What's My Line?

Broadcast History: Feburary 2, 1950 to September 3, 1967, CBS Prime Time; September 9, 1968 to September 5, 1975, Five-a-week-syndication, Color

Vidcaps from the What's My Line? at 25 TV special

Vidcaps courtesy of rerunmedia

Main Game: A guest comes in and signs his/her name on the chalkboard. The guest then sits next to the host. The host would give clues regarding the guest's occupation. Then the occupation would be shown to the studio audience and to the viewers at home. Then each panel member questions the guest. If a "yes" answer is given, questioning continues. If a "no" answer is given, $5 is awarded and questioning continues with the next panelist. The game is over when either time is up, ten "no" answers are given, or if any of the panelists successfully identify the occupation.

Mystery Guest: At this point, the mystery guest comes on stage. But before coming on stage, the panelists are blindfolded so they do not know who is coming on next. Each panelist questions the mystery guest one question at a time. (Originally, the panelist continued the mystery guest until getting a "no" answer. Also, when a "no" answer was given originally, the mystery guest got $5.) If the panelist successfully identifies the guest, the game is over. If none of the panelists identify the guest, the game is over.

INTERESTING FACTS AND TRIVIA

What's My Line? debuted on CBS on February 2, 1950. The original host was John Daly. It was cancelled in the fall of 1967, along with I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth.

In 1972, Wally Bruner opted to leave the show. Johnny Olsen would also depart the show after the end of the fourth season. The new host and announcer for the start of the fifth season would be Larry Blyden and Chet Gould. Soupy Sales and Arlene Francis stayed on as regular panelists.

Larry Blyden was killed in a car accident in Morrocco in 1975. He was originally selected to host Goodson-Todman's Showoffs in Hollywood. His replacement was Bobby Van, who was married to Elaine Joyce until his death in 1980.

When time allowed, a "Who's Who?" game was played. Four members of the studio audience came onto the stage. Each of the four people hold a different occupation. The panelists have 20 seconds each to correctly match each occcupation with the person who holds that occupation. For every time the panel failed, the challengers got $25. If the panel member successfully matches the occupations with the persons holding that occupation, the game is over. If the panel is totally unsuccessful in attempting to match the job with the person holding it, they split $100. This game was used briefly in the Bruner version and was often played in the Blyden version.

At the same time John Daly did What's My Line? for CBS, he also hosted another Goodson/Todman show called It's News to Me, which lasted from 1951 to 1955, and also aired on CBS. Only a few episodes exist from that series.

On May 28, 1975, the ABC Television Network aired a one-time 90-minute special titled What's My Line? at 25. For more information, click here.

To many soap opera fans, Hal Simms is best known as one of the announcers for the long-running Edge of Night, which began on CBS on April 2, 1956 and ran for 19 years before moving to ABC on December 1, 1975 (As the World Turns wanted to expand in September, but ABC was contractually bound to their schedule until December), and ended its 28-and-a-half year run on December 28, 1984.

Home Games: Three versions have been released. One was released in 1954; another was released in 1969; and a new updated version in 2001 released by Endless Games. Go to the Game Show Home Game Home Page for details.

Episode Existence: All episodes exist except for a few that are lost between 1950 and 1952. Currently, John Daly's version (from the early to mid 1950s) runs on Game Show Network every morning at 3:30 A.M. ET/PT. Game Show Network ran a full week of syndicated color What's My Line? episodes during the week of August 5, 2002 from 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. EDT.

If you have any information about What's My Line?, e-mail me here.

What's My Line? is ©1950-1975 Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Productions/Fremantle Media Television. No challenge to ownership is implied.