Queen For A Day
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Queen For A Day was a game show that was the true mother of the sleazy day-time talk show. It ran first on NBC from 1956 to 1960. When NBC dropped the show, ABC picked it up for four more seasons. ABC cancelled it in 1964 yet the beast of a show still would not die. It was the Rasputin of day time TV. A syndicated version was attempted in 1970. Luckily, mothers and wives proved more interested in watching TV news to determine if their sons and husbands were about to be killed in Vietnam.
The show was emcee'd by Jack Baily, better known as the voice of Goofy in Disney Cartoons. Baily would select five women from the audience. Set against a backdrop of unmatched post-war economic expansion, peace, and security, they would each tell a harrowing story about the tragic state of their lives and what they needed to set things right (usually a new appliance). After all the women told their sob stories, the studio audience would vote via an applause meter as to which woman had the most tragically entertaining story. The four losing losers would be summarily dismissed. The winning loser would be sat on a throne, swaddled in royal gowns, have a tiara placed on her head, and have her feet bathed in fragrant oils by a Nubian prostitute.
She would then be given the items she asked for plus additional promotional gifts.
The show closed with the piece "Pomp And Circumstance, Military March in D (Opus 39, No. 1)"
The show was emcee'd by Jack Baily, better known as the voice of Goofy in Disney Cartoons. Baily would select five women from the audience. Set against a backdrop of unmatched post-war economic expansion, peace, and security, they would each tell a harrowing story about the tragic state of their lives and what they needed to set things right (usually a new appliance). After all the women told their sob stories, the studio audience would vote via an applause meter as to which woman had the most tragically entertaining story. The four losing losers would be summarily dismissed. The winning loser would be sat on a throne, swaddled in royal gowns, have a tiara placed on her head, and have her feet bathed in fragrant oils by a Nubian prostitute.
She would then be given the items she asked for plus additional promotional gifts.
The show closed with the piece "Pomp And Circumstance, Military March in D (Opus 39, No. 1)"
