You Bet Your Life

I watched this when I was a teenager in the 50s. I caught a few episodes on cable around ten years ago. It wears well. Groucho was a master at the double entendre. Mae West had nothing on him. One example: there was a married couple who had 19 children. Groucho asked the man why they had so many kids. The man said it was because he liked his wife. Groucho replied, "I like my cigar too, but I take it out once in a while." This was more than 40 years ago, it is still timely. Watch it, if you can. You won't regret it.

This is one of the funniest game shows ever. I remember when this was shown late nights on KTLA 5 on weeknights and whenever I had a chance I would watch it. Groucho Marx was not only one of the funniest hosts on television, he also was one of the brightest. I especially loved the banter he would engaged in with the contestants before he would start the game. This not only provided the show with its sense of humor, but it also put the contestants at ease before the game began. One of these days I hope Game Show Network would bring this back on television. This show is a timeless classic.

You know, when Groucho was in the movies with his brothers, he was funny. He had some great one-liners which will be remembered from that period. But his consistent ability to come up with brilliant repartee on the set of "You Bet Your Life" before a live studio audience has to be seen (and heard) to be believed.

I only recently became aware that episodes on "You Bet Your Life" are available on the internet through places like eBay, so I have taken full advantage of that and have purchased quite a number of discs and boxed sets of the programs which my wife and I have since been watching with very great enjoyment. So, for those of you who would like to see episodes of this classic, they are no further away than where are are right now (on the internet).

Even the De Soto/Plymouth commercials from the time are enjoyable; promoting cars that may by modern standards be difficult to drive in a straight line - sorry to any De Soto fans out there. Nonetheless, they are a great accompaniment to this great series of programs.

By the way, about the programs, the game show was never intended to be the major part of the entertainment. It was Groucho who was the star not the contestants or the cars that the show so heavily promoted.

My summary, these programs are absolute classics and I feel very fortunate to have been able to buy some of them because some group of people had the foresight to see that it would be better to get them out on DVD than to lose them all together in a film vault somewhere.

10 out of 10 from me.

JMV

I was born years after the series ended, only discovered this recently. Outside of Steve Harvey, I can't think of any game show host anywhere as close to being as funny and quick witted, and done entirely off the cuff, as Groucho. I've even taken to looking up his old appearances on Dick Cavett and elsewhere.

He is easily as funny on this show as in the classic Marx Brothers films of the 30s. The game show itself was almost irrelevant. It was just an excuse to hear one of the funniest men of the century.

Each week the show had some pretty interesting guests. Old time actors, unusual families. On one show a cowboy star challenged Marx to a staged boxing match, doing a stunt fall though the man was perhaps in his 60s.

Marx seemed to especially enjoy having immigrants as guests, asking them their backgrounds. One of the most remarkable was a Pakistani engineering student, wearing a turban and discussing his Muslim faith, praised by Groucho as "a great ambassador for his people." Keep in mind this was in the 1950s, over a half century before a certain president demonized Muslims and immigrants.

The world is a brighter and more joyful place for you having been in it, Mr. Marx.

This was the first show I saw on the new invention called television. I was eight or nine years old. My family followed the tomato harvest and found jobs at a Brooks Ketchup factory in Shirley, Indiana. That would have been the summer and fall of 1951 or 1952. While driving to find work we stopped at a country store to ask directions. It was getting dark. The owner who waited on us lived in back. His wife was watching "You Bet Your Life" on TV. I had heard of the new invention but had never seen one. I was already a fan of the show because my dad and I listened to it on radio on a regular basis. The owner saw me eying the TV through the open door. "Go back and watch it," he invited me. And so I did for just a few minutes. It encouraged us to save our pennies and get our own set in 1953.

Groucho was a comic genius who was a master of one liners and clever repartee. The most famous joke about the woman with the big family who told Groucho she loved her husband and Groucho replying, "I love my cigar too but I take it out of my mouth once in a while," never aired in Arkansas (KARK, NBC, Channel 4, in Little Rock) because of censorship. But Groucho's retort made the rounds and everyone knew about it.

I was too young to know the Marx Brothers, though later I was able to enjoy their classic movies. So when Groucho had a brother on his show I would see him for the first time. I vividly remember one program when Harpo was guest and he almost outdid Groucho. Chico too nearly stole the show from Groucho the night he was on. I remember Groucho would have his daughter on from time to time. She was about my age. I don't know what ever happened to her. As I recall she was not shy and had talent.

The "secret word" was a popular gimmick for the program. At first a young lady in abbreviated attire would come out when someone said the word, which the audience knew but the contestants did not. It took me a while to get used to the duck coming down which replaced the girl, even though as I remember she still appeared now and then.

George Fenneman was not only an elegant announcer but did well as straight man for Groucho. He was a quiet, unassuming person, very likable, who sometimes would have a clever comeback line when Groucho tried to embarrass him. He also announced for the popular "Dragnet" series and had a part in the horror classic "The Thing from Another World."

As Groucho stated, "No one goes away broke." There was a consolation price for the guests who lost if they answered a trick question, usually, "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" although some did miss it. Groucho would keep asking silly questions until they got their money. Truly, no one ever went away broke.