Unless they screw around just to annoy us — always a possibility — Game Show Network will broadcast the final network episode of What's My Line? in the wee small hours of tomorrow morning. The program debuted February 2 of 1950 and lasted until September 3, 1967 — an amazing run, especially when you consider the low-budget simplicity of it all. I remember my father detested the show. He thought the people on it were pompous and evocative of that mindset of, "If you aren't part of New York society, you're nothing." But I found it fun on those rare occasions as a kid when I could stay up late on Sunday night and watch it. (It aired at 10:30 PM) There was something charming about the banter and about how seriously the host, John Daly, would attempt to enforce the rules of a silly game. Daly, who was a newsman at heart, was an unlikely pick to preside over a game show but somehow, his literal-mindedness and convoluted rulings added a certain fun.
The most fun, of course, came each episode when the panel would don blindfolds and Daly would invite the Mystery Guest to "Enter and sign in, please." I suspect a lot of folks watched the show just for that…to see some celebrity disguise his or her voice to try and stump the panel. (Sometimes, you could tell that the celeb would deliberately give it away so the game could end and they could have more time to plug their new movie or TV special.) Since the show was done live, there was often a certain amount of suspense backstage over whether the Mystery Guest would actually show up on time. In a few instances, they cut it very close. Had the guest not arrived, there were contigency plans to use either the producer, Mark Goodson, or the show's announcer, who was usually Johnny Olson. And there was a special, "last resort" emergency procedure if none of those could work and they were really desperate. It was to have John Daly himself sign in as the Mystery Guest and just pretend he had some famous star seated next to him.
Throughout the show's run, they sometimes came close to using this but never did…so as the last Mystery Guest on the last show, Daly was drafted. There was no point in "saving" the idea for the future, and it seemed a highly appropriate way to end the series. If you tune in or TiVo the show tonight, you should see how it went.