Mark Goodson Biography

Fast Facts

• Was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1992
• Graduated from the University of California at Berkeley
• He and Bill Todman sold their first game show, "Winner Take All," to WCBS radio in 1946
• Started out as a radio announcer in San Francisco in 1937 and created his first game show, "Pop the Question," in 1939
• Quote: "One of the prices I pay is that the game-show business is essentially without status․․․The first thing people ask is, why is somebody as literate and articulate as you in games? It's like saying, why is an engineer taking out the garbage?"
• Best known as the television game show producer behind "The Price is Right," "Family Feud," and "What's My Line?"
• Worked with fellow producer Bill Todman, whom he met in New York while working on the radio quiz show "Battle of the Boroughs" in 1941, until Todman's death in 1979
• His first big television success was "What's My Line?" in 1950, which he created after wondering if people could tell what strangers did for a living just by looking at them
• Later named "To Tell the Truth" as his favorite of the game shows that he had created
• There has not been a week of television without a Mark Goodson game show since 1950