IT'S NEWS TO ME with John Charles Daly - DEBUT (May 11, 1951)

[@UnfairPizza]

love it when they're showing the pictures, and after the 4th one the machine won't budge. such old timey equipment :D

[@carlossalinasdegortari15]

I remember watching this episode!

[@pearlshifer1776]

adorable first guest!

[@LOA1955]

Loved this. Hope you'll be able to post more. I wonder how much that baseball would fetch today if it came up for auction?

[@Deejaay83urj38]

He's the best

[@savethetpc6406]

Jean Dalrymple's outfit (especially her headgear) reminds me of something out of one of Shakespeare's plays.

[@Fardawg]

Yet another Goodson-Todman show for me to get into!

[@epaddon]

The show this really presages is "The Liars Club" which rival producer Ralph Edwards came up with in 1969 with Rod Serling as host and then in the late 70s for a two year syndicated run with Bill Armstrong and then Allen Ludden hosting. In that show each panelist would tell a story about a prop about what it was, and the contestants had to identify which panelist told the true story about the object.

[@AllenJones-w3p]

I really can't see Serling as a game show host!

[@DLAN-jb3hb]

Woo hoo, thanks!

[@AllenMQuinn]

I liked this show. It's fun!

[@enriquesanchez2001]

Hysterical!!!!!!!!!!!

[@13loomisst]

I found it quite entertaining. Other than Anna Lee, I didn't know the panelists but found them fascinating. It was also interesting to see how the influence of WWII was still so profound six years later, in terms of the depth of knowledge re the various generals and admirals, Thanks very much.

[@jasonfrancis6174]

Anna Lee was familiarly known for playing Lila Quartermaine on General Hospital from 1978 until her death in 2004. I never saw her on anything else but General Hospital and I had no clue that she was from the U.K. She looked amazing in her younger years.

[@13loomisst]

Jason Francis She made several films in the '40s.

[@13loomisst]

13loomisst Yes, I know her from movies only.

[@caroler01]

I don’t remember this. Didn’t have TV yet.

[@ferdinandthecrow]

"Lot of people from Missouri these days!"

[@jennymode]

Hahaha!

[@soulierinvestments]

The production staff can be credited for good clear prophecy in finding Mickey Mantle, a very new baseball player who went on to a hugely famous career.

[@CaseyRalph]

soulierinvestments Something else I noticed is that the young Mick bears a vague resemblance to modern-day MVP Mike Trout. At the rate Trout's going, he'll eventually join Mickey at Cooperstown.

[@Dr.Pepper001]

I was 5 years old in 1951, and I got the chance to see Mickey Mantle play baseball when I was around 10. He hit a homerun so far it went clean out of the stadium. The announcer said he had never seen a baseball hit so far before.

[@ronflatter1235]

Anna Lee - long before she was Lila Quartermain on “General Hospital.”

[@JJJBRICE]

Anna Lee was a favorite co star of John Wayne /John Ford in various movies.

[@QueenBee-gx4rp]

She never dreamed what a long time job she would have!

[@johnsarkissian5519]

This seems to be the predecessor to “Hollywood Squares”!

[@mehboobkm2018]

my first thought!

[@AllenJones-w3p]

I'll take Sandy Duncan to block!

[@MarcBrewer]

Somewhat similar to the radio show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me"

[@notvalidcharacters]

Even more similar to the CBC radio show "Because News".

[@Bigwave2003]

Late in his career, John Daly hosted something even stranger than this: a pop culture radio show. The program I heard had John interviewing two music critics about the songs of Laura Nyro.

[@witherblaze]

Proof?

[@algoritmosalfredohipicasig7116]

Compared to the rather slow-paced sixties WML's, this was a rush to the finish line.

[@miami4253]

I thought the shortage of manpower would've been caused by wars, but I was surprised to read how relatively-low U.S. casualties have been.

[@neilmidkiff]

The bridge pictured at 25:23 is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, not the Golden Gate Bridge.

[@fromthesidelines]

This was a "special telecast", as the show hadn't been "sold" to a sponsor yet. General Foods "bought" it to replace "THE GOLDBERGS" in July 1951.

[@LaptopLarry330]

Alcoa was also a sponsor of the program.

[@fromthesidelines]

As the 1952 summer replacement for "SEE IT NOW" {Sundays, 6:30pm(et)}.

[@TheRealMrAndrew]

Holy cow, they reused this set for the first few episodes of WML.

[@WilliamMurray-lr1bb]

Shirley Higgins was a doll with a great personality ....

[@Steve27775]

Watchable, mainly because of John Daly, but a bit slow paced and not as entertaining as WML (obviously).

[@WhatsMyLine]

One thing that strikes me as a bit odd about the format is John's gleefulness about taking back money from the contestants. His delight at giving "No"s on WML works because he's stymying only the panel-- the contestant "wins" $5 for every No. But there's something off about his being put in the position-- by the format itself-- of having to take money out of the contestant's hand, with him sometimes joking about it the same way as he did when he flipped a card on WML. The shows with John I have from later in the run are marginally smoother-flowing, but only marginally.

[@savethetpc6406]

Steve27775 My first reaction was similar to yours, and I was thinking -- no wonder this show only lasted a couple of years. It just doesn't have the flair or "zing" of WML, and the panelists aren't particularly entertaining. But then I remembered that the debut episode of WML wasn't nearly as interesting or fun as the show would later become either, so there *could have been* a chance that this show would eventually evolve and take off as a hit too. But, I guess it didn't.... What's My Line? Yeah, it's kind of weird for John to have to take money *away* from the contestants in that manner.

[@eightbit3233]

Having cash actually being exchanged between the host and the guests in that manner is obviously awkward and dull. It's no surprise that they went to flip cards for What's My Line. But hey, considering it's what, televisions second year? No surprise there's some choppiness. I'm sure there's some prime historical value in the news topics being covered, if one has the patience to sit through the episodes.

[@notvalidcharacters]

"Slow paced"?? Seriously? It's like Daly's on speed.

[@walterreyesproductions]

After this show got cancelled, John Daly would move to ABC.

[@LaptopLarry330]

John Daly became the vice president of ABC News in 1953, and became the news anchor at ABC News, and worked there until late-1960, when he left the network because they preempted ABC’s Presidential Election Night coverage by a half-hour to broadcast a program of Bugs Bunny cartoons. John Daly continued on as host of “What’s My Line?” until the show ended its prime-time run in 1967.

[@Bigbadwhitecracker]

Oh, John, don't quit your Sunday night job. I'm surprised it lasted two years

[@savethetpc6406]

Michael Maloney Keep in mind that this was only the debut episode. WML's debut episode was a bit stilted and awkward too. The concept for the show is interesting, but I don't get a good sense of the panelists' personalities, and there are few opportunities for humor here. Perhaps it could also have developed into something better and more polished, as WML did, but given the fact that it only lasted 2 years, I'm guessing it never really "took off."

[@Bigbadwhitecracker]

Okay, I'll try another one.

[@savethetpc6406]

Michael Maloney Let us know what you think. I thought the show got better as it went along. The third posted episode aired only a week after the second one posted here, yet in my opinion each successive episode was at least a bit better than the one before.

[@LaptopLarry330]

According to Wikipedia, during the 1951-52 TV season, “I Love Lucy” was a great lead-in for “It’s News To Me” on CBS on Monday nights. The only real competition the show had in its time slot was the NBC ensemble drama series, “Robert Montgomery Presents” and a professional wrestling program on the DuMont Television Network. Still, the show could not get any ratings, an it was canceled in 1953 (although the show returned as a Summer replacement series in 1954).

[@rickcharles5064]

John Daley was always a great host. The format for this show would be the death of itself. John having to rush, rush, rush made it difficult to watch. Now, do you except that answer?

[@chrisst41]

I guessed the man power shortage, and knew FDR's trying to expand the Supreme Court. This show was quite cerebral. The name of this show could have been What's My Lie.

[@RonGerstein]

Many presidents did not like the make up of the justices of the Supreme Court and either tried to have justices retire, or to increase the number of the justices from 9, and appoint new justices.

[@rob-merica]

It's interesting to see how much this program would become the precursor to each of the era's big 3 panel shows. The panel's efforts to fool the audience plays like "To Tell The Truth"; the boxing segment is very reminiscent of "I've Got A Secret"; and the working-class contestants would hint at what "What's My Line?" would become.

[@zarabada6125]

@RobMerica an interesting analysis but this show (1951) was made over a year after What's My Line had started (1950). I've Got A Secret started the following year (1952) and To Tell The Truth started 5 years later (1956).

[@rickcharles5064]

And here's a bonus! The man that was the bell-ringer from this show became the wolf/whistle man for What's My Line. Do you except that answer?

[@Qermaq]

Factoring in inflation, $5 then becomes $45 today. Maximum $450 prize, not a bad prize, really.

[@mr.antique5407]

10:07 John Daly said "shit!"

[@naardri]

I used to always watch College Bowl and other shoes suchlike. Pity that intelligence has left the airwaves and laugh-track/talking heads are the norm though in my career what I could get per second advertizing on air was my life.

[@witherblaze]

Shame this show makes itself so dated unless the episode featured a really known headline, I'd go broke on this show.

[@larryteren5054]

what made WML, TTT and IGAS special was that there was an understood elegance to each of them. This does not have it and why it had a much shorter shelf life.