Joyce Brothers was propelled to fame in 1955 as the winter of The $64,000 Question game show. Her specialist subject was boxing. Joyce had originally approached the makers of the show as a hopeful expert in home economics and psychology, which were the subjects of her degree from Cornell University. The producer, however, decided that choosing boxing as the specialist subject would make for better TV.

Joyce had decided to enter the quiz show because she and her husband, Milton Brothers, were struggling to make ends meet. Milton was still in medical school and Joyce had recently given up her teaching position at Hunter College and Columbia University to be at home with their new-born baby.

The premise of The $64,000 Question game show quizzed contestants in their chosen area of expertise. While Joyce had put forward her chosen area of expertise, the producers decided against it. This didn’t deter Joyce, however, like they had expected. They anticipated that Joyce would stumble on television and make a fool out of herself. Joyce, however, memorized 20 volumes of a boxing encyclopaedia and became the only woman to ever win the show’s top prize.

It would later come out that the producers of The $64,000 Question game show had been rigged and a number of contestants had been given the answers in advance. Joyce denied any involvement and the producer admitted that Joyce was not among the ones involved in cheating. In fact, they had given Joyce exceptionally tough questions in the hopes that she would fail and would make good television.

Joyce’s appearance on the show opened up doors and in 1956, she became the co-host of “Sports Showcast” before working with NBC. For almost four decades, she was a columnist for Good Housekeeping and wrote a daily syndicated advice column that appeared in over 350 newspapers. She later branched into film and appeared in “Analyze That,” “Beethoven’s 4th,” “Lover’s Knot” and “Dear God.”

Additionally, Joyce was a massive advocate for women and women’s rights.  In the 1970s, she called for changing textbooks to remove sexist bias and noted that non-sexist cultures tend to be “less warlike.”

Joyce Brothers passed away in May of 2013.