We love game shows at JONJ. From the idiocy of The Price Is Right to the brilliance of Jeopardy!, we can't get enough.

Games shows weren't always just fabulous prizes and idiotic contestants. In the 1950s, with televisions just breaking into American mainstream, they were big business.

None were bigger than Twenty One, the show where two contestants were sealed in booths and fed questions of various difficulty. One, sweaty yet shrewd, was declared the winner, as all of America watched.

Except it wasn't as straight-forward. In 1957, the game show world was rocked by scandal as it turned out that Twenty One was rigged. Its great champion, Charles Van Doren, was given answers by the producers. The whistle-blower was the man Van Doren displaced, Herbert Stempel, who had won for six weeks prior. Sadly, we can't claim this as a great victory for Jews over goyim. Stempel was given answers as well.

Twenty One, and the entire genre, toppled as result of the scandal. It wasn't until the 1970s that game shows returned in full force.

Twenty One was briefly resurrected in the early 2000s, with Maury Povich as host. This time, it was taken off the air not due to scandal, but due to crappy ratings.

Oh well. As long as we have Jeopardy!...