I finally figured out why this show has a strange attraction (and I don't mean Lee Bowman's cheezy mustache). It's a panel show version of the Colin Mochrie "green screen" news reporter bit from "Whose Line?"
This is a show that, I think, with some G-T tinkering (and one wonders how much they did to get it to this level) might have a kernel of a good game show in it. Let's rundown the basics:
Set: Your 1954 small-town high school prom with a big-screen TV. I know it's Revlon, but I'm starting to long for the checkerboard of TNTS. A nice idea and probably pretty advanced by 1950s standards.
Theme: Was there one?
Host: Boston Blackie - er, Lee Bowman - is NOT what is needed here. It would be interesting to see someone who's a LOT quicker on the pickup, especially with the technical problems that could happen with live remotes. (And in the Tuesday night show, ironically, it was the film that gave them the greatest problem.) On a show like this, in which it's just a guessing game, the host has to play with the panel a bit, give them enough rope to hang themselves - Daly was a master and Garry Moore was good too. Either one would have had more fun, say, with Audrey Meadows and the Princeton boys in drag.
Panel: Kitty Carlisle and two people who at least paid more attention to the game than Fred Allen does on WML? (yes, I know it's late in life for Fred, and I love his comments, but he doesn't listen to the other panelists' questions). It might have been better to let each panelist take a turn at guessing an item, and the winner is the one who does it the fastest.
Participants — Audrey seemed to be misleading them a bit, but then agin, she was a dancin' fool and probably getting tired. Did we really have to see the whole Princeton song? "Hi, Hy" Gardiner was dull, and the third guy could have done a lot more with the old car race.
Play-along - same as WML, only not as fun.
Game - Another guessing game, hampered by technical problems. Not much play-along, so you're dependent on the panel, which was pretty dull. In fact, the whole thing was pretty dull, except for its historic value.
Creative Producer - Allan Sherman. Who was the uncreative producer? Whoever it was must have outranked him.
And finally, the name Jerome Schnur is your guarantee of a half-hour that will pass by like, oh, 30 minutes.
In short ... forgettable, and totally deserving of its six weeks on the air.
Snarky comment: "The panel should have had blindfolds, just so they wouldn't be recognized on the street."
The scary part: I've still seen worse.
