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 profound impact on the popularity of pool and organized billiards was booming by the end of the 1960s.
The Hustler, which starred Jackie Gleason in the role of Minnesota Fats, was a huge success. The number of billiards rooms in America doubled after the film was released. The movie had a huge impact on organized billiards' popularity. In fact, by the mid-60s, billiards was on television.
The first billiards game show on television was Ten-Twenty. Frank Oliva, a billiards evangelist, developed the game. The game was a variation on the traditional 14-1 straight pool. The game was timed and each player could score 10 points for every inning. The perfect match score was 100 points. The game consisted eight innings. 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. This show featured celebrities and professional billiards players competing against each other. Each player was timed and scored based upon the amount of snooker played.
The billiards show featured players like Cisero Murphy, Joe Diehl, Nick Oliva, Mike Eufemia, Willis Covington, and Joe Procita. There were also amateur pool sharks like Jimmy Caras, Cowboy Jimmy Moore and Dennis Orcollo.
This show was a big hit and billiards became very popular on television. In the late 1970s, television's popularity with billiards declined and there was a decrease in the number of billiards shows. The return of billiards to television was possible only with the 2005 launch Ballbreakers. Ballbreakers lasted one year, and made a lot of mistakes. The show was more amateur-style comedy than a reality show because they limited the number of contestants who could participate. It was cancelled after the show's failure.
Pick Pockets was also a popular billiards game in the middle of the 1970s. The show featured a jovial host named Jimmy O'Connor. It was a very old show but it had charm. Several celebrities appeared on the show, including "Little" Joey Canton, Sid Caesar, and Mickey Rooney. Willie "Mr. Pocket Billilliards" Mosconi was the show's star. He is considered to be the greatest pool player ever. He also set a straight pool world mark in 1954. He also won the World Straight Pool Championship 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.