However, the show was developed as a reality show and had no panel or game elements. The unscripted urbane banter kept viewers tuning in. (Presumably, Mrs. Roosevelt was one of those to donate her honorarium.). ET. There, company employees Gil Fates, Bob Bach, Pamela Usdan and Bill Egan[59] worked round-the-clock for three days to compile the 90-minute special under deadline pressure from ABC network official Bob Shanks. He did his post-secondary education at a junior college and graduated from Boston College. At that time, John was 11 years old, and attended the Tilton School where he later served on its board of directors for many years, contributing to the construction or restoration of many buildings on campus. - 1955 - Episode 02. So many celebrity guests graced the. (Daly did not work for CBS but for the producers of What's My Line?, Goodson-Todman Productions. He also filled in occasionally on NBC's The Today Show, making Daly one of the few people to work simultaneously on all three networks.). Beginning with the first panelist, each panelist then introduced the person to his/her left or right, depending upon the first panelist's position. soundstage has been lost to posterity.[28]. is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. premiere - Ottawa Citizen, Sept. 19, 1978", "Gissa mitt jobb - 17/12 1960 | ppet arkiv | oppetarkiv.se", The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=What%27s_My_Line%3F&oldid=1138950790, Estanis Gonzlez and Juan Felipe Vila San Juan, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 15:36. In 2016, episode #018, aired live on October 1, 1950, was discovered by a film archivist. And since human nature is still the same, I'll bet an up-to-date version of this show would be a smash hit. The series also inspired a multitude of concurrent international versions and a syndicated U.S. revival in 1968 in which Daly did not participate. would be the last. Four awards for consideration are Alumnus of the Year, George L. Plimpton Award, John Charles Daly Award, and Artist Hall of Fame. To support Open Cultures educational mission, please consider making a donation. [40][44], Episode #323 (August 12, 1956), in conjunction with the 1956 Democratic National Convention, was a special Chicago episode broadcast from the studios of CBS owned-and-operated WBBM-TV (630 N. McClurg Ct., Chicago, IL). The producers, Fates said, were unable to challenge Daly for fear of losing him as the show's moderator. And for very good reason. Exceptions to this dress code were on the broadcasts immediately following the deaths of Fred Allen[23] and Dorothy Kilgallen,[24] in which the male cast members wore straight neckties and the women wore simpler dresses. (For the first few telecasts, the contestants signed their names on an artist's sketch pad; but when the brightness of the studio lights made it difficult for the signatures to be seen clearly by the viewers, the white sketchpad was replaced by a black chalkboard.) Daly would then often fire back his own retort. There have been a dozen international versions, radio versions, and a live stage version. What's My Line? [32] An April 1967 episode featuring Candice Bergen as the mystery guest was lost in its entirety, as was a June 1967 episode featuring both Betty Grable and F. Lee Bailey. During World War II, he covered the news from London as well as the North African and Italian fronts. Only a portion of episode #191 (January 24, 1954) w/Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis as mystery guests exists, and was shown in What's My Line? 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. 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. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Bennett Cerf wrote that the network had decided that game shows were no longer suitable for prime time, and that the news was broken by The New York Times on February 14[46] before anyone involved with the show was notified. The show is now an authorized production as it is licensed by FremantleMedia, the owners of What's My Line?. Unsubscribe at any time. The color composition of the What's My Line? Daly became completely convulsed in laughter during the live telecast on the NBC network. [3] He appears on the famous "One Day in Radio" tapes of September 21, 1939, in which WJSV preserved its entire broadcast day for posterity. What's My Line? The fourth panelist then introduced moderator. The show was hosted by John Charles Daly and the regular panelists were Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis and Bennett Cerf. See production, box office & company info, NBC Studios - 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. Four members of the studio audience were lined up on stage, and their occupations were printed on cards. - Season 1, Episode 1: EPISODE #1", "Image: 39_June_10_1951_054, (640 305 px)", "What's My Line? He did hosting duties on Who Said That?, It's News to Me, We Take Your Word, and Open Hearing. What's My Line? The first three seasons (19681971) originated from Studio 50, the home of the final year of the original series, but with a new, modern-design set. With the exception of Bruner's 1969 appearance with mystery guest Gerald Ford (presented in black and white), the 25th anniversary special consisted entirely of highlights from the CBS Sunday night version of the series, that viewers likely remembered more fondly than the syndicated version. All rights reserved. One expects such shenanigans might have struck them as a bit uncouth. TV Series 1973-1974 IMDb RATING 7.4 /10 12 YOUR RATING Rate Game-Show Add a plot in your language Creators Mark Goodson Bill Todman Stars David Jacobs Isobel Barnett Kenneth Williams See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist Episodes 23 Also, the animated intro was done away with in favor of the show's announcer (usually Gould) offering a brief preview of one of the contestants' games. According to Fox's book, Killing Me Softly: My Life in Music, Bob Israel of Score Productions paid him a buyout fee of $1,000 (equal to $5,495 today[citation needed]) for the work. It was revived by BBC2 from 23 August 1973 to 25 May 1974, hosted by David Jacobs, and then by ITV from 26 March 1984 to 31 August 1990. The main differences I find between this version and the original is that it tended to lean more towards comedy and that the stylish attire was gone (the men didn't wear tuxedos and the women eschewed evening gowns in favor of slacks or casual attire). [1][2], More than 700 episodes exist as kinescope recordings (filming a television screen in 16mm), which was the only way moving pictures and sound from spontaneous, unscripted television shows could be preserved on a long-term basis before the digital era. What's My Line? 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? [40], Episode #397 (January 12, 1958) was a special Hollywood episode broadcast from CBS Television City (7800 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA). Trivia: Much of the first two seasons of "What's My Line" were destroyed by CBS, but by the 3rd season Goodson-Todman productions requested a kinescope of each episode. As Daly occasionally noted, "Ten flips and they (the panel) are a flop!" 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 . have made of The Masked Singer , a more recent offering in which panelists attempt to identify celebrity contestants who are concealed by elaborate head-to-toe costumes and electronically altered voiceovers. Appearing as panelists were Robert Q. Lewis, who had been a panelist on the original What's My Line?, and Pamela Mason, who had been a mystery guest. [3], Last edited on 24 February 2023, at 05:51, "John Charles Daly Jr., the Host Of 'What's My Line? In 2008, another revival of the show with David Hasselhoff was planned in cooperation with FremantleMedia, which had taken over ownership of all Goodson-Todman and Mark Goodson Productions programming, that never got off the ground. 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. He accepted and shot a pilot shortly after What's My Line? had yet to air in certain markets; by the fall of 1975, the last of these episodes had aired across the United States. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. [14] Finch appeared again on the fifth anniversary show (with the "line" of "chorus girl" appearing in the musical Fanny) and on the final broadcast in 1967 as a guest.[14]. [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. [40][42] Meanwhile, the concurrent 19521953 Radio edition, at least during the CBS run, was heard live from CBS Studio Building 22 (49 E. 52nd St., NY). In September 1966, all three networks began broadcasting their prime-time schedules entirely in color television, including What's My Line? The majority of the contestants were from the general public. 9. A clip from the kinescope was played. 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. ", This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 05:51. Originally moderated by John Charles Daly and most frequently with regular panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf, What's My Line? From 1950 to 1966, the game show was broadcast in black and white, as was typical of most game shows at the time. [3] The show's announcer acknowledged this fact during the closing credits of every prerecorded episode. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Please find all options here. Other panelists included Alan Alda, his father Robert Alda, Joanna Barnes, Joyce Brothers, Jack Cassidy, Bert Convy, Joel Grey, Elaine Joyce, Ruta Lee, Sam Levene, Meredith MacRae, Henry Morgan, Jerry Orbach, Gene Rayburn, Nipsey Russell, Gene Shalit, Dana Valery, and Anita Gillette. The first contestant on What's My Line? The show lasted 17 years, with Daly hosting all but four episodes of the weekly series. (1950) officially released in India in English? Jack Barry, partner of Dan Enright, both of whom had taken falls in the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s, hosted the What's My Perversion? After Bennett Cerf's death in 1971, stations continued to air shows where he was a panelist resulting in confusion among some fans, who were seeing "new" episodes with Cerf long after hearing about his death. [66] Some are off-the-air home recordings of rebroadcasts. 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. What's My Line? 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. was also broadcast on network radio for a short time. [22], Daly died of cardiac arrest at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on February 24, 1991, four days after his 77th birthday. Always fun to watch. This is one of the inspiration for my own game show on YouTube called Interrogation (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdVdkPbFNHF97A-eZ_mOUzw). [11], Daly continued on What's My Line? In 2014, another pilot for a revival was shot to offer to stations in 2015, but it also failed to sell. What's My Line? As such, while 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. We accept PayPal, Venmo (@openculture), Patreon and Crypto! [19][20] The marriage resulted in two sons, John Neal Daly and John Charles Daly III, and a daughter, Helene Grant "Bunsy" Daly. aired daily on weekdays, each station airing the show did not air the same episode on a particular day. [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]. Panelists have included Jonathan Ames, Joy Browne, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Frank DeCaro, Michael Riedel, and original TV version veterans Betsy Palmer and Julia Meade. 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. Frequent sponsors in the 1960s were Kellogg's cereals, Allstate Insurance, and Geritol. [citation needed] Later in the series, Daly would throw all the cards over with increasing frequency and arbitrariness (frequently to give a particularly interesting or worthy panelist the maximum available prize money), evidence the prize was secondary to game play. But hell, I still enjoy watching the original Dick Tracy serials, so my critical judgment is highly suspect. However, there was one weekly celebrity "mystery guest" for which the panelists were blindfolded. The panelists had to guess contestants' odd or not-so-odd jobs, then (while blindfolded) guess a celebrity guest's identity (New York Yankee Phil Rizzuto was the first). Companion Facebook group for the YouTube "What's My Line?" channel, where you can find every available surviving episode of the long running CBS version. This pilot started with three panelists playing the Mystery Guest round; the guest would then be the fourth panelist for the remainder of the episode. Daly did not host the syndicated version of What's My Line?, although he did co-host a 25th-anniversary program about the show for ABC in 1975. "What's My Line?" was TV's most famous panel show. was a guessing game in which the four panelists attempted to determine the occupation (i.e., "line [of work]") of a guest. Daly's first foray into television was as a panelist on the game show Celebrity Time. Clifton Fadiman,[10][11] Eamonn Andrews, and Random House co-founding publisher and panelist Bennett Cerf[12] substituted on the four occasions when Daly was unavailable. The panel varied somewhat in the following weeks, but after the first few broadcasts, during the show's earliest period the panel generally consisted of Kilgallen, actress Arlene Francis, Untermeyer and comedy writer Hal Block. [3] From 1953 to 1960, he anchored ABC News broadcasts and was the face of the network's news division, even though What's My Line? [40], CBS announced in early 1967 that a number of game shows, including What's My Line?, were to be canceled at the end of the season. Summary at IMDB", "First mention of "breadbox." As with Secret, contestants frequently demonstrated their skill or product after the game. Cerf usually prefaced his introduction with a pun or joke that over time became a pun or joke at Daly's expense. by Ayun Halliday | Permalink | Comments (1) |. Four celebrity panelists try to guess the occupation of a guest by asking questions that result in yes or no answers. [citation needed] At the time, this was a very rare instance of a television personality working on two different US broadcast TV networks simultaneously. "Play it again Sam." What movie actor, starring in his first romantic role, is associated with this line? Unlike its predecessor, the syndicated What's My Line? The syndicated edition had two regular panelists for its entire run, with comedian Soupy Sales joining the returning Arlene Francis. [18], He married twice, first to Margaret Griswell Neal in January 1937. Daly's closing line on the ABC newscasts was "Good night, and a good tomorrow." Many, but not all, episodes of the 1968-75 syndicated run were preserved and have been rebroadcast, since the 1990s, on several cable and broadcast networks, notably GSN and Buzzr. What would the host and panelists of the classic primetime television game show What's My Line? [citation needed] The first panelist would be introduced by the announcer following the show's introduction, and each panelist would introduce the next in turn, with the last introducing Daly. featuring a game show called What's My Perversion? What's My Line? Publisher Bennett Cerf replaced Untermeyer as a regular panelist in 1951, and comedian Steve Allen replaced Block in 1953. Guest panelists were paid $750 (equal to $8,447 in 2021[36]) as an appearance fee. (1952) and The Mike Wallace Interview (1958), How American Bandstand Changed American Culture: Revisit Scenes from the Iconic Music Show, How Dick Cavett Brought Sophistication to Late Night Talk Shows: Watch 270 Classic Interviews Online. [21] As Cerf admitted in the episode broadcast on November 27, 1966, his wife, Phyllis, was frequently told the name of the mystery guest beforehand. Allen left in 1954 to launch The Tonight Show, and he was replaced by comedian Fred Allen (no relation),[13] who remained on the panel until his death in 1956. game show, shortly before both finally returned to television in triumph with The Joker's Wild. It's the long-running panel show that asks the question."Is it bigger than a breadbox?" Contents 1 Game Format 1.1 Main Game 1.2 Mystery Guest 2 Personnel 3 Panelists 4 Broadcast History 5 Trivia Mystery guests have included Ed Begley Jr., Stephen Bishop, Mr. Blackwell, LeVar Burton, Brett Butler, Jos Canseco, Drew Carey, Andy Dick, Michael and Kitty Dukakis, Hector Elizondo, Nanette Fabray, Peter Falk, Caitlyn Jenner, Larry King, Kathy Kinney, Bruno Kirby, Tara Lipinski, Lisa Loeb, Shelley Long, Leonard Maltin, Rose Marie, Wink Martindale, Sally Struthers, Rip Taylor, Judy Tenuta, Alan Thicke, Dick Van Patten, Lindsay Wagner, Wil Wheaton, Noah Wyle, and Sean Young.[61]. 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