On New Years' Eve 1962, Mark Goodson and Bill Todman premieredThe Match Game on NBC's afternoon schedule, with radio star Gene Rayburn as host. In this "game of justice", as Rayburn would describe it, two three-player teams attempted to match answers to questions such as "name a brand of cereal." The original version of The Match Game strolled for seven years, until its cancellation in the fall of 1969.
Four years later, Goodson and Todman decided to resurrect their classic game with the title, Match Game '73 (with the end number revised every New Year.)
After several months of going through changes, the new version of The Match Game finally hit the airwaves on Monday, July 2, 1973 on CBS at 3:30pm Eastern time, replacing the lackluster Hollywood's Talking. This time, two contestants had to match answers with a wisecracking six-celebrity panel, that was labeled as "star studded" by announcer Johnny Olsen. But, the questions were funnier than ever before. This time, fill-in-the-blank questions were used.
AVERAGE FILL-IN-THE BLANK QUESTIONS: TYPICAL FIRST-ROUNDER:
"Contrary to popular belief, Eve was not made out of Adam's rib. She was made out of Adam's BLANK."
TYPICAL SECOND ROUND QUESTION "Mr. & Mrs. Morton loved dogs so much that they named their newest son BLANK.
Gene Rayburn, who returned as the game show's witty master of ceremonies then at age 55, would recite a boffo fill-in-the-BLANK question which featured double-entendres and whimsical characters, and would then allow time for funky 70s music to commence and would allow the contestant to focus on his blank-filling. The panel also wrote down answers to the risque query. The celebrities joked around for a while and wrote down their outrageous answers to the fill-in-the-blank question on 4x6 blue cards. After they were all completed, Rayburn would call on the contestant for his/her answer (if the player's answer was awful, the audience would commence in BOOOOOS). The player in the contestant position would then respond with their answer. It should be noted that when it came to contestant and celebrity answers, CBS was resistant to allow any "fooling around" with inappropiate words so some explicit language was truly censored but the network did allow answers like "boobs," "derriere," and "making whoopie," among a few other terms. Such pushing of the envelope made Match Game CBS's most groundbreaking daytime program. Then, Gene would call on each celebrity for their answer -- each supplied a joke or funny explanation with their answer -- and if a contestant and a celebrity matched, the player would earn one point for that match (the matches were recognized with lit-up tacky green triangles and red circles).
First-rounders usually had such an immense number of various possibilites and pecuilar answers that very few matches were scored in the first round. The contestant who has scored the most celebrity matches after two rounds of fill-in-the-blank questions is crowned the "winner" and would win 100 dollars and move on for a potential shot at over 5,000 dollars in a spin-off launching, extremley popular bonus round named the "SUPER-MATCH". The Super-Match, which consisted of the "Audience Match"and the "Head-to-Head Match", gave players the chance to take a shot at predicting surveys and head-to-head matching. The Super-Match end game began with the "Audience Match", where the player takes a shot at guessing a previous studio audience's most popular response to a fill-in-the-blank such as, "NEW YORK _________". The contestant is allowed to call on help from the celebrities for possible answers. Then the contestant must choose one of the answers from the celebrities, or they can come up with their own idea. If the answer they chose was the most popular response, the player earns 500 dollars . If his/her answer was the 2nd most popular answer, they receives 250 dollars and if it's the 3rd most popular response, the player earns 100 dollars . After the Audience Match, the contestant gets to play in a head-to-head match with one celebrity of their choice-----frequent panel member Richard Dawson was the most popular pick among contestants---for ten times the amount won in the "Audience Match" or a possible payout of 5,000 dollars.
The Odd Couple reoccurring guest star Brett Somers, little known Broadway personality Charles Nelson Reilly and Richard Dawson, the former co-star of hit comedy shows Hogan's Heroes and Laugh-In, were assigned as regular panelists. With hilarious fill-in-the-blank questions, funny answers, an often drunk panel, an antics master as hos, and outrageous mishaps, this new version of the show became more popular than the original version (a rare occurence in the entertainment industry). Within little time, its television audience reached an astounding 10 million viewers and in a time span of three months, it became an instant success.
According to Nielsen Media research, the show particularly prevailed in the 12-34 year old age demographic scoring higher ratings among young people and stay-at-home parents. Soon came a record-breaking acheivement: Match Game became the most popular daytime network program in television history, a feat it held until General Hospital ultimately overtook it some years later. In its first three consecutive seaons, from 1973 to 1976, the show domianted all other daytime network shows in the ratings. It was the #1 network game show on television as well from the 1973-1974 season to the 1976-1977 season, a total of roughly four years. The punchlines of the fill-in-the-blank queries were occassionaly at the expense of figures like ABC sportscaster Howard Cosell and the then-U.S. presidents (Nixon, Ford, Carter, & Reagan.) In an interview, Rayburn explained the show's success. "Match Game," Rayburn said, "was basically a silly idea for a game show, but, the interaction between the regulars and the rest of the panel is what made the show work".
DAWSON, REILLY, SOMERS, & RAYBURN
ON THE "MATCH GAME '77" SET
Although Rayburn and the panelists made a great bunch, producer Ira Skutch believed that the success was mainly because of the question-changes. "The questions used in the original", Skutch said, "were something like 'Name a duck'. When CBS brought it back it evolved into questions like 'John always puts butter on his BLANK.' The first time we did a fill-in-the-blank, we got screams". As the show increased in popularity, some unforgettable characters began to pop up in questions, such as Dumb Dora and the beloved Old Man Perrwinkle.
=7
Match Game was known for its zany wackiness and outrageous moments. Some notable incidents included panelists belly dancing, yearly new years' parties with the changing of the year at the end of the logo/sign, a so-called "school riot" when judges wouldn't allow "finishing school" to match with "school," and embarrassing gaffes and errant answers that became stuff of game show lore. As for the host's wacky antics, Gene Rayburn (who quickly became known for his signature long and skinny microphone) climbed the audience in 1975, burst through the doors in '76, roller skated on stage during a 1979 opening, grew frustrated with set technology, and often playfully chided the audience in jest. As for the regulars: Somers & Reilly were know for sitting next to each other on the panel and consistently having fun at each other's expense (the two are most recognized for their work on MG) and Dawson usually made humorous statements regarding the answers he gave. He also became known as possibly the best celebrity player in MG history, thus he was chosen again and again by contestants for the Super Match. Each episode was like a festival of laughter, which made Match Game the funniest game show ever aired on television.
In 1975, a weekly syndicated nighttime version was introduced by the name of Match Game PM to pair off with the CBS daytime version. In Match Game PM, three rounds were played (for most of PM's run), instead of two, and two "Audience Matches" were played, with the winnings in both Audience Matches totaled together and multiplied by ten, for a possible payout of 10,000 dollars in the Head-to-Head Match. A different tiebreaker was played as well. While a regular extra round was played as a tiebreaker on the CBS daytime version, a "Sudden Death" round was played on the nighttime version. In the "Sudden Death" tiebreaker, the contestants wrote down answers to a fill-in-the-blank such as "Continental ________". After both were completed, Rayburn questioned the regular panelists--Somers, Reilly & Dawson-- for verbal responses. If a panelist said an answer that one of the contestants had, the player with the winning response won the tiebreaker & the game. There were no returning champions on this weekly show unlike the daytime version; two new contestants appeared each week due to not only its weekly status but also because it was running in syndication.
In 1976, during the salad days of spin-offs and springboard shows, Match Game's success also translated into a popular spin-off. Mark Goodson decided to develop a whole new game show based solely on the idea of the "Audience Match" portion of Match Game, dubbed Family Feud. Goodson copied the "Audience Match" theme of "guessing the most popular answer to a previous survey" and combined it with "name something" questions---a carry-over from the original MG---along with two enthusiastic American families competing. Goodson also discovered that Match Game regular Richard Dawson's smart-alec humor was a "perfect match" for an MG spin-off and the panelist was also exceptional at matching contestants in the Audience and Head-to-Head Matches. He was chosen as the future emcee of Family Feud in the fall of 1975. ABC's Feud debuted on July 12, 1976 and by the time the network rolled back Feud's time slot to 11:30am the next year, viewers began tuning in to the show in strong numbers yet MG was still powerful.
On November 7, 1977---despite strong ratings---the CBS daytime department made a jeopardizing decision which would later regret. They moved Match Game '77 from 3:30 pm to 11 o' clock in the morning (eastern time). Ratings gradually began to slide, and Feud soon captured the #1 network game show spot and the #1 daytime network program position. The ratings disaster occurred due to the fact that the younger TV viewers--specifically high school students---who made up a chunk of MG's viewers, were not able to catch the show during the morning. Not longer after the change to 11 am, the network moved the show back to an afternoon slot at 4 p.m. But, the tactic didn't work, considering that all that fuss ended up bewildering viewers who couldn't keep track of what time the show aired.
Unfortunately, the number of those who tuned in to Match Game '78 continued to dip. In the 1978-1979 season, for the first time, the show was no longer in the exclusive "top three network game shows" tier. Family Feud was garnering more "ah's" & "ooos" as a result, scoring enromous ratings with popular terms such as "survey says..." emerging as common English slogans. Game show expert Steve Beverly is critical about CBS's decision in 1977 to move the show to the 11am. Beverly puts it better than anyone else, describing the time slot change as "the death knell from which this show never recovered", adding, "to shuffle this off to mid-morning" was a nail in the coffin.
Despite time slot changes, MG was wounded by two other factors: the Star Wheel and the fate of Richard Dawson. During the 1978 season, viewers sensed that the Feud host was now annoyed, irritated, and tasteless when he was on Match Game. ("he stopped participating", according to Rayburn.) In fact, he didn't smile or joke a single time on one show, even when it was brought to his attention, telling Gene Rayburn on-air to "say goodbye." In mid-1978, producers added a multi-colored "Star Wheel" to Match Game to stop contestants from constantly selecting Dawson for the head-to-head match. A contestant spun the wheel after the Audience-Match to determine which celebrity they would be playing for in the head-to-head match for 10 times the amount won in the audience match. However, if the wheel landed in a golden-star area on one of the celeb's names, the contestant would vie for double winnings, or a possible payout of 10,000 dollars on the CBS daytime version or 20,000 dollars on Match Game PM. Dawson was, let's face it, pissed. Producers asked Dawson if he "was happy" and he responded: "no." His final Match Game episode aired on August 23, 1978. Unlike fellow regulars Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly, Dawson appeared as a panelist on every single Match Game, including the very first episode in 1973, by the time he left.
His resignation from the show marked a major turning point in the show's history and it severely hurt Match Game '78 in the ratings, which was already down in viewership. After leaving MG, Dawson continued to serve as host of the Family Feud for another seven years. The inclusion of the Star Wheel wasn't popular with viewers, most of whom favored the original method of personally choosing a celebrity. In an attempt at increasing ratings, MG underwent a studio decor change and a hipper logo was introduced also. However, such transformations during 1978 were to no avail. By early the next year, it was clear that Match Game '79 was going nowhere. Network exces opted to cancel the program. On April 20, 1979, the final CBS episode of Match Game aired. That fall, the show returned in daytime syndication with everything the same except that the year was not supplemented in the title and each contestant participated in two games against one another. The syndicated daytime Match Game managed to stay on the air until 1982. The nighttime Match Game PM went off the air in September 1981. Since then, there have been several revivals of Match Game but no version has ever come close to the popularity and legacy of the 1973-1979 network run. In January 2001, TV Guide ranked Match Game in #10 in its listing of "The 50 Greatest Game Shows of All-Time."
