|
Daniel "Dan" Enright (August 30, 1917 – May 22, 1992) was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television. Their company was called Barry & Enright Productions. Enright (original surname Ehrenreich), who grew up in British Palestine and New York City, met up with Barry as the latter was working in stand-up comedy. After a stint at WOR radio, the two developed several early TV shows, including the seminal "interactive" show ''Winky Dink and You'', as well as ''Juvenile Jury'' and ''Life Begins at Eighty'', and ''Wisdom of the Ages''. The duo hit the jackpot as producers of network game shows ''Back That Fact'', ''You're On Your Own'', ''Tic-Tac-Dough'', ''Twenty One'', ''Concentration'', and ''Dough Re Mi'' in the 1950s. ==The quiz scandal== Capitalizing on the success of the 1950s big-money quiz ''The $64,000 Question'' on CBS, Barry and Enright developed their flagship show, ''Twenty One'', a quiz which had a scoring system based loosely on Blackjack. Contestants were placed in twin isolation booths and asked questions ranging in value from one to 11 points — the higher the point value, the more difficult the question. Enright described the initial broadcast of ''Twenty One'' as "a dismal failure. It was just plain dull." Contestants repeatedly missed questions and, in Enright's own words, "It lacked all drama; it lacked all suspense. The next morning the sponsor (Geritol) called my partner, Jack Barry, and me and told us in no uncertain terms that he never wanted to see a repeat of what happened the previous night. And from that moment on, we decided to rig ''Twenty One''." Even with rigging, initial ratings were unimpressive. Enright believed they needed to find heroes and villains — contestants the audience would either root for or root against. Though not illegal at the time, Enright and his assistant producer Albert Freedman went beyond merely finding appealing players by actually manipulating them: providing certain contestants with answers in advance, and scripting games and the players' mannerisms in the isolation booth. It was a process the producers duplicated for ''Tic Tac Dough''. Enright's most famous contestant protégé was ''Twenty Ones Charles Van Doren, who went on to win for 14 weeks and became a cover subject for ''Time'', thus causing the show's popularity to soar. Van Doren replaced Herb Stempel, who himself had been given answers over his extended run on the show, but was eventually forced to lose (so that the more telegenic Van Doren might replace him). After waiting for Enright to fulfill his promise of a job in exchange for throwing the match, Stempel realized it would never come and went to the authorities. It was only when other contestants came forward about game show rigging did they take Stempel seriously. As the press was publishing allegations by former contestants of quiz rigging, NBC purchased from Barry and Enright the shows ''Twenty One'' and ''Tic Tac Dough'', along with two new daytime entries, ''Concentration'' and a musical quiz ''Dough Re Mi'', all of which aired on NBC, for $1 million. Eventually the truth came out, and Enright admitted to rigging the show and giving contestants the questions and answers in advance. As ''Twenty One's'' emcee and co-producer, Jack Barry did not directly rig the shows himself (even quiz-show scandal investigator Joseph Stone questioned his involvement, and Herb Stempel has said in interviews that he believes Enright hid the rigging from Barry until it was exposed), yet he admitted in interviews given in the 1970s and 1980s his role in covering up the rigging for Enright. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dan Enright」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|