Sonny Fox on
contestant Joyce Brothers
Okay. Interesting story about how Joyce Brothers got on "[The] $64,000 Question." She went down originally and presented herself as a psychologist, and she had an expertise in something and, I'm not sure I remember what it was, but it certainly wasn't boxing. And they said to her, "Well you're wonderful as a personality but we're looking for those dramatic juxtapositions." The marine officer who is an expert cook. The shoemaker who knows about opera. Those kinds of anomalies. That's what we're looking for. For instance, if you knew about boxing we'd.... She went home and -- one thing you have to know about Joyce is she's absolutely, she's purposeful in her life. I mean, if she wants something she goes after it. And she wanted to be on this show and she started studying about boxing and she made herself into a boxing expert and she did not come on it as a boxing expert. She invented herself as a boxing expert. And she came on, she came back and said I'm a boxing expert. I'm a psychologist who knows about boxing. And they tested her and she did, and they put her on. Now the story that I understand, I'm not sure whether I got this from a prime source or a secondary source so I can't be absolutely a hundred percent certain that I'm telling you the truth, but I think it is. At about $16,000 they thought they would knock her off. They didn't think Joyce Brothers was building. So they asked her a particularly tough question, and she got it.
So at $32,000 they decided really to get rid of Joyce, and this time instead of asking her questions about boxers they asked her a question about referees, which they knew she didn't know anything about. But they underestimated Miss Brothers because she had been studying every week in-between and she knew about referees by the time they asked her about referees. And she got $32,064. And they said what the heck let her go. They went back to her strength and she hit. You know she hit $64,000 and she became quite famous as a result and she still is. She's still writing her columns and everybody knows the name Joyce Brothers. So she really rode that one to stardom and fame. Others had their brief time of fame. Their names were household words for a few months. They did personal tours. As a matter of fact, "[The] $64,000 Challenge" was invented to take advantage of the stardom of "[The] $64,000 Question." Here "Question" had spent all this time making these people stars and then they would just, there was nothing to be done with them and that didn't sit right so they said well wait a minute. If we bring them back and have them challenged, then we have a second crack at them, hence, "[The] $64,000 Challenge." It was a way of merchandising, if you will, and profiting from what happened on "Question." And then they would manufacture stars and then "Challenge" would pick them up and continue that. So that's why "Challenge" was born.
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