8. You Had One Job! (To Tell The Truth)
As an impostor contestant on the classic game show To Tell The Truth, you only have one real task and that is to lie as best as you can to try and fool the celebrity panelists. Sometimes though, the impostors chosen are not the best liars and can easily give away that they are not the real person with their answers to the panelist's questions. However, on a rare occasion, an impostor is so bad at lying that they can't even get past their game's intro without letting the panelists know to not vote for them in the end.
So how do you avoid becoming one of the worst liars in To Tell The Truth history and steer yourself away from making a top 10 game show blunders list? Well, when asked "what is your name" by the announcer, don't go and say the wrong name!
When playing To Tell The Truth, the two impostor contestants for each game really only have one scripted job and that is to say, the name they are being provided. There are only five words that they need to say properly, "My name is" and the first and last name of their temporary identity. Everything else said during questioning is improvised and completely up to them. It may not be as easy of a job for the contestants as just saying "yes" or "no" on shows like "What's My Line" and "I've Got a Secret," but compared to what contestants had to do to earn some money on other game shows of the time, it was a pretty easy gig.
Maybe not easy enough for one impostor as he did something Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, the original producers of the show, probably didn't even think would ever happen.
Bud Collyer, the original host of To Tell The Truth, went through the usual proceedings of introducing another group of challengers to the panel to start another game. The dramatic wall raising music played, the lights dimmed on all three players and the camera zoomed in on challenger number one. Announcer Bern Bennett said one of the show's two most famous lines, "what is your name please," after the lights came up on contestant number one. At the moment, it seemed like another smooth intro was about to begin, but all was for not as instead of saying Mickey Sullivan, the contestant mistakenly says Mickey Spillane.
At this point, since he was the first to introduce himself, hearing "my name is Mickey Spillane" sounded normal, but once contestant number two said that his name was Mickey Sullivan, it didn't take long before the audience started laughing. Contestant one realized what he did as soon as he said his last name was Spillane, but is was too late. Before the game even started, he had been caught as a liar, and it was because of his own undoing.
Although this meant that the game was partially ruined, that didn't stop the panel and host Bud Collyer from enjoying the laugh presented to them. Plus, they were given a bonus laugh when Mickey Spillane decided to start walking down the stairs to his seat before the affidavit was even read. It's safe to say that it was not a good day for the man posing as Mickey Spillane, whose real name was James Bold.
Incidentally, Mickey Spillane is actually the name of a well-known American crime novelist who had written several books by the year 1958 when this broadcast of To Tell The Truth first aired. Mr. Bold probably just got the names Spillane and Sullivan mixed up in his mind. While it was most definitely embarrassing for him, it was entertaining for us.
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