Which U.S. TV game show introduced the question, "Is it bigger than a bread box?"

This question "Is it bigger than a bread box?" was popularized by Steve Allen on the American game show "What's My Line?". Initially, this expression was part of a reference and used as a common question in the children's game 20 Questions: "Is it bigger than a bread box?" (In the game of 20 Questions, one player thinks of a thing and another player or group of players will ask 20 questions to guess what the first player is thinking).

On the old 1950s TV show "What's My Line," panelists would try to guess a guest's professional occupation. Steve Allen, a panelist in 1953-54, would ask this question about any physical object that related to a guest's work. He may not have been the first person to ask the question, but the question (Is it bigger than a bread box?) undoubtedly caught on as a popular phrase as a result of Allen using it.

At first when Allen came up with the question during the 1953 TV episode for the game show, his original phrasing was, "Is it a large product if you accept as the norm something the size of a breadbox, let's say?" This question was later shorten to the form most people now know.