atlasmb First let me say that Bud Collyer is one of the worst game show hosts ever. He's an okay guy, but he lacks charisma and has little sense of humor.As for the usual panelists, Kitty Carlisle is cut from the same cloth as Bud, but she does bring sophistication to the show. Tom Poston is likable, but not very funny. Peggy Cass, on the other hand, is a hoot. Orson Bean is a favorite of mine--clever, quick-witted and somewhat irreverent.Overall, the show entertains, but it falls far short of some other game shows of its era. For example, "What's My Line?" always features an intelligent, funny panel and is hosted by John Daley, who has a corny but cute sense of humor combined with a cosmopolitan body of knowledge and real style.

John T. Ryan FOR SOME STRANGE reason, this is one game show which has always seemed to just a cut above the others. Then (when we were kids) and now (Boomer Generation gray-beards) it held an unreasonably higher degree of fascination.PERHAPS WE COULD rack it up to "dumb luck" on the part of the producers, Mark Goodson & Bill Todman. However the team had successfully given us WHAT'S MY LINE?, I'VE GOT A SECRET, PASSWORD, THE MATCG GAME and many others; so there must have been some careful crafting involved here.STILL, WE MAINTAIN our position that this did stand out from the many other also-rans.PERHAPS IT HAS something to do with the cast. In the MC's chair, we had the former Radio voice of Clark Kent & SUPERMAN, Mr. Bud Collyer. The roll call of panelists is both long and distinguished; but we best remember: Kitty Carlisle, Tom Poston, Orson Bean*, Peggy Cass, Chester Morris, Dina Merrill, Betsy Palmer and many others.MORE THAN ANY other family oriented panel show, TO TELL THE TRUTH, invited and even demanded participation from the home viewer. As the panelists marked their cards as to which of the three contestants was the real person that he said he was, we were kept busy weighing their testimony and testing our own acumen as detectives.WHY THAT'S IT, Schultz! That's the secret of the show's success!

dfmock Packager Mark Goodson rightly called it the most golden game show idea of all. It's also one of Bob Stewart's masterworks, for Stewart created the Goodson-(Bill) Todman classic -- as he also did 'The Price Is Right' and 'Password'. While the idea had roots in 'People Are Funny's Detecto segment, the Goodson-Todman crew developed a format in which not only the studio participants and the viewers could play along, but which still offers insights into human nature -- what better question to make people really think than 'which of these folks is lying?'Stewart's ideas, Goodson's packaging, and the great supervision of executive producer Gil Fates meshed into a classic which lasts to this day, with the bright, polished John O'Hurley manning the moderator position first held by Bud Collyer (Mike Wallace did the pilot). 'Truth' is a timeless show that deserves to be one of two ('Price' is the other) to span six decades of national television.

SkippyDevereaux Another winner from the stable of Goodson/Todman and it was a very durable program in its day. Four panelists try to figure out, through questions, which one of the three people connected with the story of an event, was the correct person. The black and white version with Bud Collyer as host holds up the best to me--maybe it is the innocence of the times, but all versions of this program were enjoyable--unfortunately, as time went by, the versions seemed to diminish all around. I mean, the last two versions only lasted one season each!! That should tell us something. But always, it was the final fateful question of "Will the real-------, please stand up? that was fun, especially if the four panelists picked the wrong person. The audience would just go wild in the screams and applause and it was always a thrill to hear and see that!! I could spend all day watching back to back episodes of "To Tell the Truth", "What's My Line" and "I've Got A Secret" and never be bored!! Classic programs all around!!