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What's My Line? 75th Anniversary

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jjman920:
Wasn't exactly sure where to put this, but today (February 2nd) is the 75th Anniversary of What's My Line? While I know panel shows aren't everyone's cup of tea, this show helped set the standard of the quality that was to come from Mark Goodson and Bill Todman as they continued to build their television production empire (not that you could tell from the first episode). The longest running primetime game show to this day, it was something I fell in love with back when GSN ran it almost every day at 3am back in the mid-00s. I spent the last 10 days posting about various moments from the CBS run of the show on my Facebook and this blog.

What are some of your favorite moments from the series or franchise as a whole? It's okay if they overlap with my own.

Of the ones I didn't talk about, Peter Gabel fooling his mom Arlene in 1964 was pretty good. I also *love* Phyllis Diller's second appearance as a mystery guest and probably should've included it in my countdown. Dorothy nails her quick, but between her laugh and one great joke, she makes the most of a brief appearance.

I'd love to be able to access all of the TV(dot)com episode guide, but it seems not every page works on the Wayback Machine, even ones that it says have snapshots. It just cycles. Does anyone else run into the problem? Also, I seem to remember someone, I want to say Steve Beverly, writing this big, 10 part story about the history of WML that I definitely remember copying to a Word doc and printing out entirely at one point, but I can't find that file anymore. Does anyone have access to that?

That Don Guy:

--- Quote from: jjman920 on February 02, 2025, 06:28:56 PM ---What are some of your favorite moments from the series or franchise as a whole? It's okay if they overlap with my own.

Of the ones I didn't talk about, Peter Gabel fooling his mom Arlene in 1964 was pretty good. I also *love* Phyllis Diller's second appearance as a mystery guest and probably should've included it in my countdown. Dorothy nails her quick, but between her laugh and one great joke, she makes the most of a brief appearance.

--- End quote ---

Peter Gabel appeared twice; the second time, it was with Bennett Cerf's son (and Bennett had to disqualify himself as he had heard about it from someone else); I think they had just been named co-editors of the Harvard Lampoon.

My favorites: I can think of a few:
* This one is probably on quite a few lists; the "mystery commercial reader" that came onto the set and started doing a commercial ("I'd like to talk to you tonight about..."), only for Daly to call the "extraction team" to get him off
* When Mark Goodson was on the panel, and it started with a mystery guest - Frank Sinatra, who then took Mark's spot on the panel; the second mystery guest was Frank's then-wife Mia Farrow, who signed in as "Mia Sinatra"
* What appears to be a rare personal appearance of any sort by Sir Edmund Hillary; he didn't say very much before he left the stage
* What may have been the first appearance on USA TV of Dudley Moore; he appeared with Peter Cook, who would later become an occasional panelist, and a couple of others as part of the USA tour of Beyond the Fringe
* When the six kids who were, at the time, playing the von Trapp children in The Sound of Music on Broadway appeared; I think that's the most that ever appeared as contestants at once
* The final mystery guest - John Daly himself.

What I don't like: a number of cuts, usually of celebrities being introduced, either on the panel or as mystery guests (John Wayne comes to mind). I am under the impression that they was only one kinescope of each episode available, and the clips were removed to be used in the 25th Anniversary Special that ABC aired in 1975, but ended up on the cutting room floor.

SuperMatch93:
When it comes to the CBS series, I love Groucho Marx's episode and how his presence on the panel clashes with the high-class manner of the show to make for a very entertaining half-hour.

Matt Ottinger:
I love that What's My Line got to do an entire farewell episode.  As I mentioned on your Facebook countdown, I hate that I've Got a Secret was not granted the same opportunity.

Eric Paddon:

--- Quote from: That Don Guy on February 02, 2025, 07:07:26 PM ---What I don't like: a number of cuts, usually of celebrities being introduced, either on the panel or as mystery guests (John Wayne comes to mind). I am under the impression that they was only one kinescope of each episode available, and the clips were removed to be used in the 25th Anniversary Special that ABC aired in 1975, but ended up on the cutting room floor.

--- End quote ---

Its actually possible to splice the missing bits used in the 25th anniversary special back into the original episode kinescope through digital editing.   That's been done with a couple episodes (The Marian Anderson one where the MG segment was reassembled in the wrong sequence and the Peter, Paul and Mary episode which was missing a question by Woody Allen during a contestant segment).

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