TV Tuesday: Take A Good Look 1959
Sixty years ago, today, the game show Take a Good Look debuted on ABC. Created by Ernie Kovacs, it ran for two seasons with 53 episodes. Designed as a parody of Goodson-Todman panel games, celebrities were to guess the secret of the person brought before them. The clues provided were short video clips or skits and were extremely vague. The people brought on stage were regular folks that had an interesting area of expertise, had experienced extraordinary events in their lives or had been in the news.
Regular panelists were Edie Adams (Kovacs’ wife), Cesar Romero, Hans Conried, Ben Alexander and Carl Reiner (second season). Other panelists to participate were Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jane Wyatt, Mort Sahl, Jack Carson, Tony Randall, Janet Leigh and Jim Backus.
Kovacs was a guest panelist on What’s My Line? (10 appearances) and a mystery guest (two appearances). This is probably where the idea for his show came from.
October 22, 2019 at 9:38 PM
Look Ma, The Joker add the news today. I loved Cesar Romero character version of Batmans nemesis.
October 23, 2019 at 12:12 AM
He was funny.
October 23, 2019 at 12:48 AM
Yes he was
October 23, 2019 at 12:52 PM
Chevy Chase was influenced by Ernie Kovacs…don’t know if he should be thanked for that lol. He died really young in a car crash.
October 23, 2019 at 3:58 PM
Hm. I didn’t know about the car crash.
If Chevy was influenced, he missed the mark. There is funny and there is smarmy.
October 23, 2019 at 4:36 PM
Chevy is just so unlikable. You can see it when he tries to be funny.
October 23, 2019 at 6:16 PM
I agree. What an ass. He always came across as a superior, sarcastic jerk.
October 23, 2019 at 9:15 PM
Yea Belushi would agree with you…and Bill Murray.
October 24, 2019 at 2:58 AM
I bet that would work today.