To Tell the Truth (1990 pilot)

This is chronicling the 1990 pilot for the eventual 1990 version of To Tell the Truth.

Game format
To start, three contestants all of whom claim to be the same person introduced themselves (most of the time the contestants are of the same sex, on rare occasions there would be a mixture of both sexes), then the host read the sworn affidavit of the real person. After the affidavit was read and when the challengers went over to their desk, the panelists one by one asked a series of questions to the challengers based on the affidavit in some way for an unmentioned amount of time. The impostors were allowed to lie, but the real person was game bound to tell the truth (hence the name of the show). Once one panelist's time was up, another panelist started questioning. Once the entire panel's time was up, they started to vote for whoever was the real person. Each panelist showed his/her vote, and regardless of whoever they voted for, the appropriate panelist's vote for the appropriate contestant was signified by an "X". Once all the votes were cast, the real person then revealed himself/herself by standing up by virtue of the host saying "Will the real (insert person's name) please stand up?". After the real person revealed himself/herself, the impostors told everyone their real names & occupations; then there was a brief chat (sometimes a stunt) to the real person. For each incorrect vote, the team of challengers won $500 and if the panel was stumped, the challengers win a total $3,000.

Panelist's Disqualification
Sometimes, a panelist would recognize or actually know one of the challengers, not necessarily the real person. If and when that happened, the panelist can disqualify himself/herself causing an automatic wrong vote and giving the challengers money for that vote.

One on One
After two regular games of To Tell the Truth were played, one special game was played called "One on One".

A member of the studio audience faced a brand new contestant who told two stories (which appeared in single words (sometimes phrases) to the home viewers), one of them being the truth. All the audience member had to do was spot the true story. To help out, the panel will each ask a single question about each story. When the cross-examination was done, the audience member made his/her decision as to which is the true story afterwhich the contestant revealed the true story by saying "To tell the truth... (insert correct story)". A correct decision won the audience member $500.

Trivia
This pilot aired accidentally on the east coast instead of premiere on the day that the show premiered.