To Tell the Truth (1990)


Aired
Pilot, 1990 (Aired accidentally on the East Coast instead of premiere.) NBC Daytime: September 3, 1990 - May 31, 1991
Number of episodes
190
Run time
30 Minutes
Host
Richard Kline (1990 Pilot) Gordon Elliott (September 3, 1990 - October 26, 1990) Lynn Swann (October 29, 1990 - February 1, 1991) Alex Trebek (February 4, 1991 - May 31, 1991)
Announcers
Charlie O'Donnell (1990 Pilot) Burton Richardson (1990-91)
Origination
NBC Studio 3, Burbank, California

This is chronicling the 1990-91 edition of To Tell the Truth, the fourth edition of the To Tell the Truth series, although short-lived and not quite fondly remembered.

Game format[]

Main Game[]

To start, three contestants all of whom claim to be the same person introduced themselves (most of the time the contestants are of the same sex, on rare occasions there would be a mixture of both sexes), then the host read the sworn affidavit of the real person. After the affidavit was read and when the challengers went over to their desk, the panelists one by one asked a series of questions to the challengers based on the affidavit in some way for an unmentioned amount of time. The impostors were allowed to lie, but the real person was game bound to tell the truth (hence the name of the show). Once one panelist's time was up, another panelist started questioning. Once the entire panel's time was up, they started to vote for whoever was the real person. Each panelist showed his/her vote, and regardless of whoever they voted for, the appropriate panelist's vote for the appropriate contestant was signified by an "X". Once all the votes were cast, the real person then revealed himself/herself by standing up by virtue of the host saying "Will the real (insert person's name) please stand up?". After the real person revealed himself/herself, the impostors told everyone their real names & occupations; then there was a brief chat (sometimes a stunt) to the real person. For each incorrect vote, the team of challengers won some money; they were guaranteed to split $1,000 between them ($333 per person) for zero, one, or two incorrect votes. If there were three incorrect votes from the panel, then the team split $1,500 between them ($500 per person), and if the panel was completely fooled, then the team split $3,000 between them ($1,000 per person).

After the second game of the day, an audience game called "One on One" was played. A member of the studio audience tried to determine which one of two short stories a new solo challenger told about themselves was true. Each celebrity got to ask the challenger one question for each story, and if the audience member picked out the right story, he/she won $500; otherwise, the challenger won $1,000.

On occasion, celebrities and other lesser-known individuals whose faces were not well known to the public would attempt to fool the audience during this part of the game. A prime example of this occurred on the show's Christmas Day episode when Hank Ketchum, the creator of Dennis the Menace, attempted to fool an audience member by also claiming that he was Johnny Marks, the writer of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but was unsuccessful in doing so (Ketchum was presented as "Mr. X" on this episode).

Personnel[]

Host: Richard Kline (pilot only), Gordon Elliott, Lynn Swann, Alex Trebek
Announcer: Burton Richardson, Charlie O'Donnell
Producer: Mimi O’Brien
Director: Paul Alter
Set Designer: Anthony Sabatino
Music: Score Productions

Trivia[]

This was the first series of To Tell the Truth broadcast on NBC, and the first series to be taped on the West Coast (NBC Studios in Burbank, CA); its predecessors were all taped in New York, NY.
The show's theme song was an orchestral remix of the 1969–78 theme (sans the lyrics), and the show used same the block-letter logo used from 1973 to 1978.
For two episodes in February 1991 (February 18-19), Mark Goodson filled in for Alex Trebek when his wife Jean went into labor with their first child.
This was Burton Richardson's first time working as the announcer on To Tell the Truth; ten years later, he later became the announcer of the equally shorter-lived syndicated 2000-02 version hosted by John O'Hurley. Four years later, both O'Hurley and Richardson worked together again as host & announcer respectively on Family Feud from 2006 to 2010.
Although he had a very short-lived run for this incarnation in general, Lynn Swann was the first African-American host of To Tell the Truth; the second was Anthony Anderson from 2016 until 2022.
At the time that Alex Trebek was selected to be host of To Tell the Truth, he was hosting two other game shows at the same time: Jeopardy! and Classic Concentration.
To Tell the Truth was the third (and last) Mark Goodson game show he hosted (the first was CBS's Double Dare, not to be confused with the Nickelodeon kids game show of the same name) later, his second was Classic Concentration.
This was Trebek's fourth and final network daytime game show he hosted for NBC, his first was The Wizard of Odds in 1973-74, then his second was High Rollers in 1974-76 (later as The New High Rollers in 1978-80) and his third was Battlestars in 1981-82 (later as The New Battlestars in 1983).
27 years later, former host Trebek appeared as a panelist on the Anthony Anderson version of To Tell the Truth in 2018.

Photos[]

Main Article: To Tell the Truth (1990)/Photos

Cancelled Merchandise[]

Main Article: To Tell the Truth (1990)/Cancelled Merchandise

Episode Status[]

See Also: To Tell the Truth (1990)/Episode Guide
This series exists in its entirety, and has aired on both GSN & Buzzr in the past.

To Tell the Truth (1990)

Contents