What's My Line? - Abe Burrows; Joey Bishop [panel] (May 6, 1962)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
- MYSTERY GUEST: Abe Burrows
PANEL: Dorothy Kilgallen, Joey Bishop, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf
NOTE: This video combines two different video sources due to my having an incomplete source in higher video quality.
Many thanks to epaddon, as always, for providing a complete copy of this episode.
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Abe Burrows's son, James Burrows, became an influential television director whose credits have included The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Cheers.
Come to think of it, unfoldable is like inflammable/flammable. If something is "unfoldable" one would think you could "unfold" it. I need a drink, grandpa!
I really laughed at that one. Dorothy always seemed more vulnerable than most of the regular panel to confusion over some of John Daly's "clarification/interpretations", whatever you call them but that was one of the best ever - and the poor girl did it to herself no less!
John Daly was absolutely correct. Many have been the times that I have unfolded sheets that were previously folded so I could make a bed that had been stripped of its dirty linen.
+Craig Willis
You are correct with the alternative that Dorothy should have used.
I caught that right away and knew Dorothy was misleading herself. She might've said "ununfoldable" instead, but of course that's not a word.
The only other times Abe Burrows was a Mystery Guest was on the lost Episode #006 (April 26, 1950), and on the revival in 1973.
He was also a guest panelist a few times:
- Episode dated 18 April 1965 (1965) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode dated 19 August 1962 (1962) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode dated 6 May 1962 (1962) ... Himself - Mystery Guest
- Episode dated 17 December 1961 (1961) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode dated 16 July 1961 (1961) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode dated 21 May 1961 (1961) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode #4.4 (1952) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode dated 10 June 1951 (1951) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode dated 26 April 1950 (1950) ... Himself - Mystery Guest
I haven’t seen Dorothy with this hairdo before.
John Daly was always so polite and formal when addressing the panel, saying "Mr Bishop", "Miss Kilgallen", "Miss Francis" and "Mr Cerf", even after nearly twelve years. Were the MCs of other game show as polite and formal as John Daly at this time or was he the exception? On "You Bet Your Life" everyone said "Groucho" for example.
Johan Bengtsson - I think it was just John and the formal tone cultivated by "What's My Line?". On other game and talk shows, first (or given) names were used in most cases. Unless it was a very important or very old person.
Television before the downfall of civilization.
I realize this is an old post, but both of the responses you received were spot on!
I've noticed that the sound engineer was having trouble with the sound level on this show. There is an undue amount of feedback in the speakers that i haven't heard in other episodes. And the voices sound like their talking into a tunnel or something. Then it cleared up after the first contestant was almost done
+amberola 1b
Refer to the notes to this episode that there were two sources combined by Gary (+What's My Line?) to create this video, and that there were problems with the sound quality of one of the sources. That suggests that the sound problems that were noticeable at times were not in the original kinescope but in a subsequent dubbing to create one of the sources.
It sounds to me as if one of the microphones, perhaps John's, wasn't working for a while, and the engineers had to turn up the gain on another mic, perhaps the contestant's, to pick his voice up. This would explain the echo effect and the beginnings of feedback, because the extra gain would make that mic more sensitive than usual to the sound emitted by the stage monitor speakers.
@@loissimmons6558 What dubbing method did they use, holding a high-powered microphone up to a speaker? Whatever they did, they ignored science.
@@michaelclark6223 I wouldn't know. My only knowledge of this is from Gary's notes to the episode.
It seemed as if everyone on the panel was a little testy this episode, maybe that's why.
John Daily and his answer to it being unfoldable, he should have been a lawyer.
Arlene gave us a nice profile view of her nose a few times on this episode. I've seen these episodes often and, by comparing, it seems that she's had a nose job. She has always looked dignified and lovely.
Aw, c'mon, c'mon John. When Bennett asks if the service (chicken insurance) is done for people, he equivocates and opens the barn door, where it was not necessary. The service in and of itself is done only for people. I don't think (correct me if I'm wrong) the chickens give a darn. They'll be happy with chicken feed.
+Joe Postove
Very good! There are three key entities with life insurance policies and you correctly noted two of the three: the named insured and the beneficiary. (The third key entity is the owner of the policy.) Furthermore, the named insured and the beneficiary are usually different entities. The closest would be that the named insured's estate would be the beneficiary. Somehow I doubt that a deceased chicken leaves behind an estate in any jurisdiction of the United States.
So you have just gotten one question correct on the NY State Life & Health Insurance Agent exam. :-)
John deserved that good basting you gave him.
@@loissimmons6558 Then I am now competent?
Where's my Nobel Prize?
@@MrJoeybabe25 If they gave out a Nobel Prize for every person who got at least one question right on the NY State Life & Health Insurance Agent exam, there would be millions of them around and I'd have a couple of them, seeing I passed the exam to get my license and passed it again at least once to renew the license. (I let it expire since then.)
But I will give you a round of applause from one hand clapping.
@@loissimmons6558 💗💗💗💗💗🤣🤣🤣🤣�
Richard Rodgers was on previously (1956), with Hammerstein, and certainly deserved Bennett's praise as one of the great composers of the time.
Rodgers and Bennett Cerf were lifelong friends, co-member of the class of 1919.
I totally agree about Richard Rodgers. And Hammerstein was a genius.
Here are three definitions for transportation, none of which seem to fill the meaning of what a jockey does
:the act or process of moving people or things from one place to another
: a way of traveling from one place to another place
: a system for moving passengers or goods from one place to another
The horse takes his jockey around the track to the same location he came from, without stops. Strictly speaking (as Edwin Newman said) it is not transport, huh?
+Joe Postove
Horse races vary in length and generally do not end at the same place as the starting line. Plus the ultimate goal is to transport the jockey and the horse into the winner's circle of a major race, located off of the track completely.
I agree. In this context, one should not be referring to a horse race as transportation. If I was a cop walking a foot patrol I would not say that I was 'in' transportation, nor if I were a circus clown riding a unicycle.
Joey Bishop has very clean ears..
The chicken insurance gal was a stunner
Surprised nobody is mentioning the D joke by Joey at 4:39
Uh, Joey, chickens ARE animals.
Yes I noticed that too but I thought I misheard what Joey said. 15:28
+Johan Bengtssonjioijjjkjjhhhjjjmm
Gioquinte Blalock Brilliant addition to the conversation. Thank you!
The echoey ness of this episode makes me understand how they sometimes couldn't understand each other
Produced immediately after the taping of the July 29, 1962 episode.
*****
That must account for the facetious tone of Joey's response to John's "nice to have you back" comment and the ensuing laughter (2:38 - 2:45).
Vahan Nisanian n
"Sells life insurance on chickens". That's always the first or second question.
Abe looks like he's got a little Oscar Levant tick going on a little bit.
At times, it's more than a little.
Does the second contestant, Mrs. Poplar look a little like a grown up Shirley Temple?
+Joe Postove
Would that make her June Poplar Black? I was thinking, especially since she was from Missouri, that she was more likely to be June Poplar Bluff.
Dorothy means by "unfoldable" which I don't think is in the dictionary. She must have meant "not foldable" which is why she though it was rigid.
Joe Postove she should have said "non-foldable"
Unfoldable means it can't be folded. I think she was right.
Taking Joey's statement phonetically, I would give him a cash prize of 64 dollars. He said he's gotten it down to a " Bridal gown". A Bridle (a device that fits on a horse's head and that is used for guiding and controlling the horse) and a gown for the jockey and he is just about there, no?
Joe Postove
Thank you, Bennett Cerf! ;)
John: Mr Bushop.
Joey Bishop: Mr who?
John: Bishop! :) 19:17
My guess was that John almost stumbled and said "Mr. Burrows" and quickly corrected himself. But it may have been enough of a clue that Joey Bishop immediately guessed Abe Burrows after that exchange.
@@loissimmons6558 I think John stumbled there, too. However, Burrows was a multi-faceted talent who wrote plays and jokes, directed, and wrote songs. So, he was probably the only winner of a Tony the previous week who could answer the question that made Bennett think he was Richard Rodgers due to composing. Though, of course, not in the same class as Rodgers, but then who is. I think that gave it away to Bishop once it was determined he wasn't Bennett's school chum, Rodgers. Didn't he and Bennett go to PS#whatever in Manhattan together as kids?
Having a WML marathon of the first 45 episodes from 1965 as I am typing this. I am currently at ep. #748 (January 24, 1965).
I am going by production order (i.e. watching the Jill St. John episode first, and then the Nancy Sinatra episode).
Here's a TH-cam video of Franz Furtner's act.
th-cam.com/video/V0sSGI9gkWQ/w-d-xo.html
Here's his daughter doing her circus act: www.circopedia.org/La_Toria_Video_(c.1965) She used the last name of Unus, & did an acrobatic act in the circus using a rope suspended from the ceiling & implemented metal hoops. She was very good. This is in color, as an added bonus.
Gary are you reediting some of the shows? The edits are much smoother on this show and some others I've seen lately.
Thanks-- I did reedit this one, along with all of the older episodes I've ever posted from epaddon, to remove stray bits of GSN commercials. Since his recordings were done on VHS, there were always stray bits of material to remove.
Most of the shows from now on are *very* tightly edited, sometimes by me, sometimes not. There are a bunch of shows coming up where I've added back in the closing credits from older rerun copies pre-GSN-credit-crunching. But as always, I can't do any of this sort of thing if I don't have people providing the material to me!
What's My Line? Good job, pal!
I had to look up what Pycopay is. Never heard of it.
Me too. Toothpaste and brushes.
Joey Bishop on the panel and Abe Burrows as the MG?? I'M OUTTA HERE and on to the next episode!!
that's nice
(if you don't like Joey Bishop, I guess you'll be missing ALOT of episodes)
Don't be so silly.
Gilgallen asks the goofiest questions.
Is it just me or was there something a bit uncomfortable about this episode? The audience seemed largely unresponsive, and John's misinterpretation of Dorothy's "unfoldable" question (deliberate?) seemed to get things off to a rocky start from which the show never recovered. Or am I just imagining things?
To be honest, Dorothy often annoys me. But I try to be appreciative of her good qualities. The "Is it unfoldable?" is a good example of an annoying moment. She apparently is guessing that the product is rigid so instead of asking "Is it rigid?" she asks "Is it unfoldable?". Very awkward and confusing. She would have gotten a "no" if she'd asked if it was rigid or if it was unfoldable (taking "unfoldable" in the way she later says she meant it). Instead she got a "yes" because John took it as "yes it can be unfolded after it had been folded" which to me is a straight forward correct answer. But Dorothy complains when it was her use of an awkward, confusing word that caused the whole thing. I'm totally with John.
Ernie Kovacs on WML as a panelist was the first to ask "Is it foldable?" When I first heard that, I thought it was funny and that he meant it to be funny and I think there was a laugh from the audience. So I just thought it was a joke. But later I decided that it was a useful question to narrow it down. In later shows, even years later, I noticed Arlene and Dorothy using the same question and they were not trying to be funny. But "unfoldable" is confusing.
49yt David Von Pein
If Dorothy had said, "Am I correct in assuming that this is something which cannot be folded?" (not all that simple a sentence, but typical Dorothy phrasing and a whole lot clearer), the whole confusion about the nature of the product would not have occurred. I agree that John's interpretation of the word "unfoldable" was technically correct, but I also agree with David Von Pein that he knew what she meant from the beginning and was just having some fun with her. Still, in that case, he should have made the clarification about what he meant as soon as Dorothy qualified her question by using the word "rigid" instead of waiting until he had further confused Arlene and the other panelists.
This episode is, to me, an example of how important the audience reactions were to the show. If the audience had laughed at John's answer to the "unfoldable" question, I think Dorothy might have caught on right away that there was something fishy about John's interpretation of her question and sought to clarify sooner. But I got the impression (and I could be wrong) that the audience felt uncomfortable with John's decision and didn't think it was funny, so they didn't laugh, and for me, as a "home viewer," the whole segment fell flat and was not very entertaining. I still think the whole thing may have affected the audience's reactions to the rest of the show as well. I kept hoping the subsequent games would be more fun, but in this episode I found each game to be somewhat disappointing and uncomfortable, and I think the lack of audible audience appreciation contributed to that feeling.
I had also always given Ernie Kovacs credit as the originator of the "can it be folded?" question, but I think this show predates that. In a recent discussion in the comments section of another video, What's My Line? also suggested that Ernie was being deliberately funny by asking that, but I always thought it was a perfectly valid question.
I definitely sensed something "off" about the rapport between the panel and JCD on this episode. John is uncharacteristically tongue-tied when he attempts to talk about the second contestant's scuba diving title, there are a lot of awkward exchanges between he, Dorothy, and Joey, and he seems genuinely miffed by Bennett's good humored dig during the sign off.
Would "infoldable" be a word?
Did Joey Bishop actually say, "They're not animals," when it was revealed that the animals were chickens and turkeys? Did he think birds are vegetables?
Dorothy did correct him. I think he limited animals to mammals.
I wonder whatever became of Dorothy's gorgeous gowns. The one she's wearing in this episode is particularly beautiful. This is one of the few times I wish the show were in color.
“Maybe I’ll call it What’s My Line!”
Franz Furtner aka Unus in action (awesome):
th-cam.com/video/V0sSGI9gkWQ/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the link. Incredible. I assume no one has since replicated his feats.
I think maybe the show was thrown off kilter this week by Dorothy's terrible unflattering hairdo. And it's got to be pretty bad for me to notice that kind of thing.
Oh no, "Dentu-Creme" - the demographic is aging.
Surely John can't be THAT dense lol! Dorothy asked if it was unfoldable and John said YES! He KNEW what Dorothy meant (ANYBODY would have mean, "so it can't be folded.")
and how they could clap for Abe Burrows, I'll never know! He's AWFUL!!! (but then again, when you have a cigarette hanging from your mouth, who ISN'T)!
Sell me a prize turkey
I agree about Dorothy's question. He knew what she meant. It's a word I or many others I know would probably use.
Dudes a hoot!Lou Grant Asner hits the Line.
Interesting that there are multiple instances of audio feedback. I've never heard that in any episode, and I've seen all of them so far. Silly trivia, I know; but I'm kind of a nerd that way.
And of course, at 11:35, Cerf has to make the entire country cringe, as he does every single show. I am so sick and tired of him.
I've not heard feedback myself for most of the shows. I've gone from 1950 to 62 so far.
Wtf Joey - "Chicken are not animals".. repeated 2 times... what's up with that?
Or as Jo Anne Worley might have asked Joey, "Is that a chicken joke?"
hahaha
Chickens are boids in the Bronx accent
What is py-co-pay ?
They made toothbrushes and I think denture stuff.
Was referring "that breadbox" as Arlene put it, old hat by 1962? Anyway, Joey would be a Matzo Box.
Yes. It was Steve Allen's thing to ask back when he was a regular, and has been joked about many times along the way. (I'm watching these in order.)
Rikard Peterson You have quite a long way to go, Rikard. :)
What's My Line? Yes, but I have no rush. I'm not watching WML every day, as I don't want to risk getting bored of it. I love that you have them ordered neatly by date.
Rikard Peterson [whispers:] Don't tell anyone. . . but I get bored with WML eventually if I watch too much of it, too. But all it takes to address that is a few days of a break. :)
What's My Line? Take one a day, Gary and call me in the morning. Dr. Postove
Just seconds before Abe Burrows are going to shake hands with Joey Bishop, he (Joey) coughs in his right hand... on purpose or not..?? 21:14
I'm sure Joey just had to cough and that was his reflex. And that he didn't think about the fact that he then shook hands with Abe. Just one of those things that happens.
That was rude. Joey should have coughed into his left hand, knowing he was going to shake hands in a second. Gee Willikers!
Joe Postove I think he did it deliberately.
Johan Bengtsson
I'm with 49yt on this one.
Was there any reports of bad blood between the two? Gee wiz, both were Jewish fellas'!
I always found Dorothy's seriousness for this "game" a bit off-putting.
*_MAKES RACING SILKS FOR JOCKEYS_*
*_SELLS LIFE INSURANCE ON CHICKENS_*
*_BALANCES ON ONE FINGER IN CIRCUS_*
Please remove this complete and utter troll from the comments section. Unfortunately today's awful society is full of pathetic losers intent on ruining other people's enjoyment of social media.
17:14 Who?