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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 original Match Game ran from 1962 through 1969 on NBC. Although the fill-in-the-blanks premise was the same, the rules of this version were significantly different from those described in this article.

CBS revived the show on July 2, 1973, as Match Game '73 (the number changed to match the current year). After CBS canceled the show on April 20, 1979, the show found new life in daily syndication, where it ran until 1982 as Match Game (without the year). A weekly syndicated version, Match Game PM, also ran from 1975 to 1981. Reruns of these versions currently air on GSN.

Match Game was revived on October 31, 1983, as part of NBC's Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour; that version ended on July 27, 1984. Two unsuccessful revivals were attempted in the 1990s: from July 16, 1990, to July 12, 1991, on ABC, and during the 1998-99 season in syndication.

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. Other frequent panelists from this era included Joyce Bulifant, Bill Daily, Patti Deutsch, Fannie Flagg, Nipsey Russell, Marcia Wallace, and Betty White.

The 1983-84 version that aired as part of The Match Game - Hollywood Squares Hour featured no regular panelists as such, though many of them had prior Match Game experience.

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, and Fred Travelena, as well as several past semi-regulars mentioned above. On three separate occassions 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.

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 Magazine.

In the first round, the challenger chose one of two 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." 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, and the host asked each celebrity for an answer. The contestant earned one point for each celebrity who wrote down the same answer as he had chosen, up to a total of six points for matching everyone on the panel. Then the back of the other card was read and the returning champion followed the same procedure. In the second 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 third round was played on Match Game PM after its first season; again, the only celebrities who played were those who did not 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," 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.

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 did not feature returning champions; rather, two contestants played two complete games, with the loser of the first game returning for the second. After the second game, both contestants were retired and two new ones were brought on.

Super Match

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

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 three 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.

Two Audience Matches were played on Match Game PM.

The Audience Match became the basis for another game show from the Match Game production team of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman -- Family Feud. Match Game regular Richard Dawson was chosen to host that show.

Head-to-Head Match

The contestant then had the opportunity to win ten 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.

Richard Dawson was the most frequently chosen celebrity in the 1970s version, so much so that in 1978 the "Star Wheel" was introduced; contestants spun the wheel to determine which celebrity they played with. They could double their potential winnings if the spin ended on one of the stars on the wheel ($10,000 was the top prize in the daytime version; with the two audience matches on Match Game PM, a jackpot of up to $20,000 was possible there).

Versions outside the USA

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

External links

• The Match Game Homepage
• MatchGame.org, featuring an episode guide
• All Game Show Page : Match Game

• Game shows