In 195455, in addition to his duties with What's My Line?, Daly also hosted the final year of the NBC Television game show Who Said That?, in which celebrities tried to determine the speaker of quotations taken from recent news reports. He was the first national correspondent to deliver the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941,[4] and he was also the first to relay the wire service report of the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, interrupting the program Wilderness Road to deliver the news. Bruner, and later Blyden, would preface the demonstrations by asking Lloyd Gross, who directed most of the editions, "Lloyd, would you open the curtains, please?" A friend of the lawyer recalled that Belli remarked after Kilgallen's death: "They've killed . What happened? Arlene Francis cries from under her pearl-trimmed mask, not wanting to miss the joke. Each panelist had 20 seconds to take those occupation cards to the appropriate contestant (the ones who they thought had that occupation). Mrs. Roosevelt was preceded by a bathtub salesman and a fellow involved in the manufacture of Bloodhound Chewing Tobacco, after which there was just enough time for a woman who wrote television commercials. game show, shortly before both finally returned to television in triumph with The Joker's Wild. To support Open Cultures educational mission, please consider. For the final season, from episode #830 to episode #876 (September 11, 1966 September 3, 1967), in conjunction with the program's permanent move to color, the show used CBS Studio 50 (later renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater, 1697 Broadway at 53rd St., NY). If all four panelists failed, each member of the team won an additional bonus prize. - Hayley Mills; PANEL: Steve Allen, Joanna Barnes (Nov 28, 1965)", "List of Celebrity Guests from Stage version", "Fox TV Stations to Air Classic Game Shows From Buzzr TV's Massive Library - Hollywood Reporter", "What's My Line? And since human nature is still the same, I'll bet an up-to-date version of this show would be a smash hit. Stars Eamonn Andrews Isobel Barnett Gilbert Harding See production, box office & company info But hell, I still enjoy watching the original Dick Tracy serials, so my critical judgment is highly suspect. The color composition of the What's My Line? Starting in July 1959 and continuing for 8 straight years, until July 1967, the show would occasionally record episodes onto quadruplex videotape for playback at a future date. is known for its attention to manners and class. 1954: Won, Personal Award, Radio-Television News. It made a return twice on basic-cable television as a one-time rerun on GSN (Game Show Network) on December 25, 2014, at 1:00A.M. EST and as part of Buzzr "Lost & Found" week on September 29, 2018, at 6:30 P.M. EST. See production, box office & company info. Broadway actor Francis recalled: I got so much pleasure out of Whats My Line? There were no rehearsals. The tiles were done away with in favor of having blue walls with question marks painted on them, and the rest of the set adopted a red and yellow color palette. Moderator John Daly in CBS publicity photo for What's My Line? The second version, based on the Bruner/Blyden era, was released by Whitman in 1969. The first contestant on What's My Line? What's My Line? CBS reportedly committed to air six episodes for its fall 1999 schedule. Originally moderated by John Charles Daly and most frequently with regular panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf, What's My Line? In the 17-year run of the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman program, "What's My Line?" was nominated for an Emmy in the category of panel, quiz or audience participation series five times, winning Emmys in . He was F. Lee Bailey. Fates explained that Cerf indeed had died, but television was practicing a time-honored tradition of celebrating one's work long after his death. is a window to another era", https://web.archive.org/web/20140314004130/https://www.tvguide.com/news/greatest-game-shows-1066568.aspx/, https://time.com/collection-post/3103879/whats-my-line/, "What's My Line? However, according to Miramax TV president Billy Campbell, the deal crumbled because the network decided the show was too costly and ambitious. In 1949 he starred in the short-lived CBS Television newspaper drama The Front Page, where it was thought that his presence and journalistic experience would give the series more authenticity. In July 1959, this was state-of-the-art technology. What's My Line? lighting director (1 episode, 1968) Stan Alper. and its 1950s spinoff, I've Got a Secret, which resulted in noticeable changes from the original. Cerf usually prefaced his introduction with a pun or joke that over time became a pun or joke at Daly's expense. This involved featuring the product in the show's opening, on the front of the panel's desk, above the sign-in board, and on Daly's scorecards. It's all very 50's and classy and smart and good and worth watching. [3], TV Guide ranked it #9 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever [5] and Time Magazine ranked it as one of the 100 "All-Time" TV shows ever.[6]. [9] Daly stated that "the last straw"[10] that led to his resignation was the decision of the then-president of ABC, Leonard Goldenson, to bring in Time Inc. to co-produce documentaries that had previously been under Daly's direction for the network. [22], Daly died of cardiac arrest at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on February 24, 1991, four days after his 77th birthday. The most frequent guest panelist was Arlene Francis's husband Martin Gabel, who appeared 112 times over the years. Hosts of the syndicated version, Wally Bruner and Larry Blyden, were alive at the time but did not participate. The contestant entered by writing his or her name on a small sign-in board. In his last years, Cerf explained to interviewer Robbin Hawkins that Montenier was ultimately ruined by his refusal to abandon or share sponsorship as the show entered new markets and became too expensive. Panelists adopted some basic binary search strategies, beginning with broad questions, such as whether the contestant worked for a for-profit corporation or non-profit organization or whether a product was alive, worn, or ingested. "What's My Line?" 1956: Won, ABC Television, Television News for Coverage of the National Political Conventions. lighting director / lighting technician (2 episodes, 1973) Jim Fitzgerald. All rights reserved. One of the first rotating sponsors, which actually came before Montenier's sale of Stopette to Helene Curtis (who continued to sponsor the program after the purchase and still promoted Stopette in their advertising), was the Remington Rand Corporation, who used their time to promote their line of electric shaver and computers such as the UNIVAC. Following Olson's departure, a succession of guest announcers were used, including Wayne Howell, Dennis Wholey, Bob Williams, Jack Haskell and Chet Gould,[55] with Gould eventually taking over full-time in early 1973. While Daly moderated the first live episode after his return from Moscow, he praised his employers use of videotape. Marx caused chaos on-camera for Daly. featuring a game show called What's My Perversion? Later on, you get a sense of what playing a jolly parlor game with Mrs. Roosevelt would have been like. Upon his departure, Bennett Cerf took over this position. [31], The program began with Daly and panel entering from off-stage as they were introduced. To begin a round, Daly would invite the contestant to "come in and sign in, please," which, by 1960, had evolved to the more familiar "enter and sign in, please." [47] The primary reason for the cancellation, along with that of the other panel shows CBS aired in prime time, was that the programs' low overall viewershipthe key metric of success during Michael Dann's time with the networkcould no longer justify their presence even as the shows continued to turn a profit with their low production costs. The producers, Fates said, were unable to challenge Daly for fear of losing him as the show's moderator. Unlike its predecessor, the syndicated What's My Line? was a guessing game in which the four panelists attempted to determine the occupation (i.e., "line [of work]") of a guest. [32] In addition, some unspooled film remained on the floor after the group's rented time at the facility ran out. - Season 9, Episode 20: EPISODE #397", "Only One Prime-Time TV Show Will Be Produced Here In Fall", "Image: Week_008_August_27_1968_0036_0040, (640 284 px)", "Image: Week_167_September_28_1972_0831_0835, (640 283 px)", "What's My Line? The show lasted 17 years, with Daly hosting all but four episodes of the weekly series. What's My Line? Episode #013 (August 2, 1950), episode #084 (January 6, 1952), and episode #855 (March 26, 1967) exist at The Paley Center for Media. [40] The last episode aired in black & white was taped on July 17, 1966, and the last episode to be produced there in black & white aired live on July 24. Daly began his broadcasting career as a reporter for NBC Radio and then WJSV (now WTOP), the local CBS Radio Network affiliate in Washington, D.C., as CBS' White House correspondent. That practice continued until the beginning of the final season in 1974, when announcer Chet Gould began introducing the panelists and host Blyden at once, in a conventional fashion. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations. The uncredited announcer introduced the first panelist, sometimes the left-most, sometimes the right-most. . had ended, Goodson-Todman struck a deal with CBS's syndication arm, which in time became the present-day Viacom (now CBS Media Ventures), to syndicate a new weekday videotaped edition, beginning one year after the network version's cancellation. What's My Line? [16][17] On one occasion the guest was a man who made breadboxes. HostJohn Charles Dalywas willing to keep the ball up in the air by answering the panels initial questions for aMystery Guestwith a widely recognizable voice, but its hard to imagine anyone stuffing former First LadyEleanor Roosevelt intothe full body steampunk bee suitthe (SPOILER)Empress of Soulwore on The Masked Singers first season. ET. He accepted and shot a pilot shortly after What's My Line? Cerf's introductions of Daly were generally straightforward in his earliest years on the show, but as time went by Cerf expanded these introductions, often telling long jokes which he tied to Daly in some way.[32]. [citation needed]. He also had several television and movie guest appearances from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, including an uncredited role in Bye Bye Birdie (as the reporter announcing the title character's induction into the Army) and as the narrator, in a mock documentary style, on the premiere episode of the rural comedy series Green Acres. Part One Season 2 episode 9 Air date November 17, 1997 Written by Howard Gordon Marti Noxon Directed by David Solomon Length 42 minutes Cast Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar Buffy Nicholas Brendon Xander Alyson Hannigan Willow Charisma Carpenter Cordelia David Boreanaz Angel Anthony Stewart Head Giles Guest starring It also included a segment in which Vint Cerf's son Bennett (named after the panelist) appeared as a guest. It is on the list of longest-running U.S. primetime network television game-shows. They could also request a conference, in which they had a short time for open discussion of ideas about occupations or lines of questioning. soundstage has been lost to posterity.[28]. 140K subscribers Subscribe 2.9K Share Save 389K views 9 years ago MYSTERY GUEST: Hedy Lamarr [film star and sex symbol originally. Unknown to the public, mystery guests were paid $500 (equal to $5,631 in 2021[36]) as an appearance fee, whether they won or lost the game. 119K views8 years ago What's My Line? According to Cerf, the panel could often determine the identities of the mystery guests early, as they knew which celebrities were in town, or which major movies or plays were about to open. The host, then called the moderator, was veteran radio and television newsman John Charles Daly. - Season 10, Episode 49: EPISODE #476", "Image: 33_April_14_1963_662, (640 299 px)", "First Breadbox episode. In 2000, a pilot was shot with host Harry Anderson for CBS, but was later turned down in favor of the reality show Survivor. For the first few seasons, contestants would sign in by writing their name on a chalkboard, and meet the panel up close for a casual inspection, and the panel was allowed one initial wild guess. Daly had always been the emergency mystery guest in case the scheduled guest was unable to appear on the live broadcast, but this had never occurred. The set, designed by veteran Goodson-Todman art director Theodore Cooper, was predominantly blue and featured walls behind the panel and host areas tiled with illustrations representing various occupations. Line's sister show, I've Got a Secret, and later, the syndicated version of WML engaged in the practice of contestants demonstrating their talents. During his tenure, Hal Block sat in the final seat and began the practice of introducing Daly with a pun. As Daly occasionally noted, "Ten flips and they (the panel) are a flop!" Episode #195 (February 21, 1954) only exists among collectors as a second-hand kinescope, as the official kinescope is missing from the Goodson-Todman archive. A typical episode featured two standard rounds (sometimes a third, and very rarely a rushed fourth) plus one mystery guest round. Stars Wally Bruner Arlene Francis Johnny Olson See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 5 User reviews The phrase is it bigger than a breadbox went on to become a running joke, further contributing to the illusion that viewers had been invited to a fashionable cocktail party where glamorous New York scenemakers dressed up to play 21 Professional Questions with ordinary mortals and a celebrity guest. [40], Episode #397 (January 12, 1958) was a special Hollywood episode broadcast from CBS Television City (7800 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA). Bruner left the series at the conclusion of its fourth season in 1972, and Broadway actor Larry Blyden, who had already helmed several other gameshows and served as both a Line panelist and mystery guest in the past, stepped in at the beginning of the 19721973 season to host the remaining three seasons. Four celebrity panelists try to guess the occupation of a guest by asking questions that result in yes or no answers. By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. The show is now an authorized production as it is licensed by FremantleMedia, the owners of What's My Line?. Usually when such a veteran appears, there is a pristine-quality DVD screening of the original kinescope on a plasma screen. ", This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 05:51. The series has also been shown on Buzzr, a digital broadcast television network which is owned and operated by Fremantle.[64]. It was during the run of the syndicated version that Woody Allen parodied What's My Line? Get the best cultural and educational resources on the web curated for you in a daily email. Were hoping to rely on our loyal readers rather than erratic ads. What's My Line? - Strange man invades the show; Melina Mercouri; Victor Borge [panel] (Oct 7, 1962) Share Watch on Things go off the rails only during the final round when Melina Mercouri, a glamorous Greek actress best known for Never on Sunday (1960), appears as the week's mystery guest. [33][34] After Montenier sold Stopette to Helene Curtis,[35] the series was sponsored by a variety of companies which were either regular or rotating. [5], According to producer Gil Fates, Daly was resistant to changes that would have appealed to a younger audience but might have diminished the show's dignity. The producers considered the revival a merger of What's My Line? In May 1967,[12][13] during the final year of What's My Line?, it was announced that Daly would become the director of the Voice of America after the show ended. Answer: Yul Brynner. What's My Line? + What's My Line? From December 1968 to January 1969, Daly hosted the arts and humanities program "Critique" on NET. From May 20 to August 27, 1952, an NBC Radio Network version was produced on Tuesday nights with the same cast as the TV version. On Fred Allen's death in 1956, Random House book publisher co-founder and humorist Bennett Cerf became the anchor panelist who would usually introduce Daly. Beginning in 1955 Daly simply greeted and seated the contestant, who later met the panel at the end of the game. Four members of the studio audience were lined up on stage, and their occupations were printed on cards. The game uses celebrity panelists to question contestants in order to determine their occupation, i.e. - Hedy Lamarr (Mar 31, 1957) What's My Line? This predated the show's eventual move to color by 12 years. Daly would then often fire back his own retort. Panelists have included Jonathan Ames, Joy Browne, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Frank DeCaro, Michael Riedel, and original TV version veterans Betsy Palmer and Julia Meade. He resigned from ABC on November 16, 1960, after the network preempted the first hour of 1960 presidential election night coverage to show Bugs Bunny cartoons and The Rifleman from 7:30 to 8:30 pm while CBS and NBC were covering returns from the KennedyNixon presidential election and other important vote counts. [40], At least by episode #034 (January 21, 1951),[41] the show moved to CBS Studio 59 (Mansfield Theatre, later renamed the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1960, 256W. 47th St., NY), and stayed there until Episode #516, June 5, 1960. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Old Dominion Foundation (later the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), and the Louis Calder Foundation (paper industry leader), Critique was originally scheduled for 26 weekly programs. While ostensibly a game show, if there was time, it also was an opportunity to conduct interviews. Near the end of its run, sponsors would be introduced in the opening title and given commercials during the show, but would not be displayed on the set. [48], The 876th and final CBS telecast of What's My Line? This was in addition to the maximum $50 (equal to $563 in 2021[36]) game winnings, which guests sometimes donated to charity. The guest was a man who made breadboxes Bruner and Larry Blyden, were unable challenge. Frequent guest panelist was arlene Francis cries from under her pearl-trimmed mask, not wanting to miss the joke a. Worth watching while Daly moderated the first live episode after his death the Bruner/Blyden era, was veteran radio television! Cerf indeed had died, but television was practicing a time-honored tradition of celebrating one 's long. Writing his or her name on a plasma screen with the Joker 's Wild and acknowledge data! Program `` Critique '' on NET 've got a Secret, which resulted in noticeable from... 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