The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour was an American television game show that combined two long-running formats of the 1970s — Match Game and Hollywood Squares — into an hour-long format.

Broadcast history
The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour ran from October 31, 1983, to July 27, 1984, on NBC. Gene Rayburn, the original host of Match Game, hosted the Match Game and Super Match segments, while Jon Bauman of Sha Na Na hosted the Hollywood Squares segment. Gene Wood was the show's regular announcer, while original Match Game announcer Johnny Olson substituted for Wood on a few episodes. The question of why Peter Marshall was not called in to host brings to light the irony of the face that the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour replaced Fantasy, which was hosted by Marshall. In fact, Marshall was also a one time panelist of Match Game during its waning years of the 1973-82 version.

The show's only regular panelists were the co-hosts — Bauman sat on the panel during the Match Game and Super Match while Rayburn sat on the panel during the Hollywood Squares. Several guests on the show did have prior Match Game experience, including Charles Nelson Reilly, Fannie Flagg, and even Bauman, who previously appeared on Match Game in his "Bowzer" persona. Cast members of other NBC series often appeared on the show, as did stand-up comedians like Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall, and even up-and-coming new stars such as Mary Page Keller and John de Lancie, all of whom would become famous years later. Game show hosts also appeared on the show, including Bill Cullen, Bob Eubanks, Pat Sajak, and Chuck Woolery, who promoted his new show Scrabble around the time it premiered. The cast of Leave It to Beaver was reunited for one special week at the end of 1983, while another week in May of 1984 featured NBC soap opera stars.

The show was a joint production of Mark Goodson Productions and Orion Television, who owned the rights to Squares at the time. All episodes are assumed to be intact; however, reruns have never aired on GSN or any other network because of cross-ownership issues. Some sources report that Gene Rayburn himself also requested this show never air in reruns, due to his dissatisfaction with the finished product. These reports are, at the time of this writing, mostly unsubstantiated; indeed, there is some confusion as to if this statement actually refers to a 1985 incarnation of Break the Bank which Rayburn hosted. However, in a 1996 interview ([1]), Gene Wood mentioned that Rayburn was "dragged kicking and screaming" into the host's position on the show. Competition from ABC's General Hospital, which was in its "Luke and Laura" heyday, also affected the show's ratings.

The theme of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour was composed by Edd Kalehoff for Score Productions. It can still be heard today as a prize cue on The Price Is Right, particularly for new cars. The music played during the show's ticket plug has also appeared on TPIR.


Rules of the game

Match Game
The show began with two new contestants playing a round of Match Game, with a panel of five celebrities and Jon Bauman. The object was the same as the 1970s version: it was up to the contestant to match as many of the panel's responses to fill-in-the-blank questions. The rules were roughly the same as Match Game PM, with both contestants given three chances apiece to match each panelist once. The major difference was in the tiebreaker. Here, 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.


Hollywood Squares
The winner of the Match Game segment of this show then advanced to face the returning champion in the Hollywood Squares segment. Three additional celebrities were brought onto the stage for this round, while Gene Rayburn assumed Jon Bauman's spot on the panel.

Although the tic tac toe format and the "agree/disagree" question concept of the original Squares were carried over to this version, there were several differences in gameplay. Here, the champion always played X and the challenger O, regardless of the gender of the players; to date, this has been the only version of Squares not to use the traditional "Mr. X" or "M(r)s. Circle" distinction. Each individual square earned was worth $25, with $100 going to the winner of the first game, $200 for the second game, and so on. No "Secret Square" was played in this version. Additionally, most questions asked were of the true/false or multiple choice variety (this is generally believed to be the result of the show's writers not providing the same pre-show briefings to the celebrities as on other versions). Finally, on this incarnation of Squares, it was possible to win a game "by default"; that is, on an opponent's mistake, something not possible on any other version of the program.

The contestants played as many games as time allowed. When time was called, the contestant in the lead won the game and the championship, and advanced to the "Super Match" endgame.


Super Match
The eventual winner of Squares played the Super Match, which was structured just like its classic form. Payoffs here were $1,000 for the most popular response in the Audience Match, with the second and third worth $500 and $250 respectively. A non-match was worth $100.

For the Head-to-Head Match, the player selected one of the nine celebrities (Jon Bauman, the five other panelists from Match Game, and the three that were added for Squares). Each celebrity concealed a different multiplier: four of them held a 10, four a 20, and one had a 30. The chosen panelist then revealed his/her multiplier, which was then combined with the Audience Match earnings to create the Head-to-Head jackpot. Under these rules, a Head-to-Head match could be worth as much as $30,000.

Champions could return up to five days or until they were defeated, with the biggest payouts being over $70,000.