'What's My Line' Dies Again

No sooner do I get used to a daily ritual of watching the previous night's rerun of What My Line from 3 AM than the Game Show Network pulls the plug and starts running Card Sharks instead. As you saw in my previous post, GSN began running WML and I've Got a Secret in the middle of the night just a few weeks ago. Then they aburuptly stopped. It may be they were contractually obligated to show all their episodes before the end of 2010 or they'd have to pay extra. In any event, I don't understand the creative or financial reasons for stopping the WML and IGAS repeats. Nobody is watching at that hour anyway so they may as well show someting that might interest nostalgia buffs like me instead of Card Sharks which was a rather uninteresting game show during the 1980s. Seriously, is anyone DVRing Card Sharks?

GSN used to have a whole lineup of panel shows from the 1950s and 60s on Sunday nights when the network first started, including incredibly obscure titles like The Name's the Same, a What's My Line rip-off featuring panelist Joan Alexander who did the voice of Lois Lane in the Superman radio series and the 1960s cartoon version. The object was the guess the name of the contestant which was the same as a famous person or thing. One young lady challenger was named A. Fish. (Get it?)

When I announced the WML tragedy on Facebook, my cousin Debbie commented that she remembered I used to love WML and IGAS when I was very little, like five years old, and would do imitations of the regular panelists. I don't recall ever imitating Arlene Francis or Dorothy Kilgallen, but I do remember being so obsessed with To Tell the Truth, I transcribed the "affadavits" of the contestants and recorded who was the real person and who were the impostors, keeping all that info in a notebook which I still have (My favorite contestant was Frank Zane, a Mr. Universe, for obvious reasons). We would watch Dark Shadows, have dinner and then TTTT. I also remember the panelists on To Tell the Truth included Kitty Carlisle and hearing a story that Carlisle wore a different dress every day and kept all of them. Her neighbors lost all their possession in a fire and she refused to lend them any clothes. (Well, that was the story anyway.)

The obsession with To Tell the Truth came when the show was in syndication and was on every night at 7PM, followed by What's My Line at 7:30PM. Coincidentally, the moderator of To Tell the Turth during its network run was Bud Collyer who provided the voice of Superman on the radio and the 1960s cartoon series, playing opposite Joan Alexander as Lois. I knew Gary Moore as the host of TTTT during its syndication. WML was hosted by Tony winning actor Larry Blyden who died as a result of a car accident while in Morocco right after the show ended its run. This was all during the 1970s. I guess I wanted to be a regular panelist on one of those shows when I was kid. I couldn't think of a more fun job, playing games and hobnobbing with celebrities.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (20)--Letters to Lois Lane

In the recent haul of comic books (see previous blog), there are several Lois Lanes from the early 1960s into the 1970s. During this period, Lois was constantly scheming to marry Superman and when she wasn't doing that, she was in the past or on another planet scheming to marry a Superman Substitute--a hero with super muscles and a secret identity--like Astonishing Man, Titanic Man, Super-Male, Achilles in Ancient Greece, Robin Hood, Petronius, etc. It can also be quite revealing to read the letter column and see how it reflects the social mores of the day.

In Lois Lane No. 45 (1963), Elva Evans of Sheffield, Texas, writes "I am 23, a housewife with 3 children, but they are fairly good children, and I keep my house clean. It takes about four hours to clean it and prepare meals, so I have quite a bit of spare time to read, which is my favorite hobby. I just love Lois Lane. She's as cute as a button, always getting into hot water. (She reminds me of Mary Tyler Moore of the Dick Van Dyke Show, the way she is always getting into trouble and crying her pretty little head off.)"

Only four hours to clean and prepare meals? What is this woman, Supergirl? The letter also shows were her priorities are: the home and getting pregnant. Three kids at 23? It was probably common in those days. By fairly good children, does she mean they don't make a lot of noise so Mommy can read her comic books? And BTW, Laura Petrie of the DVD Show cried a lot more than Lois. During the late 1930s and 1940s when Lois was first introduced, she was a lot more daring and independent, always out to get her scoops without Superman's help. Then in the 1950s when soliders returned from the war and everyone wanted a stable homelife, Lois realized her greatest ambition was not to be a top newspaperwoman, but to be Mrs. Superman.

In the same letters column, Alan Dean of Jasksonville, Ind. suggests actors to play the Superman family. He says MTM should play Lois and Richard Egan as Superman. Richard Egan??? I think his biggest credit was A Summer Place as Sandra Dee's father who is having an affair with Dorothy McGuire. Alan also suggests Virgina Gibson as Lana Lang. Who?? I checked imdb and she had small parts in Funny Face and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. She was also nominated for a Tony Award for Happy Hunting with Ethel Merman. Maybe she had red hair. The topper is his idea for Lex Luther-William Frawley. Fred Mertz as the biggest supervillain ever? The editor rightfully responds to Alan's casting with less than enthuiastic tones: "Frankly, we're not impressed. Most of your nominations involved personalities who are not too widely known. And William Frawley, although an excellent actor, seems too old to play Luthor. We'll throw this open to our readers and invite them to send in nominations which have a better chance of scoring a bull's eye." Oh snap, Alan.

Best DVR Week Ever

This had to be one of the best weeks for my DVR ever. The Game Show Network has started showing the old black and white What's My Line at 3 AM weeknights. The Sundance Channel has gotten all Bravo and Logo-y with Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, a docu-series about straight women who are best friends with gay men. Batman had two of the campiest episodes ever--Hizzoner the Penquin, wherein the wily bird runs for Mayor of Gotham City; and The Devil's Fingers, the highest-rated Bat-episode ever because it starred Liberace. And to top it all off, the BEST Big Bang Theory yet with Leonard, Sheldon, Penny, Raj, and Howard headed to the comic book store for a New Year's Eve party dressed as the Justice League of America. New regular Zack, Penny's current hunky substitute for Leonard, is drafted into playing Superman. The scene at the end was priceless with the comic book store owher dressed as Doctor Who No. 4 (Tom Baker) announcing the winner of the best costumed group as the JLA--and there are THREE JLAs.

Where to begin? WML is like taking a time machine back to the 1950s when Broadway and movie stars would drop by to fool the blindfolded panel who were in formal wear to play sophisticated parlor games. America knew what was playing on Broadway then and cared. Not like now when the only show people know about is Spider-Man.

The Sundance series is fun and growing on me. But the hot guys in the ads on the sides of the bus aren't even on the show and they are way hunkier than the regular subjects.

The Batman episodes were a hoot. In the Penquin show, the pompous waddling kingpin of crime runs for mayor of Gotham and the script satirizes Barry Goldwater, polls, TV commentators, debates, etc. At one point game show hosts like Dennis James and Allen Luden play political TV anchormen as the Dynamic Duo and Pengy fight a mob of crooks at a jeweler's convention. The commentators cover the bat-fight as if it's a political convention--get it?

The Liberace segments were beyond absurd with the swishy maestro romancing Aunt Harriet and flirting with a trio of gorgeous lady crooks.

Oh, and DADT was repealed. So it was a perfect week.

Sarah Palin at Burger King

So I'm having dinner at Burger King on Monday night. I know it's bad for me but I was in a hurry. I had to make a 7 PM curtain to see Donny and Marie: A Broadway Christmas which I was reviewing (It will be posted on the Back Stage website by now.) Anyway, this BK on Broadway and about 40th Street, right by where they have the Fashion Walk of Fame, has a TV monitor where they show trivia questions and headlines with news photos. I'm sitting there munching on a Chicken Sandwich and some onion rings while reading a 1968 Superman comic book and who should appear on the TV screen but goddamn Sarah Palin, the bane of my existence.

On display was a photo of Sister Sarah on her recent visit to Haiti for publicity and to gain legit cred for actually having visited a foreign country she can't see from her house. The caption reads: Sarah Palin visits Haiti and gains valuable foreign relations experience and humanitarian kudos. I almost spat out a hunk of onion ring! Who was writing these right-wing-leaning captions? "Valuable foreign relations experience? Humanitarian kudos?" What did she do bring them some caribou meat? BTW, I watched her dreadful reality show for maybe five minutes, it was all I could take.

I noticed a definite conservative bias in the news reporting at this Burger King. A few weeks ago while chowing down another Chicken sandwich and reading a Batman comic, there was a photo of Nancy Pelosi and the caption read something about the national deficit being this enormous, horrible number and it was due to the Democratic-controlled Congress. Who is running this newsfeed at BK? I'm almost tempted to ask the manager who gave them the programming for their flat screens. Most of it was innocuous trivia like which actor was never in a Harry Potter film or who won which Super Bowl? Anyway, if it happens again, I'm definitely asking.

Oh, and Donny made a joke about Bristol Palin during the show--Donny won Dancing with the Stars and Marie only came in third, like Bristol. Marie was saying she didn't do so badly and Donny teased her for being no better than Bristol. So he just went up in my estimation.

Batman on The Hub

Batman, the hit 1966-69 TV version of the comic book hero, has recently begun a run on the new cable network The Hub. Now is my chance to get all my favorite episodes on DVD. As you may know, this is probably the ONLY TV series not to be on DVD--I mean they have all five seasons of Gilligan's Island, Family Ties, The Odd Couple, HR Puffinstuff, the Brady Bunch and myriad other pieces of video crap preserved for all time, but not the Caped Crusader. It has something to do with who controls the rights. If the series were on DVD, it would make a fortune. I'm worried the reruns are snipping out little pieces here and there in order to fit in a few more commercials. Anyway, I have some episodes from when the series was on American Family Life every Fri.

My favorite episodes were from the second season when the humor was very campy but had not yet descended to the utter bizarreness of the Batgirl third season. That was when the budget was totally slashed. Anytime the script called for a set that wasn't already built--such as stately Wayne Manor, the Batcave, Commissionner Gordon's office or Barbara Gordon's apartment--they used a black void with some furniture thrown in.

The second season had such kooky villains as Egghead, The Black Widow (as played by Tallullah Bankhead), The Archer, Clock King, Ma Parker (Shelley Winters), Marsha, Queen of Diamonds, the Minstrel, etc.

Bruce Wayne lived in an adolescent world, the only recurring female character--until Batgirl showed up--was Aunt Harriet, a substitute mother for the orphaned Bruce and Dick--or a house mother in the all-male fraternity of the Batcave. Aunt Harriet is a fascinating figure. She is supposed to be the aunt of Dick Grayson. In the comic book, Dick is abandoned when his trapeze-artist parents are killed but Bruce Wayne steps in and adopted the kid. The rather patrician Mrs. Harriet Cooper doesn't seem to be the type to have acrobats in her family. The real reason Madge Blake as Mrs. Cooper was brought into the Wayne household was because it was feared a household full of men would seem too gay. Yes, sexy Madge made the Dynamic Duo seem as straight as a quiver of arrows.

If you look in the Batman comic books pre-1966, you occasionally catch a glimpse of Bruce and Dick sharing a room. Yes, they sleep in separate beds, but doesn't it seem a bit odd for a 30-ish strapping bachelor, and a millionaire to boot, to be sharing a bedroom in a huge mansion with an adoloscent boy? What did Aunt Harriet have to say about that? And didn't she get suspicious that those two were always off bird watching or fishing together? "Hello, Commissioner Gordon, can I have your child abuse deptartment?"

But I never saw any of those other levels when I watched Batman as a kid. It was an action-adventure show to me, not a campy spoof. Just now I watched the one with Sandman and Spryng Byington as J. Pauline Spaghetti. At eight, it went straight over my head that her character's name was a take-off on J. Paul Getty. But even I got tired of it in third season when they jumped the shark and added Batgirl. Still, I often think about what would have happened in a fourth season which would have happened if ABC hadn't destroyed the Batcave set after cancelling the show. NBC was willing to give the Dynamic Duo another shot, but they didn't want to spend $100,000 to build another Batcave.

I had to be satisfied with the Batman cartoons CBS was showing along with Superman, Aquaman, and other DC heroes in the early 1970s. At least in those, Aunt Harriet has mysteriously vanished. They were actually pretty good and Ted Knight did almost all the voices including Penquin, Joker, Riddler, Commissioner Gordon, the narrator, Mr. Freeze, and dozens of others. There were new weird villains including the Judge and Simon the Pieman--that was an exciting segment. The later Batman cartoons with Adam West and Burt Ward doing the voices were pretty stupid because they included Bat-Mite.

There's some much to write about Batman and I've just scracthed the Bat-surface.