Match Game

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{{Infobox_television

| show_name = The Match Game / Match Game 7x
| image = Image:Match Game2.JPG
| caption = Match Game title card.
| format = Game Show
| runtime = 25-30 Minutes
| creator = Mark Goodson and Bill Todman
| starring = Gene Rayburn (62-84), Ross Shafer (90-91) and Michael Burger (98-99); along with a slew of celebrity panelists
| country = USA
| rating=Template:TV-PG
| network = NBC (1962-1969 & 1983-1984), CBS (1973-1979), ABC (1990-91) & syndicated (1975-1981 (weekly), 1979-1982 (daily) & 1998-1999 Weekdays)
| first_aired = December 31, 1962
| last_aired = September 10, 1999
| num_episodes = 1800+

|}} Match Game was a long-running American television game show in which contestants teamed with celebrities trying to answer fill-in-the-blank questions. The most famous versions of the 1970s and 1980s involved contestants trying to match six celebrities.

Contents 1 Broadcast history 2 Programming History 3 The Revivals 4 Hosts and celebrity panelists 5 Main game 6 Super Match 6.1 Audience Match 6.2 Head-to-Head Match 7 Rule Changes in Other Versions 7.1 The Match Game (1962-1969) 7.2 The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour (1983-1984) 7.3 Match Game (1990-1991) 7.4 Match Game (1998-99) 8 Pilots 9 Versions outside the USA 10 Match Game, the slot machine 11 In Pop Culture 12 External links

Broadcast history

The Match Game premiered December 31, 1962 continuing through September 26, 1969 on NBC for 1760 episodes. Although the general premise was the same, the rules of this version were significantly different from those of later versions and the subject matter was much more staid and tame.

CBS, which had brought back fellow game show staple The Price Is Right in 1972, revived The Match Game on July 2, 1973 as Match Game '73. For the next several seasons, the title would be updated to reflect the year.

Ratings were initially poor, and CBS issued a cancellation notice to the show's producers. However, it was not then a common network practice to yank failing shows off the air at the same moment their fate had been decided. Thus, "Match Game" was expected to run out the string on its original commitment of episodes before leaving the schedule. At this point, the creative staff (notably Dick DeBartolo) asked whether the writers could inject some outrageous and suggestive humor into the bland questions, since the show would soon be off the air anyway. The producers agreed. Some of the more racy double-entendres made it to air as Gene Rayburn and the celebrities made it a point to not notice the double-entendre nature of the answer. As the content transformed into the "naughty" variety most people remember the show for, ratings suddenly improved, and CBS "un-cancelled" the series. "Match Game" would thereafter become the highest-rated show in daytime from 1974 to 1976.

An interesting historical footnote to the daytime version of the show in the 1970s was that a week's worth of episodes were taped in one day. There would be "refreshments" for the celebrities between the tapings for each day and, as a result, some of the celebrities, including Gene Rayburn, would get drunker as the week's shows progressed. Whenever watching a show where everyone seems totally out-of-control, it was likely because it was taped Thursday or Friday show.

CBS finally canceled the show on April 20, 1979, then called Match Game '79, after 1445 episodes due to various time slot changes and Richard Dawson's absence. The show continued production without the year in the title and entered daily syndication the next fall, even airing on many CBS affiliates. The daily syndicated show ran until September 10, 1982, although reruns aired on some stations in the 1985-1986 Season.

Dawson's leaving Match Game is one of the more interesting game show stories of the 1970s. In 1976, during the run of Match Game 76, Richard Dawson got his own game show, Family Feud. Family Feud was an incredibly popular show and. as such, its success inflated Richard Dawson's ego. His disagreements with the Goodson-Todman production company, which produced both shows, became problematic. There was not much they could do to Dawson on Family Feud, as he was seen as being critical to the show's success. The first public salvo fired by Goodson-Todman was to change Match Game's format so as to give Dawson less of a role on the show. As the show had evolved, it was common knowledge (or at least believed) that Dawson was, in fact, the best player and players had the best odds of matching him in the Big Money Super Match. As a result, almost every player trying the Big Money Super Match picked him as the celebrity they tried to match. Goodson-Todman changed the format of the game by introducing the big money star wheel which randomly selected the player which they would try to match. Dawson took exception to this change and effectively, "checked out" from then on. Although he continued to play the game, he would not joke around and show the personality that made him popular in the first place. As a result, Dawson and Match Game soon parted ways in 1978.

As an interesting footnote to Dawson, the first time the Big Money Super Match wheel was spun in a game, it landed on Dawson. This prompted all the other celebrities to in jest, walk off the set.

It is also worth noting that, while Brett Somers is one of the celebrities that is most associated with Match Game, she was not originally part of the cast. According to Gene Rayburn in an interview several years after the fact, when the show started, the producers wanted Jack Klugman as a panelist. Klugman agreed to be a panelist on the condition that they would give some work to his wife at the time, Brett Somers. Brett Somers turned out to be a natural for the format and Jack Klugman turned out to be a dull panelist. So, Brett, who wasn't doing much else at the time, became a regular.

The weekly syndicated nighttime version, Match Game PM ran from September 8, 1975 to September 13, 1981. After 1979, the two syndicated versions weren't packaged together and in some instances, could be seen on different stations in the same market.

Reruns of the CBS and Rayburn-syndicated versions currently air on the Game Show Network (GSN).

Programming History

• December 31, 1962-September 26, 1969, NBC. Weekdays at 4:00PM (This version only ran for 25 minutes).
• July 2, 1973-August 15, 1975, CBS. Weekdays at 3:30 PM.*
• August 18-November 28, 1975, CBS. Weekdays at 3:00 PM.*
• September 8, 1975-September 13, 1981, syndicated. Weekly.**
• December 1, 1975-November 4, 1977, CBS. Weekdays at 3:30PM.*
• November 7-December 16, 1977, CBS. Weekdays at 11:00 AM.*
• December 19, 1977-April 20, 1979, CBS. Weekdays at 4:00 PM.*
• September 10, 1979-September 10, 1982, syndicated. Daily.***
• July 16, 1990-July 12, 1991, ABC. Weekdays at 12Noon.
• September 14, 1998-September 10, 1999, syndicated. Daily.
• On CBS-TV: The Game Show Title known as "MATCH GAME 73 (1973)", "MATCH GAME 74 (1974)", "MATCH GAME 75 (1975)", "MATCH GAME 76 (1976)", "MATCH GAME 77 (1977)", "MATCH GAME 78 (1978)" & "MATCH GAME 79 (1979)."
  • On Syndicated: The Nighttime Game Show Program known as "MATCH GAME PM."
    • Also On Syndicated: The Weekday (Weeknight) Game Show Program known as "MATCH GAME."

(all times are EST)

The Revivals

Beginning October 31, 1983 two game shows were revived and made up the hybrid NBC's The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, a daytime series that ran until July 27, 1984. Two unsuccessful revivals were attempted in the 1990s: from July 16, 1990 to July 12, 1991 on ABC and during the 1998-1999 season in syndication.

In 2006 the series will be bought back as one of seven game shows being used in "Gameshow Marathon," which will air on CBS. Ricki Lake will serve as host with Betty White and George Foreman signing on as panelists for this portion of this seven-week program.

Hosts and celebrity panelists

Gene Rayburn hosted all versions of the show through 1984. Ross Shafer hosted the 1990 version, and Michael Burger hosted the 1998 version.

Image:Mgpm77i.jpg

Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers were regular celebrity panelists through most of the 1973-82 version's run (they would customarily sit on the top right and top center seats, respectively); Richard Dawson was also a regular from 1973 through 1978 (his customary seat was bottom center). From 1981 to 1982, McLean Stevenson was a regular as well and he sat in Dawson's former seat. Game show hosts such as Bob Barker, Bert Convy, Tom Kennedy, Bill Cullen, Peter Marshall and Allen Ludden made occasional appearances as panelists. Other frequent panelists from this era included Bart Braverman, Joyce Bulifant, Gary Burghoff, Bill Daily, Patti Deutsch, David Doyle, Patty Duke Astin, Fannie Flagg (usually sat bottom right), Holly Hallstrom, Elaine Joyce, Vicki Lawrence, Dick Martin, Lee Meriwether, Juliet Mills, Louisa Moritz, Jo Ann Pflug, Nipsey Russell, Avery Schreiber, Debralee Scott, Connie Stevens, Kaye Stevens, Marcia Wallace and Betty White.

The 1983-1984 version that aired as part of The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour featured no regular panelists other than co-host Jon Bauman, who hosted the Hollywood Squares segment and sat on the panel during the Match Game and Super Match segments. Many of the show's guests, however, had prior Match Game experience including Bauman, who appeared as "Bowzer". Original panelist Charles Nelson Reilly did appear on this version, as did Chuck Woolery, who promoted his new game show Scrabble.

Charles Nelson Reilly was the only permanent panelist for the 1990-1991 version. Other semi-regulars during this era included Bill Kirchenbauer, Ronn Lucas (with his puppet-dragon Scorch), Sally Struthers, Fred Travalena and Brad Garrett as well as several past semi-regulars mentioned above. On three separate occasions during this run of the series, Brett Somers returned to renew her comic rivalry with Reilly.

The 1998-1999 version featured only five panelists instead of the usual six; of these, three were permanent (Vicki Lawrence, Judy Tenuta and Nell Carter) with a fourth (George Hamilton) being nearly so.

The series' regular announcers were Johnny Olson (through 1982), Gene Wood (1983-84 and 1990-91) and Paul Boland (1998-99).

The show had a handful of contestants who would later become famous themselves, including Kirstie Alley, Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick, talk-show host Jenny Jones and actress Brianne Leary, who actually returned to the show to sit on the celebrity panel two years after being a contestant.

Main game

Two contestants, including a returning champion competed. The object was to match the answers as many of the six celebrity panelists as possible on fill-in-the-blank statements.

The main game was played in two rounds. The champion was given a choice of two statements labeled either "A" or "B." Rayburn then read the statement.

While early questions were similar to the NBC version (e.g., "Name a type of muffin" and "Every morning, John puts <blank> on his cereal"), the questions quickly changed. Frequently, the statements were written with comedic, double-entendre answers in mind. A classic example: "Did you catch a glimpse of that girl on the corner? She has the world's biggest <BLANK>."

While the contestant pondered his/her answer, the six celebrities wrote their answers on index cards. After they finished, the contestant was polled for his/her answer. Frequently, the audience responded appropriately as Rayburn critiqued the contestant's answer (for the "world's biggest" question, Rayburn might compliment an answer such as "boobs" or "mouth," while expressing disdain to an answer such as "fingers" or "bag").

Rayburn then asked each celebrity – one at a time – to give his/her response. The contestant earned one point for each celebrity who wrote down the same answer (or reasonably similar as determined by the judges), up to a maximum of six (6) points for matching everyone.

After play was completed on the contestant's question, Rayburn read the statement on the other card for the challenger and play was identical.

In Round 2, whoever was leading the game got to choose a question first. Only the celebrities who did not match that contestant in the first round played.

On "Match Game PM," a third round was played after the 1st season after the producers realized that too much time was left at the end of the game and the celebrities would chit-chat until the show's end. Again, the only celebrities who played were those who didn't match that contestant in previous rounds. Starting in the late '70s, a format from the original '60s "Match Game" was used. A random member of the audience was picked to play a round of the original "Match Game" with a celebrity. A "_____ something" question was asked, after which the audience member would respond with an answer. If the celebrity picked didn't match that answer, then another audience member was called. It would continue until the answer was matched and $50 was given to the member.

Tiebreaker rounds – If the players had the same score at the end of "regulation", the scores were reset to 0-0. On "PM" (or in the daytime show, if a tie was still not broken after two tiebreaker rounds), a time-saving variant of the tiebreaker was used that reversed the game play. The contestants would write their answers first on a card in secret, then the celebrities were canvassed to give their answers. The first celebrity response to match a contestant's answer gave that contestant the victory; if there were still no match (which was rare), the round was replayed with a new question. On the CBS version, the tiebreaker went on until there was a clear winner.

Popular questions featured "Dumb Dora" (and her male counterpart, "Dumb Donald"). These questions would always begin "Dumb Dora/Donald is/was so dumb" to which the audience would respond "how dumb is/was he/she?" and Rayburn would finish the question. Another featured "character" was "Old Man Perriwinkle", a favorite character of actor/dancer Fred Astaire; the female counterpart for Old Man Perriwinkle was "Old Lady Perkins".

The CBS daytime version had returning champions and the show "straddled". The "PM" version was self-contained with no returning champions and each show would end with the "Super Match."

On the CBS daytime show, champions could stay until defeated or reached the CBS limit of $25,000. Any champion who exceeded that was retired, but they get to keep whatever money they won over $25,000.

The daily syndicated version didn't feature returning champions; rather, two contestants played the entire episode. (two main games and two bonus games). Two new contestants appeared on the next episode. This was likely done due to the fact that episodes were "bicycled" and a player who ended the week on Friday as "champion" wouldn't be seen the following Monday.

Super Match

The winner of the game went on to play the Super Match, which consisted of the Audience Match and the Head-to-Head Match segments, for additional money. On the CBS version, the winner of the game won $100.

Audience Match

A fill-in-the-blank phrase was given and it was up to the contestant to choose the most common response based on a studio audience survey. After consulting with 3 celebrities on the panel for help the contestant had to choose an answer. The answers were revealed after that; the most popular answer in the survey was worth $500, the second-most popular $250 and the third most popular $100. If a contestant failed to match any of the three answers, the bonus round ended.

2 Audience Matches were played on Match Game PM.

The Audience Match became the basis for another game show from the Match Game 73-79 production team of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman -- Family Feud. Match Game 73-79 regular Richard Dawson was chosen to host that show. Elements of the Audience Match were later incorporated in the Goodson-Todman games The Better Sex and Card Sharks.

Head-to-Head Match

The contestant then had the opportunity to win 10 times what he or she won in the Audience Match by exactly matching another fill-in-the-blank response with a celebrity panelist of his or her choice (ergo: $5000, $2500 or $1000). On Match Game PM, a jackpot of $10,000 was possible there ($5000 + $5000).

Richard Dawson was the most frequently chosen celebrity in the 1970s version; fans have considered this the reason why the "Star Wheel" was introduced in 1978. Contestants spun the wheel to determine which celebrity they played with. They could double their potential winnings if the wheel landed on one of the gold stars under each celebrity's name ($10,000, $5000 or $2000 on the CBS daytime version with the 2 audience matches on Match Game PM, a jackpot of up to $20,000 was possible there). The introduction of the "Star Wheel", the success of "Feud" and a falling out with Gene Rayburn resulted in the departure of Dawson.

Rule Changes in Other Versions

The Match Game (1962-1969)

Image:08 jpg.jpg This is the original series upon which the show described above was based. For most of its life it was aired live from New York, New York on NBC during the late afternoons and was a solid if unspectacular hit for the network at the time.

The gameplay of this The Match Game bore little resemblance to its more famous descendant. Here, 2 teams of 3 each comprised of 2 contestants and 1 Star Team Captain played against each other. The teams scored points based on how many of them matched answers on a question - if only two matched, the team earned 25 points, but if all three came up with the same answer, it was worth 50 points. The 1st team to reach 100 points won the game and $100.

Questions on this show were far less risqué than on its 1970s incarnation; most were simple open-ended questions, such as "Name a kind of flower" or "What is the first thing you do when you wake up?" Many of these type questions would have been prime fodder for Family Feud, which in a very real sense was a Match Game spinoff. Also, these types of questions were common during the early weeks of Match Game 73-79' 1973 CBS-TV revival. The winning team then played the Audience Match, where each teammate think of an answer they felt was given most frequently by a polled studio audience. Each match was worth $50 in bonus money for a top possible payout of $450.

On March 27-31, 1967 the show added a "Telephone Match" game, wherein a home viewer and a studio audience member attempted to match a simple fill-in-the-blank question similar to the '70s series' Head-to-Head match. A successful match won a jackpot which started at $500 and increased by $100 per day until won.

Despite the fact the original Match Game ran for seven seasons, NBC's policy regarding taped daytime series caused almost all of the episodes to be erased, in order to save money on the videotape. It's believed no more than a dozen episodes remain of it today; GSN has aired 3 black-and-white kinescopes of it in the past. The rest are spread out in various university archives and television museums.

Billy Vaughn's orchestration of "A Swingin' Safari" was used on the pilot episode, but during the series, from 1962 to 1967, the show's first theme music was Bert Kaempfert's arrangement of "A Swingin' Safari." Later on, from 1967 to 1969, the show adopted a new theme from Score Productions.

The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour (1983-1984)

Image:Image118.jpg Template:Main These rules were roughly the same as Match Game PM with both contestants given 3 chances apiece to match each panelist once. The major difference was in the tiebreaker. Four possible answers to a Super Match-like statement (example: "_____, New Jersey") were secretly shown to the contestants (examples: "Atlantic City," "Hoboken," "Newark," "Trenton"). They each chose one by number. The host then polled the celebrities for verbal responses, just as on the PM tiebreaker. The first panelist to give an answer selected by one of the contestants won the game for that contestant. The winner of the Match Game segment played the returning champion in the Hollywood Squares segment with the eventual winner of Squares playing the Super Match. The Audience Match featured payoffs of $1000, $500 and $250, while non-matching players were given $100. For the Head-to-Head Match, the contestant picked a celebrity, who revealed a hidden number (10, 20, 30); that number was multiplied by their Audience Match winnings to determine the grand prize ($30,000 was the top possible amount).

There were reports of conflicts between Rayburn and the production staff, especially over Bauman, who many viewers believed was not up to the task. The show would be replaced by the soap Santa Barbara after 39 weeks; it is reasonable to think that NBC only commissioned the show as a timeslot filler until its soap was ready.

Match Game (1990-1991)

Image:Image249.jpg On this version of the show on ABC, matches were worth money instead of points. Each match during the two "Match Game" rounds was worth $50. All panelists played both questions for each player, whether or not they matched in the first round.

After each round of questions, contestants were given a chance to build their scores further by playing a new round, "Match-Up!", with one panelist of their choice. This was a rapid-fire series of Super Match-style questions, with two possible answers given; the contestant chose one secretly, and the panelist picked the one s/he felt the contestant picked. This process continued until time expired. The first Match-Up! round was played for 30 seconds at $50 per match, while the second lasted 45 seconds for $100 per match. Whoever had the most money at the end of the second Match-Up! round won the game.

The Super Match was played identically to the 1978-82 version of the round (with a green arrow spinning around the Star Wheel instead of the actual wheel spinning). Originally, the payoffs of $500-$250-$100 for the Audience Match were identical to the CBS version's payoff structure, with 'no match' giving the contestant the right to play for $500 or $1,000 in the Super Match. After a few weeks it changed to $500-$300-$200 for each answer in descending order of popularity and $1,000 or $2,000 if the contestant was unsuccessful.

Due to many ABC stations carrying news at noon, the show did not get many clearances in US cities and was cancelled one year after its premiere.

According to reports, Gene Rayburn had expressed interest in hosting this incarnation of Match Game, but network executives considered him to be too old. Bert Convy also hosted a pilot for this version.

Match Game (1998-99)

Image:Mg9803.jpg As mentioned above, this incarnation of Match Game featured a panel of only five celebrities instead of the usual six. Questions in this version were not labelled A or B, but instead, titles with puns were a clue as to the content (à la Win Ben Stein's Money). Each match was worth one point in round one, two points in round two. As on the 1990-91 version, all five panelists played each round regardless of whether they matched a player on the first question. After two rounds, the highest scorer played Super Match, which was played identically to its 1973-78 incarnation, even matching the top prize of $5,000.

Pilots

• The unaired pilot for "the 1973 edition of Match Game" circulates among video tape collectors. The celebrities in that episode were Bert Convy, Arlene Francis, Jack Klugman, Jo Ann Pflug, Richard Dawson and Betty White, all of whom appeared in the series at one time or another. There were only a few minor differences between the pilot and the series; parts of the set (notably the contestant podiums) had a slightly different look, and the "Jackpot Match" was used instead of the "Super Match" but the rules did not change.

• A version of Match Game, hosted by Gene Rayburn, had been planned to broadcast in syndication starting in fall 1987. Everything was set to go until an episode of Entertainment Tonight aired before the show started taping had reported Rayburn's true age as 70, instead of the early-to-mid-sixties that the producers had believed. The version was scrapped, as it was believed that Rayburn was "too old."

• Bert Convy was originally selected to host the 1990 ABC version, but he was diagnosed with a brain tumor before the series went into production and was replaced by Ross Shafer. Convy died just three days after the last episode of that version aired. A clip from one of the Convy-hosted pilots aired on VH1's Game Show Moments Gone Bananas in 2005.

• Vanity Fair and TVgameshows.net reported in May 2004, a pilot for a remake of Match Game, called What the Blank!, was taped for FOX, hosted by Fred Willard; however, this production is now officially dead. It was said that the game was apparently an incorporation of 21st century elements into the classic game and also, a feature was added that people from along the streets would be able to participate for matching with contestants and celebrities in Street Smarts-style.

Versions outside the USA

In the United Kingdom, it was known as Blankety Blank and was presented by Terry Wogan, Les Dawson and Lily Savage.

In Australia, it is known as Blankety Blanks, and has been presented by Graham Kennedy, Daryl Somers and Shane Bourne. (This show is not to be confused with an American show by the same name, appearing on ABC and hosted by Bill Cullen.) The original '60s Match Game also had an Australian spinoff, known as The Match Game, and hosted by Michael McCarthy.

In Germany, Match Game had a 150-episode run as Punkt, Punkt, Punkt (Dot, Dot, Dot - an allusion to an ellipsis) in the early 1990s on satellite and cable network Sat.1. The show was hosted by Mike Krüger.

Match Game, the slot machine

As with many classic television shows, Match Game has now been incorporated into a casino slot machine. This version features five simulated reels and a simulation of Rayburn as the host. It recreates the 1973-1982 version of the show, with Reilly, Somers, Jimmie Walker, Morgan Fairchild, Rip Taylor and Vicki Lawrence as the celebrity players. The slot machine is faithful to the original game format.

In Pop Culture

• Match Game is a frequent segment on The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio. Three call-in listeners play. The listener with the most matches wins a prize and goes on to the Super Match, which is played for an extra prize.

• Magic 93, a radio station in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton metro area of northeastern Pennsylvania, used the Match Game theme song for the daily "Brain Busters" question.

• A Wisconsin radio station features the "Match Game" as a game during the day, with the theme song included. Everyday, the caller must correctly match the response of the DJ with a fill-in-the-blank such as "CAR_______."

• On March 15, 2002, CBS's The Early Show featured a 'Match Game Retro Reunion' in which Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Betty White are all interviewed regarding memories from the show. Gene Rayburn's famous long and skinny Sony microphone, which hangs in the TV and Radio Musuem, was shown on the special.

• Rayburn's mic was also shown on NBC's The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments 5 in May 2003.

• Recently, Entertainment Tonight did a "What Ever Happened to...?" special on Match Game, in which they went into context regarding mishaps that occurred, the broadcasting history, and the interactions between the panel, host Rayburn, and the contestants. Clips from a 1990 interview with Gene Rayburn were shown as were interviews with Reilly and Somers. Unlike many Match Game present-day TV specials, the fact that Richard Dawson wasn't "friendly" with other panelists was actually mentioned.

• On the 2000s television game show, Weakest Link, this question was asked on one of the shows: "Who was the original host of the game show, Match Game?" The correct answer was of course, Gene Rayburn, however the contestant incorrectly responded, Burton.

• TV Guide and TV Land created a television special in December 2005 which counted down their list of the 100 most unexpected TV moments. The Match Game '77 School Riot, in which panelists Debralee Scott and Richard Dawson revolt when the judges do not accept "finishing school" and "school" as a match, ranked #82 on the list.

External links

• Match Game.org
• Match Game Wallpaper Factory
• The Match Game Homepage
• All Game Show Page : Match Game
• The Match Game Website
• Match Game Fan Planet
• UK Gameshows Page: Blankety Blanks
• The Match Game (1962)-Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
• Match Game PM - Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
• Match Game '73 - Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
• Match Game '90 - Internet Movie Database (IMDB)