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What's My Line?: The Ads, the Stars & the Early '60s  In the mid-1950s, Remington Rand took alternate week sponsorship. Dick Stark was the on-camera pitchman for Remington's shavers. During the decade, Stark was seen Saturday nights during breaks of Gunsmoke to hawk electric razors. Friday nights, he checked in between acts of Leave It to Beaver to tout Remington Rand's portable typewriters. One of his most memorable Line spots: weaving in and out of a two-minute commercial featuring a barber shop quartet musically urging people to "reach for a Remington." Between verses, Stark narrated as a Remington razor was used to shave fuzz from a peach to prove its reliability. As What's My Line? evolved, Allstate Insurance bought into the show with Ed Reimers asking us if we had faced "all that red tape" that other insurance companies create at the time of an auto accident. Invariably, Reimers would cup his hands together, palms up, and assure us, "You're in good hands with Allstate." The family-friendly atmosphere of Line made the game a natural for Kellogg's. For four years, the Battle Creek cereal maker co-sponsored the Sunday night shenanigans. Dennis James was its primary spokesman from 1961 to 1963, primarily because of Kellogg's introducing its new OK'S brand. Yogi Bear was on the box cover. James, whose early TV name was made in pro wrestling when he would say, "OK, mother, that's a hammerlock," and who later had his own "Okay, Mother" daytime series, ended every commercial with "OK? OK." Not as well remembered: the black-and-white Kellogg's spot which periodically aired featuring an unknown, bespectacled Peter Marshall catching various boxes of cereal, including the Variety Pak, while describing the benefits of each. Helene Curtis absorbed Stopette and its sister products into its corporate line and eventually bought a packaged sponsorship of both Line and To Tell the Truth. The cosmetic company was interested in a hat trick of the CBS Goodson-Todman hits but Bristol-Myers, which bought part sponsorship of I've Got a Secret with Winston cigarettes, advertised some competing products on I've Got a Secret. Eventually, traditional game show sponsors Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Geritol and Sominex) and S.C. Johnson (Glo-Coat and Raid) migrated to What's My Line?. Sunbeam was equally happy to hawk its mixers and other home appliances. By 1960, with all of its products on the shelves all over the country, What's My Line? cleared virtually every station on the CBS lineup. Only two affiliates in smaller cities failed to air the show and only five stations delayed the broadcast after its live 10:30 p.m. airing. Not until the 1960-61 season did NBC finally opt to challenge Line head-to-head and the decision was not a fortuitous one. Taking a gamble on moving its eight-year-old Wednesday night hit This Is Your Life to Sundays at 10:30, NBC saw Ralph Edwards' half-hour of surprises lose every week to Line. No longer live and often with information about the biographical subjects leaking in advance, Life lost some of its classic spontaneity and in September 1961 was canceled. After more than a decade on the air, Line was inching closer to the highest ratings in its history. The primary reason: a companion lead-in show offering the most compatible demographics to the panel of job-guessers. Candid Camera floated around network television in various formats from 1948. Allen Funt's creation of catching people in the act of being themselves was attracting attention in 1959-60 as a segment of The Garry Moore Show on Tuesday nights. CBS, perennially struggling in the 10-10:30 slot during the fifties, decided to give Candid Camera another shot on its own at 10:00 Sundays. Arthur Godfrey, recovered from lung cancer, was deemed a natural to preside with Funt over the proceedings. While Camera did not go through the roof in its first year, in no small part because of backstage tensions between Godfrey and Funt that nearly surfaced on the air, the show provided a parallel lead-in for Line. By spring, the CBS shows brought an end to NBC's The Loretta Young Show and This Is Your Life. Tired of the bickering, Godfrey announced he was withdrawing from Candid Camera for its second season. While Godfrey was no longer the television icon he was in the 1950s, CBS was concerned about his loss from a promising half-hour. The network had built one of the rare television dream lineups: a start-to-finish schedule winning every time slot: Lassie, Dennis the Menace, The Ed Sullivan Show, G.E. Theatre, The Jack Benny Program, Candid Camera and What's My Line? were considered unbeatable. ABC's package of B-grade Sunday night movies were not considered a serious threat. NBC took what was considered a play-with-house money risk to move its Bonanza, only renewed for two seasons on Saturday nights because it was in color, to Sundays at 9. Walt Disney was moving his weekly family anthology from ABC to NBC to convert to color but the ratings had been sagging on ABC Friday nights. For 1961-62, speculation centered all summer on Godfrey's Candid Camera replacement. At one point, Bill Cullen was announced as the odds-on favorite. Weeks later, sportscaster Red Barber was considered a top candidate. Peter Lind Hayes, a '50s favorite, and even Godfrey radio regular Richard Hayes----who appeared in Candid Camera stunts----were mentioned as possibilities. In the end, CBS went with a low-risk choice, long-time Garry Moore sidekick Durward Kirby. The selection of Kirby calmed the inevitable comparisons with Godfrey. Over the long haul, the ultimate testimony to Kirby's affability was his ability to last five years with Funt. Despite Godfrey's reputation of being cantankerous during the '50s, his short-lived tenure with Candid Camera was not the exception with Funt's co-hosts years later. In a syndicated version from 1974-79, Funt's on-air associates changed every season, including the popular John Bartholomew Tucker, Betsy Palmer, Jo Ann Pflug and Phyllis George. Media reports on more than one occasion suggested (and some quoted) the co-hosts as crediting their departures to Funt's irascibility. If What's My Line?'s lead-in collapsed, the smaller audience could be critical for advertising rates now attracting a reported (according to TV Guide) $35,000 a minute. With production costs and salaries only hovering at a miniscule $17,500 weekly, the annual take for 49 weeks of original episodes (42 or 43 live) was just short of $4 million for CBS. The network now owned the show outright, paying Mark Goodson and Bill Todman a reported $8,000 per week as producers. Goodson-Todman, operating as Telecast Enterprises, maintained ownership of I've Got a Secret (in partnership with Garry Moore, who owned 12 1/2 percent, according to TV Guide). To Tell the Truth was a shared arrangement with CBS on a 75-25 percent split. CBS had no worries. NBC's DuPont Show of the Week, while earning prestige for its rotation of documentaries and anthology dramas, was no threat. ABC's Adventures in Paradise, from 10 to 11, limped through a final season of potboilers on The Tiki. Candid Camera with Durward Kirby soared to 10th place in the 1961-62 season. What's My Line? was boosted to a 32nd place finish with a 21.8 rating. During the summer, Line---still with originals---inched into the Nielsen top 15. Where CBS found itself stung was with a surprising hole before the Candid-Line combo. NBC's move of Bonanza to 9:00 Sundays detonated both G.E. Theatre and Jack Benny. The Cartwrights zoomed to the Nielsen runner-up slot behind NBC's Wagon Train (which was about to move to ABC after a contract dispute with the Peacock Network). Ronald Reagan's eight-year-old half-hour dramatic anthology fell to 63rd place and was canceled. Benny dropped to 49th and would have been considered a bubble show for 1962-63 had he not been a long-time favorite of CBS chairman Bill Paley. CBS preserved Benny by moving him to the safe haven lead-out slot after Red Skelton on Tuesdays. Earlier in the evening, vulnerabilities began to surface. While Lassie boasted its strongest-ever ratings (15th for 1961-62), Disney on NBC (23rd for the year) began to seriously challenge Dennis the Menace and Ed Sullivan. The new comedy Car 54, Where Are You? actually edged Sullivan in the 8:30-9 slot when Sullivan typically scheduled older, more traditional vaudeville performers. A flow study of Nielsen audiences showed a substantial number of viewers going to Bonanza at 9 and, in pre-remote control days, physically getting up and changing the set to Candid Camera and What's My Line? before going to bed. What's My Line? encountered a number of oddities as the '60s approached. As Gil Fates recounts in his 1978 book on the series, in late 1959, when Milton Berle was a mystery guest, an interloper from the audience meandered onstage to shake Uncle Miltie's hand before the interrogation began. Berle, ever the quick-witted one, looked at John Daly and said, "My agent." Perhaps the most bizarre situation was in October 1962 when a rather husky gentleman stepped from behind the curtain and began to offer an on-camera pitch for an escort service. In the episode, which GSN repeats approximately every two years, Daly reacted brusquely by saying, "Now see here, young man!" The rather anachronistic picture of announcer Johnny Olsen and executive producer Fates leading the unscheduled commercial spokesman, a head taller than both, offstage is both comical and frightening. Among the other unexpected occurrences: ---Shelley Berman informing Daly after the mystery guest game he had a prior engagement, leaving the show with three panelists to finish the final game.The stars who joined the panel for the first time from 1960-64 included Goodson-Todman stalwarts Betsy Palmer, Polly Bergen, Allen Ludden, Merv Griffin, Phyllis Newman, Kitty Carlisle and future favorite Charles Nelson Reilly. From television came Dick Van Dyke, Nick Adams, Hugh O'Brian, Barry Nelson, Darren McGavin, George Gobel, Dave Garroway and Arthur Godfrey. Film sent Laurence harvey, Dirk Bogarde, Otto Preminger, Debbie Reynolds, Danny Kaye, Ray Bolger, Jane Powell, Jane Fonda, Woody Allen, Ross Hunter, Terry Thomas and Sammy Davis Jr. From Broadway came Adolph Green, Abe Burrows, Robert Morse, Dina Merrill and Carol Channing. The world of music was represented by Mel Torme, Jerome Hines, the first black panelist Harry Belafonte, Liberace, Steve Lawrence, Bobby Darin and Paul Anka. Comedy panelists on the roster were Joey Bishop, Alan King, Milt Kamen, Marty Ingels and I've Got a Secret creator Allan Sherman. In November 1960, John Wayne topped the roster of mystery guests who challenged the panel for the first time. Landing the western giant was considered a major coup. Sadly, the surviving kinescope is so spliced that a significant portion of the interrogation was lost, as well as much of Daly's post-game interview with The Duke. Among the major names who faced the blindfolded panel with debut shots from 1960-64: Eddie Albert, Julie Andrews, Paul Anka, Tony Bennett, Shelley Berman, Joey Bishop, Carol Burnett, Raymond Burr, James Cagney, Johnny Carson, Peggy Cass, Richard Chamberlain, Chubby Checker, Maurice Chevalier, Joan Collins, Bill Cullen, Phyllis Diller, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Durante, Henry Fonda, Connie Francis, the incomparable Allen Funt, Martin Gabel, James Garner, Robert Goulet, Shirley Jones, Danny Kaye, Alan King, panelist Dorothy Kilgallen (with a surprise early return from a vacation), Carol Lawrence, Fat Jack Leonard, Myrna Loy, Allen Ludden, Gisele MacKenzie, Sheila MacRae, Groucho Marx, Melina Mercouri, Ethel Merman, Mitch Miller, Stan Musial, Mike Nichols, Bob Newhart, Hugh O'Brian, Tom Poston, Peter, Paul & Mary, Robert Preston, Lee Remick, Allen & Rossi, poet Carl Sandburg, Jimmy Stewart, baseball's Casey Stengel, The Von Trapp Family, Jonathan Winters and Jane Wyman. Carson was an interesting chess piece. Producer Don Fedderson allowed Carson, host of ABC's Who Do You Trust?, to moonlight on the Goodson-Todman prime time games. He became a regular for a year on To Tell the Truth with Tom Poston, Dina Merrill and a rotation of Betty White, Mimi Benzell and the returning Kitty Carlisle. Director Franklin Heller, in one of several interviews about Line, said Goodson coveted Carson for What's My Line? and would have scrapped the rotating male panelist slot in a heartbeat if Johnny would have agreed. One of Carson's most noted rejoinders came after he asked a mystery guest: "Are you over 50?" Arlene Francis said: "I wouldn't answer that." Responded Johnny: "You....I know about!" The 1962-63 season was a peak for Line in the Nielsens. In a year in which CBS swept 16 of the top 20 slots, including eight of the top 10, all three Goodson-Todman panel shows hit the top 19. Line, with a 25.5 rating, finished 13th, boosted in no small part by record audiences for Candid Camera----which soared to the runner-up slot behind the blockbuster top-rated Beverly Hillbillies. The study of the 1962-63 ratings is in the amazing number of switchovers from NBC's Bonanza (which finished fourth for the season) to Candid Camera on CBS at 10 and Line at 10:30. CBS, in an attempt to build a stronger lead-in to Candid and Line, considered three possible alternatives. One was to expand The Ed Sullivan Show to 90 minutes, according to TV Guide, and insert Lucille Ball's new The Lucy Show from 9:30-10. Ball would have none of it, insisting on nothing less than a return to the Monday night lineup where I Love Lucy enjoyed its long run in the 1950s. Another was to challenge Bonanza head-on with Perry Mason---which regularly defeated the NBC oater when the two were matched on Saturdays. However, CBS was convinced Perry was better suited to build a new Thursday night dramatic block. A third option was for CBS to sign either Danny Kaye or Judy Garland for a variety hour after Sullivan but those negotiations took another year to finalize (Garland went in at 9 for 1963-64 and bombed). What became CBS's hope for a restart to its hour between Sullivan and the Candid-Line combo was not supposed to happen. CBS had closed a deal to spirit away The Real McCoys, ABC's highest-rated series of the previous five seasons, and its entire library of previous episodes (to bolster CBS's morning lineup). When the first lineup for fall 1962-63 was announced in February, The Real McCoys was slated as the lead-in for Hillbillies on Wednesday nights, probably the most ideal scheduling. Procter & Gamble, which moved with McCoys as its sponsor, was convinced the show would do better to anchor the 9-10 hour on Sundays. General Electric, in one of the last pickups of the season, agreed to move its sponsorship from its traditional 9-9:30 to one half-hour later. CBS slated The Real McCoys after Sullivan and the new G.E. True, based on stories from the male-targeted True magazine with Jack Webb as host and occasional star, from 9:30-10. After the deal was done, both CBS and Procter & Gamble were hit with a double shock. First, Kathleen Nolan---underestimated as female lead Kate McCoy---announced she would not return for a sixth season. With no explanation as to how, Luke McCoy (Richard Crenna) began the CBS episodes as a widower. Perhaps a clue came in some of the last of the ABC shows when Kate spent most of the episodes in bed. Was she expecting a child and lost both the child and herself attempting to give birth? Did she have a fatal disease? Did she die of salmonella from one of Florrie MacMichael's egg custard pies? We never knew. Then, series star Walter Brennan declared he would only appear in 16 of the scheduled 32 episodes for year six. On top of that, depending on which account one reads, either CBS or producer Danny Arnold decided to scrap the teenage McCoys played by Lydia Reed and Mike Winkelman. In the opening CBS show, Hassie McCoy (Reed) was about to be picked up by a friend, ostensibly to go off to college. Hassie was never again seen or mentioned. She may have flunked out and married Bud Anderson of Father Knows Best. Perhaps Little Luke (Winkelman) joined the Army at 17. Such were the unanswered questions of sitcoms of the '60s. That left half the shows with only Crenna, Tony Martinez (Pepino) and Andy Clyde (George MacMichael) in a virtual bachelor party. The family known as The Real McCoys were without a mother figure and children and sometimes a patriarch. Not until midseason did a new love interest (Janet DeGore) surface for Luke. By then, it was too late. Daytime reruns of the ABC McCoys episodes soared to a 45 share in their first run. The nighttime Real McCoys skidded to 69th place in the Nielsens. G.E. True finished 79th. Both were canceled at season's end. The significance? Nearly two and a half times the number of viewers as watched True switched over to Candid Camera at 10 and double the number stayed for What's My Line? at 10:30. Nowhere on CBS's lineup or on any other in network television during the 1962-63 season did two shows generate such extensive audiences after such weak lead-ins. In 1963-64, What's My Line? had one unscheduled pre-emption. The evening of Nov. 24, 1963, viewers were in no mood for humor or games. They were watching Prince Philip arrive from England at 10:30 Eastern for the funeral of President John F. Kennedy the following day. During the same hour, CBS News showed a replay in slow motion of the shooting death hours before of accused Presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Television news and the medium in general would never be the same after the horrors of November 22 in Dallas. The following year, Line and Candid Camera lost 11 percent of their audiences from the previous season as lead-in The Judy Garland Show struggled to poorer ratings over 26 weeks than did The Real McCoys the year before. An attempt by CBS to counterprogram Bonanza in the spring with two game shows, The Celebrity Game and Made in America, was ill-advised. While Heatter-Quigley's Celebrity Game showed enough promise to get a second shot the following year, Made in America---a game for celebrity panelists to guess how millionaires made their fortunes---was dreadful. Hans Conreid, a great character actor, was miscast as an emcee (Bob Maxwell of Saturday afternoon's children's game Do You Know? was announced as the host but was dropped at the last minute----clue: Maxwell may have known what a lemon this one was). Audiences immediately yawned at the concept. Made in America fell to 96th place in the Nielsens and lasted barely a month. Reruns of former cop series Brenner fared little better at 9:30 as a replacement. The slight erosion in the 1963-64 ratings for Candid Camera and What's My Line? were not considered serious. ABC's attempt to counter with a revival of the big-money quiz show, 100 Grand, died in three weeks. Its replacement---a comedy game Laughs for Sale with old favorite Hal March---was a failure. NBC canceled DuPont Show of the Week at season's end. The CBS lead-ins were even worse than in 1962-63 and Candid still finished seventh for the season and Line tied To Tell the Truth for 24th. What's My Line? and Candid Camera were considered as much of a one-two punch for CBS as Truth and Secret on Monday nights and the Red Skelton-Jack Benny duo Tuesdays. While audiences over 14 years were gradually becoming older for Line, CBS was having no trouble selling advertisers on its Sunday night tradition. As 1964-65 approached, no reason existed to believe the life of What's My Line? would not go on and on and on. Its economics were the best in television. Daly was turning 50. Kilgallen was 51. Miss Francis was 56. Bennett Cerf was 66. By today's standards, they would be candidates for the television scrap heap. Yet, in 1964, all four were as popular as ever and still appointment television for much of America to end their weekends. In a little more than a year, one of them would be gone. Part 2: What's My Line? Takes Off Part 3: The Rest of the Fifties  For legal reasons, TVgameshows.net and its webmaster cannot examine or listen to any personal proposals or portfolios for new game shows of any kind. Creators or developers are encouraged to seek out entertainment agents in New York, Los Angeles or Nashville to consider their ideas. Producers or distributors will not look at proposals without agency representation. 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