5 /10 1 Votes
Country of origin United States No. of seasons 7 (3 partial seasons) Running time 23-25 minutes First episode date 9 December 1948 Number of seasons 7 (3 partial seasons) Language English | 5/10 TV Original language(s) English Camera setup Multi-camera Original network NBC/ABC Final episode date 26 July 1955 Genre Game show | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Presented by Robert Trout, Walter Kiernan, John Charles Daly Similar Game show, Camel News Caravan, It's News to Me, Broadway Open House, The Voice of Firestone | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Who Said That? is a 1947–55 NBC radio-television game show, in which a panel of celebrities attempts to determine the speaker of a quotation from recent news reports. The series was first proposed and edited by Fred W. Friendly, later of CBS News.
Contents
Broadcast history
Who Said That? began in 1947 as an NBC Radio program with John Cameron Swayze as the emcee. It moved to television in December 1948, with Swayze as a regular panelist and the CBS news correspondent Robert Trout as the emcee until February 18, 1951, when the series ended for 14 months. Walter Kiernan took over as the second television emcee during an interrupted schedule from April 5 to 26, 1952, and April 13, 1953, to July 5, 1954. John Charles Daly, long-time host of What's My Line? on CBS, was the emcee for the final shortened season of the series, February 2 to July 26, 1955, when it aired on ABC. Recurring panelists included Morey Amsterdam, Al Capp, June Lockhart, Kitty Carlisle, Bennett Cerf, Oscar Levant, and columnists Bob Considine and Earl Wilson.
Sometimes, the source of the quotation was featured in silhouette delivering his own quotation. A home viewer who submitted a quotation used on the program won a prize, determined by the extent to which the panelists had erred in determining the source of the quotations.
Panelists and guest stars
For a time, journalist H. V. Kaltenborn and the actor Boris Karloff were also panelists. Kaltenborn was a former radio commentator known for his precise diction and recitations from memory. In 1948, he had called the election of Governor Thomas E. Dewey to the U.S. presidency. Before the night ended, however, Kaltenborn retracted his projection to verify the victory of President Harry S. Truman. Later in jest, Truman did a celebrated impersonation of Kaltenborn. Karloff was a mystery and adventure film star who later hosted the NBC series Thriller.
Other Who Said That? panelists included Groucho Marx, Frank Conniff, Deems Taylor, former child actress Peggy Ann Garner, Vanderbilt family heir Alfred Vanderbilt, a great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the American actress Dagmar, born Virginia Ruth Egnor (1921–2001), who used only the single name for identification.
Time slot
During much of its run, Who Said That? aired in the last half-hour of prime time, at 10:30pm on Mondays. From 1953 to 1954, it followed the anthology series Robert Montgomery Presents and aired opposite the live drama, Studio One on CBS.