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Black and White "What's My Line" and "I've Got A Secret" This Week on GSN

G

Gregg.

Every Christmas season, GSN (Game Show Network) runs two weeks of classic "What's My Line?" with John Daly and "I've Got A Secret" with Gary Moore. You have to set your recorder to 3 a.m. ET. On its first overnight, it carried a "What's My Line?" from the 1950s with bandleader Artie Shaw as the Mystery Guest. And a young Mickey Mantle was the guest with a secret on "I've Got A Secret." (It was World Series Week.)

I know some of these black and white game shows are on You Tube. BUZZR also runs some early game shows on occasion. But it is fun that GSN continues this tradition.
 
I was too young when those shows originally aired to find them interesting (or even stay up late enough to watch them), but as an adult I find them an absolute delight. The verbal agility of the hosts, the interplay between the panelists and the guests and each other. It's a lot of fun. If only the commercial load was what it was when those programs originally aired on CBS, which was three 1-minute spots per half hour program, and a few brief sponsor mentions sprinkled around the program. Padding them for the current-day 10 commercial minutes per half hour forces the shows to 40 linear minutes, because they keep those old spots for long-deceased products in the show as content.
 
What's funny about that show is the interaction between the panelists and guests. Ever notice how nobody can hear what each other is saying? You constantly hear "What did he say?" I guess they needed some kind of monitor, or engineer a better way acousticly.
My fav game show hosts:
Peter Marshall
Gene Rayburn
John Daly

Dick Cavett for best talk show host.
 
It appears Buzzr has stopped running the original live, network, black and white versions of their panel guessing game shows. Even though the later panels included some people from the original panels, IMHO the syndicated versions aren't in the same league with the original network versions (yes, I do think Goodson and Todman did improve on the original Price is Right and Match Game). GSN used to run the entire run of "What's My Line" (at least the surviving episodes) but unfortunately Buzzr only ran shows from a short period (maybe a year or two when Fred Allen was on the panel) and didn't run the episodes in order, so I stopped watching.

I only saw the nighttime version of "To Tell the Truth" on Buzzr. Maybe they showed the daytime version, too, but I never caught one of those episodes. Too bad. I had a huge crush on Phyllis Newman and rushed home from school to watch and fantasize.

OK, I'll play....

Best game show hosts...
Richard Dawson
Bob Barker
John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly
Allen Ludden

Best talk show host...
Jack Paar
 
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