The producer watched and waited while the sickly old man alternately coughed and spit into his handkerchief for at least two minutes. During the attack, the cripple’s face was all purple and his eyes teared. During most of this time, the producer found himself not knowing what to do or where to look. He thought it was all terribly annoying and wondered how long he would be able to last in the ancient creep’s apartment.

When the cripple finally finished his seizure of sorts, he wiped his brow with his arm and took some deep breaths. The old man was exhausted. “As I said,” he continued, practically panting, “the woman’s fainting on Treasure Hunt was the genesis of The Death Game.”

The cripple explained how he had gone home from the studio the night the contestant fainted feeling terribly disappointed. The cripple couldn’t put his finger on the cause of his discontent. The show they taped that evening was good. Better than good. Extremely entertaining. And the poor lady had only fainted and not died and that was good, he supposed. Still, he couldn’t seem to shake his discouragement until he figured out what he was so discouraged about. It was the woman’s recovery that put him in such a funk, wasn’t it? Of course it was. His serious letdown came, he realized, the moment the woman opened first one eye and then the other. The fact that she did not die was the cause of his despair.

“That night I thought of The Death Game,” said the cripple. “Why not? It was the natural progression of things. If I felt so disappointed that the fainting woman only fainted, then why not create a show where the possibility existed that a contestant could die? A weekly, prime-time television program whereby a contestant would either win a lot of money or be executed! On camera! On coast-to-coast television. Like I said, it would have to be a lot of money to lure anyone to the program to make that kind of personal gamble, wouldn’t it?”

“Why would you even think of such an idea?” asked the producer.

“For one thing, nobody else had. And for another: Why not? Times change. Laws of the land change. Hell, I knew that. And when they did change, I would be ready. The problem turned out to be the times didn’t change fast enough. Listen, when I was in the industry I was famous for pushing the envelope, and a television program that featured an execution would certainly be pushing the envelope, wouldn’t it? It would be innovative…no…the idea would be past innovative. It would be revolutionary. Scandalous. It would be the most talked about television program in the world. Don’t you agree?”