On-air personalities

Substitute hosts on the original version included Bill Hart (1951), John Reed King (1952), stunt creator Frank Wayne (1953), Bob Kennedy (1954), Win Elliot (1955), and Sonny Fox, who became Collyer's permanent substitute from 1957 to 1960. Collyer was referred to in the introductions as "America's number one clockwatcher", and the fill-in hosts were each named "America's number two clockwatcher".

Bud Collyer as the show's host, 1958.

The show had several female on-air assistants. The original hostess was Roxanne (née Delores Evelyn Rosedale). Roxanne was replaced by Beverly Bentley in August 1955. Bentley's departure in 1956 coincided with Hazel Bishop's sponsorship and a period of having no main assistant (see production changes below). She reappeared as one of the models on the original version of The Price Is Right for its entire run.

The announcer for the show's run on CBS was Bernard ("Bern") Bennett until 1958. In October 1957, Beat the Clock ran a contest inviting viewers to submit drawings of what Bennett, who was never shown on camera, might look like. Over 20,000 viewers participated, and winner Edward Darnell, of Columbus, Indiana, was flown in to appear with Bennett on the December 2, 1957, show. When Beat the Clock moved to ABC, Dirk Fredericks became the announcer. Substitute announcers included Lee Vines, Bob Sheppard, Hal Simms, and Dick Noel.

Contestants

Contestants were chosen from the studio audience and usually were married couples. Other pairs were engaged, dating, or were a familial relationship. Collyer would ask them general questions (usually including where they were from and how long they'd been married) and usually asked if they had children, their ages and genders. Sometimes the couple would bring children on the show. Collyer usually would talk to the children, asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up, or, if the kids were not at the show, to have their parents wave to them on TV. The husbands on the show usually wore a business suit. Collyer would often ask the husband to take off his coat for stunts to make it less cumbersome (there were hooks on the contestants' podium) or Collyer would hold the coat.

Occasionally, if there was going to be a messy stunt, the husband would come out dressed in a plastic jumpsuit. Similarly, wives would sometimes play in their "street clothes", but sometimes the women would appear in a jumpsuit because their own clothing might be too cumbersome or perhaps fragile. The women's jumpsuits, unlike the men's, which were rather plain, were patterned to look like a pair of overalls with a collared blouse underneath. The women would also often be issued running shoes instead of their own high heels.

Game format

Stunts

The stunts performed on the show were mostly created by staff stunt writers Frank Wayne and Bob Howard. In the early days of the show, playwright Neil Simon was also a stunt writer. The stunts were usually aimed towards fun with difficulty being secondary. The stunts would usually be constructed out of common household props such as cardboard boxes, string, balloons, record players, dishes, cups, plates, cutlery, and balls of almost every type. As was the case with many other game shows during television's infancy, the budget was low. Each stunt had to be thoroughly tested before it could be used on the show.

The stunts performed varied widely, but there were some common themes. Most stunts in some way involved physical speed or dexterity. Contestants often had to balance something with some part of their body, or race back and forth on the stage (for example, releasing a balloon, running across the stage to do some task, and running back in time to catch the balloon before it floated too high). Often the challenge was some form of target practice, in terms of throwing, rolling, bowling, etc.

The setup for the stunt was often designed to look easy but then have a complication or gimmick revealed. For example, Collyer would say "All you have to do is stack four plates", check the clock to see how much time they had to do it, and then add "Oh, and one more thing...you can't use your hands". Common twists included blindfolding one or both contestants, or telling them they could not use their hands (or feet or any body part that would be obvious to use for whatever the task was).

The other common element in the stunts was to get one of the contestants messy in some way often involving whipped cream, pancake batter, and such (usually limited to the husband of the couple). While it was not a part of every stunt, and sometimes it didn't even happen in an episode, it was common enough that when a couple brought a child on, Collyer would often ask what they thought the parents might have to do and the child would often respond "get whipped cream in their face". Many times the wife would be shown a task, be blindfolded, and then her husband would be quietly brought out and unknown to her she would be covering him with some sort of mess. When the mess was not hidden from the wife, Collyer would often jokingly tell the husband (who usually had a short haircut) that they would put a bathing cap on his head "to keep your long hair out of your eyes" before revealing what form of mess he would be involved with. Occasionally Collyer himself would get caught in the mess accidentally.

Technicality in the rules was not a major issue on the show. The goal was usually to make sure the contestants had fun. Collyer would often stop the clock in the middle of a stunt if the contestant(s) was struggling so he advised them on a better way to do the stunt. Often if a condition of the stunt was "don't use your hands," Collyer would ignore the first use of hands and just warn the contestant. If the time limit was nearly up on a task, he would often give them a few moments extra, or tell them if they started before the clock ran out and succeeded in that attempt, he would count it. Sometimes if a contestant had come close enough (for example, if they had to stack cups and saucers without the pile falling over, and the contestant knocked the pile over while putting the last cup on top), he would give them the stunt if they did not have time to do it again. If there was a problem with a prop breaking or running out of a supply, such as balloons, Collyer would simply give the stunt to the couple, citing it as the show's fault. Similarly, on the messy stunts, since the goal was just to mess up the husband, the time limit was often unimportant and the clock would be stopped when Bud felt the husband was messy enough.

Prizes

Prizes varied depending on the era of the show and the sponsor at the time. During Sylvania's tenure as sponsor (which began in March 1951), consolation prizes for losing the $100 clock were usually a Sylvania radio.

• $100 clock prizes included Michael C. Fina silverware sets, a collection of four Knapp-Monarch small kitchen appliances, or a Hoover upright, among others.
• $200 clock prizes included International-Harvester refrigerators, air conditioning units (usually in the summer), a Tappan range/oven, a James dishwasher, Speed Queen washers and dryers (they were only offered separately) and small Sylvania TVs. All of these prizes, except the Sylvania radio, were shown on "art cards" and not actually brought out on the show.
• The Jackpot Prize during Sylvania's tenure was always a Sylvania television set. Sometimes a hi-fi stereo/phonograph (with "famous surround sound") was included with the television, and it was noted that the Jackpot Prize was "worth more than $500". A notable (and often pointed out) feature of Sylvania's TVs at the time was the "halo light", which was an illuminated "frame" around the image which was supposed to have made watching the image easier on the eyes, similar to the "AmbiLight" feature on some modern television sets.

The sets, as was the style at the time, were freestanding pieces of furniture that sat on legs on the floor with a speaker mounted below the screen. Various models were given away over the years—sometimes the same model several times in one episode, sometimes a different model each time the Jackpot was won in an episode. Roxanne (later Beverly) would pose with the TV which was revealed from behind a curtain in a small faux living room.

There were also various gifts given to the contestants just for appearing on the show. There was a Sylvania Beat the Clock home game produced which was given to contestants starting in the mid-50s. When it was novel, Collyer would open the box and explain that it would be fun for not just children but adults at parties, and he would point out the working clock and the instructions for stunts and all the props. Later in the run it would be brought out, shown and whisked away just as quickly. The boxes were reworked a few times, and there was a new edition released later in the run. Both versions were manufactured by Lowell Toy Mfg. Co. of New York, who produced a number of television-based home games at the time.

When children were brought on the show, there were special gifts. Starting on September 6, 1952, girls brought on the show were given a Roxanne doll that was produced at the time. On October 11, 1952, the Buck Rogers Space Ranger Kit was debuted for boys. In the mid-50s, each child was given a camera kit.

If contestants were involved in a messy stunt, Roxanne (later Beverly) would come out and take a picture. Initially it wasn't made clear how the couple would get the photo (perhaps mailed to them), but later in the run, the camera would be given to the couple in addition to any their children might already have been given. Collyer would explain that when they developed the film, the first photo would be that of the husband/couple.

From 1956 and for the rest of the show's run on CBS, the Jackpot Prizes usually consisted of a Magnavox Color TV, Fedders air conditioners (usually awarded as a pair), Westinghouse washer & dryer pairs, and refrigerators, Hardwick ranges, Whirlpool freezers, and Easy "Combomatic" combination washer-dryers.

Episode status

Like many other shows of its day, the show was recorded using kinescope. There are even some mentions of this on the show, such as an incident when a contestant challenged a loss on the second Super Bonus Stunt, and the kinescope was used to confirm the result.

Like most kinescope recordings that have been put into current use, the films have been transferred to video tape. Some kinescopes or video tapes are lost or in too poor quality to broadcast so there are sometimes gaps in the available catalog of episodes.

Most of the first three years of the show (March 1950-July 1952) are presumed to be unavailable. GSN's catalog of episodes begins with the August 2, 1952 show, guest hosted by John Reed King. There are two episodes not part of GSN's catalog that predate that one:

• The October 13, 1951 show, a "public domain" episode, is possibly the oldest surviving episode in existence. This episode can be viewed on the Internet Archive.^[2]
• The January 5, 1952 show exists at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. It is believed to be the second-oldest surviving episode in existence.^[3]

It is not publicly known whether the daytime episodes (both CBS and ABC) are lost or damaged, but they are rarely seen. However, circulating amongst collectors is the daytime episode from September 23, 1960 with the $20,100 win in the Bonus Stunt. Also notable in this episode is that the Bonus Stunt hadn't been won for 51 weeks, and the couple who won it, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Hunt of Tolleson, Arizona, did so on their third attempt.

GSN had previously aired 1952–1958 episodes of the nighttime version, but they have not been seen on the channel since August 2006. Buzzr aired these episodes for a brief period before removing this version from its lineup.

Jack Narz (1969–1972)

In early episodes, couples, now aided by a weekly celebrity guest, played for points simply by completing stunts. The first couple to reach 100 points won a prize package. This was subsequently changed to the couples receiving a prize every time they won, which was later replaced by the winning couple facing a "cash board" with "BEAT THE CLOCK" spelled out on three levels, each letter concealing a money amount: either $25 (4), $50 (5), $100 (2), or $200. The couple would agree on a letter, select it, and the winnings would be revealed.

In addition, if a couple completed a stunt in less than half the time, the remaining time would be used for awarding a cash bonus. Anywhere from $10 to $50 would be awarded for each time the stunt was completed in the time remaining.

At some point during the show, the celebrity would perform a "Solo Stunt" (which seemed to have supplanted the Bonus Stunt on the original show). The couples won $50 if they guessed correctly whether the star could beat the clock or vice versa. Towards the end of Narz's tenure as host, stunts would be replaced in the second half of the show with the celebrity playing a game of intuition with the couples, who would play for a cash prize that was divided among them.

During this time, the show was syndicated through 20th Century Fox Television. One curious aspect of this version of the show was that Narz's suit jackets sported an embroidered patch of the show's Beat The Clock logo sewn onto the left breast. This practice was similar to hosts Jim Lange and Bob Eubanks' wearing logo patches from The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game respectively, and also the scrambled "mystery logo" seen on Hugh Downs' (and later Bob Clayton's) blazer when they hosted Concentration.

Gene Wood (1972–1974)

Jack Narz left the show in 1972. At the time, he made no announcement and gave no reason for his departure. In a 2007 Internet radio interview, Narz finally explained that the show's budget did not include his personal travel expenses. Narz had to pay for his travel, and the cost of airline fare between his Los Angeles home and Montreal became prohibitive. His travel costs were essentially equal to his earnings, and even a successful appeal to Mark Goodson for more money was not enough.

Announcer Gene Wood hosted the show for the next two seasons. Wood had also been hosting a similar stunt game titled Anything You Can Do, a battle of the sexes competition which was also recorded in Canada. CFCF-TV Montreal staff announcer Nick Hollinrake became the show's announcer (he had previously announced for a week during Narz's final season in which Wood was the celebrity guest). At this time, the show also changed syndicators to Firestone Syndication Services, which syndicated another Goodson-Todman show, To Tell the Truth, which had originally been hosted by Bud Collyer.

The show was now called The New Beat the Clock (although the logo still read simply "Beat the Clock"), and the set was refreshed with a new color scheme and a redesigned clock. Like his predecessor, Wood also wore suit jackets with the show's logo sewn on the pockets.

The only changes in the format were that couples were introduced separately and played two stunts, win or lose (a win still getting a trip to the Cash Board), and both couples competed simultaneously in a final stunt, with the winning couple receiving a prize. Celebrity guests were retained in the new format, once again aiding the contestants, and performing the Solo Stunt as well as "co-judge" with Wood in the final stunt of the day. Another throwback to the Collyer era (when the show was seen in the daytime) was the revival of "Ladies' Day", where women only (not counting the celebrity for that week) would play the game.

Despite continued popularity on local stations in both daytime and prime time access timeslots, Goodson-Todman decided to discontinue production of Beat the Clock in 1974 when the Canadian government asked the company for half of the proceeds from advertisers awarding their wares as contestant consolation prizes. Wood returned to voice-over work, and went on to a 20-year career announcing Los Angeles-based shows for Goodson-Todman and occasionally other packagers.

Episode status

Some episodes of this series are intact and have aired on GSN. Two episodes from the Narz era were aired in late 2005 to pay tribute to Bob Denver and Louis Nye, both of whom had recently died. An episode featuring Tom Kennedy (Narz's brother) aired on June 11, 2007.

In January 2007, a Gene Wood episode aired which featured William Shatner. Another episode aired on October 22, 2007, featuring Dick Clark. At least three episodes were also aired featuring Richard Dawson (with whom Wood was eventually paired on Family Feud).

Rounds 1 and 2

The first two rounds began with the couples competing against each other in a stunt worth $500 for the winner. One stunt usually featured the women of the couples, while the other featured the men, though the other partner sometimes had to help as well. The stunts were conducted for 60 seconds and were either races against the clock to perform an objective or competitions to outscore the opponent in the stunt before the clock ran out. In the former case, the clock was run as a fail safe, and if neither couple managed to complete the stunt, the team furthest along won.

Hall would then bring the winning couple across the stage to compete in a stunt by themselves for an additional $500. After Hall described the stunt and what both partners had to do, the clock was set and the couple had to complete the stunt in the allotted time. Doing so won the $500, but failure to do so did not.

Bonus Shuffle

After the first two rounds, both teams squared off in a modified table shuffleboard game called the "Bonus Shuffle".

The teams took turns throwing pucks down the shuffleboard table. The team leading had the advantage of throwing three pucks and going first, followed by the other team with two pucks. If there was a tie, a coin was tossed with the winners going first and there were two pucks per side. The table had eight stripes on it, and each stripe had a higher dollar amount on it. The first stripe was worth $300 and each subsequent stripe was worth $100 more, with the stripe at the very end of the table worth $1,000. There was just enough space in between the stripes where a puck could land and not score any money. Pucks had to remain on the table to count, and if a puck failed to reach the first stripe it was taken off the board and discarded. The teams were allowed to try to knock each other's pucks off the board if they so desired but did so at their own risk, as they could just as easily knock their own puck off the board or push a puck up the board and onto a higher value.

The team whose puck was furthest along on the board after all pucks had been thrown won the money attached to the space their puck was touching and became the day's champions. They then moved on to play the Bonus Stunt for ten times the amount of their Bonus Shuffle total. In the event of a tie, each team threw one puck. The first puck's landing spot was marked and the other team had to beat the mark to win.

Bonus Stunt

The Bonus Stunt round was conducted the same way as the solo stunts were. Hall would give the objective of the Bonus Stunt to the champion couple, then the clock would be set and the couple had to complete the stunt before time ran out. If they did so, as previously mentioned, they won ten times their Bonus Shuffle score for a maximum of $10,000 and a new Bonus Stunt would be played on the next show. If a Bonus Stunt was played five consecutive times without a couple managing to complete it, the stunt would be replaced with a new one.

Couples continued to appear until they were either defeated or surpassed $25,000 in total winnings. A team could win up to $13,000 in one day if they managed to win all four stunts in the main game, score $1,000 in the Bonus Shuffle, and win the Bonus Stunt.

The All-New All-Star Beat The Clock

On November 5, 1979, the show switched to an all-celebrity format. The changes that were made included:

• Celebrity pairs played for designated rooting sections (a la Tattletales, another Goodson-Todman game of the 1970s) of the audience which split the winnings. (Also, someone in "the winning rooting section" won a set of prizes, which were the "consolation prizes" in the non-celebrity part of the run.)
• Both rooting sections could be seen on-camera.
• Stunts in the first two rounds were only worth $250 for the rooting sections.
• If the winning team completed the bonus stunt, $1,000 went to their rooting section while the remaining money went to their favorite charity (thus, the most money a celebrity team could win for their rooting section in a single day was $3,000 and a possible $9,000 to their charity).
• Both star teams remained on the show for a week. The pairings stayed the same on four of the five days, with the teams changing colors (the red team on Monday and Thursday was the green team on Tuesday and Friday). On Wednesdays, the teams switched, although still one man and one woman per team.
• In case of a tie going into the Bonus Shuffle, a coin toss determined who went first.
• In the last two weeks of the run, after each head-to-head stunt, both teams got to perform the next stunt, with the losing team from the previous stunt going first. If both teams performed this stunt within the time limit, whoever did it faster got the $250.
• The theme song was now an upbeat version of the first one used in its run (it was previously used going into and out of the commercials of the earlier episodes), and was performed live in the studio.

Episode status

This series exists in its entirety. The Christmas episode with Ronnie Schell, Joyce Bulifant, Johnny Brown, and Patti Deutsch has aired on GSN in the past during Christmas-themed marathons. The series aired on GSN between September 10, 2007, and September 2008 in a late Saturday and Sunday night slot but was pulled from the schedule after beginning the final week. On November 12, 2008, it returned to the GSN lineup weeknights at 2:00 a.m., replacing Trivia Trap. It last aired January 3, 2009.

Buzzr has also carried the Hall version of Beat the Clock on a sporadic basis.

Round 1

To start the game, all three couples faced off in a stunt. The first couple to complete the stunt got 10 points and the advantage of having to play a 30-second solo stunt first, as well as the ability to assign the stunts to the other teams—prior to gameplay the couple was shown 3 items on a tray that represented the stunts themselves, picked one for themselves to play, and divided the other two among the remaining players.

Before the playing of each stunt, a two-part trivia question was asked. Answering it correctly gave the team 10 extra seconds to complete the stunt and both parts had to be answered correctly, one by each player, in order to get those 10 seconds. 10 points were given for completing the stunt with one additional point for each second remaining on the clock (for example, if a couple completed a stunt with three seconds remaining, they scored 13 points for the round).

Round 2

The second round consisted of two parts. The first part was another face-off stunt, i.e. trying to throw a ring around a pole the other player is wearing on their head. In a stunt like this, the first place couple's ring tosser would be closest to their partner, the second place couple would be slightly further back, and the third place couple would be the furthest back (the first place couple was always given an advantage, with the second having less of one and the third the least). Play continued until two of the couples completed the stunt, with those two teams continuing on.

The two remaining couples were then shown the stunt they would have to attempt. After the stunt was described, another trivia question was asked. In this case, the female half of the couple was given the option to answer it, have her partner answer it, or pass it to the other team to make them answer. If the couple answered correctly they would be given control, but if they did not the opponents did. The two couples then bid down from a base time of two minutes to see who could complete the stunt in the fastest amount of time, and bidding continued until one team challenged the other to beat the clock. The stunt was then played, and if the challenged couple completed it they won the game and advanced to the bonus game. If they were not successful, the challenging couple won the game.

Bonus Round ("The Swirling Whirlwind of Cash and Prizes")

The winning couple played the "Swirling Whirlwind of Cash and Prizes", which took place inside a machine similar to a vertical wind tunnel. $25,000 in cash was inside the machine, as well as several "prize vouchers" (coloured slips of paper with the names of prizes written on them). Several more vouchers would be tossed into the machine prior to the start of the round.

Once inside the machine, both players tried to grab as much money and prize vouchers as they could within a 1-minute time limit. For protection, the couple was equipped with goggles and gloves that they wore while in the machine. There were three rules that had to be followed at all times. One, only items that were in the air could be grabbed and neither teammate could bend over and pick anything up from the ground; however, if any vouchers or cash had somehow gotten stuck in a pile they were permitted to kick the pile to get it loose. Two, each item that they grabbed had to be placed in a bag which the male partner wore around his waist in order to be counted. Three, once the clock stopped the couple both had to stop whatever they were doing and raise their hands in the air. Later in the run, several gold certificates were added to the machine and if the couple picked one up, the cash they had grabbed would be doubled. (If the couple somehow picked up more than one, only one was counted.)

The "swirling whirlwind" was previously used in the bonus round of The Diamond Head Game, a show hosted by Bob Eubanks in 1975.

Game Format

Two teams of two kids or one kid and their adult relative, one dressed in purple and the other dressed in green, compete in a race against time filled with stunts & challenges. There are three rounds of stunts.

The first round is worth $100/stunt and the second round is worth $150/stunt. The third and final round is a head-to-head challenge for $300 for a possible grand total of $550. Both teams get to keep the cash, but the team with the most money at the end of round three wins the game and goes on to try and Beat The Big Clock for over $2,000. In the event of a tie, whoever completes the task first, or does the most tasks within the time limit in the head-to-head wins. If neither teams complete the challenge and are still tied, whoever has the most money wins.

The Big Clock

The winning team has 60 seconds to complete one final four-part stunt. Each part completed is worth $250, and completing all four parts wins the team $2,000, along with a $1,000 donation to a children's charity of the team's choice.