Despite the growing popularity of billiards in America, US networks haven't been impressed. For many years, billiards was not a popular game to be played on television, but with the advent of The Hustler movie in 1961, it began to get a bit more attention. The movie had a huge impact on the popularity, and organized billiards started to flourish in the late 1960s.
The Hustler starred Jackie Gleason, who played a fictional character called Minnesota Fats. The movie was a success. After the movie was released, billiards halls across the country doubled in size. The movie had a huge impact on organized billiards' popularity. In fact, by the mid-60s, billiards was on television.
Ten-Twenty was the first television billiards show. Frank Oliva was the original inventor of the game. It was a variation on the classic 14-1 straight pool game. The game was scored by a timer, with each player scoring 10 points per innings. The perfect match score was 100 points. The game consisted 8 innings of play. In the eighth inning, players could attempt to score an additional 20 points.
In the early 1960s, Frank Oliva decided to bring the game of pool out of the basement of pool halls, and started a billiards game show called Ten-Twenty. Pro billiards player and celebrity would take on each other in this competition. The scores were calculated based on the score of each snooker player.
Cisero Murphy, Joe Diehl and Nick Oliva were some of the players on the billiards-show. Joe Procita was one of many. Amateur pool sharks such as Jimmy Carass, Cowboy Jimmy Moore, and Dennis Orcollo also appeared on the show.
The show was a huge hit, and billiards started to be popularized on television. However, billiards became less popular in the 1970s and 1980s. By then, there were fewer billiards games on television. It was only until the 2005 launch of Ballbreakers that billiards on television once again made a major impact. Ballbreakers lasted one year, and made a lot of mistakes. The show's decision not to allow contestants to take more than one shot made it look like a sketch comedy show. The show failed, though, and it was eventually cancelled.
In the mid-1970s, the billiards game show Pick Pockets also made a big impact. Jimmy O'Connor, the host of the show, was a fun and jovial character. It was a very old show but it had charm. The show featured several celebrities including Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney, and Little Joey Canton. Willie "Mr. Pocket Billie" Mosconi, the greatest player in pool history, was also a star of the show. 1954 was his straight pool world-record. He also won the World Straight Pool Championship a total of fifteen times.
A number of celebrities were seen playing billiards on television, including Sid Caesar and Bill Cosby. There was also a $1000 charity prize.