Dollar a Second

Did You Know?

• For decades, only two episodes of the original series were known to exist; one was guest-hosted by Dagmar.
• A third episode was discovered and uploaded to YouTube in May 2021.
• The 1981 pilot aired on GSN twice: during a Thanksgiving 1998 marathon of unsold pilots and again on October 28, 2000, hosted by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Game play

Contestants, either as a team or solo, performed various tasks and earned one dollar for each second they remained onstage. They could choose to quit at any time unless they were paying a penalty. If a mistake occurred, a penalty had to be faced; for example, a loved one was placed on a slide heading toward a small above-ground swimming pool, and the contestant had to pick one of five telephone numbers from envelopes. If someone answered the call, the contestant said "I've got somebody!" and the penalty was beaten, allowing them to resume the previous activity. Failure to beat the penalty ended the game, but the contestant kept any money already won and sometimes additional money based on correct answers. Meanwhile, an "outside event" could also affect the outcome: when it occurred, all money earned during play was lost. For instance, contestants picked an envelope containing the number of round trips a model train would make until a mystery number was reached, and they would then receive a consolation prize based on correct answers.

Broadcast history

After leaving DuMont, the series alternated between NBC and ABC: July 4 to August 22, 1954 (NBC); October 1, 1954 to June 24, 1955 (ABC); July 5 to August 30, 1955 (NBC); June 2, 1955 to August 31, 1956 (ABC). In 1954 it replaced My Favorite Husband. NBC later picked it up one last time from June 22 to September 28, 1957. NBC aired it only during the summer, while ABC, a relatively new network, ran it during the regular season.

1981 pilot

In 1981, Chuck Barris Productions taped a pilot for a Dollar a Second revival, hosted by Bob Eubanks. While some fans disliked it, the format stayed largely the same, except contestants began with $100 and earned a $500 bonus upon hitting that mark. Barris had secured the rights to both this show and another Jan Murray series, Treasure Hunt. The pilot was produced by Willie Stein and David M. Greenfield, who had previously worked with Eubanks on The Newlywed Game. If sold, Dollar a Second would likely have aired alongside the revamped Treasure Hunt in a five-day-a-week syndication package.