TV Tuesday: Take A Good Look 1959

Posted on October 22, 2019 Updated on February 15, 2020

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.