Art Linkletter's House Party Question

[Braves2005]

I have a question about Art Linkletter's House Party concerning Kids Say The Darndest Things. I have a 3 DVD set from Time-Life of segments of the shows where Art interviewed the kids that aired between 1967 and 1969. Since I wasn't born when House Party aired,I was wondering when in the show they interviewed the kids and what else House Party was about.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

To answer Braves 2005's question in part:

"Art Linkletter's House Party" began as a radio show on CBS in 1945. It was produced by John Guedel, who was already working with Linkletter as producer of the latter's weekly "People Are Funny" radio show (premiered on NBC in 1942; would come to TV on NBC in 1954 and run on television until 1961). Guedel, by the way, would also produce Groucho Marx's long-running "You Bet Your Life".

"House Party" was originally sponsored by General Electric. At the time the show premiered, World War II was still underway, but it was quite obvious the war would be ending within the year and that once the war ended, manufacturing of consumer appliances and electronics (which had been suspended due to the war) would resume.

GE probably used the early months of the show to tout new innovations that would be built into their postwar appliances and electronics. Once manufacturing of these products resumed, GE used "House Party" to promote their all-new post-war refrigerators, ovens, toasters, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, radios, and that new gizmo everybody wanted, TV.

By the time I was a tyke (the latter years of the show's TV run), the major sponsor of "House Party" had become Pillsbury. Once a year, "House Party" would be pre-empted and instead, CBS viewers saw the award ceremonies of the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off, live from Minneapolis/St. Paul, and emceed during the 1960's by Linkletter.

"House Party" came to CBS television's daytime lineup in 1952, and would stay there for seventeen years.

During the 1960's, the format of the show usually featured:

(1) Art Linkletter starting the show with a brief monologue. He was no Johnny Carson, but he could sometimes get a big laugh if one of his writers gave him a great joke.

(2) A bit where Linkletter would go into the studio-audience to play various audience-participation bits. They weren't the kind of goofy things Linkletter did on "People Are Funny" show, but they were often amusing or entertaining.

The most famous was a guessing game called "What's In The House??", where a studio-audience member could win a prize if he/she (but usually she) could guess the contents of a mythical "house" seen on-stage. I think the contestant got a certain number of guesses to try to find out what item(s) was(were) in the house.

(3) An interview segment. During the 1960's, there were three guests who appeared every couple of weeks or so: One (whose name I can't recall) who helped publicize names "missing heirs" (people who did not know that they had been owed money by estates of deceased friends or relatives). The second was Hollywood fashion designer Edith Head, and the third (until her death in 1966) was Hedda Hopper (she of the unusual hats), who would talk about what was new in Hollywood.

(4) And at the end of the show, the most famous segment, the interviews with children.

In the Fall of 1968, the show was moved out of it's traditional 2:30 P.M. ET/PT timeslot to 4 P.M. ET/PT (where it went up against "Dark Shadows", which at the time was daytime television's top-rated program). The show's name was changed to "The Linkletter Show", and for a time, Linkletter's daughter Diane was a regular, reporting on pop culture of interest to younger viewers (perhaps since Guedel realized that with the new timeslot, a lot of younger viewers home for the day from school would be watching).

But competition from "Dark Shadows" was too much, and "House Party/Linkletter Show" was cancelled in the Summer of 1969. Shortly after, Linkletter's daughter Diane died of a drug overdose. At the end of 1969, Linkletter made a comeback, co-hosting an NBC daytime show with his son Jack Linkletter called "Life With Linkletter", but it was gone in a year.

As for your DVD's, if all of Linkletter's interviews with children are in color, they may have gone back as far as the Fall of 1965, because I thought "House Party" switched to color in September of 1965 and was the first CBS daytime show to do so.

Art Linkletter is still alive at age 93 (he turns 94 years young this Summer), and still makes some personal appearances. In recent years, he has done speaking to both senior citizen groups (to urge them to remain physically and mentally active), and to younger people (to tell them to stay away from illegal drugs). Last year, he was the guest of honor at Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebration (he conducted interviews on a live television broadcast of the theme park's dedidcation in July of 1955).

He is one of the true legends in American broadcasting.

 

[uh_clem]

> To answer Braves 2005's question in part:
>
> "Art Linkletter's House Party" began as a radio show on CBS
> in 1945. It was produced by John Guedel, who was already
> working with Linkletter as producer of the latter's weekly
> "People Are Funny" radio show (premiered on NBC in 1942;
> would come to TV on NBC in 1954 and run on television until
> 1961). Guedel, by the way, would also produce Groucho Marx's
> long-running "You Bet Your Life".
>
> "House Party" was originally sponsored by General Electric.
> At the time the show premiered, World War II was still
> underway, but it was quite obvious the war would be ending
> within the year and that once the war ended, manufacturing
> of consumer appliances and electronics (which had been
> suspended due to the war) would resume.
>
> GE probably used the early months of the show to tout new
> innovations that would be built into their postwar
> appliances and electronics. Once manufacturing of these
> products resumed, GE used "House Party" to promote their
> all-new post-war refrigerators, ovens, toasters, vacuum
> cleaners, washing machines, radios, and that new gizmo
> everybody wanted, TV.
>
> By the time I was a tyke (the latter years of the show's TV
> run), the major sponsor of "House Party" had become
> Pillsbury. Once a year, "House Party" would be pre-empted
> and instead, CBS viewers saw the award ceremonies of the
> annual Pillsbury Bake-Off, live from Minneapolis/St. Paul,
> and emceed during the 1960's by Linkletter.
>
> "House Party" came to CBS television's daytime lineup in
> 1952, and would stay there for seventeen years.
>
> During the 1960's, the format of the show usually featured:
>
> (1) Art Linkletter starting the show with a brief monologue.
> He was no Johnny Carson, but he could sometimes get a big
> laugh if one of his writers gave him a great joke.
>
> (2) A bit where Linkletter would go into the studio-audience
> to play various audience-participation bits. They weren't
> the kind of goofy things Linkletter did on "People Are
> Funny" show, but they were often amusing or entertaining.
>
> The most famous was a guessing game called "What's In The
> House??", where a studio-audience member could win a prize
> if he/she (but usually she) could guess the contents of a
> mythical "house" seen on-stage. I think the contestant got a
> certain number of guesses to try to find out what item(s)
> was(were) in the house.
>
> (3) An interview segment. During the 1960's, there were
> three guests who appeared every couple of weeks or so: One
> (whose name I can't recall) who helped publicize names
> "missing heirs" (people who did not know that they had been
> owed money by estates of deceased friends or relatives). The
> second was Hollywood fashion designer Edith Head, and the
> third (until her death in 1966) was Hedda Hopper (she of the
> unusual hats), who would talk about what was new in
> Hollywood.
>
> (4) And at the end of the show, the most famous segment, the
> interviews with children.
>
> In the Fall of 1968, the show was moved out of it's
> traditional 2:30 P.M. ET/PT timeslot to 4 P.M. ET/PT (where
> it went up against "Dark Shadows", which at the time was
> daytime television's top-rated program). The show's name was
> changed to "The Linkletter Show", and for a time,
> Linkletter's daughter Diane was a regular, reporting on pop
> culture of interest to younger viewers (perhaps since Guedel
> realized that with the new timeslot, a lot of younger
> viewers home for the day from school would be watching).
>
> But competition from "Dark Shadows" was too much, and "House
> Party/Linkletter Show" was cancelled in the Summer of 1969.
> Shortly after, Linkletter's daughter Diane died of a drug
> overdose. At the end of 1969, Linkletter made a comeback,
> co-hosting an NBC daytime show with his son Jack Linkletter
> called "Life With Linkletter", but it was gone in a year.
>
> As for your DVD's, if all of Linkletter's interviews with
> children are in color, they may have gone back as far as the
> Fall of 1965, because I thought "House Party" switched to
> color in September of 1965 and was the first CBS daytime
> show to do so.
>
> Art Linkletter is still alive at age 93 (he turns 94 years
> young this Summer), and still makes some personal
> appearances. In recent years, he has done speaking to both
> senior citizen groups (to urge them to remain physically and
> mentally active), and to younger people (to tell them to
> stay away from illegal drugs). Last year, he was the guest
> of honor at Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebration (he
> conducted interviews on a live television broadcast of the
> theme park's dedidcation in July of 1955).
>
> He is one of the true legends in American broadcasting.

Great re-cap. The House Party was also part of the CBS radio morning line-up in the 60s.

Couldn't resist this note: Art Linkletter hosted the ABC-TV special of the opening of Disneyland in Aneheim. He was also present for the 50th anniversary in 2005!