Judge for Yourself
| Judge for Yourself | |
|---|---|
Fred Allen with The Skylarks in 1954. At left is Joe Hamilton.
|
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| Genre | Quiz program/nontraditional court show |
| Presented by | Fred Allen |
| Starring |
Dennis James Terry Gibbs Bob Carroll Marian McPartland |
| Narrated by | Don Pardo |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Mark Goodson Bill Todman |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | August 18, 1953 – May 11, 1954 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | The Armstrong Circle Theatre (9:30 EST) |
| Followed by | On the Line with Considine (10:30 EST) |
Judge for Yourself, at first subtitled The Fred Allen Show, is a Mark Goodson and Bill Todman nontraditional court show/quiz show, with comedian Fred Allen as the emcee. It aired on NBC from August 18, 1953, to May 11, 1954. Don Pardo was the show's announcer, with Dennis James doing plugs for primary sponsor Old Gold.
Each week three performers – singers, dancers, musicians, or comedians – were judged by two panels, one of professional entertainers and the other from the studio audience. If one of the amateur judges rated the acts 1, 2, or 3 in the same order as the celebrities, that individual would win a $1,000 prize. Two instrumental jazz groups that appeared on Judge for Yourself had considerable success thereafter, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and the Marian McPartland Trio.
The original intent of the series was to allow Allen to interact with guests, much as Groucho Marx did on his own NBC series, You Bet Your Life. The complicated format first employed, however, was revamped in the middle of the season. On the episode which aired on January 5, 1954, the professional judges were dropped, and the studio audience panel rated new songs to predict future hits, the comparable format of ABC's Jukebox Jury, which also aired in the 1953–54 season.
The songs were performed by a regular cast of Bob Carroll, the Skylarks, Kitty Kallen (two episodes), and Judy Johnson. The winning judge of the songs was selected on the basis of applause meter voting by the studio audience, a format also adopted thereafter on the NBC/ABC daytime reality show, Queen for a Day, hosted by Jack Bailey.
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