Editing Beat the Clock (section)

== 1950–1961 ==
The first edition of ''Beat the Clock'' was a production of [[CBS]] and aired there until 1958. The show then moved to [[American Broadcasting Company]] where it stayed until 1961. [[Bud Collyer]] emceed the original series.

Contestants were required to perform tasks (called "problems" by Collyer) within a certain time limit which was counted down on a large 60-second [[clock]]. If they succeeded, they were said to have "beaten the clock"—otherwise, "the clock beat them". The show had several sponsors over its run, with the most longstanding being the electronics company [[Sylvania Electric Products|Sylvania]].

=== On-air personalities ===
Substitute hosts on the original version included Bill Hart (1951), [[John Reed King]] (1952), stunt creator [[Frank Wayne]] (1953), Bob Kennedy (1954), [[Win Elliot]] (1955), and [[Sonny Fox]], who became Collyer's permanent substitute from 1957 to 1960. Collyer was referred to in the introductions as "America's number one clockwatcher", and the fill-in hosts were each named "America's number two clockwatcher".
[[File:Beat the Clock 1958.JPG|thumb|180px|Bud Collyer as the show's host, 1958.]]
The show had several female on-air assistants. The original hostess was [[Roxanne (model)|Roxanne]] (née Delores Evelyn Rosedale). Roxanne was replaced by [[Beverly Bentley]] in August 1955. Bentley's departure in 1956 coincided with Hazel Bishop's sponsorship and a period of having no main assistant (see production changes below). She reappeared as one of the models on the original version of ''[[The Price Is Right (1956 American game show)|The Price Is Right]]'' for its entire run.

The announcer for the show's run on CBS was Bernard ("Bern") Bennett until 1958. In October 1957, ''Beat the Clock'' ran a contest inviting viewers to submit drawings of what Bennett, who was never shown on camera, might look like. Over 20,000 viewers participated, and winner Edward Darnell, of [[Columbus, Indiana]], was flown in to appear with Bennett on the December 2, 1957, show. When ''Beat the Clock'' moved to ABC, Dirk Fredericks became the announcer. Substitute announcers included Lee Vines, [[Bob Sheppard]], [[Hal Simms]], and Dick Noel.

=== Contestants ===
Contestants were chosen from the studio audience and usually were married couples. Other pairs were engaged, dating, or had a familial relationship. Collyer would ask them general questions (usually including where they were from and how long they'd been married) and usually asked if they had children, their ages and genders. Sometimes the couple would bring children on the show. Collyer usually would talk to the children, asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up, or, if the kids were not at the show, to have their parents wave to them on TV. The husbands on the show usually wore a [[business suit]]. Collyer would often ask the husband to take off his coat for stunts to make it less cumbersome (there were hooks on the contestants' podium) or Collyer would hold the coat.

Occasionally, if there was going to be a messy stunt, the husband would come out dressed in a plastic jumpsuit. Similarly, wives would sometimes play in their "street clothes", but sometimes the women would appear in a jumpsuit because their own clothing might be too cumbersome or perhaps fragile. The women's jumpsuits, unlike the men's, which were rather plain, were patterned to look like a pair of [[overalls]] with a collared [[blouse]] underneath. The women would also often be issued running shoes instead of their own [[high heels]].

=== Game format ===

==== Main Game ====
One couple competed against the clock to win a prize in stunts that required one or both members of the couple. The stunt was described and the time limit was set on a giant onstage clock. The time limit was always a multiple of 5 seconds, usually at least 30 seconds. At one point Collyer said that a 55-second time limit was the maximum, but later on, stunts occasionally had 60-second limits. On the primetime edition, the first stunt was called the $100 clock. If the couple beat the $100 clock, they moved on to the $200 clock and the same rules applied. If they failed to beat the $100 clock, they received a consolation prize worth less than $100. If they failed to beat the $200 clock, they got a prize worth more than $100. On the daytime versions, couples continued playing as long as they kept beating the clock, with various prizes awarded for each victory.

==== Jackpot Clock ====
On the primetime version, if the couple beat the $200 clock, the wife would play the jackpot clock in which the words of a famous saying or quote were scrambled up on a magnetic board and that phrase had to be unscrambled in 20 seconds or less. If successful, then the couple won the Jackpot Prize. If not, they got a prize worth more than $200. Occasionally, when the wife of the couple did not speak English very well, the husband was allowed to perform the jackpot clock.

The jackpot clock and the Bonus Stunt would provide the templates for the traditional quiz show bonus round, which would become a TV staple, starting in 1950 with the bonus question round on ''[[You Bet Your Life]]''.

In the show's earliest set design in available episodes, there was a round display near the contestants mirroring the clock. This display had three rings of light like a target. The outer ring would light during the $100 clock, the middle ring for the $200 clock, and the center circle would light during the jackpot clock. This feature was removed in later set designs.

==== Bonus Stunt ====
Some time during every episode (between normal stunts), a bell would sound. The couple playing at the time would attempt the Bonus Stunt for the Bonus Prize that started at $100 in cash. If the stunt was not beaten, it would be attempted the next week with $100 added to the prize. When it was beaten, it was retired from the show and a new Bonus Stunt began the next week at $100. The bonus (as the name suggests) did not affect the regular game, and win or lose the couple continued the regular clocks wherever they left off. Beginning in August 1954, the starting amount for each Bonus Stunt was raised to $500, still increasing $100 each week.

Bonus Stunts were harder than the usual $100 and $200 clocks and sometimes reached $2,000 and even $3,000 on rare occasions. The first time the Bonus reached $1,000 was on February 28, 1953, when it was won for that amount. In 1956, the Bonus Stunt was replaced by the Super Bonus.

There was usually a special technique for performing the stunt that had to be figured out, but even then, the stunt was usually difficult enough to require some skill or luck once the technique was realized. Viewers would usually try to figure it out and after a few weeks on the air viewers would often get it (sometimes Collyer would remark that viewers had been writing in and he would give certain dimensions of the props used so viewers could try to figure it out at home).

Usually either contestants themselves would start appearing on the show with the technique in mind, or audience members would shout it out to try to help them. A stunt would usually take a few weeks before the audience realized the technique, and then a few more weeks before someone was able to properly employ it.

==== Super Bonus Stunt ====
In response to the big money prizes on other networks' game shows, CBS talked Mark Goodson into increasing the stakes on ''Beat The Clock''. Ultimately the plan was unsuccessful as the ratings never did improve much, perhaps leading to the end of the Super Bonus. Starting on February 25, 1956, after the last regular Bonus Stunt had been won, it was replaced by the super bonus which started at $10,000 and went up by $1,000 every time a couple failed to beat the clock. Unlike with the regular bonus stunt and the "Big Cash Bonus Stunt" that followed it, the Super Bonus was attempted by every couple who qualified by beating the $200 clock. Originally the stunt was played at the end of the show by each couple that qualified, and "because of the high prize value" a special timing machine made by the [[Longines]] company was used, which was touted as the most accurate portable timer available. Probably realizing that seeing the same stunt a few times in a row was a bit boring, they moved the Super Bonus right after the $200 clock and before the jackpot clock on March 17, dropping the Longines clock.

Partway through the run of the second Super Bonus, a rolling desk/table with dollar value of the bonus printed on it was used to roll out the props for the stunt. This carried over to the Big Cash Bonus Stunt. It is notable that in the earliest surviving episodes from 1952 that air, the original bonus had a similar desk with the value of the bonus on it. The desk was done away with for several years until the idea was reused in 1956.

==== Big Cash Bonus Stunt ====
Starting on September 22, 1956, the bonus reverted to the original Bonus Stunt format (attempted once per episode by whatever couple heard the "bonus bell" ringing). The Jackpot started at $5,000 and increased $1,000 every week it was not won. If successful, the couple left the show with the top prize. Otherwise, they continued on with the regular game.

==== Bonus Cash and Prize Stunt ====
Featured on the daytime version. A lucky couple had a chance to win a bundle of cash and their choice of a new car or boat. To win, they had to successfully complete their Bonus Stunt. Like the original Bonus Stunt, the cash value started at $100, going up each time the stunt was not successfully completed. The largest cash bonus won on the daytime edition was $20,100 during its years on ABC, setting a record for daytime TV winnings in the post-scandal era.

=== Stunts ===
The stunts performed on the show were mostly created by staff stunt writers Frank Wayne and Bob Howard. In the early days of the show, playwright [[Neil Simon]] was also a stunt writer. The stunts were usually aimed towards fun with difficulty being secondary. The stunts would usually be constructed out of common household props such as cardboard boxes, string, balloons, record players, dishes, cups, plates, cutlery, and balls of almost every type. As was the case with many other game shows during television's infancy, the budget was low.  Each stunt had to be thoroughly tested before it could be used on the show.

The stunts performed varied widely, but there were some common themes. Most stunts in some way involved physical speed or dexterity. Contestants often had to balance something with some part of their body, or race back and forth on the stage (for example, releasing a balloon, running across the stage to do some task, and running back in time to catch the balloon before it floated too high). Often the challenge was some form of [[target practice]], in terms of throwing, rolling, bowling, etc.

The setup for the stunt was often designed to look easy but then have a complication or [[gimmick]] revealed. For example, Collyer would say "All you have to do is stack four plates", check the clock to see how much time they had to do it, and then add "Oh, and one more thing...you can't use your hands". Common twists included blindfolding one or both contestants, or telling them they could not use their hands (or feet or any body part that would be obvious to use for whatever the task was).

The other common element in the stunts was to get one of the contestants messy in some way often involving whipped cream, pancake batter, and such (usually limited to the husband of the couple). While it was not a part of every stunt, and sometimes it didn't even happen in an episode, it was common enough that when a couple brought a child on, Collyer would often ask what they thought the parents might have to do and the child would often respond "get whipped cream in their face". Many times the wife would be shown a task, be blindfolded, and then her husband would be quietly brought out and unknown to her she would be covering him with some sort of mess. When the mess was not hidden from the wife, Collyer would often jokingly tell the husband (who usually had a short haircut) that they would put a bathing cap on his head "to keep your long hair out of your eyes" before revealing what form of mess he would be involved with. Occasionally Collyer himself would get caught in the mess accidentally.

Technicality in the rules was not a major issue on the show. The goal was usually to make sure the contestants had fun. Collyer would often stop the clock in the middle of a stunt if the contestant(s) was struggling so he advised them on a better way to do the stunt. Often if a condition of the stunt was "don't use your hands," Collyer would ignore the first use of hands and just warn the contestant. If the time limit was nearly up on a task, he would often give them a few moments extra, or tell them if they started before the clock ran out and succeeded in that attempt, he would count it. Sometimes if a contestant had come close enough (for example, if they had to stack cups and saucers without the pile falling over, and the contestant knocked the pile over while putting the last cup on top), he would give them the stunt if they did not have time to do it again. If there was a problem with a prop breaking or running out of a supply, such as balloons, Collyer would simply give the stunt to the couple, citing it as the show's fault. Similarly, on the messy stunts, since the goal was just to mess up the husband, the time limit was often unimportant and the clock would be stopped when Bud felt the husband was messy enough.

=== Prizes ===
Prizes varied depending on the era of the show and the sponsor at the time. During Sylvania's tenure as sponsor (which began in March 1951), consolation prizes for losing the $100 clock were usually a Sylvania radio.
* $100 clock prizes included Michael C. Fina silverware sets, a collection of four Knapp-Monarch small kitchen appliances, or a [[The Hoover Company|Hoover]] [[vacuum cleaner|upright]], among others.
* $200 clock prizes included International-Harvester refrigerators, air conditioning units (usually in the summer), a [[Tappan (brand)|Tappan]] range/oven, a James dishwasher, [[Speed Queen]] washers and dryers (they were only offered separately) and small Sylvania TVs. All of these prizes, except the Sylvania radio, were shown on "art cards" and not actually brought out on the show.
* The Jackpot Prize during Sylvania's tenure was always a Sylvania [[television set]]. Sometimes a [[hi-fi]] stereo/phonograph (with "famous surround sound") was included with the television, and it was noted that the Jackpot Prize was "worth more than $500". A notable (and often pointed out) feature of Sylvania's TVs at the time was the "halo light", which was an illuminated "frame" around the image which was supposed to have made watching the image easier on the eyes, similar to the "[[AmbiLight]]" feature on some modern television sets.

The sets, as was the style at the time, were freestanding pieces of furniture that sat on legs on the floor with a speaker mounted below the screen. Various models were given away over the years—sometimes the same model several times in one episode, sometimes a different model each time the Jackpot was won in an episode. Roxanne (later Beverly) would pose with the TV which was revealed from behind a curtain in a small faux living room.

There were also various gifts given to the contestants just for appearing on the show. There was a Sylvania ''Beat the Clock'' home game produced which was given to contestants starting in the mid-50s. When it was novel, Collyer would open the box and explain that it would be fun for not just children but adults at parties, and he would point out the working clock and the instructions for stunts and all the props. Later in the run it would be brought out, shown and whisked away just as quickly. The boxes were reworked a few times, and there was a new edition released later in the run. Both versions were manufactured by Lowell Toy Mfg. Co. of New York, who produced a number of television-based home games at the time.

When children were brought on the show, there were special gifts. Starting on September 6, 1952, girls brought on the show were given a Roxanne doll that was produced at the time. On October 11, 1952, the [[Buck Rogers]] Space Ranger Kit was debuted for boys. In the mid-50s, each child was given a camera kit.

If contestants were involved in a messy stunt, Roxanne (later Beverly) would come out and take a picture. Initially it wasn't made clear how the couple would get the photo (perhaps mailed to them), but later in the run, the camera would be given to the couple in addition to any their children might already have been given. Collyer would explain that when they developed the film, the first photo would be that of the husband/couple.

From 1956 and for the rest of the show's run on CBS, the Jackpot Prizes usually consisted of a [[Magnavox]] Color TV, [[Fedders]] air conditioners (usually awarded as a pair), [[Westinghouse Electric Corporation (1886)|Westinghouse]] washer and dryer pairs, and refrigerators, [[Hardwick (appliances)|Hardwick]] ranges, [[Whirlpool Corporation|Whirlpool]] freezers, and Easy "Combomatic" combination washer-dryers.