Make the Connection

{{Short description|American TV quiz series (1955)}}

{{More citations needed|date=May 2024}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox television

| image =

| caption =

| camera =

| runtime = 30 Minutes

| creator = Mark Goodson
Bill Todman

| presenter = Jim McKay
Gene Rayburn

| country = United States

| network = NBC

| first_aired = {{Start date|1955|07|07}}

| last_aired = {{End date|1955|09|29}}

| num_episodes = 13

}}

Make the Connection is an American game show, sponsored by Borden, that ran on Thursday nights from July 7 to September 29, 1955, on NBC{{Cite book |last=Schwartz |first=David |title=The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows |last2=Ryan |first2=Steve |last3=Wostbrock |first3=Fred |date=1995 |publisher=Facts On File, Inc. |isbn=9780821630945 |pages=120}} from 8:30 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

Original host Jim McKay was replaced after the first four episodes by Gene Rayburn, who debuted as a game show host on August 4, 1955.

The series was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production,{{cite book|last1=McNeil|first1=Alex|title=Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present |date=1996|publisher=Penguin Books USA, Inc.|location=New York, New York|isbn=0-14-02-4916-8|page= 510|edition=4th}} and as such it had many things in common with the other panel shows developed by the company. Like I've Got a Secret,{{cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Tim|last2=Marsh|first2=Earle|title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present|date=1999|publisher=The Ballentine Publishing Group|location=New York|isbn=0-345-42923-0|page=616|edition=7th}} there were four celebrity panelists who were each given a timed period in which to ask questions. Each panelist that was stumped earned the contestants money.{{Citation needed |date=July 2025}}

Betty White made one of her earliest game show appearances as a panelist on the series (her first on national television was a few weeks earlier on "What's My Line?"). The regular panelists were White, Gene Klavan, Gloria DeHaven, and Eddie Bracken.