“All Events Are Fictional”: The Wheel of Beasts That Said Otherwise

A host named Dan D. Lyons. A wheel of wild animals. A rule: wherever it lands, you spend 24 hours locked in a box with that beast. Survive and win $1,000,000. That’s the legend of a “TV show” from the late 1890s—a time when television didn’t exist, legal on-screen disclaimers didn’t, and a million dollars was an era-breaking fortune. The story insists the animals were kept hungry, the contestants were told they were just actors in suits, and a card reading “All events are fictional” flashed before every episode.

In 1899, the tale names Moe Degrasse as the first to survive—a cage with a grizzly. Lyons refuses to pay, offers double or nothing; Moe refuses; an argument; the host falls 15 feet into the bear box. “Nobody ever won,” the story says. But the anachronisms keep stacking.

This episode runs a Debate: the Mythologist shows how spectacle and cruelty fuse into a parable; the Methodologist tests the dates, tech, money, and legal trappings. We don’t crown a winner. We leave you with the images that won’t stop: a spinning wheel, a disclaimer card that lies, and a studio light shining on nothing.