Winner Take All (1952): Bill Cullen's first TV game show

After uploading Bill's final TJW, it made sense to go back to the beginning and focus on Bill's first TV game show, Winner Take All. Similar in structure to You Bet Your Life, this show featured a minor quiz game enlivened by humorous repartee between the host and the contestants. Bill hosted this show on radio from 1946-50 but was not the first person to host it on TV (Barry Gray hosted it on CBS the previous year). GSN has not shown this in over a decade to my knowledge which is a shame because Bill is typically hilarious throughout!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Winner
• Take
• All
• Bill
• Cullen

[balboa77]

This was before Professor Yes And No?

[chrisivision07]

Yes. However, I should amend the title to "first network TV game show," as Bill did host a couple local game shows first. Do a search for "Matt Ottinger Bill Cullen timeline" -- this is the source I originally consulted.

[mauleriscool]

I wish GSN would start showing the old school gameshows like they used too. This new garbage with GSN live is total trash.

[crusher1944]

He was also the first org. price is right  in the 1950s in NY. PEOPLE FOGOT

[rls0411]

Don Pardo is the Eighth Natural Wonder of the World, still active as an announcer in the year 2011.

[top40lives]

1952...When ladies wore hats, Bill Cullen hadn't gotten a buzz cut yet, and Don Pardo sounded really young.

[Arieliondotcom]

I could have sworn the doctor lost at the buzzer.

[jimbobago]

Does anybody else think Bill Cullen looks like Al Franken?

[tdickensheets]

I was born in 1961.

[WarioBarker88]

Actually, the most recent airing of "Winner Take All" (that I know of) was for a week in September 2004, after Game Show Network switched to "GSN: The Network For Games". They aired the five surviving episodes (four Cullen, one Gray) -- one of which accidentally let a local WNBT station ID slip through.

Aside from that small detail, great upload!

[DorvellTStewart]

Sadly, we'll probably never see the clasic game shows from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's on GSN these days. Or at least, not strictly the clasics.

:(

[chrisbox51]

If possible, would you please post the rest of the episode? If I remember correctly the next contestant had a husband who did electrical work at the state prison, and Bill's jokes about him and "ol' Sparky" made me LMHO!

[gsn93]

I wonder what the birthday cake gfx, at the start of video was about. Was GSN celerbriting their birthday (1995?)? Was their a marathon (the 18 on right side)?