I've Got A Secret Website

[SuperMatch93]

I looked at the crawl of a Narz Concentration and the copyright notice says "G-T Programs, Inc." even though Jim Victory and I think NBC each had a piece of it, so the copyright notice isn't necessarily definitive.

Could that have just been one of the shell companies G-T would use, like Price Productions?

[carlisle96]

It's interesting how many "special" episodes have ended up missing. It's almost as if someone at the time decided to set those episodes aside, maybe so that they wouldn't end up lost, and by so doing, those episodes ended up lost.

I have a slightly different theory that certain special episodes were probably meaningful to certain important people, so they just took them.  It couldn't have possibly occurred to anybody that this archive was going to have value decades later, and therefore it had to be maintained perfectly.  I strongly believe, for example, that Gil Fates took the 1960 election special out of the collection when he was writing his What's My Line? book, and then never bothered to return it.

I don't think he ever mentioned he was leaving IGAS on air on IGAS, until the September 1964 transition show, which is a missing episode?

Yes, it was widely reported that Garry was sore about his show being cancelled and was going to walk away from Secret, but he never mentioned it on air until the missing transition episode.  Aside from the very first episode, that's the one I'd most love to locate some day.  Maybe Garry took it?

The NY Times article says IGAS was owned by Moore and CBS. Is that right? CBS gave Garry an ownership stake in it?

Goodson-Todman sold the show to "Telecast Enterprises," a partnership between CBS and Garry that seems to have had no other purpose than this.  While most reports at least suggest it was an equal partnership, others say Garry had a minority stake.

Was Goodson-Todman still involved right up until the end? Both Steve Allen and Bill Cullen talk to Mark Goodson on the last episode in 1967...or was he just hanging around to say goodbye to everyone?

[Matt Ottinger]

Was Goodson-Todman still involved right up until the end? Both Steve Allen and Bill Cullen talk to Mark Goodson on the last episode in 1967...or was he just hanging around to say goodbye to everyone?

Goodson-Todman was absolutely involved right up until the end.  Telecast Enterprises "owned" the show, and paid G-T a fee to produce it.  I don't claim to know the details, nor why this arrangement was in place for Secret and Line but not To Tell the Truth, for example.  But Goodson-Todman always produced the show.

[Matt Ottinger]

The two living people who MIGHT know something about it are Bobby Sherman and Jonathan Goodson. Gil Fates, Garry Moore, Jerry Chester and even Bud Austin are no longer available.

The other person I'd like to talk to is Tom Werner, who claims to have acquired the rights in 1992.  Acquired them from whom?  The yogurt people?

[chris319]

Is Jonathan Goodson on the list of people to be interviewed for the Strong Museum project? Has he been approached and refused to be interviewed?

[JohnXXVII]

It's interesting how many "special" episodes have ended up missing. It's almost as if someone at the time decided to set those episodes aside, maybe so that they wouldn't end up lost, and by so doing, those episodes ended up lost.

I have a slightly different theory that certain special episodes were probably meaningful to certain important people, so they just took them.  It couldn't have possibly occurred to anybody that this archive was going to have value decades later, and therefore it had to be maintained perfectly.  I strongly believe, for example, that Gil Fates took the 1960 election special out of the collection when he was writing his What's My Line? book, and then never bothered to return it.

That's interesting! Do you think that makes it more likely that these special episodes still exist and could be recoverable? Maybe descendants still have them lying around some where?

[Matt Ottinger]

That's interesting! Do you think that makes it more likely that these special episodes still exist and could be recoverable? Maybe descendants still have them lying around some where?

I absolutely think that.  A few years back, a couple dozen of us acquired an unsold Goodson-Todman pilot from a dealer who told me she picked it up at an estate sale in New England, and I am 100% convinced it was the estate of one of those old-school G-T staffers who were around the company forever.

[JohnXXVII]

I notice that, especially in the later years, at the start of the show, whenever Bill is introduced, he is always mumbling to himself or trying to talk to others on the panel. He also does that during the intro on some other shows, like He Said, She Said; Tattletales; To Tell the Truth. Was there a reason for it? Or was it a joke? Or was it just a bad habit he got into?

[Adam Nedeff]

I notice that, especially in the later years, at the start of the show, whenever Bill is introduced, he is always mumbling to himself or trying to talk to others on the panel. He also does that during the intro on some other shows, like He Said, She Said; Tattletales; To Tell the Truth. Was there a reason for it? Or was it a joke? Or was it just a bad habit he got into?

You know how your local news opens with a shot of your anchorman looking at a stack of papers and then looking into the camera, as if he was in the middle of something when he was introduced? I'm thinking Bill's habit here was the same idea. It looks more natural than just blankly smiling for 10 seconds while waiting for somebody to say his name.

[chris319]

I think Bill's mutterings are directed toward the audience; he's just saying them sotto voce. It's not like he's communicating with the demons in his head.

Has anyone else noticed that on IGAS Garry always seems to have a lit cigarette in his hand? Always. He's very adroit at changing hands when he needs to. I imagine he took puffs when he was not on camera.

[TwoInchQuad]

Has anyone else noticed that on IGAS Garry always seems to have a lit cigarette in his hand? Always. He's very adroit at changing hands when he needs to. I imagine he took puffs when he was not on camera.

He looks to have been pretty badly hooked.  During the 1970s "Nothing But the Truth" documentary about the Moore-era TTTT, Garry's puffing away during the breaks in taping.

- Kevin

[BillCullen1]

From someone who attended TTTT tapings in the 70s. Moore definitely smoked during the commercial breaks. This eventually caught up with him and forced his retirement.

[Casey Buck]

From someone who attended TTTT tapings in the 70s. Moore definitely smoked during the commercial breaks. This eventually caught up with him and forced his retirement.

That's how he got a "no-no" in his throat.

[calliaume]

He looks to have been pretty badly hooked.  During the 1970s "Nothing But the Truth" documentary about the Moore-era TTTT, Garry's puffing away during the breaks in taping.

This couldn't have been uncommon in the 1970s. There used to be a Match Game website with nothing but screen grabs of the celebs caught smoking on camera.

When I interned at CNN in 1983, anchorman Bernard Shaw would smoke when he wasn't on camera. He was very good, however, about making sure the cigarette was stubbed out before he went back on (during Prime News, he anchored solo from Washington with two anchors from Atlanta). Shaw's death last year at 82 was due to pneumonia, and apparently not related to smoking.

A few years later, I remember seeing an episode of World News Tonight with a technical malfunction during a taped report; when they returned to Peter Jennings unexpectedly, after a few seconds, smoke was visibly wafting into the shot. Jennings moved to stub out the cigarette, which most viewers probably didn't notice.

The good news is the percentage of smokers has crept steadily downward since it was determined smoking tobacco causes lung cancer; the percentage of adults who smoke today is a bit less than 1/3 of those who did in the mid-1960s.

https://www.lung.org/research/trends-in-lung-disease/tobacco-trends-brief/overall-tobacco-trends

[chris319]

The late Fred Wostbrock died of lung cancer but didn't smoke AFAIK.