First Ever Emmy Winning Show…’Pantomime Quiz’
First Ever Emmy Winning Show…’Pantomime Quiz’
‘Pantomime Quiz’, was a game show produced and hosted by Mike Stokey. Running from 1947 till 1959, it has the distinction of being one of the few television series—along with ‘The Arthur Murray Party’, ‘Down You Go’, ‘The Ernie Kovacs Show’, ‘The Original Amateur Hour’, and ‘Tom Corbett, Space Cadet’ to air on all four TV networks in the US during the Golden Age of Television.
Based on the parlor game of Charades, Pantomime Quiz was first broadcast locally in Los Angeles from November 13, 1947 to 1949. In that format, it won an Emmy Award for “Most Popular Television Program” at the first Emmy Awards ceremony.
‘Pantomime Quiz’ 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 took it as a midseason replacement from January 2 to March 26, 1952. CBS then took back the series from July 4 to August 28, 1952.
The DuMont Television Network 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.
Still remember the theme song!
In 1959, ABC brought it back and aired it weekday afternoons for 26 weeks. Ten years later, it returned as a new, syndicated series.
Then Stokey changed the name to “Stump The Stars”, and brought it back a couple times more, through the 1960s!