What's My Line? TV's Most Famous Panel Show

What's My Line?, one of the top game shows (technically a panel show) in the nation for many, many years, has had surprisingly little information written about it. Gil Fates, the producer during the show's entire run in prime time and in syndication, attempted to correct that mistake with this 1978 volume. Apparently, only the first hardbound edition, and no paperback, was ever issued, since I have literally scoured the web looking for a relatively cheap copy with little success. Fates paints a very human picture of the show's creation and subsequent run, spending as much time on his wonderful secretary, Claire Reeve, as on the much better known panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennet Cerf, and Arlene Francis. Fates also gives due credit where credit is due by portraying Kilgallen as the most competitive gameplayer, Francis as the sweetest and most delightful, moderator John Charles Daly as the epitome of wit and urbanity, and Cerf combining all the qualities of the other three (He was truly the man; I wanted to BE Bennet Cerf rather than Mickey Mantle or John Glenn when I was growing up!). The most delightful parts of the book are the wonderful stories portraying the creation of the show and the people surrounding it, especially the original prime-time edition. (The all-time best story, of course, features Steve Allen and a charming little girl with a pail and shovel on page 21; I won't spoil it for you here!) Another great story features the program notes written by Fates as reference points to help him remember what happened on a particular program; as displayed on pages 183-185, they truly represent the delightful insanity that was the later, syndicated version of What's My Line, featuring Francis, the unstoppable Soupy Sales (the program note depicting Sales' encounter with a merry-go-round horse is just too delicious for words!), and the warm and wonderful Larry Blyden, who died too tragically young. In short, a fabulous read, and well worth paying extra to own a copy. What's not to like???

Canadians and Americans who get the Game Show Network can watch reruns of "What's My Line?" in the middle of the night seven days a week as of this writing. Those who need sleep can use their VCR timer to capture a few episodes that will show them the dignity with which an entertaining TV show can treat obscure people if it wants to. You don't have to cause pain and stupidity like Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones do.This book is an excellent beacon of light to those who get hooked on "Line" and need sleep. Mr. Fates shows you the human-resources skills that were necessary to produce a show that depended so much on obscure people. You can sense the excellent people skills he developed from producing the show for 25 years. Even on the live black & white version that supposedly focused on New York sophistication, the entire staff's credibility rested on the selection of guests from Iowa or Alabama or Hong Kong who walked on that soundstage rigid with stage fright. Mr. Fates is compassionate when he relates the many problems that result from doing a weekly live reality show. The color syndicated version wasn't live, but there you get the difficulty of taping five episodes in one day. If you think union actors can cause trouble, wait until you read about Shelby Lyman, the British TV chess commentator whom the open-minded Goodson Todman company booked on "Line" during his coverage of the famous Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky chess match in 1972. While Mr. Lyman waited backstage in the RCA Building to tape his segment, he learned the panel would dispense with blindfolds, implying they don't recognize him on sight. He became enraged and split, cancelling his segment. Take that, Kitty Kelley and you other closed-minded writers who claim that someone's Q rating matches their potential as a troublemaker!Mr. Fates is kind enough to tell readers a lot more about the ordinary folks who did the show for 25 years than about troublemaking celebrities. You can find many veterans of "Line" and the staff of Goodson Todman who will tell you he was one of the nicest people on the New York TV scene in the 1960s and 70s. His kindness shows through the book. He uses the old 1950s standby of the newspaper "blind item" to rat on a few famous folks who either caused trouble or got stars in their eyes when Dorothy Kilgallen died. On that note, I will get a little mean and say that "Line" fans on Usenet have identified the "lady very large in television" on page 107 as Barbara Feldon, the "truly gorgeous and terribly bright singer-actress" on page 110 as Polly Bergen and the sleep-deprived "successful TV funnyman" on a page I forget as Joey Adams. Contacted several times on these matters before his 2000 death, Mr. Fates remained a gentleman, noting that all three people still worked "in the business." Turns out he was right, as you will note if you type their names in newspaper databases.Even without naming names, the book is a fascinating guide to the power that

What's My Line? is the story behind the historic game show of the 1950 and 60's. The book, authored by Gil Fates, former exectuive producer of the show follows the show from the intial program in 1950 to its conclusion in 1967, with a great many stories in between. The book is well written and allows us to get inside the studio before the 10:30 pm airing each week.Fates' comments on the panel (Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, Dorothy Killgallen) of regulars and host John Charles Daly provide interesting insights into the popularity of the show and why it became such an American way of life. The book is quickly paced, funny and for those who can't get enough show business insider stories, you won't be disappointed.The photo section should have been longer, but all in all a book that should be of interest to those who have seen the show (now airing Sunday's on Game Show Network) or those who have simply heard about it.What's My Line? How about a surprisingly good author, Gil Fates and a terrific book