''Pantomime Quiz'', initially titled ''Pantomime Quiz Time'' and later ''Stump the Stars'', was an American television

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...

produced and hosted by Mike Stokey. Running from 1947—1959, it has the distinction of being one of the few television series—along with '' The Arthur Murray Party''; ''

Down You Go ''Down You Go'' is an American television game show originally broadcast on the DuMont Television Network. The Emmy Award-nominated series ran from 1951 to 1956 as a prime time series primarily hosted by Dr. Bergen Evans. The program aired in el ...

''; '' The Ernie Kovacs Show'', ''

The Original Amateur Hour ''The Original Amateur Hour'' is an American radio and television program. The show was a continuation of '' Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' which had been a radio staple from 1934 to 1945. Major Edward Bowes, the originator of the program and its ...

''; and '' Tom Corbett, Space Cadet''—to air on all four TV networks in the US during the Golden Age of Television.

Overview

Based on the parlor game of

Charades Charades (, ). is a parlor or party word guessing game. Originally, the game was a dramatic form of literary charades: a single person would act out each syllable of a word or phrase in order, followed by the whole phrase together, while the ...

, ''Pantomime Quiz'' was first broadcast locally in Los Angeles from November 13, 1947, to 1949. In that format, it won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for "Most Popular Television Program" at the first Emmy Awards ceremony. The competition involved two teams of four contestants each (three regulars and one guest). In each round, one member acts out (in

mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Messa ...

) a phrase or a name while the other three try to guess it. Each team had five rounds (in some broadcasts there were only four); the team that took the least amount of time to guess all phrases won the game. Home viewers were encouraged to send in suggestions for phrases to be used in a telecast. Those that were actually used earned cash or a prize for the people who sent them. A bonus was given if the team trying to solve it could not do so within two minutes.

Broadcast history (national)

In June 1949, ''Pantomime Quiz'' became the "first locally

ollywood The Odia film industry, colloquially known as Ollywood, is the Odia language Indian film industry, based in Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack in Odisha, India. The name Ollywood is a portmanteau of the words Odia and Hollywood. Industry In 1974, th ...

originated show to be aired in New York via

kine Kine or KINE may refer to: Radio and TV stations * KINE-FM, a radio station (105.1 FM) licensed to Honolulu, Hawaii, United States * KINE (AM), a radio station (1330 AM) licensed to Kingsville, Texas, United States * KINE-LP, a defunct low-pow ...

recordings." The broadcasts over WCBS-TV were sponsored by Chevrolet dealers "beginning early in September for a price of about $1,200 weekly." The program was picked up by CBS Television in October 1949 and ran on that network, usually during the summers, until August 28, 1951. After this,

NBC Television The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

took it as a mid-season replacement from January 2 to March 26, 1952. CBS then took back the series from July 4 to August 28, 1952. NBC never aired the program again.McNeil, Alex (1997). ''Total Television'' (4th ed.). Penguin. pp. 639-640. . Reruns of the show, with the title ''Hollywood Guess Stars'', began on

WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of The ...

in New York City on November 20, 1952. The

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of bein ...

took the series from October 20, 1953, to April 13, 1954, after which it went back to CBS from July 9 to August 27, 1954. ABC finally took the charades game for a mid-season slot much like NBC, airing the durable quiz from January 22 to March 6, 1955. After CBS took it back they ran it for three more summers (July 8 to September 30, 1955; July 6 to September 7, 1956; July 5 to September 6, 1957) before the network dropped the program altogether. After a seven-month absence, ABC picked up ''Pantomime Quiz'' from April 8, 1958, to September 2, 1958; on May 18, 1959, the show began airing on ABC in

daytime Daytime as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the globe's he ...

and concurrently with a

primetime Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

show beginning on June 8. However, September 28 saw the end of the primetime version, with the daytime version ending October 9, 1959. An Australian version aired in 1957 on Melbourne station GTV-9 and Sydney station ATN-7, with Harry Dearth, George Foster and Jim Russell among those appearing, but proved to be short-lived, running from March to November.

Revivals

Nancy Sinatra and Tommy Sanda Stump the Stars 1962

On September 17, 1962, ''Pantomime Quiz'' returned to the air as ''Stump the Stars'' on CBS with Pat Harrington, Jr. as the emcee. Stokey replaced Harrington on December 17 and continued as both host and producer until the September 16, 1963, finale. Soon after, Stokey began recording a new

syndicated Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

version which ran from February 24 to September 2, 1964. It returned five years later (September 8, 1969) as ''Mike Stokey's Stump the Stars''. As the title suggests, Stokey returned once again to host.

''Celebrity Charades''

January 1979 brought another syndicated revival with a few tweaks and a new name - ''Celebrity Charades''. Jay Johnson was the host; This version aired until September. The first three episodes reran on GSN in the 1990s. On June 20, 2005, AMC revived the series, which was presented by Hilary Swank and her then-husband Chad Lowe. Swank, Lowe, and director Bob Balaban were the producers - although only Lowe hosted. In this version each team had its own room in which to compete. One player from each team is sent to midstage (actually the middle of a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

loft apartment) to retrieve a phrase to be acted out in his/her team's room. When the team guesses the phrase correctly, the person making correct guess is sent out to midstage for another clue, and so forth until five phrases are guessed. The first team that guesses the phrases' common theme wins the game. However, this version did worse than any of the ones before it, running for a mere five episodes until the experiment ended on June 24.

Celebrity guests

Some of the "stars" who were "stumped" on ''Pantomime Quiz'' or ''Stump the Stars'': * Nick Adams * Anna Maria Alberghetti *

Morey Amsterdam Moritz "Morey" Amsterdam (December 14, 1908 – October 28, 1996) was an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. He played Buddy Sorrell on CBS's ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' from 1961 to 1966. Early life Amsterdam was born in Chicago ...

* Lucie Arnaz *

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* Janet Blair *

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* Raymond Burr * Sebastian Cabot *

Roger C. Carmel Roger Charles Carmel (September 27, 1932 – November 11, 1986) was an American actor. He originated several roles on Broadway, played scores of guest roles in television series, was a lead in the sitcom ''The Mothers-in-Law'' and appeared in ...

* Dane Clark * Robert Clary * Jan Clayton * Hans Conried * Jackie Coogan * Jeanne Crain * Robert Culp * Dan Dailey * Sammy Davis Jr. * Yvonne De Carlo * Angie Dickinson * Peter Donald *

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* Nanette Fabray * Nina Foch * John Forsythe * Beverly Garland * Alice Ghostley * Frank Gorshin * Rocky Graziano * James Gregory * Barbara Hale * Ty Hardin * Dorothy Hart * William Hopper * Robert Horton * Tab Hunter * Adele Jergens * Stubby Kaye *

Milt Kamen Milton Kaiman (March 5, 1921 – February 24, 1977), better known as Milt Kamen, was an American stand-up comic and actor with numerous television credits. As a stand-up comic, Kamen was a favorite of Mel Brooks, Groucho Marx and Woody Allen. ...

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* Bert Lahr *

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* Michael Landon *

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* Gypsy Rose Lee *

Ruta Lee Ruta Lee (born Ruta Mary Kilmonis; May 30, 1935) is an American actress and dancer who appeared as one of the brides in the musical '' Seven Brides for Seven Brothers''. She had roles in films including Billy Wilder's crime drama ''Witness for t ...

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in pop culture, Lewis was nickn ...

* Art Linkletter * Richard Long * Deanna Lund * Carol Lynley * Gisele MacKenzie * Gordon MacRae * Sheila MacRae * Jayne Mansfield * Rose Marie * E.G. Marshall * Ross Martin * Lee Marvin * Roddy McDowall * Vera Miles *

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* Terry Moore *

Howard Morris Howard Jerome Morris (September 4, 1919 – May 21, 2005) was an American actor, comedian, and director. He was best known for his role in ''The Andy Griffith Show'' as Ernest T. Bass, and as "Uncle Goopy" in a celebrated comedy sketch on Sid C ...

Don Murray Don Murray may refer to: * Don Murray (actor) (1929–2024), American actor * Don Murray (clarinetist) (1904–1929), American jazz musician * Don Murray (drummer) (1945–1996), American drummer and aminator * Don Murray (footballer) Donald Ja ...

* Tommy Noonan * George O'Brien *

Dick Patterson Dick, Dicks, or Dick's may refer to: Media * Dicks (album), ''Dicks'' (album), a 2004 album by Fila Brazillia * Dicks (band), a musical group * Dick (film), ''Dick'' (film), a 1999 American comedy film * Dick (song), "Dick" (song), a 2019 song ...

* Tom Poston * Mala Powers *

Paula Prentiss Paula Prentiss (née Ragusa; born March 4, 1938) is an American actress. She is best known for her film roles in ''Where the Boys Are'' (1960), ''What's New Pussycat?'' (1965), ''Catch-22'' (1970), ''The Parallax View'' (1974), and ''The Stepford ...

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wa ...

* Robert Reed *

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

* Maxie Rosenbloom * Jane Russell * Tommy Sands * Lizabeth Scott * Martha Scott *

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpri ...

* Allan Sherman * Nancy Sinatra * Connie Stevens * Elaine Stritch * William Talman * Karen Valentine * Dick Van Dyke * Elena Verdugo * Clint Walker *

Ruth Warrick Ruth Elizabeth Warrick (June 29, 1916 – January 15, 2005) was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on ''All My Children'', which she played regularly from 1970 until her ...

* Grant Williams * Alan Young

Episode status

Many episodes of ''Stump the Stars'' and ''Pantomime Quiz'' exist, and are held by the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the ar ...

.UCLA archive website
A few episodes that appear to be public domain have been available on the private trading circuit; and also appear on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

References

Bibliography

*David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia:

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...

, 2004) *Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remain ...

, 1964)

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0042130, title=Pantomime Quiz
''Stump the Stars''
episode guide at Classic TV Info

1947 American television series debuts 1959 American television series endings 1940s American game shows 1950s American game shows American game shows American Broadcasting Company original programming Black-and-white American television shows Black-and-white Australian television shows CBS original programming DuMont Television Network original programming English-language television shows NBC original programming 1957 Australian television series debuts 1950s Australian game shows