Watched Charlie & Lola while having a quick breakfast. "I'm Really Not Ever So Well" says poor Lola. She begs Charlie to stay and cheer her up, even though he promised he'd go out and play football with Marv. He finally has her imagine what's inside of her and takes her to visit them.
No trouble with Uber, even though I left late. It didn't take five minutes in the morning. It took 6 in the afternoon. No traffic and no trouble either way.
No trouble at work, either. I was surprised at how quiet we were for not only a major holiday, but the last holiday Monday until late May. It must have been busier over the weekend. Once again, the floral department had been stripped of everything but the plants and bulbs. It was likely just as well that all I did today was sweep and push carts. It was too nice to be inside anyway. It remains sunny, breezy, and chilly but not too cold or hot for this time of year, probably in the mid-40's.
(Oh, and not only did the head bagger go on vacation this week, but six other employees did as well, for part or all of the week. I can understand the floral manager wanting time off after Valentine's Day, but I'm not sure why anyone else would want off in the middle of winter unless they're big winter sports fans.)
After I got home, I put the laundry in the washer, then took a long and much-needed nap. I've had more and earlier hours than usual for the past week and a half, and the Acme's been really busy. I went down at 2:30 and slept until past 5 PM.
Worked a little bit on writing for a while after I rolled out of bed and put the laundry in the dryer. Patti explains about the witch Mombi and how her magic can bring anything to life and turn anyone into a child. She's one of the truly evil magicians in Oz along with the Warlock of the West and the now-deceased East. She knows Mombi and the Warlock of the West are behind the poppies and worries that they're planning some other attack.
Watched Match Game Syndicated while eating dinner. The Syndicated episodes return with Holly Halstrom's first appearance on the show. She was joined this week by Bill Daily, sweet and towering Jim Staal, and Bart Braverman in a scraggly beard. I was surprised none of them came up with the obvious answer that I did for "__ Action" in the Audience Match, though. (Incidentally, Bart mentioned that the female contestant looked like Farrah Fawcett. I thought she looked more like Crystal Barnard of Wings and It's a Living.)
Finished the night on YouTube after a shower and bringing my laundry upstairs with episodes of What's My Line? in honor of its birthday on February 2nd. This one goes way back to 1950 as the first of many Goodson-Todman panel shows. A well-dressed and distinguished panel would guess the occupation of three different people. They would wear masks for a celebrity "mystery guest" who would disguise their voice and see if the panelists could figure out who they were.
The very first episode didn't go too well, as almost no one guessed any of the occupations. Columnist Dorothy Kilgalian was on that very first panel. Things picked up when actress Arlene Francis joined the panel a few weeks later, and then author Bennett Cerf debuted in 1951. The final male panelists was initially comedian Hal Block. He was later replaced by Steve Allen in 1953 and Fred Allen in 1954. After Allen's death, the final seat was usually reserved for a rotating star male panelist. Erudite South African journalist John Charles Daly was the original host for the entire 1950-1967 run.
While many of the earliest episodes have been lost to time, the premiere episode and the 1967 finale do still exist. Along with them, we have the 1953 episode where Steve Allen first uttered the show's famous catchphrase "Is it bigger than a bread box?" and a 1959 episode featuring Cliff "Charley Weaver" Arquette years before he became a regular on another celebrity panel show, Hollywood Squares. (There's some nice book ends here. The 1967 finale features the contestants from that very first episode. We find out what happened to them in the 17 years since the first show's debut. We also have a very funny and unique "Mystery Guest.")
What's My Line may have been old-fashioned on the networks by 1967, but it retained enough fans to be revived in syndication not even a year after it left CBS. It retained Francis and occasionally Cerf, but the rotating male seat was filled by comedian Soupy Sales. Wally Bruner hosted until 1972, when he was replaced by stage star Larry Blyden. Francis and Sales were joined by a who's who of celebrities at the time, including other Goodson-Todman hosts like Allen Ludden, and in the very first episode, Gene Rayburn.
In addition to color, some elements were added to make it less formal and inject more humor. There was no more dressing up; guys did wear suits, but the ladies wore pant suits or simple dresses. When the show ran long, the panelists would play a cute mini-game with four audience members and try to figure out which of the four held occupations listed on four cards. If the audience members stumped all of the panelists, they won money. There would also be occasionally as skit or a demonstration of something the contestant did or made. This version of the show ran until 1974.
Surprisingly, unlike the similar panel shows I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth, What's My Line has never seen another major revival. Apparently, it's not for lack of trying. According to Wikipedia, there were at least five different attempts since 1981 to bring the show back, but none have gotten off the ground. Considering there's talk of reviving Secret, maybe it's time to bring Line back as well. I think there's still a lot of fun to be had in figuring out whether what someone does is "bigger than a bread box."
Celebrate one of the oldest game show favorites with these classic episodes!
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