Sunday, July 14, 2019

A Line of Truth: To Tell The Truth meets What's My Line? (1966)

Well, ask & ye shall receive.

Earlier this week, I posted an episode of What's My Line? in which the panel of I've Got a Secret appeared on the show. I had stated I was hoping to find a similar circumstance where the panel of To Tell The Truth did the same thing.

Frequent correspondent Mike Doran filled in the blank, and, today, it's here. It's not quite Christmas in July, but this episode did air two weeks before Christmas in 1966, during season 2 of Hogan's Heroes, as its star, Bob Crane, is on the panel. Take note that Truth panelist Tom Poston seems to take his sweet time "signing in", as the rest of the crew (Kitty Carlisle, Peggy Cass, & Orson Bean) are waiting on him.



The crossover takes place in the first segment. Thanks, Mike, for pointing the way.

4 comments:

Mike Doran said...

Backgrounder:

In the fall of '66, CBS moved the nighttime To Tell The Truth out of prime time, to late Sunday afternoon.
When the fall season began, one of the first failures was The Jean Arthur Show, a sitcom comeback for the '30s star.
That show's fail opened up a prime time half-hour that needed a quick fix - thus, TTTT's rapid return to Monday night, heralded by this appearance on WML.
One Big Happy Family, you might say …

hobbyfan said...

I'd say so. Quick question. How long did T4 (to use my acronym for the show) last on Sunday afternoons before moving back to Monday nights? I'd ask because of the likely prospect of pre-emptions due to football during this period.

Mike Doran said...

You have to be At Least My Age to remember this:

In 1966, pro football wasn't anywhere nearly as gigantic as it came to be just a few years later.
CBS had the NFL, one game (usually regional) early Sunday afternoon.
NBC had the AFL, same deal as above.
No smothering all-day coverage anywhere.
When CBS moved T4 (thanx for that), to Sunday afternoon (5 PM Eastern Time), it replaced Mister Ed, whose final season was in that timeslot.
It was Alan Young who shut that franchise down, saying "I don't want to be a children's entertainer … I would ride along with Ed for years if we could just get back into prime time …"
When the NFL and AFL merged, the all-day gridiron marathons were still in the future - early '70s at the earliest.
T4's replacement on Sunday was I Love Lucy, for the 50th time.
Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour had the next half-hour; that series lasted until 1970.
That was then …

hobbyfan said...

I remember seeing the latter years of the Ted Mack show. I also remember some Leonard Bernstein Young People's Concerts filling that space from time to time. I think after Mack left, CBS gave that time back to the affiliates until NFL doubleheaders became a thing.