Originally hosted by John Charles Dalyand with regular panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf, What's My Line?won three Emmy Awardfor "Best Quiz or Audience Participation Show" in 1952, 1953, and 1958 and the Golden Globe Awardsfor Best TV Show in 1962.
Who are the panelists on what's my line?
Moderated by John Charles Daly and with regular panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf, What's My Line? won three Emmy Awards for "Best Quiz or Audience Participation Show" in 1952, 1953, and 1958 and the Golden Globe for Best TV Show in 1962.
Who are some famous panelists that have appeared on the panelists?
Bennett Cerf Self - Panelist/ ... 758 episodes, 1950-1967 Dorothy Kilgallen Self - Panelist/ ... 736 episodes, 1950-1965 Johnny Olson Self - Announcer/ ... 202 episodes, 1961-1967 Steve Allen
What happens if one panelist fails on a quiz?
Each time one panelist failed, the audience team won $25 and another panelist took a turn. If all four panelists failed, each member of the team won an additional bonus prize.
Who are the guest panelists on the view?
Other frequent guest panelists include Tony Randall, Robert Q. Lewis and Phyllis Newman .
Photos
Cast
How much were panelists paid on What's My Line?
Guest panelists were paid $750 as an appearance fee. The regular panelists were under contract and were paid "much more," according to Fates.
What is my line panel UK?
What's My Line? (British game show)What's My Line?GenrePanel Game showCreated byMark Goodson Bill TodmanPresented byEamonn Andrews (1951–63; 1984–87) David Jacobs (1973–74) Penelope Keith (1988) Angela Rippon (1988–90) Emma Forbes (1994–96)Country of originUnited Kingdom13 more rows
Was What's My Line rigged?
The answer is that What's My Line? wasn't rigged in the sense that Dotto or 21 or a few others were manipulated, with contestants being fed the answers to control dramatic tension. Actually, on the fixed game shows, a more common practice was to rig by asking contestants questions the producers knew they could answer.18-Apr-2002
WHEN DID WHAT'S MY LINE end?
3 September 1975What's My Line? / Final episode date
When was What's My Line on TV?
What's My Line? Originally ran from 1950-1967 and is the longest-running U.S. primetime network television game show. The show tasks four celebrity panelists with guessing the occupation of a guest by asking questions that result in “yes” or “no” answers.
WHEN DID WHAT'S MY LINE start?
2 February 1950What's My Line? / First episode date
Was Dorothy Kilgallen a Catholic?
Kilgallen was born in Chicago, the daughter of newspaper reporter James Lawrence Kilgallen (1888–1982) and his wife, Mae Ahern (1888–1985). She was of Irish descent, and was a Catholic.
How did Arlene Francis meet Martin Gabel?
Francis was also in a number of films. She was a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre company when she met her second husband, actor Martin Gabel. ... After her first movie, she also began a radio career, appearing on “45 Minutes in Hollywood,” doing impersonations of stage and film personalities.02-Jun-2001
Did Arlene Francis have Alzheimer's?
Arlene Francis, 93, the witty actress and television personality who was a panelist on the popular "What's My Line?" show for its 25-year run, died May 31 at Kaiser Hospital here. She had Alzheimer's disease. ... Francis was one of the busiest personalities on television in the 1950s.02-Jun-2001
Who were the four original panelists on What's My Line?
The show featured a panel of four celebrities who questioned the contestants. On the initial program of February 2, 1950, the panel comprised former New Jersey governor Harold Hoffman, columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, poet Louis Untermeyer, and psychiatrist Richard Hoffmann.
WHY DID WHAT'S MY LINE end in 1967?
“What's My Line” game show ends, marking early decisions to end prime time game shows for business reasons. ... The news of the cancelled show was made by the “New York Times” before even the cast was notified because the network felt as though game shows were no longer suitable for prime time television.
What does that's my line mean?
In Anime, it can also be used to mean, "I'm the one who should be saying that to you." For example, if Alice barges into a place where she's not supposed to be, and unexpectedly finds Bob (who is supposed to be there) and says "What are you doing here!?", Bob might respond with Watashi no serifu da!, "That's my line." ...
How much do mystery guests get paid?
Unknown to the public, mystery guests were paid $500 (equal to $5,378 in 2020) as an appearance fee, whether they won or lost the game. This was in addition to the maximum $50 (equal to $538 in 2020) game winnings, which guests sometimes donated to charity. Guest panelists were paid $750 (equal to $8,067 in 2020) as an appearance fee. The regular panelists were under contract and were paid "much more," according to Fates. Bennett Cerf explained that when he became a permanent member of the program, he was paid $300 (equal to $3,227 in 2020) per week, and he told Robbin Hawkins in their interview that by the end of the series, the panelists were being paid "scandalous amounts of money."
Why was What's My Line cancelled?
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 before anyone involved with the show was notified. The primary reason for the cancellation, along with the other panel shows CBS aired in prime time at the time , was that the programs' low overall viewership—the key metric of success during Michael Dann 's time with the network—could no longer justify their presence even as the shows continued to turn a profit with their low production costs.
What is the mystery challenger?
The ultimate or penultimate round of an episode involved blindfolding the panel for a celebrity guest appearance (originally called "mystery challengers" by Daly) whom the panel had to identify by name, rather than occupation. (In the first episode, the mystery guest was New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto .) In the early years of the show, the questioning was the same as it was for regular contestants, but starting with the April 17, 1955 edition, panelists were only allowed one question at a time. Mystery guests usually came from the entertainment world, either stage, screen, television or sports. When mystery guests came from other walks of life or non-famous contestants whom the panel but not the studio audience might know, they were usually played as standard rounds. However, the panel might be blindfolded, or the contestant might sign in simply as "X," depending on whether they would be known by name or sight.
What's my line? : the syndicated What's my Line?
Unlike its predecessor, the syndicated What's My Line? did not emphasize formality as the panelists did not dress in formal wear. In addition, the panelists were simply referred to by name and only their first names were displayed in front of them. The show did manage to keep some elements of the original series intact, as the cartoon introduction used during the final two seasons on CBS was reused with new music added. The panelists also entered in the same manner as they had before with Soupy Sales (or the panelist occupying the seat farthest left when he was absent) coming out first and introducing the person sitting next to them, and continuing down the line to Arlene Francis (or whoever occupied her seat while she was absent), who would then introduce the host. 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.
What's my line kinescope?
All original series shows were recorded via kinescope onto film, but networks in the early 1950s sometimes destroyed such recordings to recover the silver content from the film. CBS regularly recycled What's My Line? kinescopes until July 1952, when Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, having realized it was occurring, offered to pay the network for a film of every broadcast. As a result, only about ten episodes exist from the first two years of the series, including the first three broadcasts.
Who sponsored Stopette?
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. After Montenier sold Stopette to Helene Curtis, the series was sponsored by a variety of companies which were either regular or rotating. Sponsors were accorded the same exposure on the set as Stopette. 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 computer such as the UNIVAC .
When was the Community Chest special?
A Community Chest Special, completely separate from the regular production of episodes, was broadcast live on all the major networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, and DuMont) on the afternoon of Sunday, September 27, 1953.
Overview
What's My Line? 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. The game uses celebrity panelists to question contestants in order to determine their occupation, i.e. "line of work", with panelists being called on to question and identify a weekly celebrity "myst…
Original CBS series (1950–1967)
Produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS, the show was initially called Occupation Unknown before deciding on the name What's My Line? The original series, which was usually broadcast live, debuted on Thursday, February 2, 1950, at 8:00 p.m. ET. After airing alternate Wednesdays, then alternate Thursdays, finally on October 1, 1950, it had settled into its weekly Sunday 10:30 p.m. ET s…
Syndicated revival (1968–1975)
Once the original What's My Line? 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 version became a staple of local stations' afternoon and early evening schedules, especially from the 1971–72 season onward, when the FCC forced networks to cede o…
After What's My Line?
In early 1975, with production on break, it became clear to staff that the seventh season of the syndicated What's My Line? would be the last. This was the time of year when production companies and syndicators would try to sell new and continuing series to local stations. Viacom and Goodson-Todman found themselves unable to secure contracts with enough stations to justify continuing to produce the program beyond the episodes that had been videotaped on or p…
Merchandise
The original What's My Line?, based on the Daly era, was released by Lowell in 1955.
The second version, based on the Bruner/Blyden era, was released by Whitman in 1969.
In order to commemorate the show's 50th Anniversary at the time, this version was released by Endless Games in 2001.
Released by Dot in 1955, audio recordings of eight "mystery guest" segments from the original D…
See also
• Figure It Out
• Front Page Challenge
External links
• What's My Line? (1950–1967, CBS) at IMDb
• What's My Line? (1968–1975, syndication) at IMDb
• What's My Line? at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Goodson-Todman archive. "What's My Line?". YouTube. The What's My Line? channel features all 757 episodes which aired on CBS from 1950 to 1967, plus much more