Monday, July 07, 2008

To Tell The Truth

From Wikipedia:
To Tell The Truth is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart and produced by Goodson-Todman Productions that has been aired intermittently in various formats since 1956, hosted by various television personalities.
The basic premise of the show consisted of a panel of four celebrities correctly identifyng a contestant (a "central character") from a choice of three possibilities, members of a "team of challengers." One of the contestants normally held an unusual occupation (a premise similar to the show's sister, What's My Line?) or had done something noteworthy, and it is this person whom the panel had to attempt to identify. Two of the people will tell lies, while the real person has sworn "to tell the truth.

To start the game, the host, along with the stars, read a sworn testimony signed by the real person on special documents called affidavits. Each of the three contestants claimed to be this person, and was interrogated in turn by the panel, who then voted for the challenger they believed to be the central character. However, any celebrity on the panel who actually knew or could recognize the central character would then disqualify himself or herself and abstain from voting, which would automatically be counted as a wrong vote for the panel.

Once the votes were in, the host would ask, "Will the real [person's name] please stand up?" The central character would stand, often after some brief playful feinting and false starts among all three challengers, and the two impostors would then reveal their real names and what they actually did. Prize money was awarded to the contestants based on how many wrong votes the impostors drew; the more successfully the challengers bluffed, the larger their final cash award would be.