You Bet Your Life

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).