MAD's maddest writer Dick DeBartolo turns out be not only a funny guy but a mensch as well. He responded promptly to my e-mail…
Mark, I am shocked, shocked do you hear me??!!! Shocked to hear the producers of To Tell The Truth were hoodwinked!
I have just turned in my resignation and will not work on any Goodson-Todman show from now on. (Actually, that won't be difficult since I left there 30 years ago. Actually, the company left me when Mark Goodson died in 1992.)
To tell the truth (not the show, but the statement) I never heard of any repercussions due to a real contestant being an impostor when I worked on the show.
My credit on the show was "Special Material" or maybe "Creative Consultant" or something like that. I wore 'ad-libs' for Garry Moore, although he was very funny on his own. Sometimes I pitched people as the main character for the show. I pitched William M. Gaines, the publisher of MAD, and they used him. (God, I hope that really was him on air! Looked a lot like him.)
Because the prize money involved was small, and audiences loved the panelists on Goodson-Todman shows, maybe no one cared if the real person was also an impostor. But to finally answer your question, I never heard any talk at the G-T offices of that happening while I was there.
Good to hear from you. I hope you're well and stay well. MADly, DickDe
Dick's credit on that To Tell the Truth was "Special Material" but his real function when he was with Goodson-Todman was to apply his considerable sense o' humor to all the company's shows, no matter what his credit was or wasn't. He pretty much saved The Match Game when the first version was heading for cancellation by devising funny questions that led to funny answers. Since then, every revival of Match Game — it feels like there have been thousands — has used the kind of questions that Dick invented.
To tie up this whole topic, here's the segment in which Bill Gaines, publisher of MAD, appeared on To Tell the Truth with two men pretending to be Bill Gaines. Impostor #2 got as many questions right as the real Bill Gaines but everyone on the panel voted for #3 — and as you'll see, that delighted the real guy. You'll also see Garry Moore mention Dick to Mr. Gaines and get the response you'd expect…