Trivia / The $64,000 Question

• Executive Meddling: The rigging the show became infamous for was done at the instigation of sponsor Revlon and their executives, including CEO Charles Revson. When the show first premiered, sponsors often had more power over the production of TV shows than the networks; the quiz scandals helped to tip the balance in favor of the networks.
• Genre-Killer: Along with 21 and Dotto, it was complicit in killing big-money quizzes on TV for quite a while.
• Missing Episode: No episodes of the 1950s British version have survived; like the American version, it aired live, but no telerecordings seem to have been made by ATV or any other ITV company.
• Star-Derailing Role: Averted in the cases of Hal March, Sonny Fox and Ralph Story; their careers were not affected by the scandals, with March continuing his acting career on movies and TV, Fox gaining fame as a local children's show host in New York, most famously with Wonderama and Story becoming a Los Angeles TV personality, best known for his long-running series Ralph Story's Los Angeles.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Groucho Marx, before his days on You Bet Your Life, auditioned for Take It or Leave It when the show moved to NBC in 1947. He didn't get the job, but he did get a funny story to tell on I've Got a Secret, which just so happened to be hosted by the guy who "stole" his job, Garry Moore.
  • The $64,000 Challenge emcee Ralph Story was originally considered for the position as host of its parent series.
  • Dick Clark Productions pitched a pilot to CBS in 2000 to compete with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, with CBS Sports' Greg Gumbel as host.