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Author Topic: Brent Spiner was an impostor on To Tell The Truth  (Read 2783 times)

Matt Ottinger

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Brent Spiner was an impostor on To Tell The Truth
« on: September 07, 2022, 06:39:00 PM »
The actor best known as Data on Star Trek says so in the preface to an otherwise fictional mystery story he published last year:

"The only acting job I had in that first year was as an impostor on the game show To Tell the Truth. I pretended to be a cabdriver from Denver who played trumpet requests for his customers. No one on the panel of celebrities voted for me; hence I made no money. But I did meet Nipsey Russell, so it wasn’t a total loss."

This would have been 1972 or 1973.  I imagine it hasn't repeated or else somebody in one of our two large fandoms would have become aware of it by now.  But man, I'd love to find it!
« Last Edit: November 13, 2022, 04:11:23 PM by chris319 »
This has been another installment of Matt Ottinger's Masters of the Obvious.
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thomas_meighan

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2022, 07:29:35 PM »
The description sounds approximately like Jack Kaufman on episode #1213, though he played cornet rather than trumpet. And Nipsey was a panelist that week.
https://www.ttttontheweb.com/tttt69s4guide.html

If this is the correct episode, GSN is known to have aired it at least once, but perhaps only in WinTV format. The logs at matchgame.org show a VTR date of 3-21-1972 (they were given on WinTV showings) and a GSN airing on 11-5-1999.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030416015836/http://www.matchgame.org/episodeguides/tttt/tttt3.html

(Explanation for the season discrepancy: matchgame.org assigned 13 weeks too many to 1970-71 and later seasons are thus divided incorrectly. Nonetheless, its “sequential” episode numbers seem to be correct. The official episode numbers used the week + day system, as catalogued at Marshall Akers’ indispensable www.ttttontheweb.com.)

parliboy

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2022, 07:52:57 PM »
No one on the panel of celebrities voted for me; hence I made no money.

Is that really how the show works, or is this a case of false memories on his part?
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."

SuperMatch93

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2022, 07:58:07 PM »
Is that really how the show works, or is this a case of false memories on his part?

False memories. The players split the money evenly based on the total of incorrect votes.
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snowpeck

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2022, 08:08:00 PM »
Somebody transcribed the segment on a Brent Spiner newsgroup back in 1998.
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Matt Ottinger

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2022, 08:26:10 PM »
The description sounds approximately like Jack Kaufman on episode #1213, though he played cornet rather than trumpet. And Nipsey was a panelist that week.
https://www.ttttontheweb.com/tttt69s4guide.html

Oh, that's absolutely gotta be it.  I was searching Marshall's site, but for some reason that eluded me.

Now to find it!
This has been another installment of Matt Ottinger's Masters of the Obvious.
Stay tuned for all the obsessive-compulsive fun of Words Have Meanings.

jjman920

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2022, 09:21:01 PM »
Is that really how the show works, or is this a case of false memories on his part?

False memories. The players split the money evenly based on the total of incorrect votes.
I was going to say partially bad memories. Because the point of being an impostor *is* to get the panel to vote for you because you'd get more money for those incorrect votes. So, it's possible that what he didn't mention was that no one voted for him *or* his fellow impostor. There were no incorrect votes to award money for. However, actually reading the transcript, it looks like his memory is just faulty on that part as his fellow impostor got three votes.
Me: Of all of the game shows you've hosted besides Jeopardy!, like High Rollers or Classic Concentration, which is your favorite?
Alex Trebek: I'd have to say To Tell The Truth, because it was the first time in my career that I got to sit down while I was hosting.

BillCullen1

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2022, 07:58:24 AM »
At that time, payment was $50 for each wrong vote, $500 if all the panelists voted wrong. This was split three ways. So three wrong votes would have gotten Brent a whopping $50 bucks. On the current version, they get no money at all.

Matt Ottinger

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #8 on: October 01, 2022, 10:34:23 AM »
Marshall Akers for the win!

I think The Bill Cullen Archive is about to be invaded by a whole new fandom.

https://youtu.be/r6f4EK9fvIg
This has been another installment of Matt Ottinger's Masters of the Obvious.
Stay tuned for all the obsessive-compulsive fun of Words Have Meanings.

ChrisLambert!

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Re: Brent Spiner was an imposter on To Tell The Truth
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2022, 11:57:22 AM »
Indeed, Night Court stans are legion ;-)
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