Break the Bank (1)

Contestants answer a series of question in an attempt to win the money in the bank.

Broadcast
ABC - October 22, 1948-September 23, 1949, January 31, 1954-June 20, 1956 NBC - (Primetime) October 5, 1949-January 9, 1952, June 23, 1953-September 1, 1953, October 9, 1956-January 15, 1957, (Daytime) March 30, 1953-September 18, 1953 CBS - January 13, 1952-February 1, 1953

Packager
Ed Wolf Productions

Hosts
Bert Parks Bud Collyer (1948-1953)

Substitute Hosts
Peter Donald & Johnny Olsen (1948-1953) Bill Cullen (1954-1956)

Assistant/Paying Teller
Janice Gilbert

Announcers
Bob Shepard Win Elliott Johnny Olsen

Gameplay
Contestants were called upon to the stage from the studio audience to play a question & answer game where the more questions answered correctly, the more money they can win. Contestants can miss one time and continue playing, but if they miss twice, the game is over and any money accumulated was put into the bank which started at $1,000 and grew from there. To start, the contestant selected a category, then the host posed questions under that category. The first question was worth $25 and the value grows for every question thereafter. When he/she reached the 7th, that became the "$500 Gateway to the Bank Question" in which if answered, the contestant won a chance the 8th and final question dubbed the "Break the Bank" question; so-called because a correct answer to that question won all the money in the bank.

Break the $250,000 Bank
In the final years of the show, it's title was renamed "Break the $250,000 Bank". Plus it had some rules changes:


 * Contestants now had specialized knowledge in specific categories.
 * Host Parks now asked five $100 questions to the contestants. Answering all the questions won the right to answer the $5,000 question. Answering that correctly won the right to return on the next show to answer a series of $10,000 questions. Prize money increased for each additional appearance.
 * Should a contestant get stumped, he/she went to the "Family Circle" and called upon a member of the family for help.

Nobody won the $250,000 in this version. The highest anyone has ever won was $60,000 (won by a dentist named Dr. Harry Duncan).

Special Features

 * Wish Bowl - A special home viewer contest in which a penny postcard was drawn. The home viewer who sent in that postcard won a trip to New York to be a guest on the show, a three day stay for two at the Statler Hotel & $150 in spendable cash.
 * Bank Holdup - A camera scanned through the studio audience until an alarm went off, at which point the camera stopped and the audience member landed on won a chance at a special prize.

Links
Rules for Break the Bank (1) A full Episode of the Show in which Bert Parks broke into song @ tv4u.com