Grimaces Against the Clock

Without pretense but with much nonsense, Mike Stokey's eleven-year-old Pantomime Quiz has long been the undisputed king of summer replacements. Last month Pantomime Quiz returned with a new, 22-week contract as a regular on the ABC network (Tues. 9130 p.m. E.D.S.T.).

Derived from the old parlor game of charades (TIME, July 29), emceed by Stokey himself and setting some top comedians (Carol Burnett, Stubby Kaye, Milt Kamen) against each other in two teams of four, the unrehearsed Pantominium cackles and crackles with a spontaneous hilarity all too rare in TV's overelaborated game shows. Racing against the clock, each team member in turn tries to convey a sentence or gag (Sample: "The tramp who fell asleep on the oven woke up a hot cross bum") to the others, using grimaces, pantomime and ingenuity.

The contestants themselves often get carried away. Two weeks ago, overly frustrated when his team failed to decipher his passionate gyrations, Tom Poston let slip a heartfelt "God damn it," later dropped to his knees and pleaded forgiveness (viewers forgave, 100 to 1).

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