Last secret

Just watched the last episode of the original CBS I've Got a Secret. The April 3, 1967 show hardly resembled the well-organized final ep of its sibling What's My Line later that year.

Instead it was just a run-of-the-mill episode with a last farewell taped later and tacked onto the end. The show was cancelled so abruptly that the producers had no time to plan and tape a festive finale.

At least the regular panelists got a few seconds for some closing words. The comments reflected their personalities in almost too pat a fashion. Betsy Palmer was bubbly and spunky, Bill Cullen wry and self-deprecating, Bess Myerson cool and elegant, and Henry Morgan curt and cantankerous. Steve Allen glided through the segment with his usual glib competence.

Although an announcer promised a run of Password as a replacement, game shows were quickly fading out of broadcast prime time. Through the 1980s and almost all of the 1990s the genre vanished from the top viewing hours. But then Regis came along in 1999 with a British import. And things changed.

Not to mention that game shows found new homes in syndication, cable, and that odd thing called reality TV.