Transmission
2 January
1946
Twenty Questions
1st Subject The Wall That Humpty Dumpty Sat On
Network
Mutual, then ABC
Running time
29 min
Twenty Questions, Mutual, then ABC. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
← The Handover
1946–1954 · Mutual, then ABC
Twenty Questions
Animal, vegetable or mineral — the parlour game that took to both dials.
Twenty Questions was radio at its cheapest and most durable: a panel, a subject, and a bell. It arrived on Mutual in 1946, was on television by 1949, and for five years the same format ran in both media without either killing the other — the clearest possible demonstration that in the crossover years nobody yet knew which medium the game show belonged to.
- On radio
- Radio from 2 February 1946
- On television
- Television from 26 November 1949
- The overlap
- Radio and television versions ran side by side until 1954
7 recordings · New York
Surviving Mutual and AFRS transcriptions held by the Internet Archive. Public domain (US network broadcast, copyright not renewed); no Creative Commons or non-commercial terms apply.
19461
19502
Transmission
11 February
1950
Twenty Questions
Session1 Track1
Network
Mutual, then ABC
Running time
28 min
Twenty Questions, Mutual, then ABC. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
Transmission
28 November
1950
Twenty Questions
Ann Rutherford
Network
Mutual, then ABC
Running time
26 min
Twenty Questions, Mutual, then ABC. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
19511
Transmission
22 February
1951
Twenty Questions
Santa Claus, guest First Topic Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer
Network
Mutual, then ABC
Running time
29 min
Twenty Questions, Mutual, then ABC. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
19541
Transmission
3 March
1954
Twenty Questions
1st Subject Bobby McGuire
Network
Mutual, then ABC
Running time
26 min
Twenty Questions, Mutual, then ABC. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
Undated recordings2
Transmission
Undated
Twenty Questions
Twenty Questions
Network
Mutual, then ABC
Running time
29 min
Twenty Questions, Mutual, then ABC. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
Transmission
Undated
Twenty Questions
Twenty Questions
Network
Mutual, then ABC
Running time
30 min
Twenty Questions, Mutual, then ABC. Recording held by the Internet Archive;