A reminder

As a faux tweet noted, Joyce Brothers has died at age 85. Her sometimes ubiquitous media presence started with a game show, of course. She ran the table on $64,000 Question by knowing every last fact about the sweet science of boxing.

In Joyce's case, the money was apparently earned fair and square. But not everything on $64,000 Question was on the up and up, as the nation would soon discover. Although not completely fixed, the show became a victim of the rigging scandals that erupted in the late 1950s.

Those scandals are now slipping out of living memory, as the participants pass away. But the effects certainly live on. Standards and Practices, or whatever they call themselves nowadays, keep a sharp eye on every game show to make sure that no scent of rigging attaches. Even a whiff of rumor is enough to torpedo a game show, as the producers of the abortive Our Little Genius found out.

It's all for the best, I guess. In an imperfect world there will always be allegations of shady practices on game shows, not to mention every other human endeavor. But at least game show producers have a powerful motive to keep the shows honest.