell the truth.
[waves at camera]
Host Bud Collyer: Good night, everybody.

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Alternate Versions

Also available in a computer colorized version.

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Connections

Referenced in Conan: The Douche Who Lost His Bag (2012)

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Soundtracks

To Tell The Truth
(1962-1967)
(Theme 2)
Composed by Bob Cobert (BMI)

User Reviews

Classic

My rating of "eight" refers to the Bud Collyer-hosted version from the '60s which I've been watching lately on Buzzr. I haven't really kept up with the show in its recent permutations.

I watched the show back in the day and loved it. I really like the re-runs today of the old programs; they're irresistible in terms of audience participation. Collyer is one of the two or three greatest game show hosts ever IMO - good-natured, disciplined, absolutely real. I believe he was quite a spiritual man and wrote a book or two about his faith. The go-to panel for me was (from left) Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean (who veered in his lifetime from being a disciple of Wilhelm Reich to being a fundamentalist Christian), and Kitty Carlisle; this panel got locked into place at some point in about '65 after a fair amount of experimentation and quite a few not-so-good panelists. (Buzzr rarely plays a show from 1964-65-66 - is it because they have trouble getting clearances from companies who sponsored the show then but don't want their old-fashioned ads shown today?) Don Ameche was a frequent panelist circa 1962; he often became Mr. Inquisitor, with a harsh tone to his questioning - Don, baby, it's a game show! Polly Bergen made a bit too much of her ditziness (ironically, she later became a strong feminist). Johnny Carson was still mastering the art of being magnetic on camera; he literally never looks at the camera on TTTT and comes across as your basic leering smart-ass (which of course he was; he later learned to ameliorate the smart-ass thing with greater approachability). Tom Poston was superb much of the time but occasionally seemed Tommy Smothers-like in his inability to speak a coherent sentence; long, long seconds of air time would pass as Poston tried to think of something to say. The most drop-dead gorgeous panelist in the history of the show was Dina Merrill who virtually glowed. (And was fabulously rich.)

The quality of the guests - well, it varies, but I'd say seven out of ten are interesting. Lots of guests from the Kennedy Administration, like for example a kid who joined the Peace Corps - everyone on the show just has huge admiration for this guy and for the idea of the corps. This is fascinating, historically - hard to remember, now, just how treasured the Peace Corps concept was circa 1961-63. Ancel Keys made an appearance - in the early '60s he was a supremely confident (in fact arrogant) researcher on nutrition, a hugely influential guy, but his reputation has taken major hits since then around the topic of fat. Science marches on.

One thing I'm confused about is the truth-telling of guests. In very early shows, Bud tells us that only the real person needs to tell the truth. Later on, this caveat is dropped completely.