The Name's the Same

A show where people with the name of a famous person are questioned by a celebrity panel.

Each standard round featured a contestant who had a "famous name"; i.e., their full name was the same as either a famous person, place or thing (with the latter usually taking the first initial "A.", such as "A. Table"), or occasionally an action (such as "I. Draw", or "Will Kiss"). The contestant was introduced and referred to throughout the game as "Mr. X" or one of two variations ("Miss X" or "Mrs. X" for a woman; "Master X" for a young boy as was the standard at the time). A small curtain was opened to the audience, showing a placard with the contestant's name, along with a drawing depicting the namesake; famous people were often caricatured.

The panelists were allocated 10 questions each, with the number remaining denoted in running tally on the wall behind them. The questions had to be yes or no questions, and were posed to the contestant as if they were the person, place, or thing their name represented with the contestant answering as their namesake. The panel could pass to save some of their questions for later on in the game. Any member of the panel who failed to identify the contestant's name wrote the contestant a check for $25, meaning each contestant won either $50 if their name was guessed by a panelist, or $75 if it was not.

When a fourth panelist was added in early 1954, the check amounts were decreased to $20 per panelist, making the prizes $60 for a correct guess and $80 if the panel was stumped.

Sometimes a contestant's celebrity namesake was brought out at the end of the round to surprise the contestant; other times, a celebrity was the guest without pretext. The celebrity then played a special round called "I'd Like To Be..." in which the panel tried to guess, in the same fashion as with civilians, who the celebrity would like to be if they could be anyone else.

In late 1953, "I'd Like To Be..." was replaced with "Secret Wish", in which the panel attempted to guess something that the guest would secretly like to do or have happen (for example, Kirk Douglas wished to coach the Vassar lacrosse team, and Van Johnson wanted Marilyn Monroe to sit on his lap). The celebrity's winnings ($50/$75, later $60/$80) went to their favorite charity.

A few times near the end of the run, host Clifton Fadiman would welcome the panel then reveal the episode's guest to the studio and home audience. The curtain would pull back with the guest standing behind it in place of the usual caricature.

A typical episode contained four rounds - two standard rounds, the celebrity round, and then a final standard round; some episodes would feature one less or one more standard round. At the end of each episode, each panelist would tell how much money they "lost" followed by a good-night.

Broadcast
ABC 1951-1955

Host
Robert Q. Lewis (1951-1954) Dennis James (1954-1955) Bob Elliott & Ray Goulding (1955) Clifton Fadiman (1955)

Music
1st Main - "Shooting Star" by Sidney Torch

2nd Main - "Meet Me in Saint Louis, Louis" by Kerry Mills

Inventor
Mark Goodson & Bill Todman