Match Game was an American television game show where contestants tried to match a panel of six celebrities in answering fill-in-the-blank questions.

Broadcast history
The Match Game premiered December 31, 1962 continuing until September 26, 1969 on NBC for 1760 episodes. Although the fill-in-the-blanks 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 revived the show on July 2, 1973 as Match Game '73 (the number changed to match the current year). As the series went on, the questioning became more of the "naughty" variety most people remember the show for. CBS canceled the show on April 20, 1979 (when it was called Match Game '79); it would be replaced by a Tom Kennedy-hosted game show called "Whew!" After 7 seasons and 1445 shows on CBS, the show found new life in daily syndication that very fall where it ran until September 10, 1982 as Match Game (without the year designation). A weekly syndicated version, Match Game PM, also ran from September 8, 1975 to September 13, 1981. 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-TV Mon-Fri. at 4:00-4:25PM (as The MATCH GamE) 
July 2-December 31, 1973 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 3:30-4:00PM (as MATCH GAME 73 (1973)) 
January 2-December 31, 1974 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 3:30-4:00PM (as MATCH GAME 74 (1974)) 
January 2-August 15, 1975 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 3:30-4:00PM 
August 18-November 28, 1975 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 3:00-3:30PM 
December 1-31, 1975 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 3:30-4:00PM (as MATCH GAME 75 (1975)) 
January 2-December 31, 1976 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 3:30-4:00PM (as MATCH GAME 76 (1976)) 
January 3-November 4, 1977 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 3:30-4:00PM 
November 7-December 16, 1977 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 11:00-11:30AM 
December 19-30, 1977 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 4:00-4:30PM (as MATCH GAME 77 (1977)) 
January 3, 1978-January 2, 1979 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 4:00-4:30PM (as MATCH GAME 78 (1978)) 
January 3-April 20, 1979 CBS-TV Mon-Fri. at 4:00-4:30PM (as MATCH GAME 79 (1979)) 
July 16, 1990-July 12, 1991 abc-TV Mon-Fri. at 12Noon-12:30PM (as MATCH GAME) 
On 1st-Run Syndication from September 8, 1975 to September 1981 as MATCH GAME PM (weekly) 
On 1st-Run Syndication from September 1979 to September 1982 as MATCH GAME 

The Revivals
Beginning October 31, 1983 2 game shows were combined on 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 on syndicated.


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.

Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers were regular celebrity panelists through most of the 1973-82 version's run; Richard Dawson was also a regular from 1973 through 1978. 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, Holly Hallstrom, Elaine Joyce, Vicki Lawrence, Dick Martin, Lee Meriwether, Jo Ann Pflug, Nipsey Russell, Avery Schreiber, Debralee Scott, Connie Stevens, McLean Stevenson, Marcia Wallace and Betty White.

The 1983-84 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 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 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 competed to see who could match more of the answers of the six celebrities. Much of the show's humor sprung from questions that were heavy on double-entendres. One of the principal question-writers, Dick DeBartolo was also a writer for Mad. During the early 1970s, DeBartolo cast The Match Game panelists in his own 8mm film comedies. A rare public showing of those films was held in a Manhattan hotel ballroom in 1970.

In the 1st round, the challenger chose 1 of 2 cards: A or B. The host then read the back of the card to the celebrity panel. A typical question was something like: "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary couldn't make her garden grow with water so she used _____ instead." Popular questions featured "Dumb Dora" (the question would always begin, "Dumb Dora is so dumb" to which the audience would respond, "How dumb is she?" and Rayburn would finish the question. The male counterpart was "Dumb Donald" and would feature the same beginning and audience response as for "Dumb Dora") and "Old Man Periwinkle", a favorite character of actor and dancer Fred Astaire.

The contestant had a moment to decide what word would best fit the blank while the celebrities wrote their answers down on index cards; after all of them were finished, the contestant gave his answer. Frequently, the audience would respond appropriately as Rayburn critiqued the contestant's answer (e.g.: "tinkle" might be the definitive answer for the above "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" question, and get cheers from the crowd, but "mud" might be a rotten answer, and garner boos).

Rayburn then polled each celebrity for an answer. The contestant earned one point for each celebrity who wrote down the same answer (or reasonably similar, as determined by the judges) as he had chosen up to a total of 6 points for matching everyone on the panel. 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 the 2nd round, 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. A 3rd round was played on Match Game PM after its 1st season (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.

Tiebreaker rounds -- during which the scores were reset to 0-0 -- were played if the game was tied after the last round. 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 quesiton. On the CBS version of Match Game 73-79 (1973-79) the tiebreaker goes on until there is a clear winner.

The CBS daytime version had returning champions and each show would end at whatever point they were in the game to resume with the next show; the "PM" version was self-contained with no returning champions and each show would end with the "Super Match."

The 1979-82 syndicated version didn't feature returning champions; rather, 2 contestants played 2 complete games with the loser of the first game returning for the second. After the 2nd game, both contestants were retired and 2 new ones were brought on.


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. (At any time a contestants answer isn't on the board the "Super Match" is over & the contestant won't win any money and s/he won't play "Head-to-Head")

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 ($5,000 + $5,000).

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)
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 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, two teams of three, each comprised of two contestants and one celebrity 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 first 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?" Ironically, 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. Thus as follows:

1 Team Member Match: $50 
2 Team Members Match: $100 
All 3 Team Members Match including The Star Team Captain: $150 
For a total payout of $450.

On March 27-March 31, 1967: The Match Game presents a new feature called The Telephone Match after the Main Game as Host Rayburn talks to a Viewer at Home to play the contest and able enough to win the share of $500 to the Studio Audience Member by holding a Number from 1 to greater than 100 (eg: 1-120) to come up and write an answer to an fill-in-the-blank question "e.g.:_____Soup." Ironically, That an Ancestor of The Head-to-Head Match as part of The Super Match. When He or She answers an question "e.g.:Alphabet Soup" to Match the Studio Audience Member wins $500. Otherwise, When a Mismatch created that adds $100 to the intial jackpot and The 1st Record Total of The Telephone Match worth $2600 in 1967 and the 2nd Record Total in 1968 is worth $3900.

Despite the fact the original Match Game ran for just 7 seasons for the various outside factors have conspired to have virtually all of it stricken from the permanent record. It is 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.

The original theme music was the instrumental "A Swingin' Safari" by Bert Kaempfert from 1962 to 1967. The theme was later changed from 1967 to 1969 of this version by the Score Production Band when the show was broadcasted all in living color on NBC-TV (with the same different beat of "A Swingin' Safari"). In the pilot episode of the show, the same music, "A Swingin' Safari," was used, but composed by Billy Vaughn.


The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour (1983-1984)
Main articles: Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, and [[]], and [[]], and [[]], and [[]] 
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 for the most popular response, $500 for the second and $250 for the third, while non-matches were worth $100. For the Head-to-Head Match, the contestant picked a celebrity, who concealed a multiplier of 10, 20 or 30 that was multiplied with the Audience Match earnings to create a jackpot that could be worth as much as $30,000. On NBC-TV's 1-Season Show--The Winning Cash Rewards thusly as follows:

$1000 will be become (10: $10,000), (20: $20,000) & (30: $30,000) 
$500 will be become (10: $5000), (20: $10,000) & (30: $15,000) 
$250 will be become (10: $2500), (20: $5000) & (30: $7500) 
$100 will be become (10: $1000), (20: $2000) & (30: $3000). 
Conflicts between Rayburn and the production staff, the horrible time slot it was given on NBC, and the roughness of Bauman's hosting got the show cancelled after a 1-season outing. A very good idea, but a less-than-par execution from Goodson-Todman (quite rare.) The show would be replaced by "Scrabble."


Match Game (1990-1991)
On this version of the show on ABC, matches were worth money instead of points -- $50 per match to be precise. All panelists played both questions for each player, regardless of 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 and paid off at $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 the Star Wheel). Originally, payoffs ($500-$250-$100 {$50 for a Mismatch}) for the Audience Match were identical as well, but after a few weeks it changed to $500-$300-$200 for each answer in descending order of popularity and $100 by losing the Audience Match.

Due to many ABC stations carrying news at noon, the show did not get many clearances in US cities. This is the last Game Show that ABC-TV ever broadcast until Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.


Match Game (1998-99)
As already 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 (as in "Pyramid.") 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 (pre-Star Wheel), even down to its payoffs.

The show failed to connect with fans of the '70s version for a variety of reasons - most of which involved the writing. While the '70s show thrived on winking double-entendres and mildly suggestive humor, the '90s questions tended to go for the cheap dirty joke - which the contestants and panelists were all too quick to supply (many answers were censored, and Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson were used frequently as comedy crutches). Still other fans disliked the meager cash offerings ($5,000 as the top prize didn't sound as impressive in '98 as it did in '73) and lack of returning champions.


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 Super Match was called the "Jackpot Match" instead.

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.


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.