[3] You Bet Your Life has been revived three times since the original series ended, the most recent being a version hosted by Jay Leno that aired in first-run syndication from 2021 to 2023.

Groucho also reluctantly appeared in two films with brothers Chico and Harpo Marx, A Night in Casablanca and the lackluster Love Happy.

During a radio appearance with Bob Hope in March 1947, Marx ad-libbed most of his performance after being forced to stand by in a waiting room for 40 minutes before going live on the air.

[5] As Marx and the contestants were ad-libbing, Guedel insisted that each show be filmed and edited before release to remove both the risqué and the less interesting material.

They also produced clearer images for the West Coast than the fuzzy kinescope recordings that dominated network programming there in television's early days.

Groucho next would be introduced to the first two contestants and engage in humorous conversations in which he would improvise his responses or employ prepared lines written by the show's writers after conducting pre-show interviews.

The duck was occasionally replaced with various other things, for example a wooden Indian figure, carrying the required $100 prize to the lucky team.

In one episode, Groucho's brother Harpo came down instead of the duck, and in another a female model attired in a tight bodice and very short skirt came down in a birdcage with the money.

In November 1955, Groucho announced on the air that he had noticed the success of big-money quiz programs (referring to, but not naming, The $64,000 Challenge) and declared that You Bet Your Life was itself going to raise its "Secret Word" bonus: from $100 to $101.

The radio program was sponsored by Allen Gellman, president of Elgin American, maker of watch cases and compacts, during its first two and a half seasons.

Still later sponsors included the Toni Company (Prom home permanent, White Rain shampoo) with commercials featuring Harpo and Chico Marx, Lever Brothers (Lux liquid, Wisk detergent), Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Geritol), and Lorillard Tobacco Co. (Old Gold cigarettes).

In 1953 the show became embroiled in controversy when its musical director, Jerry Fielding, was called to appear before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities and refused to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment privileges.

"[12] The interviews were sometimes so memorable that the contestants became celebrities: "nature boy" health advocate Gypsy Boots; Mexican-American entertainer Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez; comedians Phyllis Diller and Ronnie Schell; author Ray Bradbury; virtuoso cellist Ennio Bolognini; blues singer and pianist Gladys Bentley; strongmen Jack LaLanne[13] and Paul Anderson; and actor John Barbour all appeared as contestants while working on the fringes of the entertainment industry.

No one in the audience knew the identity of contestant Daws Butler until he began speaking in the voice of cartoon character Huckleberry Hound.

Cajun politician Dudley J. LeBlanc, a Louisiana state senator and medicine showman, demonstrated his winning style at giving campaign speeches in French, also confessing (in a rare moment of candor) the truth about his signature nostrum, Hadacol: when asked what Hadacol was good for, LeBlanc admitted "about five million dollars for me last year.

On February 6, 1958, silent-film star Francis X. Bushman and his wife Iva Millicient Richardson appeared on the show and won $1,000 by successfully answering questions in a geography quiz.

Other celebrity guests included Jayne Mansfield, Edith Head, Mickey Walker, Francis X. Bushman, Howard Hill, General Clarence A. Shoop, Louise Beavers, Irwin Allen, Frankie Avalon, Lord Buckley, Sammy Cahn, Ray Corrigan, Sam Coslow, Don Drysdale, Kenny Washington, Hoot Gibson, physicist and host of Exploring Albert Hibbs, Tor Johnson, Ward Kimball, Ernie Kovacs, Laura La Plante, Liberace, Joe Louis, Bob Mathias, Irish McCalla, screenwriter and author Mary Eunice McCarthy,[16] Harry Ruby, Max Shulman, Fay Spain, Colonel John Paul Stapp, National Champion Football Coach Red Sanders, John Charles Thomas, Pinky Tomlin, Rocky Marciano and his mother, Charles Goren, and Johnny Weissmuller.

The show's most notorious remark supposedly occurred as Groucho was interviewing Charlotte Story, who had borne 20 children (the exact number varies in tellings of the urban legend).

"[19] Seven months after You Bet Your Life ended its 11-season run at NBC, Marx hosted another game show in prime time, Tell It to Groucho.

Benny pretended to be someone else (Ronald Forsythe)[24] to get on the quiz show (competing with a female contestant played by Irene Tedrow), and continues to divulge information during an effort to say the secret word.

The title of the show was parodied in the 1989 Weird Al Yankovic film UHF, on the U62 Fall Schedule as You Bet Your Pink Slip.

The contestant with the most money returned at the end of the show to meet "Leonard", the prize duck (If there was a tie, they would be asked a question with a numeric answer, which they wrote down, and whoever was closest without going over won).

The contestant then stopped a rotating device, causing a plastic egg to drop out which concealed the name of a bonus prize, one of which was a car.

Some episodes had celebrities, including George Fenneman, Phil Harris, and Greg Evigan appear as contestants; each played for a member of the studio audience.

As the 1992/93 season progressed, many stations carrying the show either moved it to overnight time slots or dropped it entirely due to low ratings.

and comic foil for much of his run on Tonight, would serve as sidekick; Leno plans on avoiding any political or topical humor to keep the show evergreen.

If time permits at the end of an episode, one audience member is asked a question and can win a prize for giving the correct answer.

[28] Production of a planned third season was suspended after Writers Guild of America members went on strike in May 2023, as Leno refused to cross the picket line in solidarity.

Instead of continuing to air reruns into the 2023–24 season, stations that carried the program replaced it with other syndicated fare in the interim, with Fox First Run offering two other syndicated game shows, Person, Place or Thing (which entered national syndication that season following a six-week test run in the Summer of 2022 on selected Fox-owned stations) and Who the Bleep Is That (which was alternately offered to selected Fox O&Os as a substitute, following an initial six-week test run on Fox O&Os the previous Spring), to fill its vacated timeslots.

While Groucho Marx was entertaining show business friends at a 1973 party, an employee at an NBC warehouse called and announced that the network was discarding its inventory of You Bet Your Life film prints to make room for newer series.