Confession: pretty much every night I watch an old episode of What's My Line? on YouTube. Hundreds of them are there. I started with the 1955 episodes, which have Fred Allen as a permanent panelist. I'm watching them in sequence. I'm now in October 1962. At this time, the show had a great midcentury animated title sequence. Jim O'Kane, over at Vimeo, has recreated the titles in color. He shows us the original black and white opening, and then his completely redone sequence.
Jim adds: "The original animator was never credited with its execution, but it's a simple, humorous, and engaging story, told in just 40 seconds. Recreated in color and HD, with virtual cereal boxes of 1961 making an appearance for Kellogg's."
What's My Line? - Sept 3, 1961 - Recreated COLOR Opening Animation from Jim O'Kane on Vimeo.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing! I love that show with a passion (the b&w 50s-60s version is on my Top 5 TV shows of all-time list). Buzzr used to show those episodes regularly, with all the original commercials included. Now they're showing the color episodes from the 70s and they're not nearly as fun or interesting.
If someone did a DVD box set of every episode with the commercials, I'd buy it, no matter how expensive it would be.
Also: Fred Allen is one of my heroes. Have you read his book of letters? Really great.
Cheers,
Bob Sassone
The Saturday Evening Post
Bob, we are definitely in agreement here. Fred Allen IS The Man! I've read Treadmill to Oblivion and maybe one other book. If you ever start a Fred Allen podcast, I'll be your first guest and we can just talk about how great he was. Every time he said, "John, can I ask a question?" on WML I would laugh in anticipation. Funny, funny man.
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