GSN to air some syndicated WML for first time!

[Matt Ottinger]

Just a few, but this crowd will approve.

Starting on December 16, GSN will once again run selected episodes of What's My Line and I've Got A Secret through the holidays.  They've done this for a few years now, and usually there's nothing particularly noteworthy to report.  However, this year they're going to air at least two episodes of the syndicated What's My Line that they've never shown.  The mystery guests for those episodes are Monty Hall and Jack Narz.

The holiday event kicks off on the 16th with the debut episode of What's My Line, which is always a treat to see.  I do not know the time, nor the dates of any of the other episodes they'll be showing.  If there have been press releases I haven't seen them, but this information comes reliably from a GSN staffer and reference book co-author who prefers to remain anonymous.

[Bryce L.]

Per GSN's schedule page, here's what's listed so far...

December 16
3:00am - What's My Line? (February 2, 1950 - Mystery guest: Phil Rizzuto) (series premiere)
3:30am - I've Got a Secret (October 9, 1961 - "Country Fair special")

December 17
3:00am - What's My Line? (June 20, 1954 - Mystery guest: Doris Day)
3:30am - I've Got a Secret (October 21, 1963 - Special guest: Art Linkletter)

December 18
3:00am - What's My Line? (September 28, 1958 - Mystery guest: Roy Rogers)
3:30am - I've Got a Secret (October 12, 1964 - Special guest: Carol Channing)

December 19
3:00am - What's My Line? (May 20, 1962 - Mystery guests: Sir Edmund Hillary; Diahann Carroll)
3:30am - I've Got a Secret (December 14, 1964 - Special guest: Steve Lawrence)

December 20
3:00am - What's My Line? (June 12, 1966 - Mystery guests: David Merrick; Peter and Henry Fonda)
3:30am - I've Got a Secret (February 1, 1965 - Special guest: Kaye Ballard)

[Chelsea Thrasher]

Just a little update for those so curious - the GSN website listings have the Jack Narz episode of WML airing late-Tuesday/early-Wednesday (12/24 into 12/25).

[jjman920]

Was anyone else watching I've Got A Secret last night and have any idea what happened with its airing?

They went to commercial break following the first secret and were in commercial break for five minutes before returning. When they did, Steve magically had an unexplained mustache on his face and after a quick reference to it being glued on they went into the next secret. They get through it and they go to break before coming back to do a demonstration of it. That break was almost another five minutes. They came back from break, did the demonstration and then ended the show. At that point, it became clear they had completely excised Kaye Ballard's entire segment.

Is this episode online? What was Kaye's segment about? Was it something offensive? And if so, why would they even choose to run this episode? Technical glitch on GSN's part?

[JakeT]

Was anyone else watching I've Got A Secret last night and have any idea what happened with its airing?
<snip>
Is this episode online? What was Kaye's segment about? Was it something offensive? And if so, why would they even choose to run this episode? Technical glitch on GSN's part?

I'm glad you asked because that bugged the hell out of me at 3:30am...kept rewinding and replaying while reassuring myself, "I know you didn't drink THAT much tonight...how could you miss an entire segment...again and again?"

JakeT

[TLEberle]

That's a thing that happened last year--it seemed like Richard Dawson had a new outfit but otherwise I would have been unable to tell that segments from two episodes or recording sessions had been spliced together.

[Blanquepage]

That's a thing that happened last year--it seemed like Richard Dawson had a new outfit but otherwise I would have been unable to tell that segments from two episodes or recording sessions had been spliced together.

I still have a VHS in which GSN did this same thing with Blockbusters episode #5 when it returned in 1998. During Bill's entrance, everything went grey and they cut to a lengthy period of PSA's, after which it jumped to segments of a 1981 episode.

On another note, I had originally raised my hand and offered to post the entire Ballard IGAS episode on the FB page...but realized that the one I had in mind is from her 1972 appearance.
Still leaving it up, enjoy anyway  - https://www.facebook.com/TvGameShowVault

[TraderRob]

Was anyone else watching I've Got A Secret last night and have any idea what happened with its airing?

They went to commercial break following the first secret and were in commercial break for five minutes before returning. When they did, Steve magically had an unexplained mustache on his face and after a quick reference to it being glued on they went into the next secret. They get through it and they go to break before coming back to do a demonstration of it. That break was almost another five minutes. They came back from break, did the demonstration and then ended the show. At that point, it became clear they had completely excised Kaye Ballard's entire segment.

Is this episode online? What was Kaye's segment about? Was it something offensive? And if so, why would they even choose to run this episode? Technical glitch on GSN's part?

Visiting the IGAS episode guide: http://carsonscrafts.com/igas/igas_1965.htm#2-1

The Kaye Ballard segment is described as follows: "Reads a scene with Steve in Italian and the panel must guess what the scene is about just from the acting. In fact, what they are reading is a translation of the lyrics to 'Baby, It's Cold Outside.'" My guess is that the recent controversy regarding the song led GSN to strike it from the episode, but then why bother airing it at all?

[JMFabiano]

Was anyone else watching I've Got A Secret last night and have any idea what happened with its airing?

They went to commercial break following the first secret and were in commercial break for five minutes before returning. When they did, Steve magically had an unexplained mustache on his face and after a quick reference to it being glued on they went into the next secret. They get through it and they go to break before coming back to do a demonstration of it. That break was almost another five minutes. They came back from break, did the demonstration and then ended the show. At that point, it became clear they had completely excised Kaye Ballard's entire segment.

Is this episode online? What was Kaye's segment about? Was it something offensive? And if so, why would they even choose to run this episode? Technical glitch on GSN's part?

Visiting the IGAS episode guide: http://carsonscrafts.com/igas/igas_1965.htm#2-1

The Kaye Ballard segment is described as follows: "Reads a scene with Steve in Italian and the panel must guess what the scene is about just from the acting. In fact, what they are reading is a translation of the lyrics to 'Baby, It's Cold Outside.'" My guess is that the recent controversy regarding the song led GSN to strike it from the episode, but then why bother airing it at all?

That or music rights issues, but that hasn't stopped GSN nor Buzzr before. 

(incidentally, despite all this, I still get a dozen or so versions of this song every day on all-Christmas radio formats, at least in the Jersey market...)

[Matt Ottinger]

The edit on the Kaye Ballard episode was a choice, not a mistake. 

"[W]e did need to remove a segment of the show prior to airing as it did not meet our broadcast standards."

There's nothing wrong with the print, it's aired on GSN before.  I have a copy.  So someone had a problem with the content of the segment.  In this #MeToo era, it's absolutely understandable why they didn't want to air the bit.  Steve goes over the top playing a lecher for laughs.  Funny then, problematic now.  What's not understandable is why that episode made the list in the first place.  It's not even a Christmas episode, it aired in February.  They had ten spots to fill, and presumably hundreds of episodes to choose from, and this is what they ended up with.

[Dbacksfan12]

Remind me how many hours of Harvey Feud they air a day?

[jjman920]

There's nothing wrong with the print, it's aired on GSN before.  I have a copy.  So someone had a problem with the content of the segment.  In this #MeToo era, it's absolutely understandable why they didn't want to air the bit.  Steve goes over the top playing a lecher for laughs.  Funny then, problematic now.  What's not understandable is why that episode made the list in the first place.  It's not even a Christmas episode, it aired in February.  They had ten spots to fill, and presumably hundreds of episodes to choose from, and this is what they ended up with.

My hunch is that someone picked out the episode because of 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' thinking nothing wrong with it and the song being Christmas related and, after they pulled the episode, someone pointed out the problematic nature of both the song and Steve's performance of it in the show. Still doesn't explain why they still couldn't pull another episode, but rather hack out almost half the episode. I don't know the process, so I don't know how much easier or harder it would be than editing so much of the show out.

[JakeT]

Dear geeeerddd, I am overdosing on Jack Cassidy exposure...

And after that episode of IGAS, how could anyone not adore Arlene Francis?  She was FEARLESS!

JakeT