Dan Enright

Daniel "Dan" Enright (August 30, 1917 – May 22, 1992) was an American television producer, primarily of game shows. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television. Their company was called Barry & Enright Productions.

Enright (original surname Ehrenreich), who grew up in British Palestine and New York City, met up with Barry as the latter was working in stand-up comedy. After a stint at WOR radio, the two developed several early TV shows, including the seminal "interactive" show Winky Dink and You, as well as Juvenile Jury and Life Begins at Eighty, and Wisdom of the Ages.

The duo produced network game shows in the 1950s, including Back That Fact, You're On Your Own, Tic-Tac-Dough, Twenty One, Concentration, and Dough Re Mi.

Capitalizing on the success of the 1950s big-money quiz The $64,000 Question on CBS, Barry and Enright developed their flagship show, Twenty One, a quiz which had a scoring system based loosely on Blackjack. Contestants were placed in twin isolation booths and asked questions ranging in value from one to 11 points — the higher the point value, the more difficult the question. Enright described the initial broadcast of Twenty One as "a dismal failure. It was just plain dull." Contestants repeatedly missed questions and, in Enright's own words, "It lacked all drama; it lacked all suspense. The next morning the sponsor (Geritol) called my partner, Jack Barry, and me and told us in no uncertain terms that he never wanted to see a repeat of what happened the previous night. And from that moment on, we decided to rig Twenty One." Even with rigging, initial ratings were unimpressive.

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