A TV Quiz Show for Teens Turns 50

This is the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | facebook.com/voalearningenglish Question: Which program is in Guinness World Records as the world's longest running TV quiz show? Answer: "It's Academic," a Saturday morning program for high school students. The show has aired in the Washington area for fifty years. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton competed on it when she was a teenager.Teams from local schools answer questions on subjects like history, literature, math, science, religion, politics and sports. Susan Altman is the producer of "It's Academic." She says "It's a great age group to work with. They're fun, they're enthusiastic, they say funny things without even meaning to half the time."Ms. Altman's mother, Sophie, was a TV producer in the nineteen fifties. She started "It's Academic" after local school officials asked her to create a program that showed outstanding students. Susan Altman says "At that time -- nineteen sixty-one -- the United States was going through a lot of upheaval with school integration, and they wanted things to help out to make the schools look good and to show that integration could work and work well. So this is what she came up with."The show's host, Mac McGarry, says "When we first started, the young people from various countries were not evident so much. Now, each program presents young people from all over the world, at least descendents from people all over the world." Mac McGarry is eighty-four and has hosted "It's Academic" since the beginning. He says "Every time I look up, I see people who are just seventeen years old, and somehow I think, well, I must not be growing older at all. Their enthusiasm is contagious, no question about it."More than twenty thousand students have appeared on the show. Mac McGarry has asked more than two hundred thousand questions and gotten more than a few funny answers. "We had a question one time: 'Who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo?' and the young fellow answered Duke Ellington. Another time, we had a question of 'Who along with Frederick Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto?' Groucho Marx!" The correct answers, of course, are the Duke of Wellington and Karl Marx. Rockville High School in Maryland has won the championship on the show several times. Kelly Reeder led the team last year. "My friends who are on 'It's Academic' think it's cool that I'm the captain of the A Team, but my friends who are not on 'It's Academic' think it's kind of funny." You can find a link to a video about "It's Academic" at voaspecialenglish.com. For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 29Sep2011)