John Daly, without a doubt one of the best game show hosts, gave this show a touch of class. Bennett Cerf, Random House Publisher, gave it an aura of intellect while providing some really off beat humor. Arlene Francis & Dorothy Kilgallen gave it the womens touch. The balance was so great that people would watch it every Sunday night for many years.
The game itself was simple- just what is this contestants line of work? The format of 10 chances to get it never seemed to wear thin. Often the show passed on valued information about different occupations. The prize money- amazingly small. The entertainment value- over the top.
This show was the biggest hit for Mark Goodsen & Bill Toddman before their 1972 retooling of The Price is Right. As it started in the 1950's, the men always wore tuxedos, the women formal gowns. Everybody was so formal. The show is a great time machine piece to what the civilized world was like, particularly in New York City, before those Californians brought all this down with no class to where it is today.
The re-runs of this feature almost every person of fame or celebrity from this era either as a mystery guest or on the panel. The final episode is priceless as John Daly pulls his emergency mystery guest plan off which had been on the shelf for 17 years, but never had to be used as the mystery guests had always shown up. That in itself is an amazing record & shows the respect those guests had for the show. For 17 years, once a guest committed, they always made it on the show.
The list of mystery guests is a veritable who's who of famous people. Alfred Hitchcock, Vincent Price, Bishop Fulton Sheen, Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Tyronne Powers, Audie Murphy, Ronald Reagen, Burns & Allen, and many other famous mystery guests came on this show. Unlike today, this show was done live and the reactions of the live audience to the guests coming on stage is priceless.
I doubt that young folks will ever appreciate how great this show was. The value of this gem is priceless, & none of the revivals has ever quite gotten to the original run. The world has changed too much, & now that many of the values this show represented have changed, this gem can't be recreated.
The game itself was simple- just what is this contestants line of work? The format of 10 chances to get it never seemed to wear thin. Often the show passed on valued information about different occupations. The prize money- amazingly small. The entertainment value- over the top.
This show was the biggest hit for Mark Goodsen & Bill Toddman before their 1972 retooling of The Price is Right. As it started in the 1950's, the men always wore tuxedos, the women formal gowns. Everybody was so formal. The show is a great time machine piece to what the civilized world was like, particularly in New York City, before those Californians brought all this down with no class to where it is today.
The re-runs of this feature almost every person of fame or celebrity from this era either as a mystery guest or on the panel. The final episode is priceless as John Daly pulls his emergency mystery guest plan off which had been on the shelf for 17 years, but never had to be used as the mystery guests had always shown up. That in itself is an amazing record & shows the respect those guests had for the show. For 17 years, once a guest committed, they always made it on the show.
The list of mystery guests is a veritable who's who of famous people. Alfred Hitchcock, Vincent Price, Bishop Fulton Sheen, Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Tyronne Powers, Audie Murphy, Ronald Reagen, Burns & Allen, and many other famous mystery guests came on this show. Unlike today, this show was done live and the reactions of the live audience to the guests coming on stage is priceless.
I doubt that young folks will ever appreciate how great this show was. The value of this gem is priceless, & none of the revivals has ever quite gotten to the original run. The world has changed too much, & now that many of the values this show represented have changed, this gem can't be recreated.