Before Making a Deal to Make a Deal

When you hear the name “Monty Hall,” the first thing that will pop into your mind is Let's Make a Deal. Before it went on the air, Hall hosted another game show called Video Village, which I watched on Saturdays (we had a home version of the game too).

But there was a third game show at the time connected with Hall. It was an NBC outing called Your First Impression which aired from the start of 1962 to mid-1964. Hall wasn’t the host. He and Art Stark produced the show; Stark moved to The Tonight Show in April 1963.

To get a flavour of the show if you never saw it, here is Allen Rich’s column in the Valley News of June 20, 1962. Play along if you’d like.

TV Editor Plays First Impression
Studio City's Monty Hall, a former emcee of such high-rolling quiz and game shows as Strike It Rich, Twenty One and also of the only recently departed Video Village, is co-creator-packager and executive producer of Your First Impression.
It took Mr. Hall three and a half years to get this daytime show on the air (NBC) and I would be tempted to go out on a limb and predict great success for it, except for one thing.
It is a very intelligent show, and even a tyro in the TV jungle knows you are flirting with danger when you put an intelligent show on daytime television.
Daytime TV belongs mostly to the inane emcee, the stumbling contestant, the silly game and the ever-so-bright, "Ha, ha, so you're from Brooklyn" quip.
FORMAT OF Your First Impression is simple and diverting.
The panel tries to guess the identity of a mystery guest by firing incomplete questions at the unseen subject. The guest must answer within two seconds or the question doesn't count. Then are no prizes, no competition.
The game may best be explained by repeating some of the recent instant answers furnished by the guests.
The incomplete question asked of the guest is listed first, followed by the guest's answer, and then name. As follows:
There ought to be a law . . . Against intolerance—Sammy Davis, Jr.
When I see a married man flirt . . . God bless him —Andy Griffith.
I can't stand a man who doesn't . . . Look—Marie Wilson.
A female lawyer ... Talk, talk, talk—Dr. Frank Baxter.
It's a mistake to . . . Get married — George Jessel. (Well, he should know!)
The morning series, emceed by Bill Leyden, is luring onto the air such guests as Davis, Milton Berle, Gordon MacRae, Nick Adams, Chuck Connors and others of equal stature. Panelists past, present and future are the likes of Lorne Green, Jan Sterling, Pat Carroll, Paul Winchell, Jim Backus, Abby Dalton and the etc.
AFTER MR. Hall gave me these names and felt confident I would plug his show he looked at me cunningly and said, "Now we will have some fun. We, you and I, will play the game. I'll ask the questions . . . you give me the instant answers.
I said, okay, but let me call my regular psychiatrist first. The request was denied.
The questions are in light-face type—my answers in bold face. Here they are.
A friend . . .
What's that?
I Need money . . .
Not again.
My Editor is . . .
Great, simply great. (He may read this . . . I hope!)
Lights are low and the music is soft . . .
Go to sleep.
"Well," I asked brightly, “would your panelists be able to identify me from my answers?"
"Oh, yes indeed," commenced Hall. "Most revealing. They would know you are a fellow without friends who always needs money and is too old for women."
I am now trying to forget the whole thing.
Intelligent game, indeed!

Video Village had gone off the air on June 15. In this newspaper syndicate story from May 4, Hall talks about producing, though he admitted he liked hosting more. This is even though he began Monty Hall Productions in Canada after quitting CBC radio in 1949 and was soon under contract to Colgate-Palmolive to produce and perform in their show. (Yes, "America's Big Dealer" was a Canadian).

Monty Hall Prefers To Emcee TV Shows
By HAROLD STERN
NEW YORK — John F. Kennedy may not wear any hats, but the hat industry can take some consolation in the fact that TV personality Monty Hall is a man who wears two hats. On CBS-TV, Monty is the daily host of "Video Village." On NBC-TV, Monty is the producer of the daily "Your First Impression."
According to Monty, emceeing is preferable to producing.
"When you're a producer, you have all the headaches," he said. "When your show is on the air and something goes wrong, you're powerless. On 'Video Village,' I'm on top of the show constantly and I have a good working relationship with my producers. Yes, I tell you, a producer is a worrisome thing."
Don't let him kid you, Monty Hall does enjoy being the producer of a show that's on the air, particularly of a well-received show.
"I didn't explain the show to NBC," he said. "I demonstrated it and sold it immediately. It's literally an analysis game. It uses psychology and doesn't give away a thing. It calls for mental agility and the ability to associate and to literally give your first impression.
"I think NBC should be congratulated for taking a chance on the show," Monty remarked. "It's nighttime TV in the daytime. In fact. NBC has had us prepare a nighttime budget for the show, so we have our fingers crossed.
"I've had a lot of fun working on the show and meeting all the people we've had on it," Monty said. "We've used over 200 personalities during our first 26 weeks, including just about every TV star."
Since the show involves the analysis of a personality on the basis of the compilation of ideas, without knowing who the personality is, the show is taped ahead and occasionally, though not often, deletions are made in the completed tape. Such deletions are made on the grounds of taste.
Lists Deletions
For example, one of the personalities (name withheld for obvious reasons) competed the thought "Fat men are . . ." with, "overbearing and pugnacious like William Morris agents." That was deleted.
Another deletion took place while Dinah Shore was in the booth and one of the panelists said: "It couldn't be Dinah Shore because this person loves her husband and Dinah Shore couldn't care if her husband lived or died."
Another time, a former movie star was in the booth and a panelist said: "This person is either very old or very dull," That went in a hurry.
A couple of statements that remained were one by panelist Dennis James who remarked: "This woman is over the hill" while Nina Foch was concealed in the booth, and a comment by guest Kathy Nolan who completed the thought: "The worst thing that's happened to this country was . . ." and she tossed in: "John F. Kennedy."
Kennedy fans will be pleased to note that Miss Nolan was recently fired by "The Real McCoys."

Hall had to wait until Dec. 30, 1963 for his game show hosting job. The pilot for Let’s Make a Deal is below. Note the funny, attention-grabbing contestant costumes were in the future, and the announcer is not former ABC staffer Jay Stewart; it’s the man who pushed Pepsodent on the Bob Hope radio show.