Anyone Young Enough To Remember What's My Line?

[lexsooner]

It was way before my time, but I stumbled across some old episodes on YouTube, and I was absolutely blown away - not so much by the celebrity or other interesting guests, but by the host and regular panelists. In sharp contrast to the crass, crude, and in your face tv shows of today, What's My Line was a study in New York style, sophistication, and the intelligence and verbal gifts of its host and panelists who were all New York journalists, actresses, and publishers. The host John Daly was a genius at quick interpretation and verbalizing to the blindfolded panelists the guest's yes or no answers. Everyone on the show wore party dressses or tuxedos and spoke clearly and crisply and with wit. The panelists were all smart as a whip and could figure out the identity of the guest in a heart beat. Yet this show was not stuffy or pretentious and the Manhattan cocktail party game reached out and let in the rest of America to their social world and lasted seventeen straight seasons.

Why can't they have something like this on tv today? Have we devolved so much that a show like What's My Line is no longer marketable?

[C&CDean]

It was way before my time, but I stumbled across some old episodes on YouTube, and I was absolutely blown away - not so much by the celebrity or other interesting guests, but by the host and regular panelists. In sharp contrast to the crass, crude, and in your face tv shows of today, What's My Line was a study in New York style, sophistication, and the intelligence and verbal gifts of its host and panelists who were all New York journalists, actresses, and publishers. The host John Daly was a genius at quick interpretation and verbalizing to the blindfolded panelists the guest's yes or no answers. Everyone on the show wore party dressses or tuxedos and spoke clearly and crisply and with wit. The panelists were all smart as a whip and could figure out the identity of the guest in a heart beat. Yet this show was not stuffy or pretentious and the Manhattan cocktail party game reached out and let in the rest of America to their social world and lasted seventeen straight seasons.

Why can't they have something like this on tv today? Have we devolved so much that a show like What's My Line is no longer marketable?

In a word? Yes.

[KantoSooner]

Yup. Devolution.

I tie it to two trends: the rise of cultural relativism and a resurgence of our nation's fundamental distrust of the educated and successful.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

Yes, great show. I know there are some shows on which the contestant was an unknown at the time, but became famous eventually.

[C&CDean]

To be honest, I had this one mixed up with To Tell the Truth. But yeah, I remember it and yeah, our country has gone ****terville and this type of program wouldn't fly anymore.

[Salt City Sooner]

Looks like they yanked it again, but up until a couple of weeks ago, GSN had been showing re-runs of WML & I've Got a Secret @ 2-2:30 AM. In fact, in the last IGAS I watched, they had a guy whose line was that he had actually watched the Lincoln assasination as a boy.

EDIT: Found it:

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[olevetonahill]

Yup I remember it. One of the Main reasons I very seldom ever turn my TeeVee on anymore is the sheer stupidity of the shows. That and the Crudeness.
Want to watch a Master Comedian?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldSyvZkBBoE

[rock on sooner]

The mold was broken when Mr. Skelton passed. That soft, gentle
voice that said "And may God bless." Wonderful humor, no profanity,
marvelous comedic timing...yup, broken mold!

[lexsooner]

Yes, great show. I know there are some shows on which the contestant was an unknown at the time, but became famous eventually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehSTtttb0xQ

Yup, Chuck Yeager and conductor Seiji Ozawa, to name a couple. They were both mystery guests whom panel members did not recognize.

I can only imagine this show running today. I don't think viewers would be able to understand the intelligent talk, and/or they would view it as "faggy" like how the dummies of the future in the movie Idiocracy viewed Not Sure's speech. This culture is so anti-intellectual that I could see some viewers automatically dismissing John Daly and the panelists as snooty and elitist, even though Middle America of the 1950s and 60s accepted and loved What's My Line. Also, I think manners were much more valued in those days and the show cast had impecible manners and even when they bantered and teased each other, it was clean and witty.

[Jacie]

Let's see, without looking, it was Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf and the name of the hot looking brunette escapes me. Never really knew what any of them were famous for but they were good, they almost always figured out the contestant's profession or guessed who the celebrity was.

Did I get em right?

[lexsooner]

Let's see, without looking, it was Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf and the name of the hot looking brunette escapes me. Never really knew what any of them were famous for but they were good, they almost always figured out the contestant's profession or guessed who the celebrity was.

Did I get em right?

You got it! The brunette was actress Arlene Francis. These three had the longest tenure and were most associated as being panelists on the show. Dorothy Kilgallen died under somewhat mysterious circumstances when the show was at its peak. She apparently took an overdose of a barbituate with alcohol just hours after taping a What's My Line show. It was ruled to be either an accidental overdose or suicide, though some conspiracy theorists claim she was murdered because she was a journalist who often criticized the Warren Commission and was about to expose the real killers of JFK. Cerf was a writer and prominent publisher. Host John Daly was a veteran journalist and news executive. He was married to Chief Justice Earl Warren's socialite daughter. These folks were the essence of New York sophistication, style, and class. The show was also quite cutting edge, with many black mystery guests and celebrities appearing, rare for the day.

[Flagstaffsooner]

To be honest, I had this one mixed up with To Tell the Truth. But yeah, I remember it and yeah, our country has gone ****terville and this type of program wouldn't fly anymore.

Silly me too. And I had a Helen Keller joke ready.

[swardboy]

I"m old enough to remember it. Had some family friends who were on it once. YouTube is a gold mine of episodes of famous people featured on the show.

Dorothy Kilgallen's death has long intrigued me.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

It was way before my time, but I stumbled across some old episodes on YouTube, and I was absolutely blown away - not so much by the celebrity or other interesting guests, but by the host and regular panelists. In sharp contrast to the crass, crude, and in your face tv shows of today, What's My Line was a study in New York style, sophistication, and the intelligence and verbal gifts of its host and panelists who were all New York journalists, actresses, and publishers. The host John Daly was a genius at quick interpretation and verbalizing to the blindfolded panelists the guest's yes or no answers. Everyone on the show wore party dressses or tuxedos and spoke clearly and crisply and with wit. The panelists were all smart as a whip and could figure out the identity of the guest in a heart beat. Yet this show was not stuffy or pretentious and the Manhattan cocktail party game reached out and let in the rest of America to their social world and lasted seventeen straight seasons.

Why can't they have something like this on tv today? Have we devolved so much that a show like What's My Line is no longer marketable?US culture has been on a bedowngrading slope for a very long time, and it's far from being the great country it used to be, in many ways. Socialism, fascism and authoritarianism in govt. have warped us to what we are today...why are you surprised?

[KantoSooner]

When was this greatness? If you go back and read about various periods in our great nation's history, the vast majority of people have lived pretty crass lives. City, suburbs or country. The difference is that, until the post war years, the dominant groups (dare I say 'classes'?) in society were able to simply marginalize and ignore the majority. That's not necessarily bad, if you agree with Toqueville and others that an aristocracy is necessary to produce high culture. It is a neat trick, however, and was bound to collapse with the growth of mass media.

In real life, Ward beat June to death and got away with it while screwing the black housemaid and drinking himself, in turn, into an early grave. And The Beave ran away to escape the mess at age 13 and ended up crippled and blind, living in a lean-to abutting a pig sty after a (brief) hand to mouth life as a hard rock miner.

And it still beat the hell out of life anywhere else on earth.

[oudanny]

Oh yes, I was just a kid but my mom watched it all the time.