Radio: The Search for the Gimmick

To Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, a pair of fast-moving young TV producers, panel shows are "intellectual sporting events." They have drama, says Goodson, because each one "has an unwritten ending—until they're on the air, no one knows who will win, the panel or the contestant." Panel shows succeed on TV, adds Todman, because "they have motion without movement."

Goodson & Todman reached these esoteric conclusions when their first TV panel show—What's My Line?—became an unexpected hit (TIME, Sept. 17). They have applied them with equal success to their second panel show, It's...