Despite the fact that billiards is very popular on American television, networks have not taken it seriously. 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 profound impact on the popularity of pool and organized billiards was booming by the end of the 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 also had a big impact on the popularity organized billiards. By late 1960s, billiards had appeared on television.
Ten-Twenty became the first television show to feature billiards. The game was developed by billiards evangelist Frank Oliva in 1959. It was a variation on the classic 14-1 straight pool game. The game was timed, and the player could score 10 points per inning. 100 points was the ideal match score. There were eight innings of play. The eighth inning was where the players could try to score 20 more points.
Frank Oliva started Ten-Twenty, a billiards program that brought pool out of basements. This show featured celebrities and professional billiards players competing against each other. The scores were calculated based on the score of each snooker player.
Cisero Murphy was among those who participated in the billiards program. It also featured amateur pool sharks like Jimmy Caras (Cowboy), and Dennis Orcollo.
It was a huge success and television began to be popular for billiards. The popularity of billiards on TV declined in the late 1970s. There were no billiards game programs by 1980. 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. It seemed more like a comedy club, as the show limited contestants' shots to just a few. However, the show ended in failure and was eventually cancelled.
Pick Pockets was also a popular billiards game in the middle of the 1970s. Jimmy O'Connor was the show's jovial host. Although it was dated, the show had charm. Numerous celebrities were featured on the show, 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. He set the straight pool world record for 1954. He also won the World Straight Pool Championship a total of fifteen times.
The TV show featured several celebrities playing billiards including Sid Caesar, Bill Cosby, Buddy Hackett, and Bill Cosby. There was also a $1000 charity prize.