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Title: What's my line? : The inside history of tv's most famous panel show by Gil Fates ISBN: 0-13-955146-8 Publisher: Prentice-Hall Pub. Date: 1978 Format: Unknown Binding |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Salty Reminder That Reality Television Need Not Cause Pain
Comment: Canadians and Americans who get the Game Show Network can watch reruns of "What's My Line?" in the middle of the night seven days a week as of this writing. Those who need sleep can use their VCR timer to capture a few episodes that will show them the dignity with which an entertaining TV show can treat obscure people if it wants to. You don't have to cause pain and stupidity like Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones do.
This book is an excellent beacon of light to those who get hooked on "Line" and need sleep. Mr. Fates shows you the human-resources skills that were necessary to produce a show that depended so much on obscure people. You can sense the excellent people skills he developed from producing the show for 25 years. Even on the live black & white version that supposedly focused on New York sophistication, the entire staff's credibility rested on the selection of guests from Iowa or Alabama or Hong Kong who walked on that soundstage rigid with stage fright.
Mr. Fates is compassionate when he relates the many problems that result from doing a weekly live reality show. The color syndicated version wasn't live, but there you get the difficulty of taping five episodes in one day. If you think union actors can cause trouble, wait until you read about Shelby Lyman, the British TV chess commentator whom the open-minded Goodson Todman company booked on "Line" during his coverage of the famous Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky chess match in 1972. While Mr. Lyman waited backstage in the RCA Building to tape his segment, he learned the panel would dispense with blindfolds, implying they don't recognize him on sight. He became enraged and split, cancelling his segment. Take that, Kitty Kelley and you other closed-minded writers who claim that someone's Q rating matches their potential as a troublemaker!
Mr. Fates is kind enough to tell readers a lot more about the ordinary folks who did the show for 25 years than about troublemaking celebrities. You can find many veterans of "Line" and the staff of Goodson Todman who will tell you he was one of the nicest people on the New York TV scene in the 1960s and 70s. His kindness shows through the book. He uses the old 1950s standby of the newspaper "blind item" to rat on a few famous folks who either caused trouble or got stars in their eyes when Dorothy Kilgallen died.
On that note, I will get a little mean and say that "Line" fans on Usenet have identified the "lady very large in television" on page 107 as Barbara Feldon, the "truly gorgeous and terribly bright singer-actress" on page 110 as Polly Bergen and the sleep-deprived "successful TV funnyman" on a page I forget as Joey Adams. Contacted several times on these matters before his 2000 death, Mr. Fates remained a gentleman, noting that all three people still worked "in the business." Turns out he was right, as you will note if you type their names in newspaper databases.
Even without naming names, the book is a fascinating guide to the power that everyone who appears on television can assume. Read it! May it serve as an inspiration to a 21-year-old communications major at Simon Fraser University or UCLA who might succeed with a "Line" revival, driving the brain-dead Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones out of "the business." Let's face it, the current NBC version of "To Tell The Truth" with Paula Poundstone is stupid as well. Bring back the humanity!
Rating: 4
Summary: What's My Line ? - How About Surprisingly Good Book
Comment: What's My Line? is the story behind the historic game show of the 1950 and 60's. The book, authored by Gil Fates, former exectuive producer of the show follows the show from the intial program in 1950 to its conclusion in 1967, with a great many stories in between. The book is well written and allows us to get inside the studio before the 10:30 pm airing each week.
Fates' comments on the panel (Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, Dorothy Killgallen) of regulars and host John Charles Daly provide interesting insights into the popularity of the show and why it became such an American way of life. The book is quickly paced, funny and for those who can't get enough show business insider stories, you won't be disappointed.
The photo section should have been longer, but all in all a book that should be of interest to those who have seen the show (now airing Sunday's on Game Show Network) or those who have simply heard about it.
What's My Line? How about a surprisingly good author, Gil Fates and a terrific book
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Title: At Random : The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf by Bennett Cerf, Christopher Cerf ISBN: 037575976X Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 05 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Arlene Francis: A Memoir by Arlene. Francis ISBN: 0671228080 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: March, 1978 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Johnnie Ray & Miss Kilgallen by Bonnie Hill Hearn, Larry Hill, Bonnie H. Hill ISBN: 1930754191 Publisher: Durban House Publishing Company, Inc. Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Kilgallen by Lee Israel ISBN: 0440145651 Publisher: Dell Publishing Pub. Date: July, 1980 List Price(USD): $7.00 |
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