“Whatever it is . . . wherever it is . . . at home, or around the world, you see it here, You Asked for It.”
Billing itself as “TV’s greatest all-request program”, You Asked For It attempted to answer viewers’ requests for unusual sights or entertainment acts – from a 62-year-old grandmother catching a baseball thrown from the roof of an 18-story building to a kangaroo boxing a fighter named George Spotts (Spotts won easily).
Animal acts were the perennial favourite. The show had three appearances from a flea circus, a bull in a china closet was featured twice, and there were segments featuring a cat who played ping-pong, a horse that skated, and an octopus that wrestled.
Strange human feats were popular also, such as the 73-year-old “human locomotive” who pulled two railway freight cars with his teeth, a pianist without any hands, and a man with an iron jaw who could chew bolts in half.
The series ran on DuMont from 29 December 1950 to 3 December 1951 and then on ABC until 2 September 1959.
A revised version aired between 1981 and 1983 with Rich Little and Jack Smith as hosts and Janet Langhart and Dale Harimoto as hostesses. Field reporters included Toni Thomas, Kathy Cronkite, Desiree Goyette, Danielle Folquet, Alan Erickson, Alanna Davis, Laura Louise, Mattie Majors, Ivana Moore, Adrienne Allen and Delvene Delaney.
