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Daniel "Dan" Enright (August 30, 1917 – May 22, 1992) was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television. Their company was called Barry & Enright Productions.

Enright (original surname Ehrenreich), who grew up in British Palestine and New York, met up with Barry as the latter was working in stand-up comedy. After a stint at WOR radio, the two developed several early TV shows, including the seminal "interactive" show Winky Dink and You, as well as Juvenile Jury and Life Begins at Eighty, and Wisdom of the Ages.

The duo hit the jackpot as producers of network game shows Back That Fact, You're On Your Own, Tic-Tac-Dough, Twenty One, Concentration, and Dough Re Mi in the 1950s.

The quiz scandal[link]

Capitalizing on the success of the 1950s big-money quiz The $64,000 Question on CBS, Barry and Enright developed their flagship show, Twenty One, a quiz which had a scoring system based loosely on Blackjack. Contestants were placed in twin isolation booths and asked questions ranging in value from one to 11 points — the higher the point value, the more difficult the question. Enright himself has described the initial broadcast of Twenty One as "a dismal failure. It was just plain dull." Contestants repeatedly missed questions and, in Enright's own words, "It lacked all drama; it lacked all suspense. The next morning the sponsor (Geritol) called my partner, Jack Barry, and me and told us in no uncertain terms that he never wanted to see a repeat of what happened the previous night. And from that moment on, we decided to rig Twenty One." Even with rigging, initial ratings were unimpressive.

Enright believed they needed to find heroes and villains—contestants the audience would either root for or root against. Though not illegal at the time, Enright and his assistant producer Albert Freedman went beyond merely finding appealing players by actually manipulating them: providing certain contestants with answers in advance, and scripting games and the players' mannerisms in the isolation booth. It was a process the producers duplicated for Tic Tac Dough.

Enright's most famous contestant protégé was Twenty One's Charles Van Doren, who went on to win for 14 weeks and became a cover subject for Time, thus causing the show's popularity to soar. Van Doren replaced Herb Stempel, who himself had been given answers over his extended run on the show, but was eventually forced to lose (so that the more telegenic Van Doren might replace him). After waiting for Enright to fulfill his promise of a job in exchange for throwing the match, Stempel realized it would never come and went to the authorities. It was only when other contestants came forward about game show rigging did they take Stempel seriously.

As the press was publishing allegations by former contestants of quiz rigging, NBC purchased from Barry and Enright the shows Twenty One and Tic Tac Dough, along with two new daytime entries, Concentration and a musical quiz Dough Re Mi, all of which aired on NBC, for $1 million. Eventually the truth came out, and Enright admitted to rigging the show and giving contestants the questions and answers in advance.

As Twenty One's emcee and co-producer, Jack Barry did not directly rig the shows himself (even quiz-show scandal investigator Joseph Stone questioned his involvement, and Herb Stempel has said in interviews that he believes Enright hid the rigging from Barry until it was exposed), yet he admitted in interviews given in the 1970s and 1980s his role in covering up the rigging for Enright.

Exile[link]

Barry and Enright's careers went into eclipse after the scandal broke, though Barry did get some hosting and acting gigs and briefly collaborated on projects with game show packager Goodson-Todman Productions. Barry purchased a radio station in Redondo Beach, California, and in 1969 he made his first network comeback as an emcee, replacing Dennis Wholey on a short-lived prime-time game, The Generation Gap on ABC. Two years later he sold his first post-scandal game show, also to ABC, called The Reel Game, which he emceed as well.

Slowly, Enright managed to work his way back into television, having to go to Canada to do so. He was a producer of the early-70s syndicated game show All About Faces with Richard Hayes. Barry and Enright also collaborated on other small Canadian-produced quiz shows including Line 'em Up, Photo Finish shot in Montreal, and It's a Match which was taped in Toronto. It was on these shows that a number of young American and Canadian producers and directors got their start, including John Kastner, Sidney M. Cohen, Mark Phillips and Jay Wolpert.

Return to success[link]

In 1972, after two failed attempts to sell a pilot, CBS bought from Barry the game show that would permanently revive his career as a host and producer: The Joker's Wild. One of the original pilots of The Joker's Wild was produced in 1969 during Barry's collaboration with Mark Goodson and Bill Todman and was emceed by Allen Ludden. Although credited as "A Jack Barry Production", there had been speculation that ex-partner Enright was somehow involved with the show, and indeed Enright was credited as executive producer in the show's final year on CBS. Nonetheless, Joker proved to be a success. In 1975 it was canceled by CBS but reruns of Joker did so well on local Los Angeles and New York TV stations that in 1977 a whole new series was produced for syndication. The syndicated Joker ran until 1986 (with Bill Cullen succeeding Barry after his death).

By 1977, Barry and Enright had resumed their partnership full-time. In the spring of 1976 they sold a revival of Break the Bank to ABC. Despite promising ratings, the daytime network version hosted by Tom Kennedy was canceled. A weekly first-run syndication version aired from September 1976 to September 1977, hosted by co-packager Barry.

Barry and Enright later found their longest-lasting success with syndicated versions of Joker and the revived Tic-Tac-Dough with Wink Martindale hosting.

Ventures in film[link]

In 1981, Barry and Enright crossed over into the field of motion picture production with the release of their first (and only) film, Private Lessons a coming-of-age comedy featuring erotic film star Sylvia Kristel.

Later years and death[link]

Following Jack Barry's sudden death in 1984, Enright continued to run Barry & Enright Productions completely, retaining the B&E name as opposed to renaming the company Dan Enright Productions. Barry's death resulted in the departure of key Barry & Enright figures, including producers Ron Greenberg and Gary Cox and director Richard S. Kline, all three of whom were not in favor of Enright taking over the company. Kline went on to form his own production company, Greenberg returned to producing his own programs, and Cox joined Reg Grundy Productions in 1985.

Enright went on to produce a few other game shows on his own, including Bumper Stumpers (a joint venture with Wink Martindale Productions, which taped in Canada and aired on USA Network) and a short-lived revival of Tic-Tac-Dough, as well as a few projects with former Wheel of Fortune co-host Susan Stafford, who was then Vice President of Public Relations for Barry & Enright Productions. Enright and Stafford shared a penthouse in Santa Monica, California.

Dan Enright died of cancer on May 22, 1992, at age 74.

External links[link]

• PBS Biography of Dan Enright
• More about the Twenty One-scandal and photo of Dan Enright

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Thom McKee (born 1955) is a former United States Navy officer who was a long-running contestant on Tic Tac Dough, an American game show, in 1980. He set a number of game show records for the time, appearing on forty-six episodes of the series and winning $312,700 in cash and prizes. This total made him the biggest winner in the history of television game shows at the time.

[edit] Performance on Tic Tac Dough

As a contestant on Tic Tac Dough, McKee won $312,700 (the equivalent of about $800,000 in today's dollars) in cash and prizes over forty-six days on the show. He played a total of eighty-nine games, answering 353 trivia questions correctly. His total prizes included eight cars (as five-day winners on Tic Tac Dough were awarded a new car every fifth win), three sailboats, sixteen vacations (which he was unable to take), several other smaller prizes, and $200,000 in cash.^[1] Prior to McKee's record, the most ever won on a television game show was The Joker's Wild contestant Eileen Jason, who won $305,280 ($250,000 of which was won during the 1979 Tournament of Champions).^{[citation needed]}

McKee was defeated by Erik Kraepelien to end his winning streak. After his defeat, McKee appeared on To Tell the Truth in 1980. Only one of the four celebrity panelists was able to identify him among his two impostors. 3 years later after his original run on Tic Tac Dough, McKee made one more appearance on the show, this time to compete in a Tournament of Champions. In the 1990s, he became president of Hicks & Rotner Associates Inc. (now H&R Retail), a brokerage firm.^[2] He is no longer with the firm.

Records broken[link]

The wins and consecutive days records were broken by 100% contestant Ian Lygo in 1998, while the winnings record was broken by Michael Shutterly during the original 15-night run of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 1999, where he won $500,000. McKee still holds the American record for most consecutive games played (88 games, 43 wins), due to the nature of Tic Tac Dough making ties possible (and frequent). However, Jeopardy! contestant Ken Jennings (who himself set a new cash winnings record), beat the wins record with 74, and most consecutive days with 75 in 2004-2005.^[1]

Other shows[link]

McKee was a subject on the Robin Ward-hosted version of To Tell the Truth shortly after his reign on Tic Tac Dough came to an end.

McKee participated in the American version of Grand Slam as the #11 seed, facing a field of game show greats. He faced John Carpenter of Who Wants to be a Millionaire fame in a first-round matchup, but lost.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Thom McKee at the Internet Movie Database

Leo J. Enright (born March 18, 1955) is an Irish radio broadcaster and news reporter.^[1] He is currently Chairman of the Irish Government's science awareness programme, Discover Science & Engineering. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the School of Cosmic Physics^[2]at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Leo Enright was born in London, but considers Dublin his home town. He was educated at St. Fintan's High School, Sutton and University College Dublin. As a Fellow of the World Press Institute^[3], he studied American history, economics and culture at Macalester College, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Major achievements[link]

In 1978, Enright won a Jacob's Award for his report on Dublin delinquents, broadcast on RTÉ Radio's This Week programme.^[4]

In 2000, with support from NASA's Astrobiology Institute, he completed the Workshop on Molecular Evolution^[5] at the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution^[6].

In 2008 he shared in a Thea Award for his work as science advisor on "Cosmos at the Castle", an interactive exhibition at Blackrock Castle Observatory exploring extreme life on earth and in space.^[7] The award was presented by the Themed Entertainment Association, a worldwide association of designers and producers of themed experiences such as museums, zoos and theme parks.^[8]

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2007)

Daniel M. Tani
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Active
Born	(1961-02-01) February 1, 1961 (age 51) Ridley Park, Pennsylvania
Other occupation	Engineer
Time in space	131d 18h 05m
Selection	1996 NASA Group
Missions	STS-108, STS-120, Expedition 16, STS-122
Mission insignia

Daniel M. Tani (born February 1, 1961) is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. Although born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, he considers Lombard, Illinois, to be his hometown.^[1] With Peggy Whitson, Tani conducted the 100th spacewalk on the International Space Station.

Education[link]

Tani graduated from Glenbard East High School, Lombard, Illinois, in 1979, and received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984, and 1988, respectively.^[1] He was a Brother of the Alpha Delta Phi Literary Society.

Career[link]

After Tani received his bachelor's degree from MIT, he worked at Hughes Aircraft Corporation in El Segundo, California as a design engineer in the Space and Communications group.^[1] In 1986, he returned to MIT and received his master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1988, specializing in human factors and group decision making. After graduation, Tani worked for Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the experimental psychology department. In 1988, Tani joined Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) in Dulles, Virginia, initially as a senior structures engineer, and then as the mission operations manager for the Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS). In that role, he served as the TOS flight operations lead, working with NASA/JSC mission control in support of the deployment of the ACTS/TOS payload during the STS-51 mission in September 1993. Tani then moved to the Pegasus program at OSC as the launch operations manager. In that capacity, he served as lead for the development of procedures and constraints for the launching of the air-launched Pegasus unmanned rocket. Tani also was responsible for defining, training, and leading the team of engineers who worked in the launch and control room.^[1]

NASA career[link]

Tani during his STS-108 spacewalk.

Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in April 1996, Tani reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996.^[1] After completing two years of training and evaluation, he qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist in 1998.^[1] He performed technical duties in the Astronaut Office Computer Support Branch, and Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) Branch, and has served as a Crew Support Astronaut for Expedition 2.^[1]

STS-108[link]

Tani flew on STS-108 in 2001, and logged over 11 days in space, including over 4 EVA hours in one space walk. STS-108 Endeavour (December 5–17, 2001) was the 12th shuttle flight to visit the International Space Station. During the mission, Tani served as Mission Specialist 2. Endeavour's crew delivered the Expedition 4 crew to the station, and returned the Expedition 3 crew. The crew transferred over three tons of supplies, logistics and science experiments from the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the station. Tani performed a spacewalk to wrap thermal blankets around the ISS Solar Array Gimbals. STS-108 was accomplished in 185 Earth orbits, traveling 4.8 million miles in 283 hours and 36 minutes, including an EVA of 4 hours and 12 minutes.

NEEMO 2[link]

In May 2002, Tani served as an aquanaut on the NEEMO 2 (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) crew aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory. Tani and his fellow crew members lived and worked for one week beneath the Atlantic Ocean.^[2]

Expedition 16[link]

Following his return from STS-108, Tani was assigned as the Expedition 9 backup flight engineer. Tani was eventually assigned to Expedition 16 as flight engineer, and launched to the station aboard STS-120 on October 23, 2007. Tani completed one EVA with the crew of STS-120, and four additional spacewalks during his increment aboard the space station. Originally scheduled to return to Earth with the crew of STS-122 in December, the mission was delayed due to engine cutoff sensor issues during countdown. Instead, it launched on February 7. Tani returned back on STS-122 on February 20, 2008.

Extra Vehicular Activities[link]

Dan Tani has performed five spacewalks or EVAs to date.

Organizations[link]

Member, Japanese American Citizens League, Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, and Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Awards[link]

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Russian Wikipedia.

• Orbital Sciences Corporation Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, 1993
• Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" (Russia, 12 April 2011) - for outstanding contribution to the development of international cooperation in manned space flight

Personal life[link]

Tani is married to the former Jane Egan from Cork, Ireland, and enjoys golf, flying, running, tennis, music, cooking.^[1] Tani threw out the ceremonial first pitch and sang the "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field on August 20, 2008.^[6]

His parents, Rose and Henry N. Tani, are both deceased. During World War II, they and their children were relocated from their California farm to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah as part of the Japanese American internment program of the U.S. government. They lived for several months in converted horse stables at the Tanforan Racetrack.^[7] On December 19, 2007, during Tani's stay on the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 16, he was informed by the ground team that his mother had been killed when a freight train collided with her car.^[8][9][10]

References[link]

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

External links[link]

• NASA Biography of Daniel M. Tani
• Spacefacts biography of Daniel M. Tani