Other Voices

Mitch Clarke is executive editor of The Times in Gainesville, Ga. He can be reached at mclarke@ gainesvilletimes.com. I don't like to be one of those folks who harks back to the good old days, as if the current days are somehow shameful or repugnant. I'm not even old enough to remember the good old days.

But last week, I stumbled across something from the 1950s - years before I was born - that has me completely mesmerized.

I was too keyed up to sleep. I had just gotten home at 2 in the morning from helping put together our morning-after-the-election edition of the newspaper.

I sat on the sofa, the TV remote in my hand and Glory, the black and white springer spaniel who lives at my house, lying beside me.

If you've ever been awake in the middle of the night and tried to find something to watch on TV, you understand my predicament. I have nearly 100 channels of TV, yet channel after channel, there was nothing to watch.

But then I stumbled across what looked like a game show. It was grainy, black and white footage. A man who appeared to be Steve Allen was questioning a woman about her job.

Turns out it was Steve Allen, years before he hosted "The Tonight Show." The show I was watching was "What's Your Line?" And the woman's job was raising skunks.

The concept was simple: a celebrity panel asked yesor no questions of guests and tried to guess what they did for a living. It was hosted by newsman John Charles Daly, who had been the reporter who broke into CBS programming to announce the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

About halfway through the show, Daly asked the panel to put on blindfolds. He then brought out that episode's mystery guest - Sammy Davis Jr.

Although I've certainly heard of "What's My Line?" I don't think I had ever seen an episode of before that night. After all, it started on TV in 1950, 14 years before I was born.

The next morning, I did a little research on the history of "What's My Line?" I found several Web sites that told me about the show's origins and the background of the show's regular panelists.

The best thing I found, though, was a treasure trove of video clips posted online on YouTube. There are literally hundreds of clips from the show's 1950- 1967 run. I spent nearly two hours that night watching and laughing at those clips.

I found myself wishing there was something on TV today that entertained me that well. I've tried, but I can't get into reality television. "American Idol" bores me. I don't care if anyone gets off the island in "Survivor." And why would I ever watch "The Biggest Loser," a show about people on a diet? I struggle enough with my own weight.

So now I watch a lot of YouTube.

As you watch an episode of "What's My Line," it won't take long to be reminded of what a different time in which it was made. Unlike "Million Dollar Password" and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and their large jackpots, the most a person would win on "What's My Line?" was $50. I withdrew more than that at the ATM machine this morning.

The show also was more sophisticated and articulate than anything we have on TV today. For instance, panelist Bennett Cerf, a founder of Random House, was introduced as a "publisher, raconteur and wit."

Imagine, if you will, someone on "The Jerry Springer Show" being introduced with those words. Imagine someone on "Springer" even knowing the meaning of those words.

I find myself spending lots of time perusing YouTube these days. I know that's a site that's very popular with young people who post their own videos for others to share. Sadly, I suspect a lot of the younger folks have no idea about "What's My Line?" or any of the other classic clips posted there.

That's a shame. Perhaps someday, they'll stumble across them, take a chance and be entertained. But for the rest of us, it's nice to know some of these great old celebrities are still with us, thanks to the Internet.

Now great old shows don't just fade to black. They live on.