GET READY TO MATCH THE STARS...

[MikeShannon914]

Brett Somers has died, age 83 from colon and stomach cancer last Saturday. Fellow "Match Game" panelist Charles Nelson Reilly died last May. Dickie Dawson, better watch your back!

To keep this relevant to the Texas TV Board, "Match Game" aired locally in Dallas on KDFW-TV, the former CBS affiliate.

 

[easttxtv]

Didn't 4 also have the 6:30p syndicated version of MG also?

:'( Farewell to yet another legend... :'(

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

Clearly, one of the greats on a magical game show. Reilly, Rayburn and don't forget, her old beau, Jack Klugman was a routine panelist too.

Way to hit the Texas page with that KDFW call back though, Mike.

 

[MikeShannon914]

Thank you! ;D

The evening/syndie version was known as "Match Game PM," and usually was better and looser than the daytime version, simply because it was the 6th show shot on a given day, and as Brett has admitted to before, the cast would go to dinner after taping a few, get a little sloshed, and come back to work to finish up the last couple of shows for the day afterwards. And those styrofoam cups of "water" seen at the celeb's desks were usually not water!

For you pro football fans, there's an old "Match Game PM" episode out there that has a young college football coach contestant named Brian Billick.

Brett's last work was doing all the cut-ins and interviews for the DVD box set of "The Best of Match Game" that came out last year. Great entertainment for about $20, and even includes a couple of episodes from the 1962-69 NBC version.

 

[Slambang]

I still catch the Match Game 7x and PM eps. on game show network, one of the better 70's gameshows and does rings around Paul Lynde/Hollywood Squares any day of the week....

 

[bhayes1016]

Thank you! ;D

The evening/syndie version was known as "Match Game PM," and usually was better and looser than the daytime version, simply because it was the 6th show shot on a given day, and as Brett has admitted to before, the cast would go to dinner after taping a few, get a little sloshed, and come back to work to finish up the last couple of shows for the day afterwards. And those styrofoam cups of "water" seen at the celeb's desks were usually not water!

For you pro football fans, there's an old "Match Game PM" episode out there that has a young college football coach contestant named Brian Billick.

Brett's last work was doing all the cut-ins and interviews for the DVD box set of "The Best of Match Game" that came out last year. Great entertainment for about $20, and even includes a couple of episodes from the 1962-69 NBC version.

Kirstie Alley and Jenny Jones (under her real name) were also Match Game contestants.
In Houston, I think KHOU pre-empted Match Game for much of its run; I think KTRK had the syndicated version.

 

[MikeShannon914]

If you remember a cute brunette named Brianne Leary, who did a season on "CHiPs" (1978-79,) I believe she was the only person to ever be a contestant AND serve on the celebrity panel later.

KDFW was gracious enough to not pre-empt "Match Game," especially since MG was near the end of the CBS daytime schedule for the day...and many affiliates used the 2:30 and 3PM slots for "Merv," "Mike Douglas," "Dinah!" and other syndie properties that usually ran 90 minutes and could otherwise disrupt a schedule full of early newscasts. That may have been the case with KHOU. Now KDFW did indeed dump the network's 3PM offerings in the 80s, which is why we never got the 1982 version of "Tattletales," or Tom Kennedy's "Body Language" or the last few months of "Press Your Luck" in DFW. After PYL was canned for good, I believe that's when the network gave back the 3PM slot to the local affiliates for good, c. 1986.

We did miss the very first month of "Match Game" on KDFW in July 1973; can't recall why it was pre-empted.

FYI, here's the DFW lineup of "evening fringe" programming over time:

1975:
KDFW-Mon "New Candid Camera," Tues-"Sea Hunt," Wed-"Last of Wild," Thurs-"Young 4 Country," Fri-"Thrillseekers"

KXAS-Mon and Thurs "Let's Make a Deal," Tues and Fri "Hollywood Squares," Wed "Price is Right" (and at some point later, the "$25,000 Pyramid" with Bill Cullen was added)

1977:
KDFW-Mon "Match Game PM," Tues "Let's Make a Deal," Wed "Young 4 Country," Thurs "Bobby Vinton Show," Fri "Candid Camera" (and later in the 77-78 season, KDFW dropped all of these and went to an extra hour of news at 6:30)

KXAS-Mon "Muppet Show," Tues "Family Feud" (which went to both Tues and Thurs later,) Wed-"Price is Right" (Bob Barker replaced Dennis James in the fall,) Thurs "Hollywood Squares," Fri "Name That Tune"

WFAA-"Bowling for Dollars" with Vern Lundquist

1982:
KDFW-"Family Feud" (all week)

KXAS-"Entertainment Tonight" (all week)

WFAA-"PM Magazine" (all week)

 

[easttxtv]

FYI, here's the DFW lineup of "evening fringe" programming over time:

1975:
KDFW-Mon "New Candid Camera," Tues-"Sea Hunt," Wed-"Last of Wild," Thurs-"Young 4 Country," Fri-"Thrillseekers"

KXAS-Mon and Thurs "Let's Make a Deal," Tues and Fri "Hollywood Squares," Wed "Price is Right" (and at some point later, the "$25,000 Pyramid" with Bill Cullen was added)

I remember 1973-1974 (somewhere in there), one of the alternating/syndie games on 5 was "New Treasure Hunt"...I had forgotten until seeing NTS on Game Show Net and also info on websites that the show only had female contestants.

Match Game back in the day was always a show I'd try to catch after school if possible, and definitely during the summer. Was great to get the extra evening dose later on in the show's run.

 

[MikeShannon914]

1973-74 is a hole I'm missing in my little TV Guide collection. "The New Treasure Hunt" was indeed on there, along with "Price is Right," "Police Surgeon," "Ozzie's Girls, "Hollywood Squares," "To Tell the Truth" and others, but those were spread over KDFW and KXAS. Geoff Edwards, who hosted "Treasure Hunt," is a nice guy who I've traded emails with a few times...he has a good story about being the UPI reporter on duty in the DPD basement when Jack Ruby shot Oswald. He had been dispatched from L.A. to cover JFK's assassination. Indeed, there's a short interview with him on ABC Radio News right after the shooting, and was replayed as part of WBAP's "JFK-40" 'as it happened' coverage that Steve Cumming put together back in 2003. Later on (1979,) Geoff was the LA-based jock who was fired for playing Cat Stevens songs on his show after Stevens renounced his American citizenship, found religion, changed his name and sided with the Iranians (or something like that.) Edwards is a world traveler now who writes about his excursions, and hosted a radio show about travel and travel deals a short time back in LA and San Diego.