To Tell the Truth (2000)

This was the 5th version of this very popular game show that had its’ roots in the 1950’s making it appear in 6 different decades. The original version ran from 18 December 1956 to 22 May 1967 on CBS followed in 1969 with a Syndicated version that aired until 1978. The 3rd version also Syndicated ran from 1980 to 1981 and the 4th version ran from 1990 to 1991 on NBC. This 5th incarnation of “To Tell The Truth” also known as “TTTT” began on Monday, 18 September 2000 in Syndication and aired for 2 seasons. The premise of all 5 versions was the same in that 3 unknown contestants were introduced at one time all claming to be the same person. The Host of the show would then ask a panel of 4 Celebrity Judges to ask the 3 contestants different questions to try and determine which one was telling the truth about who they really were. The other 2 contestants would sometimes lie or fake an answer to try and deceive the panel. After the question and answer period ended all 4 Celebrities would select whom that thought was the real person from the 3 contestants. When a Celebrity chose the wrong person in the group of three than all the contestants would win a certain amount of money. If all 4 Celebrities were stumped they would add an additional amount of money to their winnings. After each round of questions and votes the Host would then say, “Will the real (their name) please stand up”. In the 2000 version every wrong answer would win $1,000 for the 3 contestants and if they fooled everyone they would win an additional $5,000 and later in the series it was increased to $10,000 . They also added an Audience vote to the show as well for a total of 5 votes. The Host of this 5th version was "John O'Hurley" who is best known for his Announcing and Voice over work on regular shows as well as animated cartoons. From 1995 to 1998 he played “Mr. J. Peterman” in a total of 21 different episodes on the long running sitcom “Seinfeld”. John was most recently seen as a contestant on “Dancing With The Stars” on ABC in 2005 . They did have a few regular panelists who appeared on every episode but they also rotated between 1 and 2 Big Name Guest Stars as the other panel members. Some of the guest panelists included "Ant", "Cindy Margolis", "Dave Coulier", "Greg Proops", "Jackee Harry", "Kim Coles", "Patrick Duffy", "Richard Kind" and one time they had one of the original panelists from the 1956 series "Kitty Carlisle". All 5 versions aired in a 30-minute format and were on every weekday, some in the Morning, some in the Afternoon and some at night. The 1956 version shown in the evenings with the same Host and Panelists also began a daytime version that ran from June 1962 to September 1968 . The 2000 version of the show ended its’ 2 season run on 15 January 2002 after airing a total of 175 episodes over a 35-week period.