Here is the late Jack Narz, from a 1958 telecast of the nighttime version of Dotto, extolling the vitues of Fab detergent.
The nighttime version of Dotto aired on NBC, while the far more successful daytime version aired on CBS. Colgate (which made Fab detergent) cancelled sponsorship of the show and the respective networks took Dotto off the air in the wake of allegations of the quiz show being rigged.
Jack hosted both versions
Showing posts with label Dotto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dotto. Show all posts
Monday, January 26, 2009
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Jack Narz, R.I.P.
Former game show host Jack Narz, who hosted numerous game and quiz shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including Dotto, the show which touched off the Quiz Show Scandal, passed away on Wednesday morning at Cedars-Sinai Hospital at Beverly Hills, California at age 85.
I have a sister (who has a couple of web blogs) who remembers watching Dotto when she was three years old.
Mr. Narz was the brother of fellow former game show host Tom Kennedy (You Don't Say, the original version of Split Second, one of the various revivals of Name That Tune, amongst others).
Before he became a game show host, Jack was a regular on the old Space Patrol show, in which he hawked the sponsor's products, Ralston cereals such as Wheat Chex and Rice Chex, as well as special offers associated with the products, as seen here in this clip from 1953.
The daytime Dotto episode which touched off the quiz show firestorm was the episode in which one of the contestants (Marie Winn, who later became an author) had been given the answers in advance. A standby contestant spotted an open notebook in the contestants' dressing room, found the answers, ripped out that page from the notebook, and showed the page to the contestant's opponent. After receiving $1,500, this standby contestant was ready to forget the whole thing until the losing contestant received $4,000, the same amount as the winning contestant. Having felt double-crossed, the backup contestant, a part-time actor and butler by the name of Edward Hilgemeier, lodged a complaint with the Colgate-Parmolive Company, the show's sponsor. Shortly afterward, both the daytime (CBS) and nighttime (NBC) versions were cancelled by the respective networks.
Jack Narz did not know of the nafarious practice used on that show.
I have a sister (who has a couple of web blogs) who remembers watching Dotto when she was three years old.
Mr. Narz was the brother of fellow former game show host Tom Kennedy (You Don't Say, the original version of Split Second, one of the various revivals of Name That Tune, amongst others).
Before he became a game show host, Jack was a regular on the old Space Patrol show, in which he hawked the sponsor's products, Ralston cereals such as Wheat Chex and Rice Chex, as well as special offers associated with the products, as seen here in this clip from 1953.
The daytime Dotto episode which touched off the quiz show firestorm was the episode in which one of the contestants (Marie Winn, who later became an author) had been given the answers in advance. A standby contestant spotted an open notebook in the contestants' dressing room, found the answers, ripped out that page from the notebook, and showed the page to the contestant's opponent. After receiving $1,500, this standby contestant was ready to forget the whole thing until the losing contestant received $4,000, the same amount as the winning contestant. Having felt double-crossed, the backup contestant, a part-time actor and butler by the name of Edward Hilgemeier, lodged a complaint with the Colgate-Parmolive Company, the show's sponsor. Shortly afterward, both the daytime (CBS) and nighttime (NBC) versions were cancelled by the respective networks.
Jack Narz did not know of the nafarious practice used on that show.
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