The Great One Fails

Jackie Gleason may have been known as “The Great One” but he had a moment that wasn’t too great. It was a game show called “You’re in the Picture.”

It debuted on January 20, 1961. It was cancelled after the second show one week later when Gleason went on the air and apologised for how lousy the first one was.

Of course, Gleason felt differently when he was plugging the show before it aired. He predicted success and a financial windfall to columnist H.C. of the New York Herald Tribune in a column five days before the show debuted.

Gleason Returns
WE ASKED the Great Gleason (which is the way he signs his mail, hotel registers, everything but checks) a loaded question. You’ve got all the fame you can enjoy, all the respect a sensitive genius needs, all the satisfaction and money your ego and extravagances require, all the booze you could ever lap up—aren’t you crazy to go back wrestling with the TV gremlins on a regular weekly series starting this Friday night at 9:30 over CBS?
“Fun,” my fine feathered fat friend snorted. “Fun is a commodity of which there is always a shortage. I’m an active guy, mentally and physically. I found out that last night’s applause doesn’t last till the next morning unless you’re weird enough to tape it and replay it. Public acceptance to acclaim is a living thing that acts as adrenalin to an entertainer—the only difference is you can’t take an overdose of it.
“About the upcoming show,” Jackie raved on, “the title, ‘You’re In the Picture,’ pretty much is a give away of the format. When Steve Carlin first approached me with it I listened with a critic’s ears, looking for clinkers and booby traps. Instead I found the whole concept palatable and practical because there’s nothing quite like it on TV—which makes it novelty night.
“It sets up like this. We have a panel of four familiar faces, preferably those of people. Maybe we’ll rotate the celebs, maybe we’ll anchor one or more of them. Sliding in front of the panelists will be a huge picture frame, about 10 feet wide by 7 feet high (my build before I went on a diet!) In each show pictures will be set into the frame, maybe the memorable photo of the raising of Old Flory on Suribachi, or a New Yorker cartoon, or Washington Crossing the Delaware.
“Let’s say it’s the Washington bit. Maybe it’ll be Tallulah Bankhead poking her head through a hole cut in the picture so from up front it’s George’s body and Tallulah’s head you see in the scene. Maybe one of the oarsmen is Ethel Merman or Bill Bendix. The game then is for the stars to guess who they are, what they’re doing, what famous painting or event is being recalled. After the guessing is over we’ll wheel a huge mirror in front of the panelists so they can see what caused all the guffaws.
“My job will be to act as a ‘mobile moderator.’ I’ll help with clues, capers, comments, maybe stick my head through a hole in the picture like I used to do at Coney Island when I was a kid.
“Since the series will be on tape this thing shouldn’t interfere with ‘Gigot,’ the movie Paddy Chayefsky is writing for me to do in Paris, which I think Jose Ferrer will direct. It also won’t interfere with the TV conversation series I’m itching to do, nor the sports shows, nor a variety idea I have up my sleeveless sweater. By the way, we’ll have the only panel show on TV with live music, something of which there is not enough on the air. To sum up, chum, I’m in this racket for two things—to get involved with anything that smells like fun and can make me a million bucks between laughs.”
It this makes Jackie Gleason crazy, I’d like to apply for membership in the club.

The concept was a good one; certainly as good as Godson-Todman’s I’ve Got a Secret. But the problem was Gleason. He thought he could create sparkling entertainment just by walking in and winging it for a half-hour. It doesn’t quite work that way.

Meanwhile, back stage, no one could figure out who should appear on the show with Gleason. Two days before the premiere, this story appeared. (It should be mentioned the original column in the Times didn’t mistake Arthur Treacher for Arthur Tracy. That line was added by the news service).

Who Will Be In Jackie Gleason’s Comedy Panel?
BY VAL ADAMS
New York Times Service
NEW YORK—Persons involved in the presentation of Jackie Gleason’s new comedy panel television show, “You’re In the Picture,” have indicated they don’t know who will be in the picture when the program makes its debut Friday night.
Gleason could not be reached for comment—either in his office or his hotel. The Columbia Broadcasting System said it did not know who would be on the panel. Steve Carlin, producer of the program, said “I’ll let you know Wednesday.”

A representative for Gleason said the comedian had given approval to two proposed panel members—Pat Carroll and Arthur Treacher. He did not say, however, that they would be on Friday’s show.
Miss Carroll and Treacher, who performed as “The Street Singer” in the early days of radio, appeared on a four- member panel during a run-through of the Gleason show last Saturday. It had been expected that a decision about the panel would be made immediately after the run-through.
The indecision in picking a panel for the premiere is said to be a result of Gleason and others involved in the show not speaking in unison.
The Gleason show has been under development at least since December 9, when CBS announced it would have its premiere January 20 at 9:30 P.M.
Initially the network said it would be co-sponsored by the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company and Plymouth, but the latter has been replaced by the Kellogg Company.

Gleason and producer Carlin considered 50 people in show biz and put 25 of them through trial runs, some of which were videotaped. But Gleason insisted the debut be live. So it was.

Critics weren’t kind the next morning. And neither was Gleason. This story appeared on the wire a day after the second and final show.

Jackie Gleason Admits New TV Show Giant Flop
NEW YORK (AP)—Jackie Gleason took to the air Friday night and confessed to a nation-wide audience that his new panel show was a giant sized flop.
The CBS program, "You're In the Picture," met something less than critical acclaim at its premiere last week.
The portly comedian, in rare form, strolled alone onto the stage Friday night, sat down in an arm chair and told how the whole thing came about.
Television hadn't seen anything like it since Jack Paar walked off his show to go to Hong Kong.
"You're In the Picture" originally had guest panelists sticking their heads through cutouts in prearranged pictures. But, said Gleason, the show was a failure and he tried to explain how a group of 20 TV veterans could have designed such a disaster.
"There's no panel tonight," said Gleason. "There's nothing but an orchestra and myself. We have a creed, namely, honesty is the best policy."
Between sips of coffee, which he identified roguishly as "chock full o' booze," Gleason tried to explain the anatomy of a flop. It wasn't clear why the show failed, but the answer lay partly in the fact that everyone concerned had apparently been wrong in his judgment, Gleason said.
"Show business," sighed Gleason, "is a strange and intangible endeavor."
The future?
"I don't know what we are going to do, but tune in next week for the greatest soap opera-less opera you've ever seen," he said.

Gleason took the failure in stride. He simply carried on with a new format (Kellogg dropped out, saying it wasn’t the show they bought) then revived his variety show in 1962, well-remembered by those old enough to have seen Joe the Bartender exchange words with Crazy Guggenheim. You’re in the Picture didn’t harm Gleason’s career a bit. He still was “The Great One.”