I've Got a Secret

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I've Got A Secret

I've Got a Secret title logo
Genre Game show
Created by Allan Sherman
Starring Garry Moore
Bill Cullen
Steve Allen
Stephanie Miller
Bil Dwyer
Composer(s) Leroy Anderson
Steve Allen
Country of origin Flag of the United States USA
Language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) Mark Goodson and Bill Todman
Broadcast
Original channel CBS, Syndication
Original run June 19, 1952 – April 3, 1967
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

I've Got a Secret is a weekly panel game show, produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?. The original version of the show premiered in June 19, 1952, and ran until April 3, 1967. This version began broadcasting in black and white and switched to a color format in 1966, by which time virtually all commercial network programs were being shown in color.

The show was revived for the 1972-1973 season in once-a-week syndication and again from June 15 to July 6, 1976 for a summer run. Another production ran on the Oxygen cable channel in a daily version, with original episodes airing from 2000 through 2003.

GSN premiered a new version on April 17, 2006, with an all-gay panel. In October 2006 GSN opted not to renew the show for a second season, although reruns of the show remained on GSN's schedule for some time afterwards.

Contents

[edit] Hosts and panelists

The show was originally hosted by radio and television personality Garry Moore. After several months of an ever changing panel, the show settled down to include game show host Bill Cullen, acerbic comedian Henry Morgan, TV hostess Faye Emerson and actress Jayne Meadows. In 1958, Emerson left the show to star in a play and was replaced by actress Betsy Palmer. The following year, Meadows moved to the West Coast to live with her husband Steve Allen and was replaced by former Miss America Bess Myerson. At various times, guest hosts substituted for Moore. Guest hosts included panelists Henry Morgan and Betsy Palmer, among others.

Garry Moore left the show and was replaced by Steve Allen on September 21, 1964. Allen also hosted the show during the 1972-1973 season. Former panelist Bill Cullen hosted the show during the brief 1976 CBS summer revival. The panelists on this revival were Richard Dawson, Henry Morgan, New York-based entertainment critic Pat Collins, and Elaine Joyce.

The Oxygen channel version of the show was hosted by Stephanie Miller until August 2001. Regular panelists in the Oxygen version included JM J. Bullock, Jason Kravits, Amy Yasbeck and Teri Garr.

The GSN version was hosted by Bil Dwyer; the panelists were Billy Bean, Frank DeCaro, Jermaine Taylor and Suzanne Westenhoefer.

[edit] Game play

[edit] Standard rounds

Each episode contained two regular contestant rounds. Occasionally an additional contestant would appear after the guest round. A round was basically a guessing game where the panel tried to determine a contestant's "secret." A contestant, or sometimes more than one, would enter. The host would introduce the contestant and ask their name. He would then say "Whisper your secret to me, and we'll show it to the folks at home" and the contestant would whisper his secret to Moore. From the show's beginning until the middle of 1954, each panelist had 15 seconds of questioning time. When the questioning ended, the contestant was awarded $10. Two times around the panel ended the game. Later, they went once around the panel. The contestant received $20 when time ran out on a panelist, for a maximum of $80. The time limit was no longer stated as the staff often cut secrets off early or hit the buzzer when a panelist was near the answer. They would also often receive a carton of Winston cigarettes or a supply of whatever product was sponsoring the show at that time. Unlike the big money "quiz shows" which were soon to follow and then become a major scandal, the money and prizes were always secondary to the game play and interaction among the panelists. On Oxygen's version, the challenger earned $200 for each stumped panelist, while stumping the entire panel earned a total of $1,000 for the challenger. On GSN's original edition, each panelist had 40 seconds to question the challenger, but the prize was only awarded if the contestant stumped the entire panel. A contestant who did so won $1,000 and dinner for 2 in Beverly Hills. The fine print at the end of the show disclosed that challengers are paid an appearance fee. In addition, losing contestants also receive some unspecified parting gifts. Several minor show-business professionals have demonstrated their performances on the show, including, for example, piano juggler Dan Menendez.

[edit] Guest rounds

Once per show, a celebrity came on with a secret. At the beginning of the show, the celebrity had opened the show with "My name is ______ and I've Got a Secret!". Early on, the celebrities' secrets would be real ones, or were made up by the staff. The celebrity would be there to demonstrate something, such as how men and women react to each other or the panel discussing their first dates. They even went so far as the panel putting on a play or singing a song. Until the end of the series, however, real secrets were sometimes done. Sometimes, the secret was that the panelists were being sent to some far off location to film a news report, which whould be shown the next week.

[edit] Style of the show

As opposed to What's My Line?, I've Got a Secret was played mainly for laughs. They did occasionally have serious secrets, such as a pilot who was saved from drowning by a civilian. The panel was always referred to by first names and everything was informally done. Demonstrations were often done after each secret. The focus was on the entertainment value, not the game itself.

[edit] Super secrets

Some prominent secrets were segments where things just got out of control. One episode had actor/comedian Wally Cox using a box full of wood furniture to make an entire bedroom set. Chaos ensued when everything started to fall apart, despite the lengthy rehearsals that they had done before the show. On another occasion, one of the contestants was supposed to be able to blow up an inner tube to the point of explosion just by blowing into it. It took him so long that celebrity Andy Griffith finally just came out and watched the spectacle with everyone else. Other segments included actor Paul Newman serving a hot dog at a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game at Ebbets Field to Henry Morgan. Another one had then-actor Ronald Reagan, pointing out the difference between doing live TV and having to do retakes in the movies, leaving the stage each time a panelist said "uhh..." Moore would then re-introduce Reagan and start the bit over, sending the audience into hysterics.

One stunt for Easter ended with children chasing rabbits all over the stage. Another time, a cow was brought onstage to be milked by Bess Myerson, but wound up defecating on camera. Once, the great illusionist Michel de la Vega suspended Garry Moore from shoulders to heels between ordinary table chairs and levitated Betsy Palmer over three upended sabres. Some were historical secrets, such as the one told by Samuel J. Seymour, who appeared shortly before his death in 1956. Seymour was the last surviving person who had been at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. Garry Moore did most of the talking for Seymour (who had injured himself the day before by falling on the floor of a hotel, and choose to come to the show, despite Moore and the producers trying to talk him out of it), whose secret was guessed by Jayne Meadows. After Meadows' win, Moore said on the air that the five-year-old Seymour, witnessing John Wilkes Booth's famously miscalculated jump from the presidential box to the stage, felt sorry for the injured actor, not realizing that he was responsible for the president's death. Seymour died less than two months after this appearance at the age of 96.

In 1957, one mystery guest was Philo T. Farnsworth. He fielded questions from the celebrity panel as they unsuccessfully tried to guess his secret ("I invented electronic television."). For stumping the panel, he received US$80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes. Ironically, this would be the only television appearance of the man who invented electronic television.[1]

Another 1957 episode, with "juvenile delinquency" much in the news, aired what was billed as a celebration of young achievers. The various guests were all relatively unknown teenagers. Among them were 16-year-old singer Paul Anka, 18-year-old basketball guard Oscar Robertson, and 14-year-old chess prodigy Bobby Fischer.

One simple but memorable secret was aimed at Palmer, who had gone through a long spell without a successful guess. A man came on stage with a carrot in each ear. His secret was, of course, that he had carrots in his ears. Palmer, given the opportunity to go first, did not guess the secret, disappointing the producers, who had planned to drop confetti and balloons and make a big fuss when she did. Later, Palmer said: "I thought about asking, but I thought it was too obvious."[citation needed]

On one show two men came out in strange military uniforms and speaking what sounded like a foreign language. They were part of the "Aggressor Force" used in U.S. military war games, and were speaking the artificial language of Esperanto.

On one show, Chico Marx appeared silently dressed in his brother Harpo's traditional costume, while an on-screen caption read "I'm actually Chico Marx."

Many secrets were aimed squarely at Henry Morgan, including his spending a week at Roy Rogers dude ranch; being sent straight from the broadcast to a safari in Africa (he got his shots and had his passport photo taken on stage after the secret was guessed); being sent to a specific restaurant in London for a traditional English Christmas goose dinner with all the trimmings to go; and one Halloween episode in which Arnold Stang's secret was that he was wearing a bedsheet ghost costume, made from Henry Morgan's bedsheets.

In one 1964 episode, one of two mystery guests was future Velvet Underground founder John Cale, whose secret was that he had participated in an 18-hour concert (he was performing Erik Satie's "Vexations," in a rotation with such notables as John Cage). The other guest was the only audience member to have stayed for the duration of the concert.[1]

[edit] Episode status

Most early episodes from the show's first season in 1952 appear to have been lost. From late 1952 until the 1967 cancellation every Secret episode except one appears to exist as a digital transfer of a kinescope film. The exception is a 1965 episode in which the cast of What's My Line? appeared on I've Got A Secret. With the exception of the PBS series The Golden Age Of Television reviving the Samuel Seymour/John Wilkes Booth episode of Secret in 1986, the thirteen years' worth of Secret kinescopes were not disturbed between 1967 and the launch of Game Show Network in 1994.[citation needed] All subsequent revivals of Secret exist in their entirety.

[edit] Themes

The first theme used on the show from 1952-1961 was "Plink, Plank, Plunk!" by Leroy Anderson (this theme can be heard on the album "Classic TV Game Show Themes", however, the theme on the CD was credited to Norman Paris).

The second theme, used from 1961 - 1962, was an upbeat arrangement of the Theme to "A Summer Place" by Max Steiner.

The third theme, used from 1962 to 1967, was an upbeat, spritely march composed by the show's musical director, Norman Paris. It quoted a familiar melody widely associated with schoolyard taunts, to which the words "I've got a secret!" might typically be sung by children in a teasing manner.

When Steve Allen assumed the hosting duties, an instrumental version of Allen's composition "This Could Be the Start of Something" was added as Allen's walk-on music, and also was heard as the opening theme in 1972. The closing theme to the 1972 version was written by Edd Kalehoff.

The theme from the 1976 version with Bill Cullen was used one year later on the ABC game show Second Chance. A remix of that theme was also used in the Australian version of Family Feud.

Tim Mosher and Stoker are credited with the 2000 theme, while Alan Ett and Scott Liggett contributed an up jazz theme for Bil Dwyer's 2006 version of the show for GSN.

[edit] Home game

Lowell Toy Mfg. Corp of New York made the home game of I've Got A Secret.

[edit] Cultural references

Moore and the I've Got a Secret panel made an appearance in 1959's It Happened to Jane.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Schatzkin, Paul. TeeVee Honors Its Patron Saint. The Farnsworth Chronicles.

[edit] External links

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