At the beginning of the 80's, the networks were experimenting with "reality" TV. NBC, starved for a hit series other than Little House on The Prairie or Diff'rent Strokes, turned to George Schlatter (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), and got a few years out of Real People. Independent producer Alan Landsburg (In Search Of....) was in charge of ABC's That's Incredible!. So, how would CBS respond? By calling on some friends.
Specifically, game show icons Mark Goodson & Bill Todman, no strangers to scripted programming themselves (i.e. Branded, The Rebel). In the summer of 1980, Goodson-Todman served up That's My Line, a summer series that gave Bob Barker something to do while Price is Right was on summer break.
That's My Line ran for two short seasons in the summers of 1980 and '81. A YouTube commentator has noted how the scripted elements of the show were a little embellished, which, it can be argued, could also apply to its competitors. One episode featured radio & cartoon legend Mel Blanc and his son, Noel. We have a clip of that over at Saturday Morning Archives.
This complete episode, the only full broadcast available, comes from 1981.
This is a little complicated, so bear with me:
ReplyDeleteOnce on Real People, they did a story about a guy named "Omar", who ran a school for panhandlers in NYC, teaching how to scam people for handouts.
This "story" was a hoax - but Real People ran it as though it were ... well, real.
Not too long after it aired, "Omar" and his beggars school appeared on That's My Line - and "Omar" came on stage to talk to Bob Barker - who then exposed him as Alan Abel, who'd been staging hoaxes all over the country for years.
Barker showed clips of various stunts that Abel and various helpers had put on (so to speak), including quite a few spots on To Tell The Truth (you can find many of these on YouTube, if you put in the time).
Among Alan Abel's hoaxes were SINA, an organization that wanted to put clothes on "naked animals"; "Mrs. Yetta Bronstein", a Jewish mother who ran for President in 1964 (actually Abel's wife Jeannie); "Prof. Bunker C. Hill", who wanted to deport fat people for causing air pollution; "Bruce Spencer", who held that the big toe was the source of all human health ...
... and many many more ...
Alan Abel wrote a couple of books about his exploits; he never tried to con anybody out of money or property, but was just trying to see how much the media of that time were willing to believe; as you can see, in the case of Real People he scored a victory, and Mark Goodson (who became a close friend) was more than willing to help out.
One last item:
In 1980, Alan Abel managed to place a serious-sounding obituary for himself in The New York Times.
Abel went to some lengths to convince the Times was the real thing, providing statements from family, friends, and morticians (all of whom were in on the gag).
Abel kept the gag going for about a week, before explaining it all to the Times.
In 2018, the Times ran this:
Master Hoaxer Alan Abel
(On Good Authority)
Has Died At 94
This time, it was real.
And to its credit, the Times obit was even more detailed than the 1980 version was (you can find it online).
OK, it's sort of off-topic, but I thought you'd like to know ...
Oh, by the way:
If you stuck around for the credits, you might have noticed that one of That's My Line's producers was Ann Elder, a writer-comedienne who was a frequent flyer on Goodson-Todman game shows (Match Game etc.)-
- and who, a few years before, was a cast member on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (see how this all ties together?).
Oh, I knew Ann had been on Laugh-In, and was a recurring regular on Match Game. She did some writing for other shows during the 70's.
ReplyDeleteAs for Alan Abel, I'd heard of this guy, too. Seems cooking up hoaxes was all he could do with his life before writing his memoirs. Really needed a real job.
Belated Reply:
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have missed the point:
Cooking up hoaxes was Alan Abel's job - or perhaps more accurately, his profession.
Over the years, Alan Abel got many tv people - like Mark Goodson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, The Amazing Randi, and many others - to help him stage his hoaxes (and fool many "serious" people into buying them at face value).
Abel's track record with various media giants was pretty impressive over the long haul.