What's My Line in Color

[Mr11WXIA]

With 7 years in color and in syndication (where there were 5 a week airing) , why does the Game Show Network limit the number of color episodes they show?  They used to have an occasional color one on if a person died and they were either on the panel or were a mystery guest.  Now you NEVER see them.  It seems like if they were going to go in order with the bazillion black and white John Daly ones, when they reached the end of his, they would air the color ones until they ran out of those episodes before they went back to the fuzzy really old ones.

Also, I'm guessing they didn't videotape the color episodes of the color John Daly ones.  Those must have been saved on kinescope because the last episodes were in the new studio and John Daly makes references that they were in color.  They don't exist in color anywhere?

[ricksegers]

As a confirmed What's My Line junkie, I would guess the reason they don't run the syndicated color ones is for the most part they were just plain awful. Neither host was very strong and the format was destroyed much along the lines of what happened to I've Got A Secret post Garry Moore.

As far as the later versions of the network show being in color, they must not have been saved in color. All I have ever seen of the net run has been black and white. You can find many episodes including the very last episode on You Tube and they are all in B&W.

[Peter Q. George (K1XRB)]

With 7 years in color and in syndication (where there were 5 a week airing) , why does the Game Show Network limit the number of color episodes they show?  They used to have an occasional color one on if a person died and they were either on the panel or were a mystery guest.  Now you NEVER see them.  It seems like if they were going to go in order with the bazillion black and white John Daly ones, when they reached the end of his, they would air the color ones until they ran out of those episodes before they went back to the fuzzy really old ones.

Also, I'm guessing they didn't videotape the color episodes of the color John Daly ones.  Those must have been saved on kinescope because the last episodes were in the new studio and John Daly makes references that they were in color.  They don't exist in color anywhere?

The last season of What's My Line? (1966-1967) were originally broadcast live and in color on CBS.  However, there were no repeats.  They were taped only as a safety copy only to be reused over and over again.  CBS (and the others) had a nasty habit of reusing the tape and simply used a kinescope as the reference copy.  Two inch color videotape was very pricey at the time. 

The Wally Bruner series of What's My Line (debuted in the fall of 1968) were aired mainly on CBS affiliates at 7:00 PM, to compliment the CBS programming which, at that time, began promptly at 7:30 PM (M-F).  Sure, it was hard to beat the original show, but it was really not that bad.  I enjoyed it on it's first run in syndication.  Of course I was only 8 years old at the time, but I enjoyed the show.

Many of you may recall the late night "ABC's Wide World of Entertainment" special back in '75 with John Charles Daly and Arlene Francis reminiscing the original series with plenty of clips from years past.  All of the clips were from the black and white kinescopes.  It was weird watching the CBS original series on ABC.  For me, it was a TV historian's dream.  Or course, all of the folks from the original series have long since deceased.     

[Mr11WXIA]

I recently watched the ABC special for the first time on YouTube.  I didn't even know of it's existence until recently.  Ironically, What's My Line? in syndication aired here in Atlanta on our then ABC affiliate WQXI (now WXIA NBC).  I am sorry Larry Blyden was killed shortly before the special.  I was too young to have known who John Charles Daly was so if I had watched the special at age 12, I would have been confused.  I actually liked Larry as the host.  I didn't know he had original been on the panel a few times during the original B&W run until this last year on Game Show Network. 

The syndicated What's My Line Theme is available somewhere but I can't find it.  There is a pristine stereo copy which runs for several minutes that the Adam Carolla Show in Los Angeles runs during some of its segments.  Any ideas where to get this?

[ricksegers]

Many of you may recall the late night "ABC's Wide World of Entertainment" special back in '75 with John Charles Daly and Arlene Francis reminiscing the original series with plenty of clips from years past.  All of the clips were from the black and white kinescopes.  It was weird watching the CBS original series on ABC.  For me, it was a TV historian's dream.  Or course, all of the folks from the original series have long since deceased.     

I have a copy of the special with commercials and all. It is a real trip to see the mid 70's commercials.

[Corky Marlowe]

Or course, all of the folks from the original series have long since deceased.

     

(may as well post here before this gets moved to Classic TV)
Yes, all the original regulars are gone, as are most of the go-to guest panelists like Steve Allen, Tony Randall, Martin Gabel and Buddy Hackett. Quite a few of the mystery guests are still around from the CBS years, as are a number of guest panelists.