Head of the Class

Host

Gene Rayburn

Announcer

Dick Dudley

Broadcast

Unsold Pilot for NBC Primetime: 1960

Head of the Class was a pilot that was supposed to be an aired show, but never really made it. Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with the formerly popular 1986-1991 ABC sitcom of the same name.

Gameplay

Four contestants would watch a skit and try to remember elements of it, since it would be the basis of later questions. After the skit, one player is designated "head of the class" and would be given a question. After the player gave their answer, another player either agreed with the answer or challenged it. If the first answer given was correct, the "head of the class" got $50 and the agreer $10. If the first answer was wrong and the challenge answer was correct, that player got $10 and became "head of the class".

Each skit had six questions, and a player got a bonus prize if they got all six questions in a round.

Music

Marilyn Lovell
The Noteworthies
Elliott Lawrence and His Orchestra

Trivia

• Rather than being a skit, Game 3 consisted of questions based on a clip of a Will Rogers movie entitled Underdog, said to be from 1924. There is no known reference of this film anywhere else.
• All known copies of the pilot have no ending, leaving it unknown as to who was behind the show's creation.
• Head of the Class was scheduled to debut on June 24, 1960, and even appears in TV Guide listings for that date, paired up with Play Your Hunch. A week before the show was to debut, however, NBC opted to change the schedule to reruns of Cimarron and Wichita Town.

Links

Head of the Class at The Game Show Pilot Light