Gene Rayburn has said in interviews that the '70s version of Match Game was, basically, a "silly" idea for a game show. When you look at the format, he was absolutely correct. But, the interaction between Rayburn, the contestants and the stars took the "silly" format and made into one of the most entertaining shows ever on television.
Two contestants compete. The challenger starts round 1 by choosing one of
two questions, A or B. A question with a blank is read, such as "Bob said:
My wife must be the world's worst cook... she even burns [blank]." The
stars then deliberated and wrote down their answers on 4x6 cards.
Potential answers would include "Minute Rice", "Cereal"...you get the
idea. After all had finished, the contestant gave his/her (usually her)
answer. Then Gene would get the celebrities' responses, one at a time. One
point was awarded per match. The returning champion then did the same with
the remaining question. As time passed, recurring characters began to pop
up in MG questions; they included Dumb Dora, Ugly Edna, Weird Willie, and,
of course, Gene's brilliant dramatization of Old Man Perriwinkle.
In the second round, players only tried to match the stars they hadn't in
the first round (usually, the first round questions were so vague and
played for laughs that few matches were made). If necessary, a
tie-breaking third-round was played using all six stars. The player with
the most matches received $100 and advanced to the "Super Match".
The first part of the "Super Match", called the "Audience Match", involved
filling in a simple phrase, such as
"[blank] Bear". This phrase was given to a previous studio audience, at
the three most commonly-given answers were concealed behind the board. The
contestant took suggestions from three of the six stars (which could
include "Grizzly", "Smokey", "BJ and the", and so on), and could either
use one of their answers or one of the contestant's own. The audience
answers were then revealed in reverse order; the contestant received $100
for the third-most-often given answer, $250 for the second, or $500 for
the most popular answer.
If the contestant's answer appeared anywhere in the top three, s/he then
got to play the "Head-to-Head Match" for ten times the money ($1000, $2500
or $5000). The contestant chose one celebrity to try to match on another
blank phrase for the jackpot. Win or lose, the contestant faced another
challenger and could continue until reaching the CBS winnings limit of
$25,000.
Changes:
On Match Game PM, the rules were slightly modified: each game consisted of three (originally two) rounds, and the winner played two "Audience Matches", with the winnings totaled together to determine the amount to be multiplied by ten in the "Head-to-Head Match". Therefore, a top prize of $10,000 was available. There were no returning champions on the weekly show; two new contestants appeared each week.
Starting with the 1978-79 season of the daytime MG and continuing
into the daily syndicated run, a big wheel was spun to determine which
celebrity would take part in the "Head-to-Head Match". In addition,
portions of each star's segment of the wheel were starred; should the
wheel stop there, the possible prize would be doubled, for a potential
$10,000 payoff (or $20,000 on MG pm). Before the wheel, the contestants had picked the by-then
departed Richard Dawson to play the "Audience Match" virtually every time.
In the 1979-82 daily syndicated show, two contestants played against each other in two matches, with a "Super Match" after each. Both contestants retired after the two matches.
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The Match Game Homepage (c)1996-2001 Chris L! Productions. The Match Game (c)1962-1991 Mark Goodson Productions, LLC and (c) 1997-2001 Pearson Television. No challenge to their ownership is implied or intended.
