Dr. Quiz

Dr. Quiz (also known as Dr. Quiz, the Master of Trivia or just Doctor Quiz) is a radio and live television game show program that ran from 1938 up until 1959, produced by British Broadcasting House (BBH). it is commonly believed to be the first ever television game show, which broadcasted everyday at 9:00 PM GMT with 15-minute episodes.

Each episode consisted of several subjects including mathematics, world history, and politics. With questions being given to contestants in a variety of formats from spelling bees to high speed questionnaires with the goal being to get the most questions given to them by Dr. Quiz as possible to win the episode's grand prize, which changed each episode.

History

On 31 May 1937, a "trial run" of Dr. Quiz was staged at Fox Field House in Oxford, UK to test whether the program's format might be viable for radio. In total around Thirty thousand people showed up to watch the trial run, with some reports even stating that the field house was so crowed that people had to watch from outside through the windows. Allan F. Read, a writer for the original Dr. Quiz radio show, said in 1962, "Overflowing crowds at the Fox convinced producers that the Dr. Quiz Show would go... and when the 'Can I shot the moon, Doctor?' line caught on as a bar joke, we knew we had it."

Radio

Starting in March of 1938 episodes of Dr. Quiz started production at Stockford Theater, London. With popular radio personality and singer Richard Collier as Dr. Quiz and later Sir William Garnett. In the beginning episode contestants consisted of mostly celebrities and professors, but later would start sending out auditions to everyday citizens, not only to make the show even more attractive to audiences but also to save the network money going into World War II.

The radio version aired until 29 January 1945 on BBH and ACR, before pausing for a year as BBH moved most of it's radio shows over to television under the channel British Broadcasting House Television (BBH TV) as televisions gained popularity. Collier and Garnett were also hosts of Dr. Quiz Jr., a juvenile version heard on ACR from 1939 to 1944.

During the radio era of the show several sponsors advertised during the show including Cork Wine, Jupiter Candy Co., and Cosmo Cosmetics.

Television

The television version ran on BBH TV from 4 November 1946, to 7 October 1953 with Edward P. S. Skishiu as host, and from 15 December 1953 to 23 March 1959 with Martin Paine as host. However, Sir William Garnett came back to host for a short time in 1955. During this period the show hired co-hosts to add to appearance of the broadcast and to the atmosphere for the contestants and audience. These co-hosts included performer and writer Helen Neal, and actress June O'Day.

Unfortunately in April of 1959 after a short hiatus, the show was canceled by BBH. Many didn't know why the show was canceled until it was revealed that the studio the show was filmed in (Studio E) burned down in what officials ruled was a freak accident. With none of the television episodes hitting the American market. The public was very unhappy with the ending of the show, but over time it faded into obscurity.