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March 30, 2017 4:56 PM   Subscribe

What's My Line was the iconic television game show that ran on CBS from 1950-1967 (and then revived in an altered format in syndication from 1968-1975). If you want to go down the rabbit hole of early TV gameshows, many episodes can be found on the What's My Line YouTube channel. Now you too can relive the many times Steve Allen asked, "Is it bigger than a bread box?"

Hosted by news anchor John Charles Daly, the weekly show brought regular folks doing somewhat irregular jobs to television audiences. Examples include a cow manicurist, somebody who vaccinates chickens, and somebody who sold fried chicken. Each week also had a celebrity mystery guest, like Eleanor Roosevelt, Joan Crawford, and Eartha Kitt.

The main attraction though was the panel who had to guess contestants' lines. The regulars included actor Arlene Francis, publisher Bennett Cerf, and columnist Dorothy Kilgallen. Kilgallen is probably better known today for her investigation into the JFK assassination, which may have lead to her death in 1965. There's a new book out about it called The Reporter Who Knew Too Much. And now there's talk of reopening the investigation around her death.
posted by kendrak (33 comments total) 28 users marked this as a favorite
 
Salvador Dali's appearance on What's My Line is one of my favorite videos on YouTube... Yessss. Non.
posted by mister-o at 5:31 PM on March 30, 2017 [6 favorites]


The real question is: was the item ever actually a bread box?

Watching that episode it strikes me that a) this show is pretty boring and b) it would probably play pretty well on NPR today. It's no worse than Says You.
posted by GuyZero at 5:42 PM on March 30, 2017


I don't recall the exact wag who came up with the observation that Dorothy Kilgallen had a mouth like a torn pocket, but it was funny at the time...
posted by jim in austin at 5:53 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


I somehow recently got interested in Dorothy Kilgallen - fascinating story, and the JFK assassination investigation is very compelling - what a surprise - and her death tragic and highly suspicious, and her extensive notes on the Kennedy assassination were never found. She was apparently one of the leading investigative reporters of her time, and was highly influential in the overturned conviction of Sam Shepard.
Always had wondered about her. Such a shame.
posted by emmet at 5:57 PM on March 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


My absolute favorite game show of all time! I love how their relationships play onto the way they play off of each other. And not just with the mystery guest! All the banter the judges exchange in each episode really gives you the sense that they were all really close. This would be a really cool show to bring back and "do it right."
posted by Krazor at 6:11 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


it would probably play pretty well on NPR today

If you'd like to test this hypothesis, see NPR's Ask Me Another, which has a regular Mystery Guest segment in which Ophira Eisenberg and Jonathan Coulton attempt to discover the aforesaid mystery. Any resemblance to What's My Line or I've Got A Secret is entirely coincidental, I'm sure.
posted by zamboni at 6:18 PM on March 30, 2017


That was the show that made me think that being a grown-up was going to be super duper fun.

Very misleading.
posted by allthinky at 6:41 PM on March 30, 2017 [6 favorites]


The real question is: was the item ever actually a bread box?

yes.
posted by kendrak at 6:54 PM on March 30, 2017 [6 favorites]


I feel like I saw episodes of "I've Got a Secret," when I was little (in the 60s), but not "What's My Line." However, over the past couple years I watched a bunch of the latter on YT, mostly the celeb segments.

I too am interested in the strange circumstances of poor Killgallen's death.

And speaking of tragedies, politics, and history captured on early TV, I'm fascinated that a man who was at Ford's Theatre on an infamous night lived long enough to appear on "Secret."
posted by NorthernLite at 7:15 PM on March 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


OMG this is beautiful you are a treasure kendrak!!!! Thank you!!!
posted by Melismata at 7:27 PM on March 30, 2017


(Was hoping to see the Ford's Theatre guy, was going to post it myself if no one else did...)

Love the way Leonard Nimoy tried to disguise his voice...

Love this...

Gush gush gush sorry
posted by Melismata at 7:28 PM on March 30, 2017


The link to the fried chicken episode leads to one about a person diving with horses. Here's the fried chicken link.
posted by divabat at 7:30 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


I didn't know that Hunter S. Thompson appeared on To Tell The Truth in 1967. Something to watch while workin' on the night cheese...
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:30 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]




I would love to see a modern day version of this!
posted by divabat at 7:49 PM on March 30, 2017


Someone needs to make a supercut of Mr. Daly's circumlocutions.
posted by pjern at 7:55 PM on March 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


I'm fascinated that a man who was at Ford's Theatre on an infamous night lived long enough to appear on "Secret."

Was it not someone here who tut-tutted about the sort of irresponsible parents who would take their kid to a presidential assassination?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:56 PM on March 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


I really would love to know what it'd take to get classic gameshows like this onto Netflix. Are the rights even there for it?
posted by flatluigi at 7:58 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Lee Israel's biography of Kilgallen is a bit trashy (as the cover suggests) but I love it and find her fascinating, so I'm excited for this new book.

(And I had any interest in it because of my love of What's My Line? so this thread is a wonderful gift.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:11 PM on March 30, 2017


I used to watch Match Game and then this with my roommate after coming home at 1 A.M. from the call center.

There should be a word for the moment you get a Simpsons joke years after you watch the episode. “Oh! That's who Kitty Carlisle is.”
posted by chinesefood at 8:17 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Neat! Is Whose Line Is It Anyway?'s title a reference to this show?
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 8:25 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


thank you divabat for catching the mixed up link. i was going to use the horse diver as an example of professions and attitudes that really haven't aged well and are hard to watch now. the most egregious example is that skirt blowing machine operator was not just a thing, but was on the show at least three times. there are lots of others that just make me cringe for their blatant misogyny (it was often obvious to the panel if the mystery guest was female because of the wolf whistles when they walked on stage), or the fact that it's notable when any people of color were on the show at all. having watched every episode on youtube up to 1963 has made me really appreciate living in the 2000s.

that said, i really appreciate the puns of bennett cerf and that he was always giddy about any sports personality on the show. the show also helped me really get ernie kovacs. it also introduced me to the comedy genius of fred allen, who is mostly known as a footnote for his feud with jack benny that went from radio into television. i think that if he had lived longer and made more of a legacy in tv than radio, more people would talk about fred allen.
posted by kendrak at 8:37 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Actually there has been a modern-ish version - Figure it Out, a Nickelodeon show where the panelists guess kids' talents in a similar format.
posted by divabat at 8:39 PM on March 30, 2017


I really would love to know what it'd take to get classic gameshows like this onto Netflix. Are the rights even there for it?

There are lots of PD episodes on Archive.org. Copyright law was less forgiving back then, and many films/shows were denied copyright status due to not having a prominent (c) notice.

This show though -- I have no idea where these episodes are coming from. I hope CBS doesn't pull it (or maybe they own the YT channel?)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:43 PM on March 30, 2017


Like many people my age I'm only aware of this show because my parents explained to me that "What's My Crime?", the game show Horace and Jasper watch in 101 Dalmatians in which the panel has to guess the crime the contestant committed, is a parody of it.
posted by potrzebie at 9:37 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


OK, probably "many" is generous but let's say "nonzero"
posted by potrzebie at 9:38 PM on March 30, 2017


(Indeed in this episode of Figure It Out one of the panelists makes a "bigger than a breadbox" reference)
posted by divabat at 9:43 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm surprised by how funny some of this still is today. Part of it is just that everyone is having a good time, but part of it is the simple "I know something that you don't know" thrill of watching somebody not quite get something right.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:39 PM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Salvador Dali's appearance on What's My Line is one of my favorite videos on YouTube... Yessss. Non.

If What's My Line ran today, could you imagine: a) anybody in the audience recognizing an artist, any artist (granted, Dali was unique, but still); b) a publisher being invited as a panelist?
posted by uncleozzy at 4:52 AM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Neat! Is Whose Line Is It Anyway?'s title a reference to this show?

Absolutely. They talk about that in the British radio version's Wikipedia entry.
posted by Melismata at 4:59 AM on March 31, 2017


it also introduced me to the comedy genius of fred allen , who is mostly known as a footnote for his feud with jack benny that went from radio into television. i think that if he had lived longer and made more of a legacy in tv than radio, more people would talk about fred allen.

Anyone under 50 barely even knows who Jack Benny is anymore, but the fact that Fred Allen is lost to the ages is nothing short of a crime. He was the sharpest, funniest guy on radio and would be killing it on his own cable show if he were around now.
posted by briank at 5:21 AM on March 31, 2017 [4 favorites]


I will probably do a FPP on Fred Allen very soon.

There are a few episodes of the British What's My Line, hosted by Eamon Andrews, on YouTube. I tried to find old episodes from around the globe but gave up or was distracted fairly quickly.
posted by kendrak at 6:39 AM on March 31, 2017


Salvador Dali's yt appearance on What's My Line is one of my favorite videos on YouTube... Yessss. Non.

I'm dying here.
posted by ersatz at 4:52 AM on April 1, 2017


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