What's My Line? - Yogi Berra; Louis Jourdan; Steve Lawrence [panel] (Apr 26, 1964)
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2014
- MYSTERY GUEST: Yogi Berra; Louis Jourdan
PANEL: Dorothy Kilgallen, Steve Lawrence, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf
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![What's My Line? - The McGuire Sisters; Charles Nelson Reilly [panel] (May 3, 1964)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/w9tXlbDAZek/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - The McGuire Sisters; Charles Nelson Reilly [panel] (May 3, 1964)](/img/tr.png)
![What's My Line? - Bill Hartack; Beatrice Lillie; Allan Sherman [panel] (May 10, 1964)](/img/n.gif)
The strikingly handsome and courteous Monsieur Jourdan had one of the longest lasting marriages in Hollywood history -- almost 70 years (!) to his beautiful wife Berthe (aka "QuiQui").
Do has Robert Young...same women..65years..and others as well..Jimmy Stewart and Deloris..65 years also..my parents..66years
@@susanslack6347 Your parents were a longtime married couple? May I ask who?
Merveilleux! Such a gentlemen! Beautiful marriage too! Un brave homme!🌞
@@johnwolffe8473 Unsurprisingly, you thought wrong.
O 1:53 no@@susanslack6347
At 10:08 Dorothy innocently asks the 'cow lady', 'Could I use your services ?'
Roaring laughter from the audience !!! And then John tries to make an aclaration and complicates it further, even more laughs !!! Evidence that the spontaneous situations of real life are funnier than any written fiction no matter how clever or witty the comedy writer may be.
This program was 1-derful !!! Blessings from San Juan PR !!!
Berra appeared three times on What's My Line: 1951, 1961, and this episode.
Bennett Cerf's comment about Berra waking up and being the manager of the Mets (who were in their infancy in 1964 and a 100+ game loser) was prophetic. Berra won the pennant with the Yankees in 1964 and was promptly fired. He later managed the Mets and won a pennant with them in 1973.
Jourdan, both appearances as Mystery Guest, was incredibly charming and great fun on the show.
The Louis Jourdan segment was one of the better MG segments. His goofy French accent took them a while to realize he really was French, which made me laugh.
I liked that "Ooh la la!" It sound like something an American would say to imitate a Frenchman.
It was one of the better mystery-guest segments because he was was an utterly charming dreamboat.
Very clever of a Frenchman to pretend to be French lol. Got Steve Lawrence fooled good!😅
Louis is a gentleman because he kissed the ladie's hands😍😂
Louis Jourdan: one of the handsomest men to ever step in front of a movie camera. I can't believe that Arlene didn't remember HIM!
Go look up his first appearance from 1954 where he put on an American accent it, is hysterical.
Agreed. He was deliciously handsome. And French to boot. They don't make em like him anymore.
Hitchcock did not want to use him in his debut in the 'Paradine Case' because he thought he wasn't sexy enough!
She was involved with him.
When he appeared as a panelist, Arlene flirted with him like crazy. Hard to believe she forgot that.
What a trooper John was.
Despite having a bad sunburn, he agrees to carry on.
z Ain't that the truth!!!
And you can even tell in black & white that he's burnt!
That sunburn hurts me to look at. Back then there wasn't much to relieve the burn.
Louis Jourdan refused to do propoganda films for Germany, went to unoccupied France and was captured by the Gestapo. He escaped and then joined the French Underground. He's still kicking at age 93.
Oh kudos to him for standing up to the nazis. And for escaping.
The regular panelists are all so graceful, well-spoken, debonair and sophisticated.
...with an obstentacious display of fur, jewels, and high brow attire. I agree, they are quite formal in speech and dress.
@@donnawoodford6641 Better than the way they dress on tv now.
@@ald668 Idk, I haven't owned a tv in 7+ years.
@@donnawoodford6641 I can see why. Too much negativity on it, etc.
I didn’t realize Louie Jourdan had such a charming personality!
Got Yogi's autograph when he was playing on #2 golf course in Pinehurst. He was very kind to a bunch of kids.
He's French....doing a French Accent .....Classic and Brilliant
He’s over exaggerating it.
Man that Louis Jourdan was smooth...
Another wonderful episode. I came here today for a pick me up.
It worked. I really appreciate all these episodes.
Sanity, in a too often insane world.
One of the funniest mystery celebrities
"Well I don't know yet"
I just loved Yogi.
Surprising that Arlene does not remember Louis Jourdan on WML -- for she was the one who identified him in the 1954 episode. At that point, he was hard to forget. He had starred in a Broadway play titled "The Immoralist" which Arlene plugged for him.
soulierinvestments: And that play, Andre Gide's The Immoralist co-starred James Dean in one of his earliest performances...True to his unpredictable fashion he received rave reviews and abruptly quit very soon after the play opened. Straight to Hollywood and East of Eden
Well, I think his mystery guest appearances were about 10 years apart.
@@marycatherine7253 I know, but it’s strange how confident she was, plus the panellist appearance was not so long before, and I’d never forget meeting him for the rest of my life anyway.
You believed it? I donno. I wondered if she was playing one up man ship. Surprised one so smart woukd forget him. Seemed to me she might have been effecting the airs that she, being she, would not necessarily remember "just" this charmer
alcohol will do that to you
Yogi did indeed manage the Mets in the 70s, winning the NL pennant in 1973. He also PLAYED for the Mets (briefly) a year after this and was a coach on the 1969 Miracle Met world champions.
Yep
Yep
I adore these shows...fabulous and fantastic entertainment!!❤
Mr Jourdan. suave as ever.
Indeed
I was almost three years old when this aired; one reason I watch these is I'm pretty sure our Zenith television set in our family room was tuned to this that night.
Thomas Simmons. Very good memory for a 3 yr. old..
Yogi got a raw deal with the Yankees in '64. Despite many naysayers, he led the Yankees to the pennant. His reward...getting fired, and being replaced by the manager who led the Cardinals to the World Series that same year (Johnny Keane).
1964 was the year that the Yankees were sold to CBS. They were embroiled in a 3-way pennant race with the Chicago White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles all season. (Their 5-4 come-from-behind victory over Baltimore (at Yankee Stadium), in the afternoon on the day of this show, brought their record to 4-4.) In the end, they managed to win the pennant with a 99-63 record, beating out Chicago by 1 game and Baltimore by 2.
In 1965, the Yankees finished in 6th place in the American League, with a record of 77-85 - their first full-season losing record since 1925. And things got worse in 1966, when they finished dead last in the American League, with a full-season record of 70-89. The Yankees really didn't return to consistent excellence until 1972 or 1973, when the consortium led by George Steinbrenner bought the club.
Not only was Arlene present both times Louis Jourdan was on the show, she sat beside him when he was on the panel and she guest him when he was a mystery guest.
I find it incredible that she forgot. I know it was a decade before but his previous mystery-guest appearance was extremely memorable. And even had I met him ten times I would never forget a single one of them.
I love Dorothy in this episode lol.
Stephanie McCoy, I never cease to be amazed by her brilliance.
Yogi just passed away. RIP
jourdan has to be in the top ten of all-time mystery guests with his variety of accents and aplomb. and a better actor than appreciated- he was relegated to playing dastardly villains after he got too old to play the suave hero.
+bigred997
Your description of Louis Jourdan reminds me of the nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner": he stuck in his thumb and pulled out aplomb ...
As an aside, is your screen name because you are/were associated with Cornell?
Louis Jourdan WANTED to play roles that were far away from his looks. He was tired of being typecast as a cooing lover. He was still very handsome in his last movies - he aged extremely well, like Cary Grant.
See Hitchcock's 'The Paradine Case', (a great underrated movie), and see his first role, when Hitchcock didn't want him because he was not good-looking enough.
Hey Yogi, we may be lost but we're making good time, Yogi has played in more world series' and has more rings than any other player , nether of which will ever be surpassed
Many years ago, I was told that the cartoon character, Yogi Bear, was named after this man.
Coming from the other side of the world, and way before the internet was invented, I had no idea who he was, until now!
Great comment by Arlene at 14:26: you have something to do with cows but your name is not Ferdinand. That was a reference to Ferdinand the Bull, the subject of a Disney short from the 1930s. I think we know what service Arlene was ruling out. lol
The panelists always dress and look so nice.
RE: Mrs. Berra brought out. It's all terribly charming, but it results in one of the few times I can recall that [ 8:05 ] the overhead microphone shows up on screen. Well, the shadow of it anyway
Yogi: "Nobody goes there any more...it's TOO CROWDED!"
"The towels at that hotel were great...I could barely get my suitcase closed!"
cant forget its aint over til its over.
@@hifijohn "I never said HALF the things I said!"
"Ninety percent of baseball is mental; the other half is physical."
RE: Yogi Berra vs. Yogi Bear: for the historical record, the cartoon character (1958) came after the baseball star (1946).
Berra is still alive, age 89.
AS to Bennett's prophetic question about waking up to discover Berra manages the New York Mets -- Berra managed the Yankees in 1964 and 1984. Berra managed the Mets for 3 years in 1972 - 75. Nice work if you can get it.
He also played in my hometown for a couple of season; Norfolk, Virginia and The Norfolk Tars!
1973 was a good year for the Mets. :)
Yog' played regularly until 1963 and a little in '65 w/Mets.
He would have been happy coaching for Gil and he said that he accepted the Mets manager's job because of his loyalty to the other coaches.
BTW - The late Carmen was the brains of the outfit.
Carmen Berra was one of these people who could complete a crossword puzzle in minutes, according to her granddaughter. A sharp lady who saw to it Yogi was not being taken advantage of.
hcombs0104 Yogi should've stood up when his own wife was brought out and introduced.
Arlene Francis looks so doggone alluring and sexy in her gown and Louis Jourdan is quite the rascal in this WML eppie!! :) :)
I looked up this episode after watching Louis Jourdan’s charming 1954 appearance and it turns out it was on my birthday - though long before I was born.
These things happen.
I recognized Louis Jourdan immediately from the Columbo episode he played a role in fourteen years after this appearance.
Handsome actor Gigi one of my favourite movies
Yogisms in person!Love Yogi..
My goodness, the Cow groomer is stunningly beautiful.
A knockout, I agree.
RE: Arlene's "Come Home Martin. All is Forgiven." to laughs. It was the oldest cliche for what a wife says to her straying husband after his affair has gone south. Martin was then in Hollywood embroiled in Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie." Whether he was embroiled with Tippi Hedren [level-headed Minnesota girl] was undoubtedly up to Tippi.
Where do you find these things out? lol I've been trying to read up on Arlene and Martin and John and Dorothy and there's so little info. Martin actually strayed from the loveliest of ever woman to grace this earth?
Regarding Arlene's remark telling Martin to come home. I never saw what Arlene saw in Martin Gable. He wasn't an attractive man and his personality was a bit peculiar. So much for the theory they were so in love and had a rare marriage by Hollywood standards. No surprise because Arlene was always the flirtatious type. Arlene's first appearance on WML is my favorite; she was in the fashion of the day and looked fabulous!
@@belindaalbright8798 I find Martin Gable frightfully attractive, and I'm not entirely sure why, but I can entirely see why Arlene would. Their affection for each other makes me go far more gooey inside than any more conventional or stereotypical match.
I believe they genuinely loved and respected each other. I'd say they chose wisely, and understood the importance of humour and comradarie. Your appearance can change in an instant, so it's not the best basis for a happy marriage. They chose wisely.
I totally understand the attraction between Arlene and Martin.
bennett's question was totally ironic considering berra would eventually manage the mets and lose the WS with them as well.
by 1973 they had won one World Series and were a much better team than they were in 1964. The sad thing is that Yogi lasted only a year with the Yankees, and took them to the WS. Then after 40 years of unparalleled dominance, the Yankees did not appear in another World Series for 12 years.
Steve Lawrence - One of my favorites.
he was using his own voice toward the end great guest!
Wow he fooled them with a French accent and he was French.
Poor Yogi....just 5 months after this broadcast on WML, he would lead the Yankees to the American league pennant in this his first season as a manager, only to miss winning the World Championship by one game....days after the Series ended, he was FIRED by the Yankees....forever an American treasure....Here's to you Yogi (toasting a Yoo Hoo of course)
i wonder which was worse that firing or when George fired him 8-10 games into a season?
+orgonko the wildly untamed
Yogi reacted much more negatively to the firing by Steinbrenner because he continued as manager only on having received the promise that he would be allowed to manage for the entire season. He stayed away from Old Timers' Day and anything else related to the Yankees for a number of years after that.
+Will Drucker
The Yankee front office made the decision to fire Yogi in August when they felt that he had lost control of the players and that there was no chance of them winning the AL pennant. Even though they came within a game of winning the World Series under Yogi, they stuck with their decision. And part of the reason they did so was they had an opportunity to hire the winning World Series manager.
The Cardinals had also decided to fire Johnny Keane at the end of the 1964 season because in the middle of the season they felt they had no chance to win the pennant that year. They were somewhere in the middle of the pack and they did fire GM Bing Devine shortly after he made a controversial trade of Ernie Broglio and some throw ins for Lou Brock. The consensus was that the Cubs had picked the Cardinals pocket.
But for Brock, leaving the Cubs was like leaving prison. Hitting just .251 with 10 steals and 2 homers with the Cubs over 1/3 of the season, in the other 2/3 with the Cardinals, he hit .348 with 33 steals and 10 homers. It helped ignite the team to a torrid second half and when the Phillies collapsed at the end of the season, the Cardinals were able to take advantage and sneak in to win the pennant and the World Series.
Yankee brass knew they had to have a good reason for replacing the popular Yogi. What better reason than to hire the winning manager of the World Series. But Keane was the wrong manager for a veteran team used to doing things a certain way. He also didn't have a personality that fit in with the New York media. And the Yankees had grown old and injury riddled. Ford, Mantle, Maris, Howard, Tresh, Kubek and Bouton would soon lose their effectiveness as players due to age and/or injuries. They had already seen Gil McDougald retire relatively early a couple of years earlier and soon Bobby Richardson would do the same.
And the Yankee farm system for the first time in decades had run dry. They made some bad decisions and were also paying the price for having undervalued black players for so long.
And a bit of irony with Yogi's appearance on WML in 1964: by the end of the year, CBS would take over ownership of the team and oversee one of the worst periods in Yankee history.
@@orgonkothewildlyuntamed6301 there is a 180 degree difference in class between steinbrenner and yogi
Steve Lawrence was such a great addition to the panel, I wonder if he was ever offered a permanent seat. Or were the producers really determined to keep it rotating as it been for so many years since Fred Allen's death?
Joe Postove I think Steve Lawrence was probably too big a name on his own, too much on the rise, to have been made a regular, as opposed to a frequent guest. The only time the producers seemed to be seriously considering filling the 4th slot permanently after Fred's death was Ernie Kovacs. Steve was surprisingly great on WML, I agree. I had no idea he was so quick with the ad libs.
What's My Line? Joe Postove
He did seem to consistently have a hard time with those negatively phrased questions, though (as witnessed here at both 10:45 and 17:48).
SaveThe TPC Oh yes-- and he keeps doing it on other shows, too. It's rather funny, since he's obviously a very smart guy. Just a mental block, I guess. No one ON the show ever adequately explained to him what he was doing wrong with his negatively phrased questions, but I've wondered whether he was tipped off about this offscreen, but simply couldn't get his mind around it anyway. :)
The panelists are gowned to the hilt!
B-movie fans should recognize Louis Jourdan for his work in both "Swamp Thing" movies during the 1980's.
A-movie fans should recognize Louis Jordan for his work in "Gigi", best picture winner for 1958. He also sang the Oscar winning theme song from that movie.
I was today years old to learn "Elsie" in reference to a cow in all cartoons, jokes, and social references I grew up with is based on a real cow.
Pull the udder one
I just read on Wikipedia the cartoon character was invented in 1936, well before any of live cows.
Yogi imo is in the argument for best MLB catcher ever. If you bring up Johnny Bench my reply is Berra was as good(if not better) offensively & was w/o a doubt a better receiver.
RIP Yogi :-(
From tv.com:
GSN cuts it out for advertising time, but on each and every WML, John Daly would tell viewers how to write in to become a possible contestant. He would read CBS's address. (Side note: Of late, during the end credits, Johnny Olson sometimes announces the address for viewers to write to, for the purpose of obtaining free studio audience tickets.) Tonight, we got to see the tail end of John's address segment, with much laughter going on. By the dialogue, seemingly John got confused between the phone number and the ZIP Code. ZIP Codes were still fairly new. The U.S. Post Office Department introduced the "Zoning Improvement Plan" (ZIP) Codes on July 1, 1963, and initially had a hard time convincing the public to use them.
I don't think he did it in every show. One of the rare shows I have in complete form has John saying, just before giving out the information, that it had been perhaps too long since the last time he'd made the announcement. I'd imagine this was an easy bit to include or drop on a week-to-week basis to help time the shows .
What's My Line? I remember noticing that.
Aired on my 2nd birthday!!
These things happen.
If not for the Phil Linz/harmonica episode, who knows what would've happened...Yogi's handling somehow turned the team around. Whitey Ford's inability to start Game 1, although Mel Stottlemyre did a commendable job as a rookie pitcher, probably made a difference. Whitey, like Andy Pettit, was a money-pitcher...if the game was important, he was there to win it...and he and Yogi were great friends....But Ford was hurt, and could not pitch, so Stottlemyre pitched Game 7.
Louis Jourdan was a very handsome man.
The Elsie The Cow Milker was funny. Watching them trying to figure this out and the audience laughter was something.
Yogi must have just been hired as the Yankees Manager.
Louis Jordan from the film Can-Can and Octapussy!
& she was one of the more attractive guests
"not unless you want to .."
😂
I love watching them....it so good...
And poor Yogi got fired that year, even though they won the pennant! He was fired the day after losing the series to the Cardinals. Conjecture has it that it was for an incident in August between Yogi and a harmonica playing player on the team bus. See Wiki for details.
Yep, say what you will about George Steinbrenner, he was never daft enough to fire a manager for winning the league pennant right after the World Series. It turned out to be a lucky break for Yogi, though, since the Yankees went into a tailspin and didn't return to the playoffs for 12 years.
krasnykavkaz It was a very complex thing. Ralph Houk, his predecessor as manager was the GM now and was convinced Yogi had lost control of the team when the Yankees were floundering in much of the season so in August he'd decided to fire Berra at season's end and secretly made a deal with Cardinals manager Johnny Keane to take over the next year since Keane was feuding with Cardinals management and the team was floundering them. Then a strange thing happened to upset the plans. The Yankees staged a turnaround and won the pennant by one game while the Cardinals benefited from an epic collapse late in the season by the Phillies to win the NL pennant so you had Keane managing against the team he knew already he was going to manage the next season! Things would have really been dicey for Houk if the Yankees actually won the WS but in the end their losing the seventh game gave him his out. Keane ended up being a disaster as the Yankees fell to sixth in 1965 and didn't win another pennant until 1976, coincidentally the very year Yogi came back to the Yankees as a coach on Billy Martin's staff. Berra was a player, manager or coach on every Yankee pennant from 1947 to 1981 (19 in all).
+Mark Richardson Yogi did a good job as manager in 1964 with the Yankees and would later manage the Mets to a pennant in 1973, but he was never considered in a top echelon of managers. Had the Yankees not fired him after 1964, the team still would have collapsed due to the fact they were an old and injured team that managed one last pennant before falling apart and they also had a barren minor league system by then.
+Joe Postove
Or, better still, read David Halberstam's excellent book "October 1964," which deals with both the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals that season.
+krasnykavkaz
Yet he did, indeed, fire manager Dick Howser after a highly successful 1980 season, in which the Yankees won the AL East with a record of 103-59 - but lost to the AL West champion Kansas City Royals 3 games to 0 in the AL Championship Series. (5 years later, Howser managed the Royals to not only the AL West title and AL Championship, but to a 7-game World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.)
Yogi was such a rough hewn looking guy that he seemed older than his 38 almost 39 years here. Mrs. Berra was a shock as she seem to be in her early 30's (which is unlikely because they were married in 1949). Yogi is still living today at 89 years of age!
Carmen Berra was actually 38 years old here.
+Joe Postove
Yogi's wisdom includes him pursuing Carmen to be his wife. She was a beautiful woman inside (by all accounts) and out, intelligent, charming, had a good head for business and was a devoted wife and mother.
15 years later, Louis Jourdan would be reduced to guest roles on TV shows such as "Charlie's Angels" and "Vega$".
The fifties were the golden years.
And the sixties?
Louis Jordan had a brilliant tactic: overdo his real French accent.
RE: Yogi Berra. It would be darned interesting to know if he really did say all the things attributed to him. My two favorites for what they are worth -- "When you come to the fork in the road, take it." and when asked if he wanted his pizza cut into 4 or 8 slices "Cut it in 4 slices. I don't think I can eat 8."
His good buddy and childhood friend Joe Garagiola told a lot of funny stories about Yogi that cemented his reputation as a lovable Malaprop-spewing naif. In reality, Yogi was a highly focused and slightly grumpy individual with a driving will to win, which partially explains the 10 World Series rings he has. As for his "Yogi-isms," Berra has stated for the record "I really didn't say everything I said."
@@krasnykavkaz Garagiola (also a major league catcher, but not of star quality) grew up across the street from Yogi. During the broadcast of a ball game that I was watching many years ago, Joe related that Yogi's old house had a plaque saying "Yogi Berra grew up here". Joe's announcing partner asked if there was a plaque on Joe's old house, to which Joe replied that there was and it read "Yogi Berra grew up across the street from here".
I love those expressions. I hope I remember them.
@@shirleyrombough8173 he had so many quotes
The pizza one is my favorite.
As usual, Bennett Cerf attempted to milk the subject.
Yogi Berra's wife is cute. (But so is he!)
Yankovic she's related to wierd Al !
So besides Louis Jourdan, who played a villain in "Octopussy", who else that was involved with James Bond films appeared on this show? Mystery Guest and/or Guest Panelist? (And yes, this includes the Syndicated Revival):
Ursula Andress
Sean Connery
Eunice Gayson
Roger Moore
Anthony Newley
Nancy Sinatra
Jill St. John
Sean Connery was also a Mystery Guest. The Mystery Guest from a few shows back, Louis Armstrong, sang the theme to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" ("We Have All the Time in the World"). Nancy Sinatra, who sang "You Only Live Twice," appeared at least twice as a MG (once with then-husband Tommy Sands). Eunice Gayson, who appeared in "Dr. No," was a guest panelist, substituting for Arlene in 1960. Frequent guest panelist David Niven starred in the Bond spoof, "Casino Royale," which technically isn't part of the Bond franchise as we know it, but is often included in the series' history. I'm sure I'm forgetting or overlooking others!
Todd Brandt Forgot about Louis Armstrong! Thanks!
Bennett's comment on Yogi managing the Mets would come very true in a few years and then he would be back with the Yankees to the end.
Aside from a number of years' rupture after George Steinbrenner fired him early in the 1985 season.....
Today's best hitters very seldom swing at bad pitches, Yogi used to hit them over the wall.
Alfredo Santiago. YES...To strike out Yogi, all one had to do was to throw it over the plate..
I knew Jordan looked familiar!! He was Dr Arcane on Swamp Thing!!! Wow
I guess you never saw Gigi?
Mrs. Berra is a beautiful lady and has an equally beautiful name-Carmen.
So Louis Jourdan, a French guy tries to fool the panel using that crazy French accent? Nice curve ball! Can't fool Arlene or Bennett for too long though.
Joe Postove Actually, he did have them flummoxed and confused until the last two questions. For someone with a strong accent he turned his greatest weakness (ie.the accent) into his greatest strength. A very smart and great actor.
12:49 - 12:58
Oh Dorothy! Too adorable for words :3
The Yankees did make it to the World Series in 1964 but lost in seven games to St. Louis. They didn't appear in the Series again until 1976.
Which is very ironic because St. Louis is where Yogi was born. Faced his hometown team.
Yogi was an old-looking 38 (almost 39).
Now Steve Lawrence is gone on 3/7/24, at age 88. He was born Sidney Leibowitz in Brooklyn, NY.
such irony. yogi's blow-up at phil linz on the team bus did in his control of the players and he did go on to manage the mets to a world series appearance in 1973.
In which they, like the Yankees, played and lost a hard-fought 7-game series, losing to the Oakland Athletics. The 1973 Mets finished the regular season with a record of 83-79 - and somehow that was good enough to win the NL East that year. It may still stand as the worst-ever regular-season record for a World Series contestant team.
The Yankees' 1964 regular season record was 99-63. The second-place Chicago White Sox finished just 1 game behind, at 98-64, and the third-place Baltimore Orioles finished just 2 games behind, at 97-65.
(Just think: two years later, in 1966, the Yankees would finish dead last in the American League, and the Orioles would win one of the best-pitched World Series ever in a 4-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers.)
+jmccracken1963
You are correct that the 1973 still have the dubious distinction of the worst regular season record for a team that played in the World Series. But a minor correction that made it even worse than what you listed.
The weather was miserable in Chicago for the final weekend of the regular season in 1973. That's where the Mets were scheduled to finish out the regular season. Coming into Sunday, they still hadn't been able to play and had three games to make up. The Phillies were eliminated while the Cubs and Expos could no better than tie for the pennant in what has come to be known as the NL Least 1973 season.
Going into the final day of the regular season, the Mets had come on strong after being in last place as late as in August. Rallied by Tug McGraw's "You gotta believe" and seeing a number of key players come back from injuries, they were now sitting on top of the standings with a mediocre 80-78 record. The Cardinals were 80-81 and the Pirates were 79-81. The Mets were scheduled to play a double header with the Cubs to make up some of those postponed games, the Cards hosted the Phillies and the Expos were in Pittsburgh.
The Cardinals and Pirates both won their games. The Cards won 3-1, behind Rick Wise pitching 4 innings of hitless relief. Meanwhile, the Pirates scored 6 runs in the fourth inning en route to a 10-2 thrashing of Montreal. That eliminated the Expos and the Cubs.
But the Cubs still had something to play for when they took the field against the Mets on Sunday September 30, And the hearty fans at Wrigley Field saw a pitching duel between Jon Matlack and their own Rick Reuschel. It was still scoreless after 7 innings. In the bottom of the 8th, the Cubs pushed across the only run of the game on a two out single by Ron Santo. But by the time the second game was underway, the Cubs knew they had been mathematically eliminated.
Game two saw a match up of two quality veteran pitchers, Jerry Koosman for the Mets and Ferguson Jenkins for the Cubs. The Cubs were playing for pride and the opportunity to be spoilers. Plus after six straight 20 win seasons, Jenkins needed a win to have a .500 won-loss record. It turned out that the hero of game one would be the goat of game two. Ron Santo's error led to 3 first inning runs for the Mets. The Mets returned the favor with sloppy play in the second inning as two errors on the same play (by Wayne Garrett and Cleon Jones) helped the Cubs get two runs back. But Jones atoned for his error with a two run homer in the sixth and the Mets won going away, 9-2,
On what should have been the last day of the regular season, there was still the possibility of a three-way tie atop the NL East. The Cardinals had completed their regular season schedule with an 81-81 record. The Mets were 81-79 and were scheduled to play another doubleheader at Wrigley the next day. And the worst team in the NL, the San Diego Padres whose season should have ended on Saturday (they finished the regular season schedule at home but the Chargers had a football game at the same stadium on Sunday), would have to delay going home. Instead they had to travel to Pittsburgh to make up an earlier rain out. The Cards and Pirates (at 80-81) had to hope the Cubs could somehow sweep the Mets. All the Cards could do was watch and wait, while the Pirates (who most experts felt should have clinched the division by mid-September) would also have to beat the Padres.
The NL East was decided on Monday before mostly empty seats. But the integrity of baseball was evident. Only 2572 paying customers showed up at Three Rivers Stadium to see the Pirates keep their slim hopes alive. The normally hapless Padres had other plans. Surviving a three-run fourth inning after San Diego took a 2-0 lead, rookie Randy Jones blanked the Bucs the rest of the way with 9th inning help from Mike Corkins. The Padres tied the score in the fifth on two walks, a double steal and a throwing error. Then Jones drove in the winning and final run of the game in the sixth, helping his cause with a two out double. The Pirates were done.
But the Mets still needed to win at least one game in the double header with the Cubs to finish ahead of the Cardinals. On a cold, drizzly afternoon, the Mets' Tom Seaver was matched with Burt Hooton. Only 1913 paid to brave the elements and attend. Cleon Jones homered again to put the Mets on top in the second inning. A two run single by Jerry Grote padded the lead and two more runs in the fifth knocked out Hooton. Seaver faltered and a two-run homer by Rick Monday in the seventh cut the Mets lead to 6-4. But McGraw came in to pitch the final three innings without surrendering a run. The Mets were now NL East champs with an 82-79 record.
And that's where they finished the regular season. With matters decided, the second game was canceled rather than play a meaningless game under miserable conditions. And that's why the Mets didn't get a chance at win #83. The Reds, Dodgers and Giants all had better records by far in the regular season and Houston finished with a similar 82-80 record. But the Mets beat the Reds in the LCS and came within one game of winning the World Series.
Around that time, I had read that the teams winning games 2, 4 and 5 had the best correlation with winning the World Series. The Mets were the first team to win all three of those and still lose the World Series.
Yogi did manage the Mets
My fellow West Virginian Miss Yankovich is gorgeous. Can't believe Bennet didn't hit on her.
At 13:10, the lovely guest winks to a certain someone off-stage :)
Surely one of the least pleasant aspects to being a panel member would be having to come up with something new to say about their fellow panel members when introducing them. They must've hated having to constantly scrabble up shallow compliments for the person on the left.
Stephen Martin Bennett has it sussed usually by coming up with lame jokes and announcing that it was Daly who told him them before they came on tonight. Such a great tease that is!! Daly barely has any reply to them. Tonight he didn't need to do it with the sunburn.
I presume that Yogi Berra was a pretty big deal back then?
I guess John didn't see the monitor (could he see one?) when they put up Yogi's line. And then when he called for it to be done and it wasn't right away, I wonder if the director considered not doing it at all again?
Joe Postove I'd imagine there was a short burst of panic in the control room over this, yes. :)
Joe Postove
I've noticed that happening a couple of times on the show. The technical people were always on top of things and showed the contestant's line on the screen, whether John gave his usual speech about it or not. John may legitimately not have realized that, but the technical staff always obliged him by reposting the line whenever he mentioned it.
Joe Postove. Joe, who cares ?
I wish I could have seen that presentation that Ms. Vankovich did at the World's Fair! I wonder if she's still alive.
I visited Elsie at the Better Living exhibition at the '64 World's Fair and remember Elsie and that there was a young lady but never knew who she was until watching this episode just now!
How did they get Yogi so quick?
I just came from the other Jourdan episode, a decade earlier, and oh-my does 10 years change the looks of all the regular panelists!
When they guess the contestant so fast without any clues makes me wonder if someone in the audience speaks out to loud and the panelists hear them.
Ten World Series rings. TEN!
Even in b&w, Daly's face looks really sore.
Several panelists referred to how sad they weren't in color. I looked at the CBS' schedule for 1963-64 and I don't think any regular show was in color, even though I think "The Lucy Show" (smartly) was filmed in color for later syndication. You would think other rich production houses would have done the same. Everybody knew it was coming, and by the time syndication time came, stations would pay extra for color. I'm glad they didn't. It kept the early 60's look we're so fond of, but I think it would have made business sense. It would have been the smart move.
Joe Postove Lucy was *very* forward thinking in filming in color before "The Lucy Show" was broadcast in color. I'm not aware of any other series that did that (but I'm probably just ignorant-- there may well have been others). Filming in color wouldn't have been possible with WML, of course, since it was a live show. I know you're aware of this already, but for others who are not, the final season of WML was actually broadcast in color, but the videotapes are presumably lost. The only record we have of the final season are B&W kinescopes, just lie the rest of the series.
What's My Line? Lucy was filmed in color from the second season on. But I don't think CBS broadcast it in color until at least the third season 64-65, if that early (open to correction about this). As to What My Line color tapes, you might think Goodsen-Todman might have saved at least the final show and it sits somewhere waiting for it to be unveiled!
+What's My Line Surprisingly, seasons three through six of the syndicated Adventures of Superman series, 1954-58, were filmed in color, though few if any of the stations that bought the show in its first run were able to broadcast in color.
Regarding comments about Color broadcasting, it wasn't until the late 1970's that Color sets were a majority in the US
One asks if the animal is domesticated, and the answer is yes, another later asks is it a non domesticated animal. This happens every other show where the question has already been answered, but someone on the panel, obviously, wasn't paying attention! Kind of ticks me off as it happens a lot, and just shows the apathetic attitude of the panel as they have all done it multiple times. Still love the show, but! 😎✌💚
I notice that the director of this episode of WML? is Ira Skutch, who was hired by Goodson-Todman Productions in 1957 (after a decade spent working at NBC as stage manager, and later producer/director/writer, on several drama anthologies). He served as a producer for "I've Got A Secret" for a while, but his principal focus of endeavor for G-T at this time was "Match Game" on NBC.
Also: I noticed, en route to looking up something else for another comment/reply on this episode, that the New York Yankees had 4 off days in a row from 27-30 April, after beating Baltimore at Yankee Stadium on the afternoon of the day that this episode aired. Does anybody know whether this was because of bad weather in New York at the time - or was it because of something associated with the World's Fair? (The Yankees' next game would be on Friday, 1 May 1964, also at Yankee Stadium, against the Washington Senators.) That's an unusual number of days off in a row to have been scheduled.....
+jmccracken1963
It would appear that the second half of April was a wet one in 1964. The Mets were able to get in only one game of their series with the Cubs at Shea Stadium during the middle of the week leading up to this telecast. You are correct that 4 days off in a row would not be scheduled (except for the All Star Game break). Yankee Stadium was far enough away from the site of the World's Fair that there would be no reason to leave those days unscheduled and the worst case would have been that they would have arranged for both the Yankees and Mets to be on the road at that time and at home at the same time later in the season to compensate (which they rarely did back then).
I have a way to download the original 1964 schedule if solid confirmation is needed, but I think it is pretty safe to say that the conjecture of bad weather is on solid (if very wet) ground.
We expected to see Richard Snyder appear as a guest contestant in this episode.. but he isn't there.. instead TWO celebrity guests, which is very unusual in the format. Searched all the other episodes and cant find Richard Snyder.. a cake decorator and culinary arts instructor from Detroit. Anybody seen him in an episode.. ??
Who is "we"?
Anyhow, I don't remember nor can I find a listing for any segment with a contest by that name, or with that occupation. Are you sure you're not thinking of the syndicated WML?
What's My Line? Nn
Vahan: re Zip Code. Remember the little cartoon guy who was created to advertise the changeover? Does the USPS ever use that character any more?
Chris Barat
www.npm.si.edu/zipcodecampaign/p1.html
postalmuseum.si.edu/museum/1d_MrZIP.html
+Chris Barat The cartoon figure is called Mr. ZIP (all caps, since ZIP is an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan). He had been pretty much retired by the Postal Service by the 1980's, but was brought bank in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of the ZIP Code.
"Mail early in the day to speed your letter on it's way." Mr. Zip
yogi advertised for yoo hoo choclate drinks
Any woman whose name ends with -vitch is both beautiful and funny !
Read about guest Susie Vankovich here: newspaperarchive.com/charleston-daily-mail-may-05-1964-p-18/
it is sad how francis talks down to people who are not rich