There were many quiz shows in the 1950s but only one guaranteed side-splitting comedy in the guise of Groucho Marx, the bespectacled and mustachioed host. The game show started out on radio but moved to TV in 1950 for a successful 11-year run.

The quiz questions were only a small part of the entertainment; Groucho was the main attraction, as quick-witted and wryly sarcastic as ever. Before the actual game started, Groucho would spend a few minutes interviewing the contestants, mining their lives and occupations for jokes and double entendres. The producers often picked interesting people with interesting occupations to compete and provide Groucho with adequate material for the question & answer session, but it wasn't really necessary; Groucho could make anything funny.

Contestants were paired up, usually a man and a woman together, and they competed as a team. Teams started out with $100 each and could chose to bet some or all of it on the quiz questions. The couples picked one topic category and answered four relevant questions, betting ever increasing amounts and trying to earn as much money as possible. None of the teams knew how much the others earned so they all tried to outdo the other contestants.

If a team ended up with a low dollar amount, they received completely obvious questions to answer like the deceptively easy "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" or "What color is an orange?" In the final round, correct answers were worth at least $1000 but the amounts increased in later years to keep pace with other big-money quiz shows.

The show also had a "secret word" in every episode, a common word revealed to the audience but not the contestants. If any one of the contestants uttered the secret word, a toy duck dressed like Groucho--with glasses, mustache and cigar--descended into the scene and the contestant received a 100-dollar bonus. The duck also appeared on the quiz show's title card and is still a recognized mascot today.

Contestants were mostly average Americans but celebrities regularly appeared on You Bet Your Life, including Ernie Kovacs, Johnny Weissmuller, Liberace and Frankie Avalon. Others would become famous much later like writer William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist and comedienne Phyllis Diller.

The game show was cancelled in 1961 due to falling ratings but the hilarious interplay between Groucho and the contestants made for a successful syndicated run in the 70s. There were a few attempts to bring back You Bet Your Life, in 1980 with Buddy Hackett, in 1988 with Richard Dawson and in 1992 with Bill Cosby, but none of the new shows managed to last. There was only one Groucho after all.