Dotto was a 1958 American television game show that was a combination of a general knowledge quiz and the children's game connect the dots. Jack Narz served as the program's host, with Colgate-Palmolive as its presenting sponsor. Dotto rose to become the highest-rated daytime program in television history, as of 1958.
Dotto replaced Strike it Rich in CBS's 11:30 am daytime time slot on January 6, 1958. In a rare instance of two networks programming the same show, a weekly nighttime edition was launched on July 1, 1958 on CBS's competitor NBC on Tuesday nights in their 9:00p.m. slot. At the height of both shows' popularity, Dotto was abruptly cancelled without public explanation over the weekend of August 16, 1958. Soon after, Dotto was publicly revealed to have been fixed by its producer, tarnishing the show's reputation and setting the stage for legal and political investigation of the fixing of 1950s quiz shows.
Game play
Two contestants, one a returning champion, competed in each episode of Dotto. The object of the game was to identify the subject of an incomplete portrait drawing, which was accomplished by answering questions and connecting dots. The champion and the challenger were both given their own version of the portrait, which contained fifty dots for each contestant to connect. The contestants were positioned on stage in a manner where neither one could see the other or their progress. There was also an overhead projector on stage that was called the "Dottograph", which would come into play as the game progressed.
Play in each game started with the challenger and he/she was given a category along with a choice of three questions, each with a corresponding number of dots to connect. The questions were worth five, eight, or ten dots and more dots meant a higher difficulty. Answering correctly enabled the challenger to have his/her dots connected, but a wrong answer or failure to answer gave that privilege to the champion. To further assist the contestants in identifying the subjects of the portrait, three clues were provided. These were unlocked once a contestant reached a certain number of connections. The first required a total of twenty-five connections, the second thirty-five, and the last forty-five.
At any point in the game, including during the opposing player's turn, a contestant could signal that he/she knew the portrait’s subject by pressing a signaling device. Each contestant’s device triggered a different sound, with the challenger’s triggering a buzzer and the champion’s triggering a bell. Narz would then direct that contestant to walk to the Dottograph, which the opposing player could not see, and write that answer on the projector screen. After the answer was recorded, Narz would reveal if the contestant had answered correctly.
If the contestant did not come up with the correct solution after ringing in, the game ended and the opponent won. If the contestant correctly identified the subject, the opponent was given a last chance to guess based on his/her progress to that point. If the opponent could not, the first contestant won. If the opponent identified the subject, the game ended in a tie and play continued until a winner was determined.
The winning player won money for each unconnected dot left on his/her picture, and the amount increased for each tie up to two. On the daytime series, the payout was $10 per dot and it doubled for each tie up to a maximum of $40. On the nighttime series, the payout was $100 per dot and increased by that amount for each tie, resulting in a maximum of $300 per dot.
After a game was completed, usually during the middle of each episode, a "Home Viewer Dotto" game was played, in which a person selected by postcard drawing was called by telephone live on the air for a chance to guess the person being drawn. If correct, the home viewer won a new car or other valuable prizes, and if incorrect, the viewer received a consolation prize (the daytime version gave away a supply of products advertised by the show's sponsor, Colgate-Palmolive, while the nighttime version gave away a trip). At the end of each episode, additional dots were connected and a clue was displayed for the next episode's "Home Viewer Dotto" game.
Broadcast history
Dotto debuted on January 6, 1958 at 11:30a.m., replacing the long-running (and controversial) Warren Hull game Strike It Rich. Facing Bob Barker's Truth or Consequences on NBC and local programming on ABC (who had not programmed at 11:30 in three years), within six months Dotto became the highest-rated quiz program of the year, and Narz achieved a popularity equal to that of Hal March on The $64,000 Question.