You Bet Your Life on NBC

Nominally a game show, but really a forum for the sharp wit of Groucho Marx, whose barbs and banter with guests far eclipsed the actual competition, in which contestants vied for cash by answering questions or saying `the secret word,' which yielded $100 (delivered by a duck that dropped from above). It was an Emmy-nominated triumph of manufactured spontaneity (many `ad libs' were planned); the show was revived unsuccessfully in 1980 (with Buddy Hackett) and again in '92 (with Bill Cosby).