I may put a few of these up today to make up for a paucity of them here recently. This is the episode of the game show I've Got a Secret for March 25, 1963 which someone just posted to YouTube — and by "just," I mean less than a half-hour before I noticed it there. I have not seen this since — and these are real numbers — it aired 62 years, 6 months and 14 days ago when I was 11 years and 23 days old.
Nevertheless, the moment I saw that composer Meredith Willson was the celebrity guest, I instantly remembered what his "secret" was and I remembered the name of Mr. Somerstein who played such an important role in it. I also remembered that Mssrs. Willson and Somerstein came back on a later episode and did a kind of sequel to the stunt on this one.
I enjoy a lot of the reruns of this series, probably to a large part because I recall them as a kid. Garry Moore was a great host and the panelists were all terrific, especially Bill Cullen, who they usually had go last because he so often guessed the secret. In fact, I've seen episodes where I believe Cullen figured out the secret-to-be-guessed right away but played dumb so as to get some laughs and/or not ruin the playing of the game or have the show, which was broadcast live, run short. If you watch the whole episode, you'll see him guess the second secret the minute it's his turn.
If you do want to watch the whole episode, either click here and it will play on your screen or watch the embed below which I've configured to start with the Meredith Willson spot late in the show, then move the slider back to the beginning. There's nothing earth-shattering here; just a good example of a kind of game show that they don't make any more, where you were watching people being playful and clever instead of watching someone try to win a million dollars and a Porsche…