Professor Yes 'n' No

Country: United States
Elsewhere: IMDb

The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Viewers at home answer true or false questions posed by host Bill Cullen, who plays a teacher in a classroom set. The show uses props and a blackboard to make the game more visual for television.

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What happens

Professor Yes 'n' No is a syndicated television game show which aired in the United States in 1953, in which viewers at home were the contestants. Its main claim to notability is that it was hosted by Bill Cullen, who was very popular with viewers from the 1950s to 1980s. Aired in a 15-minute time-slot (11.5 minutes excluding prizes announcements and commercials; by comparison, the usual running time for 15-minute series was at least 12 minutes excluding ads), the series was set in a classroom, with Cullen dressed up as a teacher. He would ask a series of true or false questions, and asked viewers to write down their response. He would ask a total of 13 questions, with one additional question asked by an announcer on the station airing the show. Viewers wrote down a 15th question of their own, which was used as a tie-breaker. The show tried to avoid being "radio with pictures" by using a blackboard in some of the questions (in one episode, Cullen slammed his hand, covered in chalk, on the blackboard during a question about mafia symbolism), and by sometimes having Cullen hold props related to the question. A total of 26 episodes were produced, which were distributed by Screen Gems. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.