What's My Line?

"What's My Line" was also the title of two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; see "What's My Line, Part One" and "What's My Line, Part Two".

What's My Line?
File:WML1.jpg Show logo, c. 1974-1975
Starring	John Charles Daly (host, 1950-67) Wally Bruner (host, 1968-72) Larry Blyden (host, 1972-75) Arlene Francis Dorothy Kilgallen (1950-65) Louis Untermeyer (1950-51) Hal Block (1951-53) Bennett Cerf (1951-71) Steve Allen (1953-54 et al.) Fred Allen (1954-56) Soupy Sales (1968-75)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	876 (original run, 1950-67) + 1315 (second run, 1968-75)
Production
Running time	30 minutes with commercials
Original release
Network	CBS, Syndicated
Release	February 2, 1950 – 1975

What's My Line? is a weekly panel game show originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. The series debuted on Thursday, February 2, 1950 at 8:00 p.m. EST and aired on alternating weeks. On Wednesday, April 12, 1950, the broadcast was changed to alternate Wednesday evenings at 9:00 p.m. EST. On Sunday, October 1, 1950, CBS permanently moved the quiz show to Sunday at 10:30 p.m. EDT, finally airing weekly. The original series ran for eighteen seasons, ending its CBS run September 3, 1967. It is the longest-running game show in the history of prime time network television, and the sixth longest-running game show overall (behind It's Academic, The Price Is Right, Wheel of Fortune, Hollywood Squares, Jeopardy! and Concentration).

From 1968 to 1975, the series also appeared in a daily (Monday to Friday) version for syndication, still produced by Goodson-Todman Productions but distributed initially by CBS Enterprises, which was renamed Viacom in 1971.

Hosts and panelists

The original show was hosted by veteran radio and television newsman John Daly. Panelist Bennett Cerf often referred to him as "John Charles Daly," Daly's professional name at the start of his CBS News career in Washington. (As writer Joe Persico noted in his 1988 biography of Edward R. Murrow, Daly shortened his name at the request of CBS Vice President Ed Klauber, but the JCD name had lingered on among some listeners and viewers.) Sometimes Cerf would introduce Daly by his full birth name, John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly.

Four panelists appeared on each program. The panelists on the initial episode were former New Jersey governor Harold G. Hoffman, psychiatrist Dr. Richard Hoffmann, columnist Dorothy Kilgallen and poet Louis Untermeyer. Actress Arlene Francis was scheduled to appear on the first program but had to miss it for reasons she could not recall when she reminisced about the series after its cancellation much later. Her debut came on the second program. Other later panelists included comedy writer Hal Block and Random House publisher and humorist Bennett Cerf. Cerf, Kilgallen and Francis would remain regular panelists through most of the show's run. Humorist and entertainer Steve Allen joined the panel on a regular basis when Block left the show in 1953, although Allen can be seen on a kinescoped 1951 episode on which Block is absent. During Allen's year as a regular, Allen's wife Jayne Meadows often appeared in place of Arlene Francis or Dorothy Kilgallen, if necessary. During that season, Kilgallen missed several episodes because of the birth of her third child.

Both Untermeyer and Block had been fired from the show; Untermeyer because of his alleged affiliation with suspect socialist and communist organizations (this was the time of McCarthyism), and Block for his erratic and often embarrassing on-air behavior. The Paley Center for Media has available for viewing a 1987 interview with Franklin Heller, who directed almost every episode for CBS, in which he claims that cheating with the help of a studio audience member was yet another reason for Block's departure. Heller's description of a 1953 episode on which Block supposedly did this, however, does not match exactly what happens on the kinescope, which has aired on GSN. (Although Block's style of humor would have suited other Goodson-Todman games that became popular later in the 1950s and 1960s, he never worked for the company or for any other nationwide TV program again.) None of the kinescopes from the 17-year run establish that anyone could have cheated.

In 1954 Steve Allen left to launch The Tonight Show and Fred Allen filled the fourth seat on the panel until his 1956 death. The series lost another panelist when Dorothy Kilgallen died in 1965. After the deaths of both Fred Allen and Dorothy Kilgallen, their spots were not permanently filled, although a 1966 TV Guide article claimed that Goodson-Todman tried at first to find a permanent replacement for Kilgallen with no shortage of offers. The chairs were left open for a series of guest panelists, including Steve Allen, until the end of the show's run. Eamonn Andrews (host of the British version of What's My Line?), Clifton Fadiman, and Bennett Cerf all had filled in as host on the four occasions when Daly could not or would not appear during the show's seventeen-and-a-half years on the air.

Hundreds of celebrities appeared as guest panelists when regulars were absent, or in the rotating seats. The single most frequent guest was the husband of Arlene Francis, Martin Gabel, who appeared 112 times as a guest panelist and twice as a mystery guest.

Regular announcers included Lee Vines (1950-55), Hal Simms (1955-61), Ralph Paul (1961), and Johnny Olson (1961-67).

Gameplay

Standard rounds

Each episode of What's My Line? featured two standard contestant rounds, sometimes more if time permitted, and one mystery guest round.

A standard round was essentially a guessing game in which the panel tried to identify the occupation (or "line of work") of the contestant. The contestant would enter and write their name on a board, then be quickly greeted and introduced by Daly who would seat the guest. For a time, the panel was allowed to "inspect" the contestant up close, and make one initial guess as to the contestant's line, but this practice was cut in later seasons. Daly would briefly explain the game play, though in later seasons, he would ask the contestant if they knew how the game was played, and only explain if they did not. The studio and television audiences were then informed of the contestant's line, and Daly would tell the panel whether the contestant was salaried or self-employed, and starting in the 1960s, whether they dealt in a product or service.

A panelist chosen by Daly would begin by asking the contestant yes-or-no questions. If the panelist received a "no," the questioning passed to the next panelist, and $5 was added to the prize the contestant won, denoted by a stack of cards in $5 increments that Daly would flip over the front of his desk to keep score. If the contestant collected 10 "no" answers, they won the game and earned $50, though Daly frequently "threw all the cards over" fairly arbitrarily, evidence that the prize was always a distant second to the game play. Daly explained, at the end of the show's long run, that the maximum payout of $50 insured that the game would be played only for enjoyment, and that there could never even be the appearance of impropriety. This philosophy served the program well; during the height of the television quiz show scandals of the late 1950s, What's My Line? was mostly untouched. A powerful television columnist named Jack O'Brian, having already appeared as a contestant, tried without success in 1959 to convince his readers that the show was rigged. His newspaper editor, who was also Dorothy Kilgallen's boss, ordered him to stop.

Each panelist had the option of passing to the next panelist, but rarely did. They could also request a group conference in which the four members had a short time to openly discuss ideas about the occupation or possible lines of questioning. John Daly set the conference time limit each time one was requested, and he chided the panel in a friendly manner if they discussed the line without asking for a conference. Questioning continued in rotation until the occupation was deduced, until the panel received its tenth "no" answer or until time ran out.

Panels usually adopted some basic binary search strategies and used initial questions to determine whether the contestant dealt in a product or service (in the days before this information was given by Daly), and whether the contestant's organization was profit-making or non-profit. Common areas of questioning would include whether a contestant dealt in a product that was "alive" (in the animal sense), or "consumable" (typically in the ingestible sense). Because "no" answers were to be avoided, panelists would often phrase their questions in the negative so that a "yes" answer would be more probable, starting questions with "it is something other than..." or "can I rule out..."

On many occasions, the panel would be blindfolded during a regular contestant round. This was done to prevent the panel from obtaining clues from a contestant's clothing or, on at least one occasion (Wilt Chamberlain's appearance), physical characteristics. At other times, the contestant would sign in merely as Mr. or Miss X. This was done to prevent panelists from recognizing a name that may have been in the news recently, such as Beatles manager Brian Epstein.

Besides hosting the show, Daly acted as a moderator, cueing the panelists on their turns and flipping over cards. The host also assisted contestants with their answers, often replying for them in the case of difficult questions that needed clarification. He would sometimes need to ask the contestant a question in order to determine the correct response to the panel, and would himself have a short conference. A running joke amongst the panel was that Daly would make sure to have a conference with an attractive female contestant.

Mystery guest rounds

See also: List of mystery guests

Celebrity "mystery guests" (originally called "mystery challengers" by Daly) appeared on What's My Line? in addition to the standard contestants. In a mystery guest round the panelists were blindfolded, and questioning was conducted in the same way as standard rounds. Starting in the mid-1950s, panelists were limited to one question at a time before passing control to the next panelist. The goal, of course, was not to guess the occupation, but rather the identity of the guest. Mystery guests would try to conceal their identities by disguising their voices, much to the amusement of the studio audience. Mystery guests sometimes appeared during the first segment of the half hour instead of the customary third. On just one occasion, a first-round mystery guest, after being guessed, then moved to the panel and replaced the guest panelist. It was December of 1966, and Frank Sinatra took Mark Goodson's chair.

Style of the show

What's My Line? is remembered as a celebration of urbanity and good manners in television. In the early years, business suits and street dresses were worn by the host and panelists, but by 1953, the host and male panelists wore black suits with bow ties (a few guests actually wore formal black tie) while female panelists donned formal gowns and often wore short gloves. The two exceptions to this dress code were on the broadcasts immediately following the deaths of Fred Allen and Dorothy Kilgallen, when the male cast members wore straight neckties instead of bow ties.

Both the panelists and host initially began the program in their seats. Starting in 1954, the cast was introduced in a unique way, being presented and entering the studio one by one as if at a formal affair. The show's announcer would introduce the first panelist, who would in turn introduce the next, and so on down the line until the final panelist introduced the host. Bennett Cerf was almost always the last panelist introduced, giving him a chance to make some mild joke or pun at the expense of host John Daly while introducing him. Often Cerf's kidding had to do with the Tilton School in New Hampshire, Daly's alma mater. Executive producer Gil Fates wrote in a 1978 book about the program that the cast first walked onstage in 1954 after the staff was bombarded with letters from viewers who insisted on knowing what the panelists looked like away from their seats. Did Cerf wear boxer shorts? For about a year, the panelists alternated between walking onto camera range and sitting down before the light on the camera went on, until ongoing viewer demand made the walk-on introductions a permanent feature.

At the beginning of a round, Daly would invite the next contestant to "come in and sign in, please." In late 1960, this evolved to the more familiar phrase, "enter and sign in, please." The contestant would write his or her name on a small sign-in board attached to the wall. This was not a chalk board but separate panels of black art paper, which were saved for posterity. Daly would then introduce the contestant to the panel. If the contestant were female, Daly asked if she should be addressed as "Miss" or "Mrs." As a sign of the time, attractive female contestants often elicited wolf-whistles from the studio audience. In addition, Daly would usually ask the guest what city he or she hailed from.

The guessing game had a feeling of formality and adherence to rules. The polite, well-spoken Daly used Mister and Miss to hand the questioning to a particular panelist, but he used first names while explaining his answers to him or her. Despite his responsibility to keep things moving, Daly was not above trading bon mots with the panelists during the game. Occasionally a panelist would pose a problematic question leading to an equivocal answer. Daly would often make a faux distraught face and step in to clarify matters, but his penchant for long-winded replies often left the panelists more confused than before. After a while, he played up the joke by extending his replies even more. Guest panelists would often use this as a joke, replying that they did not learn anything from his confusing comments. On more than one occasion, Daly "led the panel down the garden path," a favorite phrase used when the panel was misled by an answer.

While ostensibly a game show, What's My Line? also was an opportunity to interview celebrities and people with interesting occupations. If there was time after the game, Daly would talk with the contestant about their line, or for the mystery guests, about their careers and latest works. However, despite frequent hopes or requests by the panel (particularly Arlene Francis), there were very rarely demonstrations, unlike on sister show I've Got A Secret and the later syndicated reincarnation that combined the two shows. In his book, executive producer Gil Fates wrote that John Daly said more than once, "If you want to do that stuff, kiddo, do it on I've Got A Secret."

Unknown to the public, mystery guests were paid $500 as an appearance fee, whether they won or lost the game. (During 17 years only one celebrity insisted on and got more.) This was in addition to the maximum $50 game winnings, which guests sometimes donated to charity. Guest panelists were paid $750 as an appearance fee. The regular panelists were under contract and were paid "much more," according to executive producer Gil Fates in his 1978 What's My Line? book. Following CBS's 1967 cancellation of the original version, panelists (and the estates of Fred Allen and Kilgallen) got residuals only once, when clips were rebroadcast on a 1975 special. Mystery guests never did. GSN began reviving entire episodes in 1994 with the understanding that nobody would receive any residuals.

The final show

The 876th and final CBS telecast of What's My Line? aired on September 3, 1967; it was highlighted by clips from past telecasts, a visit by WML?'s first contestants, and the final "mystery guest," who was none other than John Daly himself. (Daly had always been the emergency mystery guest in case the scheduled guest was unable to appear--always a possibility with the show usually airing live all through its run.) Series originators Mark Goodson and Bill Todman as well as Johnny Olson appeared on-air with Daly at the tail end as What's My Line? was cancelled. During Arlene Francis' final turn at speaking, she wished luck to whatever program would follow theirs in the 10:30 p.m. Sunday time slot. The very next week, Mission: Impossible, then a year old, occupied the hour between 10 and 11.

Episode status

In the early 1950s, the small staff of Goodson-Todman Productions did not realize that officials of CBS, which often used kinescope machines, were loathe to keep the silver nitrate films that resulted from this primitive means of preserving live television. Network employees, who recovered the silver content from the flammable film for profit, did this to several TV series that aired live in 1950. (Captain Video was lost at the hands of enterprising officials of the DuMont Television Network.) CBS did it to What's My Line? from 1950 until July of 1952, when Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, having caught on, offered to pay the network a sizable sum for a film of every broadcast. Therefore, only a few Line episodes exist from the first two years. Gone are the only appearances of Moss Hart (guest panelist) and mystery guests Earl Warren, planning in 1951 to run for president the following year and Carmen Miranda, who died three years later. The premiere broadcast from February 2, 1950 does exist.

Goodson-Todman Productions, headquartered by 1968 in the Seagram Building, was very busy producing a five-day-a-week syndicated version of What's My Line? from that year until Christmas of 1974. (They usually videotaped all five episodes in a day to minimize production costs. Other days required many hours of booking contestants and performers.) In early 1975, with production in limbo, the staff went through the annual ritual of selling the syndication rights to TV stations across North America. They learned this particular year that there were not enough takers to justify further production. Just days after disbanding their technical crew, Mark Goodson and Bill Todman pitched the idea of a retrospective network TV special to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program's origination on CBS, which was 1950. The programming department at CBS in 1975 (including Fred Silverman) turned the idea down cold, but ABC signed it up. Unfortunately, the resulting TV special, which ABC broadcast once shortly before and after midnight on a Wednesday night (May 28, 1975), reached viewers after having damaged What's My Line?'s legacy for the future.

Cans of kinescope films, which Mark Goodson's staff had not yet transferred to any of the videocassette formats that were in use by 1975, were hastily removed from storage and carted to an expensive editing facility. There company employees Gil Fates, Bob Bach, Pamela Usdan and Lloyd Gross worked round-the-clock for three days to compile the 90 - minute ABC special under deadline pressure from network official Bob Shanks. While reviewing, removing and transferring segments with lasting value, they "accidentally destroyed" (Fates' words) several kinescope films, including a few that didn't make the final cut of the retrospective. Unspooled film remained on the floor after the quartet's time at the rented Manhattan facility ran out.

The vintage of an episode and the relative youth / oblivion of a mystery guest in 1975 had little effect on the damage. For example, the busy quartet lost every second of an April 1967 broadcast that included mystery guest Candice Bergen, who wrapped filming of The Sand Pebbles (film) in Taiwan shortly before she went on the show. That could have prompted several questions from Daly and the panelists, but the segment has not been repeated since 1967 despite the fact that Bergen remained a box - office draw and attracted young viewers to network TV for decades thereafter. Also gone are the three contestants who were in the What's My Line? studio with Bergen in 1967: a criminal defense lawyer, name unknown, a person who sold baby carriages and a person who made and sold sunglasses. Viewers of the 25th anniversary program never got to see the Bergen segment. Decades later, GSN viewers never saw any portion of the episode.

When the group in the editing room apparently tried to cull the late Betty Grable from June 1967, it lost her as well as F. Lee Bailey, who had appeared on the same episode. Other kinescoped broadcasts sustained partial damage, such as a 1965 one that is watchable except for the scrambled mystery guest segment of Marian Anderson, during which one can hear, with difficulty, John Daly say that Anderson was a longtime fan of their show. Her appearance did not end up in the ABC retrospective, either. The several seconds that Dorothy Kilgallen spent introducing a stand-up comic named Woody Allen in 1963 is missing from that episode and from the final cut of the anniversary program.

Fortunately, every moment of every single episode of the 1968 - 1974 syndicated version appears to exist in color. None of them has been reported missing or scrambled. The only segments that appear in the 1975 special, which is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media, are ones with Gerald Ford (1969) and Jimmy Carter (1973). (Carter signed in as "Mr. X" and then the panel had to guess that he was governor of Georgia.)

Alternate versions

Versions in the United States

U.S. radio (1952-1953)

A weekly American CBS radio version of What's My Line? was produced from May 1952 until July 1953. The regular panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis and Hal Block, along with host John Daly, premiered the radio version of their show on Tuesday May 20, 1952, while still performing the Sunday telecast. The debut mystery guest, in her only What's My Line? appearance, was Marlene Dietrich. Marlon Brando made his only What's My Line? appearance on the radio program that aired on December 3, 1952. The radio show continued through the "Hal Block era" into the "Steve Allen era" while once moving its broadcast to Wednesday. The final radio broadcast was July 1, 1953. Recordings of some episodes of this year-long radio version are easily available to visitors to The Paley Center for Media in New York City and Beverly Hills, CA. Other radio episodes are at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where procedures for someone to access them are more complicated.

It is unknown how the radio show's staff let the audience know what the contestants' occupations were. Possibly, announcer Lee Vines, who was that era's TV and radio voice of WML, might have delivered the contestants' occupations or the names of the mystery guests in a low voice, sotto voce. If the producers followed a format similar to the TV show, this method would have informed the radio listeners of the facts. If this were the case, it predated by nine years what Goodson-Todman Productions did with the password on their television series Password.

U.S. syndication (1968-1975)

With the original What's My Line? gone in September 1967, only four Goodson-Todman game shows remained on the air, all of them in the daytime: To Tell the Truth and Password on CBS, Match Game and Snap Judgment on NBC, and their time, too, was running out. Thus, in 1968, G-T decided to strike a deal with Viacom to syndicate a new, videotaped five-days-a-week edition of What's My Line?, which ran for seven seasons and 1,315 shows, with game play largely identical to the original version. The revival was considered by producers to be a merger of What's My Line? and 1950s spinoff I've Got a Secret. Reminiscent of the sister show, contestants on this version of WML frequently demonstrated their skill or product during their segments, often with the help of the panelists and often with hilarious results. In fact, the interviews and demonstrations became the dominant element of the show, with games often being cut short because the demonstrations required so much time. The dollar signs for the "no" answers - which were retained early in the run - were eventually removed and replaced by sequential numbers 1-10. Mystery guest rounds were no longer scored and were simply played until the guest was guessed or time ran out.

Also, a new game, "Who's Who," was played on occasion; four audience members stood on stage with four occupations indicated on cards. The panelists would attempt to place the occupations with the correct contestants. In a manner reminiscent of To Tell the Truth, the audience member team split $25 for each panelist that failed to correctly match their careers, with a $100 possible prize.

The color animated intro used during the final CBS season was reused for the new version's main title sequence. Wally Bruner was the original host and was succeeded by Larry Blyden in 1972. Arlene Francis and comedian Soupy Sales were regular panelists; Bennett Cerf continued to make frequent appearances until his death in 1971. Other panelists included Alan Alda, his father Robert Alda, Joanna Barnes, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Bert Convy, Joel Grey, Sherrye Henry, Elaine Joyce, Ruta Lee, Meredith MacRae, Henry Morgan, Gene Rayburn, Nipsey Russell, Gene Shalit and Dana Valery. To indicate the daily scheduling of the show more than anything else, panelists discontinued the formal dress of the CBS years in favor of street clothes, as did hosts Bruner and Blyden. Although Bruner had an on-air style somewhat reminiscent of Daly and kept things moderately formal, Blyden, a comedy actor, approached his duties with a considerably more casual attitude, probably in order to reflect general cultural trends of the time against pretension, with an aim of attracting a younger audience.

While widely praised among fans and critics, there was one point of contention during the series' seven-year run. Bennett Cerf died in 1971, and he had videotaped many shows during the months prior to his death. His last five-episode taping day occurred three weeks before his end. Television stations continued to air shows where he was a panelist, sometimes up to 18 months after his death. This resulted in confusion among some fans, who were seeing "new" episodes with Cerf, long after hearing about his death. Not everyone understood the workings of television syndication, which, in the 1970s, involved affiliate stations sharing the master tapes, with some having to air episodes later than others. This prompted producer Gil Fates, who recalled the situation in his book, What's My Line?: TV's Most Famous Panel Show, to send a form letter to fans who had written in complaining about the late Bennett Cerf's failure to disappear. Some said the television stations were using poor taste. Fates explained that Cerf indeed had died, but television was practicing a time-honored tradition of celebrating one's work long after their passing. As he wrote in his book, Fates knew in the early 1970s, but did not tell viewers, about the production costs that would have gone to waste had his company acceded to the demands, some of them coming from station managers around North America, to scrap the Cerf tapes.

Johnny Olson, who had been the show's announcer dating back to the early 1960s, continued with What's My Line? during its early syndication years (as he did with another G-T show, To Tell the Truth.) He left Line and Truth in 1972, when he was tapped to announce the revivals of The Price Is Right and I've Got a Secret in Los Angeles.

Olson was succeeded by Wayne Howell and later by Chet Gould; Howell was a staff announcer for NBC, to whose Rockefeller Center studios Line and Truth moved in the early 1970s. Both shows had been taped at CBS facilities in New York during their network and the (early portion of) syndicated runs. Line used two sets during its run, the latter one during its final season in 1974-1975.

The last tapings aired in most parts of North America in the fall of 1975. The advance taping schedule for the show had concluded in December of 1974. Larry Blyden, who was informed the program's termination in 1975 and then offered a job hosting a new Goodson-Todman game show in Los Angeles, was killed in a car accident in Morocco at the age of 49, a few weeks after taping the pilot.

New versions of WML were planned as early as 1981, with Harry Anderson announced as the host of a 2000 revival. The most recent version, taped in 2002, was hosted by Alex Trebek. However, none of the revivals made it to air. In comparison, Line's sister show Truth has appeared in no fewer than three revivals (two in syndication, one on NBC) since it ended its original syndicated run in 1978, and Secret has been brought back three times since 1973, once for a short 1976 summer run on CBS, again in 2000 for a three-year run on the cable channel Oxygen, and again during the mid-2000s on GSN. In the 1980-81 season CBS ran a short lived series called That's My Line! Hosted by Bob Barker, it was not a game show, but an attempt to emulate the then-popular reality show Real People. The show bore little connection to WML, other than the similarity in name and the fact that it was also produced by Mark Goodson.

Live stage version (2004-present)

From November 2004 through July 2006, Jim Newman and J. Keith van Straaten produced one-hour live stage versions of the show at the ACME Comedy Theatre in Los Angeles, California, titled What's My Line? - Live On Stage. The Los Angeles version of the live show went on hiatus when van Straaten relocated to New York, then resumed in June of 2007.

Live on Stage panelists have included, among others, Carlos Alazraqui, Alison Arngrim, E.G. Daily, Andy Dick, Paul Goebel, Danny Goldman, Annabelle Gurwitch, Mariette Hartley, Elaine Hendrix, Marty Ingels, Cathy Ladman, David L. Lander, Kate Linder, Ann Magnuson, Troy McClain, Jayne Meadows, Lee Meriwether, Patt Morrison, Rick Overton, Jimmy Pardo, Lisa Jane Persky, Charles Phoenix, Nancy Pimental, Greg Proops, Barry Saltzman, Mink Stole, Nicole Sullivan, Marcia Wallace, Matt Walsh, Wil Wheaton, Gary Anthony Williams, Debra Wilson, April Winchell, and Andy Zax.

Live on Stage mystery guests have included, among others, Ed Begley, Jr., Stephen Bishop, Mr. Blackwell, LeVar Burton, Brett Butler, José Canseco, Drew Carey, Andy Dick, Michael and Kitty Dukakis, Hector Elizondo, Nanette Fabray, Peter Falk, Bruce Jenner, Larry King, Kathy Kinney, Bruno Kirby, Tara Lipinski, Lisa Loeb, Shelley Long, Leonard Maltin, Rose Marie, Wink Martindale, Sally Struthers, Rip Taylor, Judy Tenuta, Alan Thicke, Dick Van Patten, Lindsay Wagner, Wil Wheaton, Noah Wyle, and Sean Young.

Panelists and guests who appeared on the original TV version and who have also appeared on the stage version include Shelley Berman, Lee Meriwether, radio commentator Michael Jackson, Jayne Meadows, Nanette Fabray, Joanna Barnes, Julie Newmar, Margaret O'Brien and Marty Ingels. Usually when such a veteran appears, he/she along with panelists and the audience are treated to a pristine - quality DVD screening of the old kinescope featuring him/her on a plasma screen that is above the stage. This has also been done for ordinary contestants from yesteryear who have come forward expressing an interest in the presentation at the ACME Comedy Theatre. In 2007, a lifelong Los Angeles - area resident appeared onstage to challenge the panel with her line of matchmaker, after which she reminisced about how she had ended up traveling 43 years earlier to New York, where Arlene Francis identified her as a parking meter maid. A clip from this kinescope, too, was played for everyone.

In addition, the show has featured relatives of the original cast: Jill Kollmar (daughter of Dorothy Kilgallen and Richard Kollmar), Nina Daly (daughter of John Charles Daly), and Vinton Cerf (co-inventor of the Internet and distant cousin of Bennett Cerf). It also included a segment in which Vint Cerf's son, Bennett, named after the more well-known Bennett Cerf, appeared as a mystery guest.

Live stage version (2006-present)

Beginning in August 2006, ViceHeadGirl Productions has staged a monthly, downtown version at the Parkside Lounge in New York, New York, including panelists Clams Casino, Jonny Porkpie, Lindsay Robertson and Garth Wingfield and host Neil O'Fortune. Their web site lists the previous and upcoming panelists, as well as mystery guests.

Versions around the world

United Kingdom

A British version of What's My Line? ran from 1951 to 1963 on BBC Television. It was briefly revived in 1973, and then again by ITV (produced by Thames Television) from 1984 to 1990.

Eamonn Andrews hosted the original British series, except in the first episode where the host was Gilbert Harding. In the UK, the host's position was called the "chairman." Panellists on the original show included Elizabeth Allan, Lady Isobel Barnett, Katie Boyle, Jerry Desmonde, Gilbert Harding, Barbara Kelly, Ghislaine Alexander, Cyril Fletcher, Marghanita Laski and David Nixon.

• See photo from original series at this TV history link

From 1973 to 1974 the show aired on BBC2, hosted by David Jacobs with regular panellists William Franklyn, Lady Isobel Barnett, Kenneth Williams and Anna Quayle (who was later replaced by Nanette Newman).

• See photo from 1973 series at this BBC TV link

Eamonn Andrews returned to host a revival of the series on ITV in 1984 with John Benson as his announcer. The revived version continued to air in prime time and although mainly recorded, some episodes were screened live (John Benson would open the show with "Tonight from London it's time for What's My Line" on taped episodes or "Live from London it's time for What's My Line" on live editions). Regular panellists included Angela Rippon, Ernie Wise, George Gale, Jeffrey Archer, Barry Sheen and novelist Jilly Cooper. After Andrews died in 1987, actress Penelope Keith assumed the role of chairperson. The programme then aired for a further two series from 1989 to 1990 with Angela Rippon taking over as host. All episodes of the Keith and Rippon versions were pre-recorded and screened in the ITV daytime schedule.

The show was revived once again by Meridian Television in the mid-1990s, hosted by Emma Forbes. A special one-off edition hosted by Hugh Dennis was produced for BBC Four in 2005, as part of a season about British culture in the decade immediately following World War II. An edition of the original series (from 5 October 1957) was also shown on BBC Four as part of this season.

Germany

The German version was called Was bin ich? which translates from German to English as What am I? and was hosted by Bavarian Robert Lembke. The show ran from 1955 to 1958 and again from 1961 until Lembke unexpectedly died in 1989. It was broadcast on the TV station ARD (First German Television). Lembke, at that time head of the news division of the state-owned Bavarian Broadcating Establishment Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), bought the rights to the television format during a visit to the English BBC in 1954. Lembke later was the head of the German Olympic Centre for the Olympic Games at Munich, 1972.

The best-known German panel consisted of district attorney Hans Sachs, actress Marianne Koch, TV announcer Annette von Aretin, TV announcer Anneliese Fleyenschmidt, and Guido Baumann, head of the Swiss radio and TV station DRS. The guests received 5 Deutschmarks (DM) for each "no" answer, for a total prize of 50 DM if their profession was not guessed by the time the panel had given 10 "no" answers. Price money was given to the guests in a porcelain Piggy Bank, and Lembke would insert a 5 DM coin into the slot of the Piggy Bank each time the answer was "no", producing a loud and characteristic sound. Related to this is Lembke's most famous line from the show, "Welches Schweinderl hättens denn gern?" ("Which piglet would you like to have?", spoken in Lembke's strong bavarian accent), which referred to the differently coloured Piggy Banks guests could choose from before questioning began.

A new version of the show aired weekly on Kabel 1 from 1999-2005. The show was hosted by Björn Hergen Schimpf. The panel consisted of entertainer and comedian Herbert Feuerstein, talk-show host Vera Int-Veen, former German minister of labour and social affairs Norbert Blüm and entertainer and comedian Tanja Schumann.

Canada (French-speaking)

The French Canadian version of What's My Line? was called Chacun son Metier, which translates from French to English as To Each His Job or To Each His Trade. In 1959, the host of the French Canadian version, Louis Morisset, appeared as a contestant on the American version, on Episode #448 on January 18 1959. This alternate Canadian version was aired in Canada from 1954 to 1959.

Brazil

The Brazilian version of What's My Line? was called Adivinha o que ele Faz? which translates from Portuguese to English as Guess What He Does? In 1956, the host of the Brazilian version, Heloísa Helena, appeared as a contestant on the American version, on Episode #341 on December 16 1956.

Korea

In 1963, a panelist on the Korean version, Miss Keun Oh Kim, appeared as a contestant on the American version, on Episode #674 on July 28 1963. The Korean version began in 1956, and was owned by the Korean government and run as a non-profit organization.

Venezuela

The Venezuelan version of What's My Line? was called Mi Trabajo y Yo which roughly translates from Spanish to English as My Job and I. In 1961, the director and moderator of the Venezuelan version, Jacques Lemoine, appeared as a contestant on the American version, on Episode #594 on December 24 1961.

Show trivia

• The show popularized the phrase "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" A slight variation of this question was first posed by Steve Allen on January 18, 1953, during his 1953 to 1954 tenure as a regular panelist. Over several subsequent episodes, he refined his famous breadbox question. Soon, other panelists were asking this question as well, often crediting Allen, and continued to do so until the end of the series. It became such a running gag that on three separate episodes over the years, the producers booked contestants who made or designed breadboxes. One humorous moment came in 1963 when a contestant from England was asked the famous question. He seriously replied, "Oh, I'm English. What's a breadbox?" It wasn't mentioned on the show, but "bread bin" is the usual term in the United Kingdom.

• The live 10:30 P.M. starting time in New York was, between 1950 and 1967, a difficult time of night to attract a television studio audience in that city. The problem was overcome by the fact that many Broadway shows were dark on Sundays while many nightclubs had shows that ended by ten. These patrons lent a well-dressed appearance to the studio audience, although CBS viewers saw them onscreen just twice during 17 years. The Duke of Windsor and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor joined the crowd more than once, although they declined to appear on the air. The syndicated version eventually put its audience, many of them dressed in the casual style of the early 1970s, on camera during morning and afternoon videotaping.

• When Ernie Kovacs joined the panel in 1957, with the show's staff hoping he would remain indefinitely, he made a habit of asking the odd question "Can it be folded?" whenever he found that the guest was associated with a product. The answer was almost always "no." The producers eventually booked a guest who made folding beds so that Kovacs would finally receive an affirmative reply. Kovacs never appeared on Line after 1957.

• What's My Line? won three Emmy Awards for "Best Quiz or Audience Participation Show," in 1952, 1953 and 1958.

• When President Lyndon Johnson hired Jerri Whittington as the first African-American White House secretary, he chose to announce the fact by arranging for Whittington to appear as a contestant. She appeared on Episode #696 that aired live on January 19, 1964. A TV Guide article that profiled the series after its cancellation claimed that Johnson had telephoned the TV studio while Whittington was there. The claim is supported, more or less, by the LBJ Library in Texas, which has a White House telephone log on which someone erroneously identified the program as I've Got A Secret. (Johnson did not live to see Gerald Ford, who appeared as a mystery guest while he was minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, become the first president who had appeared on What's My Line?.)

• The closing theme song used on the show from 1950 to 1967 is titled "Rollercoaster" and was composed by Louis F. Busch and Milton DeLugg in 1949. It was used for all but a few episodes in the 1959-1960 season, when the Raymond Scott composition "The Toy Trumpet" was used.

• The announcer on the British version of the show, which was revived in 1984 by Thames Television with Eamonn Andrews as host, was John Benson, better known as the voice behind the UK version of Sale of the Century.

• In Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, the dognappers' favorite television program is called What's My Crime?, a parody version of What's My Line? in which the guests are convicted criminals and the panelists are supposed to guess the crime they committed. (They correctly deduce, for instance, that one guest had stolen twenty bathplugs from hotel rooms.) In the 1961 Disney cartoon movie One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which was based on Smith's novel, the puppies can be seen watching What's My Crime? on television when Pongo and Perdita arrive to rescue them.

• Sesame Street had two spoofs of What's My Line? called What's My Part? hosted by Guy Smiley, whose mystery guests were actually parts of the body; one spoof featured a nose; the other a foot.

• Jimmy Carter appeared as a contestant on a syndicated episode when he was governor of Georgia, two years before he announced his run for president. Panelist Dana Valery suggested that "Mr. X" seemed to have "a certain spiritual quality" and asked if his line was "recruiting nuns." Gene Shalit identified him as time ran out and moderator Larry Blyden offered clues. After Shalit's identification, Carter seemed eager to promote Georgia's relatively new distinction of attracting Hollywood producers for filming. He revealed that The Longest Yard (1974) and Deliverance had been filmed in his state, carefully sidestepping the fact that material in both films could have offended some of Line's viewers.

• On at least one occasion during the syndicated run a panelist discussed (on-air) material in a New Hollywood movie that could have offended some of Line's viewers. After mystery guest Dustin Hoffman was identified in December 1968, Arlene Francis told him how lucky Mrs. Robinson was to have seduced successfully his character of Benjamin in The Graduate. Hoffman explained he was doing the show to promote Midnight Cowboy, which had just wrapped filming in New York, but he gave no hint as to the film's contents. The following August, Cowboy cast member Brenda Vaccaro taped five episodes as a panelist, but nobody discussed the film's subject matter on-camera that day, either, despite the crowds who were seeing it in theaters across the United States.

• On the original UK series, a frogman who appeared on the show was recognized as fraudulent. The manager of a bank saw the broadcast, called the police and the contestant was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

• On one edition of the UK version of What's My Line?, a trick was played on the panel when the host Eamonn Andrews himself posed as the mystery guest.

See also

• That's My Line (1980-81 CBS reality program based on What's My Line?)
• Front Page Challenge (Canadian CBC Television game show similar to What's My Line?)

External links

• Complete Episode Guide for What's My Line? at TV.com
• Discussion Forum for What's My Line? at TV.com
• Yahoo Groups Discussion Forum for What's My Line?
• The Internet Movie Database for the classic 1950-1967 What's My Line?
• The Internet Movie Database for the syndicated 1968-1975 What's My Line?
• The Internet Movie Database for the UK 1951-1963 What's My Line?
• The Internet Movie Database for the UK 1973-1974 What's My Line?
• UK Gameshows What's My Line? site
• UK Whirligig What's My Line? site
• Jason Colflesh's Tribute To What's My Line?
• What's My Line? - Live On Stage