In the late 1950s, television quiz shows competed for viewers—and to keep people interested, some fixed games. At the outset of her decades-long career, then 12-year old actress and former quiz show contestant Patty Duke testified on the cheating scandal before the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Subcommittee of House Legislative Oversight. Duke stated that she was both given directions on what to study in advance of the show, and answers to specific questions. Viewers were morally outraged. Regarding the young actress’s experience, one Washington Post writer said it was not only a “fraud . . . perpetrated on the public” but also “a corruption of innocence.”
