3 Down, 7 To Go! "What's My Line?" On CBS

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Earlier today, I was responding to someone on the status of some things and responded back to them with, "one down, two to go." Well, my mind took me back immediately to the long running CBS game show from the 1950's, What's My Line.

The premise of the show was simple. Produced by legendary game show guys Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, contestants were asked very simple questions about what they did for a living, in many cases occupations that were a little bit out of the norm. Its host was John Daly who had been a CBS News correspondent during World War II and one of the "Murrow boys" (in reference to Edward R. Murrow). Each time the contestant answered no he or she got $5.  There were only ten questions allowed per contestant. When a panelist got a "no", Daly would say something like, "4 down, 6 to go." Then he was toss it to another celebrity panelist. The personalities on the panel included Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, Steve Allen, and Bennett Cerf. Daly and his panelists were all dressed to the Nines!! The men were in tuxedos, the ladies in beautiful gowns and jewelry. Daly spoke in absolute perfect English: many times referring to the panel as "Mr." or "Miss", at least in front of the contestant.  When the contestant came on stage from behind the curtain, Daly would say, "enter and sign in please" and the contestant signed his or her name on a chalk board.

The final round typically was a personality from radio, TV, motion pictures, or someone from a prominent occupation would appear but the panel would be blindfolded. This person was the evening's "mystery guest" who often times disguised their voice to avoid being identified. This was definitely the funniest part of the show.

The show ran on CBS from 1950-1967, with the majority of the run on Sundays at 10:30pm ET/9:30pm CT. It also ran in syndication with Wally Bruner (and later Larry Blyden) as the host, joined by Soupy Sales as a panelist. Arlene Francis was the only panelist that carried over from the network version.

Enjoy this clip of a mystery contestant (Elizabeth Taylor) from November 14, 1954.