Balance Your Budget

1 9 5 2 – 1 9 5 3 (USA)
30 minute episodes

Bert Parks – billed as “the keeper of the Horn of Plenty” – hosted this CBS game show where contestants described how they had found themselves financially temporarily embarrassed and competed to win the amount of money they needed to run their household for one year.

Contestants won money by answering general knowledge questions correctly and ended their play when they had either “balanced their budget” or were defeated by another player.

The show – sponsored by the Sealy Mattress Company – combined comedy, pathos and human interest elements while stressing the individual stories and problems of the contestants (selected from the studio audience).

Episodes aired in the evening on alternate Saturday nights. Parks was assisted by 18-year-old Lynn Connor.