To Tell the Truth

Did You Know?

• A board game was released by Lowell in 1957.
• During the 2000 version, a single-player online game was offered by Uproar.com and promoted by host John O'Hurley.
• A video slot machine game based on the 1969 version was released by Bally Gaming Systems in 2002.

History

To Tell the Truth almost premiered under a different name. It was set to debut on CBS in primetime on December 18, 1956, as Nothing But The Truth, but the title was swapped the day before the first episode aired. Both that original title and the one that stuck come from the standard English courtroom oath. The pilot episode, called "Nothing But The Truth," had Mike Wallace as host and a panel that included Dick Van Dyke, John Cameron Swayze, Polly Bergen, and Hildy Parks. The show was taped in New York City, moving through several studios over time: first CBS Studio 62 (the Biltmore Theater), then CBS Studio 59 (the Mansfield Theatre), then CBS Studio 52 (which later became famous as Studio 54), and finally the Ed Sullivan Theater. When the show relocated to CBS Studio 52 in June 1960, the seating arrangement flipped—the panel and the challengers switched from being on the host's left and right to the host's right and left. A ticket from a late 1966 taping suggests the program was being broadcast in color from the CBS Broadcast Center by then. Bud Collyer took over as the main host after Wallace handled the pilot. By the 1960s, regular panelists included Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, and Kitty Carlisle, with Cass and Carlisle sticking around for most later versions. Earlier panelists who appeared frequently included Johnny Carson, Polly Bergen, Jayne Meadows, Don Ameche, Hy Gardner, Dick Van Dyke, Faye Emerson, Hildy Parks, John Cameron Swayze, Betty White, and Ralph Bellamy. Bern Bennett was the first announcer; Johnny Olson, who became the most famous announcer for Goodson–Todman Productions, joined in 1960 and stayed until 1972. During the pilot and the primetime run, each episode had three games. In the pilot, if every one of the four panelists voted wrong and the majority of the studio audience also voted wrong, that counted as five wrong votes and paid $300, split among the three challengers. The audience's majority vote was treated like a single panelist's vote, so five wrong votes meant $1,500 total. A tie for the highest audience vote or a disqualified panelist also counted as a wrong vote. If no one voted wrong, there was no consolation prize.