You're in the Picture - The prime
time game show YOU'RE IN THE PICTURE/CBS/1961
was one of the biggest flops and one of the
shortest lived shows in TV history. The
program's format invited four celebrity
panelists to stick their heads through cut-outs
in an oversized picture scene, the kind found at
amusement park. Using clues supplied by host
Jackie Gleason, the celebrity guests had to
guess the subject of the picture in front of
them. When the group successfully identified the
picture, they started over with a new picture to
solve.
Unfortunately, Jackie Gleason was so
disappointed at the show that on the very next
week's broadcast, he greeted the viewing
audience and apologized for the show's poor
quality calling it "that bomb." He then reworked
the show into THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW, an
interview talk show that ran from January 27
through March 24, 1961.
TRIVIA NOTE:
A few years later a show called TURN-ON was
cancelled by ABC 10 minutes into the broadcast
on February 5, 1969. The program was a blatant
LAUGH -IN imitator using fast-paced animation,
videotape, stop-action film, electronic
distortion, and computer effects. Laugh-In
performer Teresa Graves was a guest-star, in the
first and only episode.
